@@Chrisb.reacts there's a lot Communists around you and you may be somewhat one without knowing because you think it's normal the normalization in politics and theories in politics you may think it's innocent until it turns its head on you at the last minute you know being fooled you can see Europe has become a Social Democrat which basically means Communists in the new age
And no offense to the British but they didn't do s*** they were subsidized by The Americans it was the Americans the United States who decides what happens and doesn't not the British had their time and it has come and passed
@Chrisb.reacts if you get in contact with the fat electrician, he also has a pod cast, it would be interesting to have you on it. I think he would be down
The opposite side of the coin of "Don't touch the USA's boats" is "Never tell someone in the USA that something can't be done". Messing with our boats will end badly. Saying that something can't be done is just a challenge for someone here to figure out how to do it.
@@friendlyreptile9931 The reference is that the majority of major wars that the US became involved in since it's independence from Great Britain have been caused by a foreign entity attacking American naval vessels. Examples would include Vietnam, WWII, WWI, The Spanish-American War etc. Extending all the way back to the Barbary Wars of the 18th century.
@@friendlyreptile9931 US involvement in Vietnam began in the 1940's and was a continuously evolving entanglement until the eventual evacuation of forces from Saigon. Originally the US supported Ho Chi Minh due to anti colonialist sentiment toward the French occupation and that Minh was eager to collaborate with the US. The second Tonkin incident is what you're referring to. The Johnson administration relied upon a combination of unreliable communications and the outright lies put forth by the NSA. The first Tonkin incident involved a skirmish between the USS Maddox and three North Vietnamese torpedo boats. This was August 3, 1964 and did happen. The second Tonkin incident (supposedly) was on August 4, 1964 when the Maddox was joined by several other ships and they reported being attacked by North Vietnamese vessels. It's unclear whether these reports were a mistake or a deliberate deception, but the CIA and NSA ran with it. I only wanted to clarify the difference between the two. Cheers.
@@friendlyreptile9931 The US indeed got attacked, that wasn’t the lie about the tonkin incident. Maybe you wanna argue about the USS Maine in the Spanish-American war though.
I was in West Berlin from 1981 to 1984 when it was a divided city. Stalin expected the airlift to fail because of the Luftwaffe's performance during the Battle of Stalingrad. During the Berlin Airlift, the 509th Bomb Group (the only nuclear strike force on the planet) deterred shooting down the unending stream of cargo planes by fighter/interceptors and anti-aircraft artillery. About the candy bombing--Britian was still on wartime food rations and those UK children who had been bombed during WW2 sacrificed their limited candy rations for Berlin children. If that's not impressive, someone has no heart.
Rationing didn't end in the UK until 1954. The UK was quite generous in participating in the Berlin Airlift. From a citizen of the USA. All the free world must stand together against tyranny any place in the world.
Gail Halvorsen got the idea of dropping candy, when a West Berlin child asked for his gum wrapper. He had just put a piece of gum he just put in his mouth, while waiting for his plane to finish being unloaded. The child just wanted to smell the lingering mintyness left on the wrapper since even that was better than starving.
The problem is that they DO exist, and there are a lot of Americans who seem to have been taught that communism wasn't that bad, actually. So we have to remind people that this is what those socialist utopias that the skittle-haired Che-suckers are clamoring for lead to.
@@mattio79 That's because the leftists have taken over the democratic party from real liberals. True liberals are now considered centrists or moderates.
@@Gordon-hx8cp nah, you guys are just fixated on chocolate like Hersheys or any other big brand chocolate. we also have chocolate called Sees Candy that is more in tune of real chocolate.
Sounds catchy. Walmarts bread is as much as the Bakery’s of the past at this point….All those local People owning bread stores in town that couldn’t sell bread at “Low Low Value Prices”….Now Walmart sells bread for more and don’t spend their profits around town. Catchy Quote tho smh
My mom was one of the last surviving veterans of the Berlin Airlift, and she worked directly for some of the US Generals in charge of the Airlift until it finally ended. She used to have lunch with the air crews who dropped candy on their final approaches into Berlin Tempelhof, and on the weekends she spent a lot of time time traveling all throughout Europe. She told me some incredible stories about how much destruction she encountered due to the carpet bombing during the War and she marveled at how industrious the German people were in reconstructing the areas that had been bombed. (She was stationed in Wiesbaden, near Frankfurt.) All of this happened before I was born a few years after the Airlift. My mom passed away a couple of years ago at age 98, but she lived a very productive life, most of which she spent working for the Pentagon in Arlington, VA.
Had a glitch. I was going to say is the pilot that began dropping candy was Gail Halverson, also known as the candy bomber or uncle wiggles. He got that name from the German children because he would wave his wings to show them the plane that was dropping candy.
My Dad fought in WWII as a US Army Combat medic. After the war, he was riffed out wth several million other men, he rejoined the US AirForce when it started up and switched his occupation to food service. Through my who life, he rarely talked about the war, but ask him about the Berlin Airlift and he lit up and you could not stop him from talking. He was part of it in Germany and I think he was far more proud of that than all of the war that preceded it.
Immediately after WW2, my grandfather, an American POW who'd been captured during the Bulge, got a letter from a buddy he'd made in the German garrison of his camp. The guard would sneak them cigarettes and would treat my father's work crew humanely. In the letter (which I still have) the German guard begged for food, explaining that he had only tried to serve God and country. He was dead before my grandfather's packages ever arrived. His wife too, who'd written a heartbreaking followup letter. I don't have that one, my grandfather said he burned it, couldn't handle it. I can only imagine how many must have been affected if my own family was directly beseeched for help.
As well he should be! War is a tragedy, an often necessary one, sure and one that brings out the finest qualities of a few men, sure, but always a tragedy. But you'll never find someone ashamed to say they were part of a humanitarian aid mission.
Interesting. My dad was a courier during the war, and the two proudest engagements (for me) were the Battle of the USO and the Battle of Coal Mountain. When he arrived off the troopship in Europe, the USO had hot coffee and fresh doughnuts for the G.I.s. As my dad was standing around, he noticed an old German man, going around, picking up the bits and pieces of discarded doughnuts and putting them in a bag. He went up to the old man, took the bag out of his hands, and dumped the scraps out of it onto the floor again. The old man could do nothing but watch. Nothing but watch... as my dad went over to the doughnut table and filled the bag with fresh, hot doughnuts. The old man bowed and made a hasty retreat, while saying "Danka! Danka!" And the "old battleaxe" as my father referred to her, who ran the USO operation, came over and began bitching at my dad. " _Those are for the soldiers_ !" she argued. My dad came back, "yeah, well _I'm_ a soldier, and those were my doughnuts and I did what I wanted with them!" Months later, he was guarding a coal dump, "a mountain of coal" as he described it, in the cold rain. He'd been issued a shotgun and a little dog, and his job was to protect the coal. (no doubt as punishment detail; he wasn't very army...) One night, he saw a woman and her two children sneak up to the coal dump and begin putting pieces of coal into a bag they had with them. So, of course, he went over... And held the bag open for them.
We must not forget those who sacrificed their lives for the people of West Berlin. A total of 101 fatalities were recorded as a result of the Air Lift operations, which included 40 Britons and 31 Americans. Seventeen American and eight British aircraft crashed during the operation causing most of the deaths.
Yeah, I kinda figure that Nic just misspoke about those mileage numbers. I assume he made a script for the video and then probably skipped over a set of zeros there.
@@CanuckGod He said he doesn't usually have scripts, he has some notes here and there. He may have accidentally said the wrong number due to that. You can tell that he doesn't have a script because in some of his videos he repeats himself or talks in circles (not really a bad thing, but once you notice it happens, you can't not notice it anymore, lol.) He's still one of my favorite content creators.
@@PiousSlayer I've watched a fair bit of his videos, but I never did catch that it was unscripted, good to know. I also agree with you, he's a dang good content creator.
Here a little more background. At the same time the U.S was doing the Berlin Airlift. Feeding west Berlin. The U.S was also sending even more aid and supplies to Japan, China, Philippines. Who was making all this aid. The U.S was shoulding the burden of feeding the world for about 10 years after WW2. Little lesson on your confusion about capitalism vs communism. The United States is a constitutional republic with a capitalist economy. All communist countries are socialist dictatorships. With a oligarchy economy. Meaning no matter what you do. You work for the state.
The amount of necessities we were providing for other people in itself is proof of the overwhelming success of a capitalist economy. We could do all that, we could help Germany and Japan rebuild, etc, etc, because of capitalism.
Now the lunatics in power want to cut food production even as millions apon millions starve. Where will that take us? One Brilliant mind (college student) said the climate change bs. "Why do we need all these farms,we have Costco." Simply f'n brilliant.
The CANDY BOMBER 🍬 is my favorite part of this story. Just a random act of kindness that just spiraled into becoming one of the most memorable parts of the biggest humanitarian effort in history ... just ... legendary.
I knew about the Candy Bomber, but I thought it was a one-off that we miked for propaganda. I didn't realize it took off (!) and became such a widespread thing.
And it all happened because a group of Berlin children didn’t fight over two sticks of gum inspiring him to do it. Seeing the happy faces of the children felt so good he kept at it until General Tunner found out and said this is the best idea ever expand that!
I was stationed(USAF) in Germany during reunification on a 4 year assignment. Being there during Deutsche Wiedervereinigung was pretty special. An actual Historical event that I was a part of. Myself and 3 of my other friends(1 Air Force and 2 German guys) all rode our Motorcycles to Berlin. We were told to not enter the construction areas were they were dismantling the wall. We did it anyway and took chunks of the walls for ourselves. It was one of my German friends that brought the hammer and chisels. His mother was from Berlin when it was under Soviet control. I still have that fist sized chunk of concrete from the wall sitting on a shelf here at home all these years later.
My father was in the Air Force and ran the control tower in West Germany that sent out the planes to Berlin. It really was a logistical nightmare, but they got the job done by working their tails off.
Its crazy to think some of the German mechanics served with the Luftwaffe fixing and maintaining German aircraft before. With the Berlin Airlift, they were serving British and American aircraft making them arguably the most knowledgeable plane mechanics on the planet!
@@BHuang92 makes me perfectly good sense to me. The rank and file privates, sargents, non general or flag Officers, most of weren't even Nazis probably. Also, after being defeated and probably feeling demoralized and like they failed their own people, they would be honored to be able to help their own people. Even if more so, the victors (allies) for allowing them to be part of it gives them dignity, chance to make ammends and also shows those defeated that the victors see them as humans and actually want to see them at some point prosper and recover, it's a win-win. The reason Germany (initially West Germany) and Japan fully recovered, prospered and succeeded. The US mostly in Japan and the allies in Germany were fair, just and humanitarians to the German and Japanese people which in turn created a future of strong ties and friendship, at least for myself who lived in Japan for nearly a decade while in the military.
Basically, the US told the Soviets "We are flying unarmed US military cargo planes from our sector of Germany to our sector of Berlin and if the Soviets shoot down one, WWIII will pretty much be on. Do you want that?" The Soviets didn't. The treaty setting up the zones never mentioned airspace.
The reason the air route was not closed was because at the Yalta conference, before the war ended, 3 air routes for the west were agreed upon and put in writing. If the USSR closed those routes, it would be braking the treaty while the land route being open was depending on their good will and wasn't in writing, and they didn't think it could be done by air alone, so as they saw it they could get their way without braking the treaty
Because "airspace" was so new it wasn't a thing yet. After WWII and the development of American Strategic Air Command in the war, and the commercial air traffic took off, then satellites and intercontinental missiles, and now it is a very big deal.
@@karenk2409 The guy above you was actually correct. The concept of airspace was already known, but the three air corridors that the Fat Electrician mentioned at 8:30 were the only airspace that the allies were allowed to fly in. Everything else was closed off as it was considered Soviet airspace as per the Yalta conference.
What’s amazing is that the UK was not exactly rolling after the war, AND the Germans used their home field knowledge to make this work. A testament to what magnanimity after conflict can lead to.
@@blake7587 The UK did not play a tiny role that is completely wrong. There are so many factors that the UK played that it was literally impossible for the Allies to win without the British empire, Royal navy, RAF, British army, UK intelligence and British technology. The US could not have possibly contributed to the European theatre without training, support and general effort from Britain. To a lesser degree not even the Pacific theatre.
@@fot6771 ...I'm fairly certain you're arguing that "The UK did not play a tiny role in the war", when the previous person said "The UK played a tiny role in making Berlin Airlift work". Those are 2 separate concepts. Please stop yelling at people only selling oranges about the smell of rotting apples.
My uncle was involved in the Berlin Airlift. I never knew that until I found his military records and found that he was awarded a medal from the US Air Force.
My dad was part of that. He has a Berlin Airlift - Occuoation of Berlin medal. After landing on the beaches of Normandy , and fighting the Battle of the Bulge. Among others. He said how beautiful Germany is when there’s no fighting. And the one thing he talked about a lot was a cathedral in Cologne . And another in a town/city whose name currently escapes me at the moment. Sorry.
Having visited Germany a number of times, and being an American of German descent, your dad was absolutely right about Germany being beautiful when there's no fighting.
@@eTraxx Not unique to Germany. Near the farming area of Lost Hills, CA is "Brown Material Road". Open your car window and there's no doubt what the brown material is.
The cathedral of Cologne is a beautiful thing to behold, even if it’s only through the lenses of war. I remember seeing it for the first time through the footage of the Panther/Pershing duel that occurred in the town, and it was honestly such a beautiful sight even then.
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@@philkarn1761 Those are feed lots where cattle are kept for the purpose of collecting their manure for fertilizer, you can see giant mounds of it. They have several in the San Joaquin Valley, which also help to grow many of the roses used by florists and gardeners nationwide that come from the southern part of that valley. The motel near Harris Ranch had an abundance of flies asserting their intentions to share my room with me. Definitely keep your car window closed.
Forced them to starve after WW1... I think its a big step forward that The West realized it was not the right way to go about it the first time around, and the Germans were willing to look past the previous situation to see that it wasn't some sort of grandstanding and was legitimate goodwill to the survivors of the war to get back on their feet. All it would have taken was some present day equivalent of a far left loon saying "They're just delivering us millions of pounds of food every day to make themselves look better", get a braindead movement going, and they'd have been back to starving again. Just a note, I lean slightly left of center politically in the US, but I don't know who i despise more, the far left or the far right.
The US refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles and signed a different treaty with Germany after WW1. The US even tried helping Germany pay off its debts before the Great Depression happened.
I was going to say at the start when he said because the Germans started it......I was like well arguably the bogus treaty of Versailles started it. That's not excusing what the Nazis did mind you, but if not for the horrible Versailles plan the Nazis would have never come to power in the first place.
I'm 72 and the daughter of a career AF pilot. I remember our family watching this on TV and being so proud of both our and UK's Air Force and the German people in Berlin. They even saved their zoo animals. It was absolutely AMAZING!!! I remember the "candy drop"! We kids in the US were all in it to send candy to the kids in Berlin! And it was all on TV, the brand-new mass media in the world. Yes, Chris, they even delivered cars to West Berlin. Chris, please study the ideology and methodology of communist movements beginning with the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, Stalin's forcible industrialization and murder of the Russian peasantry, the Holodomor in Ukraine, keep on going to Mao's actions in the 20th century and the USSR's behavior in eastern Europe. There is so much more, but that's a start. Then we can talk.
That was a time when the people of The United States of America had compassion and caring in their hearts for other people, instead of hatred and anger. I pray to God we can become that again.
German -Swiss American here! Many Americans have German ancestry! General Dwight David Eisenhower ! My Great-Uncle died on a beach in Anzio, Italy. He was a Staff Sgt.in the US Army. And he definitely was NOT A LOSER! 🇩🇪 🇨🇭 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
my maternal grandfather escaped communism ... he would be in agreement with the Fat Electrician ... plus I believe my paternal Uncle Garfield was involved in the Berlin Airlift (he would also agree with the Fat Electrician)
@@Chrisb.reacts When will you be reacting to the world's leading capitalist nations (United States, UK, Canada, Gmany, France) assisting capitalist Is reel as it starves to de@th the 2.3 million people in azaG?
I’m 50, American and had no idea that this happened. Thank you for sharing. The story brought tears to my eyes. The capacity of humanity is unstoppable. It is heartbreaking to see the fear tear us all apart.
My neighbor growing up grew up in East Berlin. Her stories in my childhood was an early lesson to always be thankful for what you have. It amazed me the first thing they ventured into West Berlin for after the wall came down was bananas. She hadn't had one in years at that point. It's the little things.
Americans generally refer to the Soviet Union as communist and communism. He clearly knows what the precise definition of communism is versus capitalism. It is generally how Americans talk about it. Also, the Fat Electrician was also making many jokes, American style, which as a German you were not recognizing as jokes. It is similar to how the Germans didn’t understand the American response during the battle of the Bulge in WW2, when the Germans asked for the Americans to surrender and the American response was only the single word, “nuts”.
Nuts can be interpret in two ways (as far I'm aware as an American) 1. No Understanding Term of Surrender (nuts) 2. "You gotta be fucking nuts to think we'll Surrender to the Germans? Surrounded? We're Airbourne! We were MADE to be surrounded!"
the berlin airlift is one of the many good things US president Harry Truman did after being initially derided when he replaced Roosevelt after his sudden death. Afterwards UK PM Churchill said to Truman " At first I detested you after you succeeded Roosevelt. But you have done more than any one man to save western civilization. ⚛😀
Having not being bombed , I could understand the Americans being magnanimous towards the Germans . But the British did suffer on a personal level ,which makes their involvement even more generous
@@jimreilly917the French did assist. Less, but they did help. Also keep in mind that they had recently been occupied and needed to put resources into rebuilding infrastructure and growing their economy back up. Additionally, they had fewer planes than either the UK or US. Sure, they may have had a grudge. Probably did. But was it exclusively the grudge, or were there other reasons that were completely reasonable as well?
1. The USSR controlled most of the Eastern European countries, forcing them to communist or they got punished. 2. Communism has killed MILLIONS because they HAVE to rule by fear, and they must stamp out any who do things that the “government” does not tell them to do, even when the government has no idea what it’s doing. Look at china’s “Great Leap Forward”. 3. My college American history professor was a former Russian who was born under the USSR. I asked him one day after class what his childhood was like and if he ever visited Russia again. He told me that when he was 10, his family made a desperate attempt to get over the communist border to freedom. He and his parents made it, but his grandparents were to slow. Just 20 feet across the border, he watched the police capture his grandparents still in the communist border then get shot by the police while being declared traitors by the state. He said he has never gone back and he is so depressed by the college kids he sees going to these protests in America trying to advocate for communism.
If only due to the sheer difference in pre- and post-industrial revolution populations, I think Communism may actually have the highest death toll of a single ideology... EVER. More than organized religion and the many crusades.
It's an ideology that sounds like it would be fair and looks like it could work - on paper - until you realize that it would really never work on any decently large scale due to the sheer fact of human nature being what it is. There are some portions of it (financial safety nets for the worst off/those not able to help themselves, for one) that can work in conjunction with other systems of government, but as an all-encompassing ideology communism fails in the end. And while I (for the most part) identify as a conservative, unbridled absolute capitalism would be just as ruinous to a nation as would communism, which is why literally no 'capitalist' country in the world operates that way, including Canada (where I am from) and the USA.
@johnj.spurgin7037 The Crusades at least had some justification. Prior to the first Crusade, Muslims had been invading Christian lands for 800 years without end.
@@johnj.spurgin7037 I'd contest those numbers. What's qualifying a death that would explicitly and solely attributed as being 'caused by communism' (As opposed to say, an paranoid dictatorial leader like Stalin who-unlike his predecessor-was more interested in maintaining and cementing his own power than implementing the ideology he's nominally ruling on behalf of)? How can that actually even truly be quantified? How is communism being defined there? I say all of this because I've seen historians retort that the same can be said of *_capitalism,_* possibly *even **_more so._*
Young Adults today think I'm pulling their legs, when I tell them my parents always told me to finish my meal, because kids in Germany were starving. And they were. I was also lucky enough to know two pilots who were called back into the service to fly in the airlift.
You said that Germans love their potatoes...I know! When I was in Trier, in 2014, one of the best things I ate were these French-fried potatoes sold in the street. They were SO GOOD! This little trailer, all they sold were French fried potatoes...you could watch a person cutting the potatoes into strips, what the British would call "chips." and another would put them in a fryer, submerge them in boiling oil, pull them out, dump them on this tray, and sprinkle a little salt...so simple yet SOOOO GOOOOOD! It was late February/early March, just a little cold, and they were so hot and tasty! Oh, a weird thing for an American, they all came with a little container of mayonnaise, which to my surprise was also fantastic! Dang, you Germans can be such culinary geniuses!
A running joke on this channel (and several others who are friends with TFE) is that "Americans will use anything but the metric system." This video has a rare example where he does provide a metric measurement, but usually he will use things like blue whales or Volkswagens instead.
My name is Steve. My wife is Lyn. I am 71 and out of high school I joined the army. I spent 1971 and 1972 in Frankfurt then Berlin. Going from Frankfurt to Berlin thru E Germany on a train we were guarded by Russian soldiers with machine guns. There were 5 Russian divisions surrounding us. I would be at the Berlin wall and look over at the barbed wire and minefields known as no mans land on the eastside. A few of us went thru checkpoint Charlie to E Berlin. We had to wear our uniforms and it was like going from a thriving W Berlin to a still wrecked E Berlin. I loved the German people and took lots of pictures. I was born in Colorado and now live in Sioux Falls SD, the Rushmore state. If you are ever in the USA stop by and I will take you to the mountain with the Presidents faces. PS I also visted Munich, Hamburg and a few other countries. GERMANY was amazing!
Moving from Colorado to SD is insane to me. I spent the first 26 years of my life over near Spearfish (35 miles or so from Rapid City if you don't spend any time on that end of the state ever), moved to the east coast. At least Sioux Falls makes sense. "I want to be in the middle of nowhere, but I still want a FEW people around me!"
I was stationed in Wiesbaden when they had a 50th anniversary of the Berlin airlift. Seeing a C-54 on the airfield broght tears to eyes of those who went through ordeal.
I think some of Chris's confusion about communism is a terminology thing. In the US, we tend to refer to communism as being the whole package, and socialism as being bits and pieces, such as the social safety net that he mentioned. So you could say a policy was more socialist or capitalist, but when people talk about communism, they're including the country, policies, and everything. And of course there's overlap and ambiguity, but those are the tendencies.
Thank you, finally, somebody that understands this :) I think people forget that English isnt my native language lol, which should make me proud i guess lol
@@Chrisb.reacts it’s easy to lose tiny things in translation. I think overall you do a fantastic job (source: worked with cultural experts and interpreters for ≈9 years). Keep up the great work!
@@Chrisb.reacts You also have to factor in that communism and socialism are words peddled by the fear mongers in America who want to place everyone who is politically left of George W Bush into the same category so they can demonize them and use them as scapegoats for everything they see wrong with the country. To the American right, which is off the right side of the charts in comparison to the political right in Germany (and everywhere else in the 1st World), communist/communism and socialist/socialism are the ultimate of insults. Many of them have very little understanding of what either of those words truly mean. That says much more about any flak you have taken over your use of the terms than your ability to speak English.
Sir, there is a grassroots organization of people in the US decrying capitalism and extolling communism constantly, that is why he often talks about it. Love your videos and Fat Electrician’s videos. Loved the time I spent in Germany, it was awesome, my daughter still can speak German (I only speak English, Spanish and Korean). Be safe sir, love your content.
Well said. The wanna be commies do get the news, but would probably not do well with an actual communist government. Oh, you "only speak English, Spanish, & Korean"! You are miles ahead of most of us in the United States, (excluding recent immigrants).
I am retired Air Force and was stationed in Germany 2 for 7 years. This is also required learning in the Air Force as it was the first true test of the newly formed Air Force back then. There is also a monument to this at the Frankfurt Airport. It is a statue that is curved and reaches the sky towards Berlin. There is the other one at Tempelhof Flug Platz pointing to Frankfurt.
Both of my grandfathers were second generation german Americans and were sent to the pacific theatre in WW2. In the 1974, my uncle joined the army andwas sent to Germany. He was in the supply corps and went from west Germany to west Berlin for two years.
I am American, but myy grandparents are from Bremen, and i was stationed in Ansbach. I appreciate your channel as it helps get me back to my German heritage. Vielen danke!
“Operation Vittles”: The German Airlift. The actual English word is “victuals” (pronounced vittles) meaning food. There are videos about Operation Little Vittles; I would suggest you review one of them. Operation Little Vittles was the name of the dropping of candy for E Berlin children. “Colonel Gail S. Halvorsen, also known as the "Candy Bomber" or "Uncle Wiggly Wings", was a United States Air Force pilot who dropped candy to children in West Berlin during the Berlin Airlift of 1948-1949. Halvorsen's actions helped to boost the spirits of the children and others suffering during the Soviet blockade, which cut off food, supplies, electricity, and roadways from more than two million people.” “Halvorsen's story began when he encountered a group of children outside Tempelhof Airfield and gave them some gum from his ration pack.” (Each American serviceman received chocolate, gum, and cigarettes in each of their ration packs. M&Ms were created for this because the hardened candy coating kept them from melting as quickly as regular chocolate bars would.) “When he saw the children share the gum and even the wrappers, he promised to drop more candy for them the next day.” [He was so touched by the children breaking up the gum into tiny pieces to share with others and even tearing the wrappers up to share so they could sniff the gum scent later.] “Halvorsen attached chocolate bars to handkerchief parachutes and dropped them from his plane, often wiggling the wings as he flew over the airport to let the children know it was him. He also asked other pilots to donate their candy rations, and soon the operation became known as "Operation Little Vittles". In total, 23 tons of candy and other treats were delivered to Berlin during the airlift.” “Halvorsen's actions are considered to have changed the lives of the children and may have even helped the West win the ideological war with the Soviets over Germany's future.”
I am 71 and have been taught [and learned about on my own] "THE BERLIN AIRLIFT" although I learned many details from this video. So, THANK YOU, it is very much appreciated!!! AND i AM LEARNING EVEN MORE FROM THE COMMENTS
IMPORTANT: Thanks for your notices that the word Communism as a totally different meaning in 🇺🇸 and 🇩🇪. We mostly use it to describe just the economic system and not the ideology or countries itself. Just for a clearification nobody in 🇩🇪 (or only some few idiots) want communism. We are all happy with our Soziale Marktwirtschaft (social market economy) and love to be able to choose our job, starting our own business and seeking our luck in life, while having the safety nets of affordable health care, free education, subsidized public transportation and financial help for people in need. Although I am a bit envy of the lack of regulations and bureaucracy that you have in 🇺🇸. I removed the parts with my misleading use of the term communism. Sorry for the misunderstanding. 😊
@@hollysanders1590 Many people say here Communism is an evil ideology, and maybe itsbecause we consider Nationalsozialismus (which has nothing to do with Socialism btw), Antisemitism or Racism in any Kind are evil ideologies, and tbh Communism is far from that level of evil. Thats why we probably dont call that. Communism is a stupid idea, which leads to countries having to do things that are against human dignity. But communism is far from the earlier ones, which practice genocide.
Just curious because I was wondering about what you said about the fat electrician being wrong about the Soviet Union inflating and destroying virtually everyones liquid assets. You said that it was during the 1920s. If you look up your country's economic history yes the market dipped multiple times in the 1920s the whole world did. In America we refer to that time peroid the great depression. However during there was a dip twice as bad from the 1920s in 1948. Ludwi Erhard abolished the reichsmark and created the deutchmark june 21 1948. Not only did this allow Germany to rebuild their economic structure but also abolish all the Nazi's occupations laws and regulations there were laid out.
There's no such thing as" free" health care or "free" education because the taxpayers are the people who are paying for it. It's why ALOT of Americans don't want it.
@@DeepTonesParanormal I meant the pictures where people carry money in litteral trucks are from the 1920s not the 1940s, of course the soviets didnt have anything todo with the hyperinflation in 1923.
Yeah, back in the 80s I remember my map of the world and two Germanys. It’s weird looking back…fall of Soviet Union, Berlin Wall, reunification, Yugoslavia conflict, etc. remember the IRA bombing stuff…
Pretty amazing what people can accomplish when they work together. The personal stories of your family as well as learning your perspective on this made this a very enjoyable watch. Thanks for Sharing :)
My favorite part of the battle between the metric system and imperial measurements is the length that we will go to not use the metric system. 87 Blue Whales, bigger than half a giraffe, 19 school buses stacked end to end
The reason that they were called the Raisin Bombers instead of the Candy Bombers is that while the Berlin Airlift was going on California just happened to have a bumper crop of raisens, so much so the price of raisins crashed. So all the money that was raised in the states for candy for the kids in Berlin went to buy raisins.
Declaring a no fly zone (shutting down the sky) is viewed as an act of war in many cases. That's why the USSR didn't stop the planes coming in. Nobody wanted to take that final step to total war.
People need to think a little more about this because not long ago some people in the US(government) were talking about trying to create a no fly zone over Ukraine. Just think about it, how do you enforce a no fly zone. It's pretty simple to see how this can be viewed as an act of war... That's why the USSR didn't do it back then.
The air lanes were guaranteed by treaty; that's why they remained opened. It is not an act of war to declare a no-fly zone over your own territory, which East Germany was at the time. The treaty in question made no guarantees about anything that wasn't an air lane, so the roads, waterways, &c. could be closed at any time for any reason (or for no reason at all).
@@Galeoloc “pRicE GoUgiNg iS gReaT FoR BusInEss” - person who never grew up in Soviet occupied Eastern Europe I’m East German I grew up in that political/ideological hell and now live in America, I’ll take higher prices on bare necessities and the ability to be vocal about my dislike of how a bunch of idiots who’ve never had a real job in their life are making the prices high, over not having necessities and being questioned by the Stasi or worse because my opinions aren’t “conducive to my work” or they are “counter to the narrative of the state” Capitalism like all human creations are subject to being tainted by corruption of backhanded people who have no right to be in positions of authority or power but they exploited the western systems to move up the ladder for personal gain. But having lived in both worlds, I’ll hands down take capitalism. If you don’t like capitalism and all the amazing benefits it’s had on the people and the world as a whole, then that’s your choice and unlike how things were back home when I was growing up, I support your right to view things differently than I do. Take care.
@@EdvardEngland For the record, I think they both suck. I'm talking about capitalist price gouging and you're ranting about people not having "real" jobs making prices higher? That's...that's not how capitalism works. Prices will move to whatever the market/buyer can pay in capitalism and still maintain a profit. Unless you're just saying, "Screw the elderly and kids with their medications and food, I got mine, its you're own fault your poor," in which case I can totally believe the Stasi'd have you under scrutiny.
This is one of the reasons I love modern Germany after WW2. The people of Germany are a perfect example of what happens when you face the mistakes of your past and become better for it. Look at what we can do when we all come together. Much love from Virginina in the US my European brother ❤
This is similar to how I teach the Berlin airlift...but with more detail, more humor, and more statistics. One morning driving my kids to school, I told them the story about the Berlin Airlift when they were 7 or 8.
I was an American Military member during the reunification of Deutschland. I lived in Berlin from 1990 -1993. I married a German woman in 1992…..still married to this day. Germans are great people that have the strongest economy in Europe. Berlin is still my favorite city to this day.
Marxism, like libertarianism and pure democracy are political ideas that sound terrific on paper, and can sort of work on the very small scale. Once you get beyond that scale, they don't work.
They don't live under it. They're not old enough to process the complexity of life (theirs, their country's, the world's) and they're upset that the ideal world of their childhood is not what they thought. I know, I went through the same thing in the 1960s - 70s ... and then I grew up. Give them time.
I mean in Vienna and also in Germany there were antisemitic tendencies in the early 20th century but only after the Dolchstoßlegende it became a thing in the public. Hitler described all of his plans in Mein Kampf, which he wrote in Prison in 1923, so around 10 years before his rise to power. It is true, that the Treaty of Versailles was seen as a great insult, so that the thirst for revenge was a bit prevalent in the German society, but I doubt that without Hitler this would have been possible as fast, or even at all.
Interestingly, Austria, who arguably started the ball rolling which led to WW1 was made to pay few reparations and eventually none. For its part in WW2, Austria also was relieved of most responsibility. And yet, in both cases, the historical blame is solely placed on Germany when Austria was - at absolutely minimum - an extremely willing partner... Nowadays, they aren't even in NATO (but they are partnered like fellow great military powers Ireland, Cyprus and Malta).
@@poorwotan while I don't agree with it...your 100% correct. the reason Austria got off after WWI was because it wasn't the same " country " anymore. Pre-WWI it was the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After WWI it was just Austria and then Hungary...two seperate countries. Germany was the only wholly intact country from the Central Powers that was still left. So they got the blame and the reperations. The whole WWI thing really gets crazy when you think of it as a family quarrel. The King of England, The Kaiser, and the Zsar were all cousins...let that sink in a moment, with Queen Victoria being their grandmother... Edit: don't agree with them getting off scott free after the war...
just stumbling across this today, it was sure nice to be able to see a German reaction to this as my grandfather was a part of the Berlin airlifts they really did have all hands on deck. He was a military photographer just hopping on the planes. he used to talk about how they used to keep up morale on the planes by everybody contributing to a large barrel of alcohol, which was a mix of all different types of liquors. 😂
We were stationed at Rhein-Main Air Base, now the Frankfurt am Main International Airport. At the gate of Rhein-Main was a three pronged statue to commemorate its role in the airlift. It was affectionately known as the Hunger Rake!
Hey Chris, this is my first time sitting in with you on this fine day! Thank you so much for allowing me to do that! I enjoyed the time I spent here, listening to your commentary of the Fat Electrician, I subscribed and left a like for you! I am from the Great Lake state of Michigan! How are you? Best of luck with your channel! Deb Everybody loves potatoes but not for every meal, every day especially if you only have bread to go with it!
Loved your video- love all of your videos. It's so nice to see things from another's perspective, especially someone from Germany. WW2 was before my time but I still felt the impact. I appreciate you bringing that time frame to light!!
One veteran who had been part of the occupation force in Germany said the American soldiers were treated as persona non grata by the German civilians, until the Berlin airlift. After the airlift started, he said you couldn't drink all the beer the Germans would buy for the American soldiers.
Great video dude! I'm glad that the U.S. and Germany are now allies! Even though I'm an American.…I have German ancestry in me, and I'm proud of what the Berlin Airlift accomplished!! The German people are great people, and deserve to have freedom and economic prosperity!
Gen Tunner also noticed that it took basically the same time to unload the 2.5 tons off of a C-47 (military version of the DC-3) as it took to unload the 5 tons off of a C-54 (military version of the (4 engine) DC-4), so he was able to commandeer every C-54 within reasonable distance, including those in Hawaii, and the US Navy versions of the C-54s!
I grew up in the Candy bomber's hometown, in 2023 Bear River High School the local high school was a part of a German led program I think was called Art Against Walls and Students were given small replicas of sections of the Berlin wall to paint which were then displayed in the school
The fact that we went from flying in tons of bombs to tons of food to the same people who only a short time before had been shooting at us while USSR was trying to starve them into submission says all that you really need to know about the philosophical differences between the two powers and why we were destined to become enemies
At the end of world was 2 so many were hell bent on revenge against Germany and Japan that they forgot their humanity and became worse than the bad guys. Shame. Thank God it was short lived.
Even in the 1980s when Ronald Reagan was president, he famously met in Berlin with Gorbachev and told him to tear down the wall that was still separating East and West Berlin. The Soviets actually did it shortly after Reagan's visit.
The greatest example of building "good will capital" in modern times! Rhetorically speaking, if you were a scared and starving adult and you got the supplies to feed you and keep you warm OR if you were a scared and starving child and you got some chocolate candy and felt like a kid again, what are the chances you would really hate America?
12:50 wait really😲, that’s wholesome as fuck?! I feel like I’ve heard the candy part a long time ago in school and it was something like a cliff note in a textbook or something… and SHOULD HAVE BEEN ONE OF THE FOCUSES!!!! If schools taught subjects like the fat electrician does we’d have geniuses and historical experts everywhere man!
precisely, if you could eliminate human greed and scarcity of recurses it would work great. Unfortunately we live in this place called real life and not a fantasy movie.
This right here is what I've always said. Communism is the ultimate answer, in the best of worlds. We however, do not have not and will not ever live in the best of worlds. We live in the one we have and should treat it as such. I don't know how much I like or dislike capitalism, but I know I think the government officials running the USA are braindead corrupt rotting corpses, so I'm unclear how much I can blame of my country's failings on capitalism over corruption. I'd like to see capitalism the way its meant to run to give it a fair shake. Then again, I'd like to see Communism the way its "meant to run", because that is the overall best plan if people didn't suck. Ah well, do what you can with what you have. Now we just need to get rid of corruption in the capitalist economy, its running better than corruption in a communist economy, but its still going downhill quickly.
While stationed at Ramstein AB in the 70's, we took the troop train from Frankfurt to West Berlin. The train was sealed, and made no stops during the trip until reaching Tempelhof train station. We toured West Berlin, then took a military transport through Checkpoint Charlie, and toured East Berlin. Night and Day. There was nobody on the streets in the East, the majority of the buildings were stark, gray concrete. Upon returning back through Charlie to the West, everything was lit up, people were out on the streets, and the difference in architecture was stunning.
My dad was stationed in post war W. Germany where I was born in 1948 (Schweinfurt) and he flew on many missions as a loadmaster over Berlin during the Berlin airlift. He died in an accident at Langley AFB, Va in 1954 when I was six. I recall seeing his Air Force medals when I was young and one in particular ribbon stood out with two miniature bronze airplanes attached to the medal. Also, I have a newspaper clipping showing dad receiving his first air force uniform when the army air corp became the U.S. Air Force in September 1947. By the way, I'm a retired USAF Msgt from 1987 and my son is a retired major USAF in 2022.
It isn't that there are a lot of communists in the US. It's that we were in a Cold War with the USSR for a long time, and that really shaped our viewpoint of Communism.
After your comment, about the German money only being worthless after WWI, I did a quick check, and it does seem that after WWII, the German currency was also next to worthless. The main difference was, that after WWI, Germany was being taken advantage of by the Allied powers, and also be bled to death by the reparations demanded by Allies. After WWII, the Allies, while slowly, helped support the German economy rebuild itself. I really enjoy you channel, and always give it a thumbs up, keep up the good work👍👍
Yes. The Marshal Plan delivered lots of loan money to Europe (including Germany) to rebuild their economies. It worked. Europe was destroyed by WW2 but it was rebuilt and they paid off the loans with interest. The European economy owes its success today to the Marshall plan.
Soooo the Allies thought that if they didn't restrain Germany they would rearm and attack them. Guess what? The first thing Germany did when they broke the treaty was, rearm and attack the Allies, exactly as feared. It's perfectly logical to think that if Germany hadn't been under the Versailles Treaty, they would have rearmed earlier and attacked the Allies as soon as the Americans went home. Never trust a German. Ever.
That is not what i said, I said, that the hyperinflation was way worse in 1923. The money was also worthless in 1945 yes, but in 1923 we talk about that a bread costs 1.000.000.000.000.000 RM which cost 1 year earlier 2 RM. That is soooo much more.
Thanks!
Wow thank you sooo much 🥰🥹
@@Chrisb.reacts there's a lot Communists around you and you may be somewhat one without knowing because you think it's normal the normalization in politics and theories in politics you may think it's innocent until it turns its head on you at the last minute you know being fooled you can see Europe has become a Social Democrat which basically means Communists in the new age
And no offense to the British but they didn't do s*** they were subsidized by The Americans it was the Americans the United States who decides what happens and doesn't not the British had their time and it has come and passed
After reacting to this you’re asking a vet why there isn’t more communism? After the Allies kicked their ass. Dense.
@Chrisb.reacts if you get in contact with the fat electrician, he also has a pod cast, it would be interesting to have you on it. I think he would be down
When Gail Halvorsen, AKA "The Candy Bomber" passed away in 2022 at the age of 101, the German Government declared an official day of mourning.
*NICE*
Never knew this. Never even heard of it.
Holy shit I didn’t even realize he only died recently. God damn the stories that man must have told.
@@shadowwriter329 He was a quiet guy doing the right thing on his own initiative; definitely a "greatest generation" type.
He was very humble and from the State of Utah where I live:)
The opposite side of the coin of "Don't touch the USA's boats" is "Never tell someone in the USA that something can't be done". Messing with our boats will end badly. Saying that something can't be done is just a challenge for someone here to figure out how to do it.
@@friendlyreptile9931nope, nothing to do with Vietnam. Go ragebait somewhere else troll.
@@menacingdonutz Cry louder stripe brain
@@friendlyreptile9931 The reference is that the majority of major wars that the US became involved in since it's independence from Great Britain have been caused by a foreign entity attacking American naval vessels. Examples would include Vietnam, WWII, WWI, The Spanish-American War etc. Extending all the way back to the Barbary Wars of the 18th century.
@@friendlyreptile9931 US involvement in Vietnam began in the 1940's and was a continuously evolving entanglement until the eventual evacuation of forces from Saigon. Originally the US supported Ho Chi Minh due to anti colonialist sentiment toward the French occupation and that Minh was eager to collaborate with the US.
The second Tonkin incident is what you're referring to. The Johnson administration relied upon a combination of unreliable communications and the outright lies put forth by the NSA. The first Tonkin incident involved a skirmish between the USS Maddox and three North Vietnamese torpedo boats. This was August 3, 1964 and did happen. The second Tonkin incident (supposedly) was on August 4, 1964 when the Maddox was joined by several other ships and they reported being attacked by North Vietnamese vessels. It's unclear whether these reports were a mistake or a deliberate deception, but the CIA and NSA ran with it. I only wanted to clarify the difference between the two. Cheers.
@@friendlyreptile9931 The US indeed got attacked, that wasn’t the lie about the tonkin incident. Maybe you wanna argue about the USS Maine in the Spanish-American war though.
I was in West Berlin from 1981 to 1984 when it was a divided city.
Stalin expected the airlift to fail because of the Luftwaffe's performance during the Battle of Stalingrad. During the Berlin Airlift, the 509th Bomb Group (the only nuclear strike force on the planet) deterred shooting down the unending stream of cargo planes by fighter/interceptors and anti-aircraft artillery.
About the candy bombing--Britian was still on wartime food rations and those UK children who had been bombed during WW2 sacrificed their limited candy rations for Berlin children. If that's not impressive, someone has no heart.
Rationing didn't end in the UK until 1954. The UK was quite generous in participating in the Berlin Airlift. From a citizen of the USA. All the free world must stand together against tyranny any place in the world.
Gail Halvorsen got the idea of dropping candy, when a West Berlin child asked for his gum wrapper. He had just put a piece of gum he just put in his mouth, while waiting for his plane to finish being unloaded. The child just wanted to smell the lingering mintyness left on the wrapper since even that was better than starving.
I was also there, 1983 - 1990. 6912 ESG/LG, Marienfelde.
Random German "I have never seen a communist in my life"
America "Your welcome"
Just don't ask the East Germans.
The problem is that they DO exist, and there are a lot of Americans who seem to have been taught that communism wasn't that bad, actually. So we have to remind people that this is what those socialist utopias that the skittle-haired Che-suckers are clamoring for lead to.
America: Democrats trying really hard..
@mattio79 not all democrats and not all Republicans just a small amount
@@mattio79 That's because the leftists have taken over the democratic party from real liberals. True liberals are now considered centrists or moderates.
my ex wife is German, her mother was a child in Berlin and remembered this. she liked the american chocolate the best.
Hershey bars always made an impression lol
people love to shit on american chocolate. we have all kinds of chocolate. from factory crap to all manners of home made stuff. tired of it.
But American chocolate is horrid
@@Gordon-hx8cp nah, you guys are just fixated on chocolate like Hersheys or any other big brand chocolate. we also have chocolate called Sees Candy that is more in tune of real chocolate.
Under Capitalism, you occasionally have breadlines.
Under Communism, you occasionally have bread.
😭😭
Amen... well said
Amen❤❤❤
Communism IS evil! Look at every Communist Nation EVER! Their Government was/is EVIL!
Sounds catchy. Walmarts bread is as much as the Bakery’s of the past at this point….All those local People owning bread stores in town that couldn’t sell bread at “Low Low Value Prices”….Now Walmart sells bread for more and don’t spend their profits around town.
Catchy Quote tho smh
My mom was one of the last surviving veterans of the Berlin Airlift, and she worked directly for some of the US Generals in charge of the Airlift until it finally ended. She used to have lunch with the air crews who dropped candy on their final approaches into Berlin Tempelhof, and on the weekends she spent a lot of time time traveling all throughout Europe. She told me some incredible stories about how much destruction she encountered due to the carpet bombing during the War and she marveled at how industrious the German people were in reconstructing the areas that had been bombed. (She was stationed in Wiesbaden, near Frankfurt.) All of this happened before I was born a few years after the Airlift. My mom passed away a couple of years ago at age 98, but she lived a very productive life, most of which she spent working for the Pentagon in Arlington, VA.
Thanks for sharing her story with us :)
The pilot that started
Had a glitch. I was going to say is the pilot that began dropping candy was Gail Halverson, also known as the candy bomber or uncle wiggles. He got that name from the German children because he would wave his wings to show them the plane that was dropping candy.
she was a member of the Greatest Generation, you must be SO PROUD!
Very few are raised by a hero. You were.
My Dad fought in WWII as a US Army Combat medic. After the war, he was riffed out wth several million other men, he rejoined the US AirForce when it started up and switched his occupation to food service. Through my who life, he rarely talked about the war, but ask him about the Berlin Airlift and he lit up and you could not stop him from talking. He was part of it in Germany and I think he was far more proud of that than all of the war that preceded it.
Immediately after WW2, my grandfather, an American POW who'd been captured during the Bulge, got a letter from a buddy he'd made in the German garrison of his camp. The guard would sneak them cigarettes and would treat my father's work crew humanely. In the letter (which I still have) the German guard begged for food, explaining that he had only tried to serve God and country. He was dead before my grandfather's packages ever arrived. His wife too, who'd written a heartbreaking followup letter. I don't have that one, my grandfather said he burned it, couldn't handle it. I can only imagine how many must have been affected if my own family was directly beseeched for help.
@@jameson32😢 I thank him for his service and sacrifices.
I thank him for his service.
As well he should be! War is a tragedy, an often necessary one, sure and one that brings out the finest qualities of a few men, sure, but always a tragedy. But you'll never find someone ashamed to say they were part of a humanitarian aid mission.
Interesting. My dad was a courier during the war, and the two proudest engagements (for me) were the Battle of the USO and the Battle of Coal Mountain.
When he arrived off the troopship in Europe, the USO had hot coffee and fresh doughnuts for the G.I.s.
As my dad was standing around, he noticed an old German man, going around, picking up the bits and pieces of discarded doughnuts and putting them in a bag.
He went up to the old man, took the bag out of his hands, and dumped the scraps out of it onto the floor again.
The old man could do nothing but watch.
Nothing but watch... as my dad went over to the doughnut table and filled the bag with fresh, hot doughnuts.
The old man bowed and made a hasty retreat, while saying "Danka! Danka!"
And the "old battleaxe" as my father referred to her, who ran the USO operation, came over and began bitching at my dad.
" _Those are for the soldiers_ !" she argued.
My dad came back, "yeah, well _I'm_ a soldier, and those were my doughnuts and I did what I wanted with them!"
Months later, he was guarding a coal dump, "a mountain of coal" as he described it, in the cold rain. He'd been issued a shotgun and a little dog, and his job was to protect the coal. (no doubt as punishment detail; he wasn't very army...)
One night, he saw a woman and her two children sneak up to the coal dump and begin putting pieces of coal into a bag they had with them.
So, of course, he went over...
And held the bag open for them.
We must not forget those who sacrificed their lives for the people of West Berlin. A total of 101 fatalities were recorded as a result of the Air Lift operations, which included 40 Britons and 31 Americans. Seventeen American and eight British aircraft crashed during the operation causing most of the deaths.
"The Germans love their potatoes."
I heard that and laughed in Irish.
You are right, it wasn’t 92,000 miles, 92,000,000 miles.
Just a million miles short of a TRIP TO THE SUN!
I looked it up and you are not wrong! That is incredible! @@danieparriott265
Yeah, I kinda figure that Nic just misspoke about those mileage numbers. I assume he made a script for the video and then probably skipped over a set of zeros there.
@@CanuckGod He said he doesn't usually have scripts, he has some notes here and there. He may have accidentally said the wrong number due to that.
You can tell that he doesn't have a script because in some of his videos he repeats himself or talks in circles (not really a bad thing, but once you notice it happens, you can't not notice it anymore, lol.) He's still one of my favorite content creators.
@@PiousSlayer I've watched a fair bit of his videos, but I never did catch that it was unscripted, good to know. I also agree with you, he's a dang good content creator.
Here a little more background.
At the same time the U.S was doing the Berlin Airlift. Feeding west Berlin. The U.S was also sending even more aid and supplies to Japan, China, Philippines. Who was making all this aid. The U.S was shoulding the burden of feeding the world for about 10 years after WW2.
Little lesson on your confusion about capitalism vs communism. The United States is a constitutional republic with a capitalist economy. All communist countries are socialist dictatorships. With a oligarchy economy. Meaning no matter what you do. You work for the state.
The amount of necessities we were providing for other people in itself is proof of the overwhelming success of a capitalist economy. We could do all that, we could help Germany and Japan rebuild, etc, etc, because of capitalism.
Now the lunatics in power want to cut food production even as millions apon millions starve. Where will that take us? One Brilliant mind (college student) said the climate change bs. "Why do we need all these farms,we have Costco." Simply f'n brilliant.
Brilliant
Wow! I am going to use this, with your permission, with my grandchildren… Absolutely brilliant
Absolutely wild. Can’t even imagine these numbers
The CANDY BOMBER 🍬 is my favorite part of this story. Just a random act of kindness that just spiraled into becoming one of the most memorable parts of the biggest humanitarian effort in history ... just ... legendary.
At least one West Berliner somewhere must've gotten domed by a chocolate bar with a defective parachute traveling at terminal velocity though.
I knew about the Candy Bomber, but I thought it was a one-off that we miked for propaganda. I didn't realize it took off (!) and became such a widespread thing.
That's how Operation: "Little Vittles" got started.
@@philkarn1761Hence "Operation: Little Vittles."😊
And it all happened because a group of Berlin children didn’t fight over two sticks of gum inspiring him to do it. Seeing the happy faces of the children felt so good he kept at it until General Tunner found out and said this is the best idea ever expand that!
I was stationed(USAF) in Germany during reunification on a 4 year assignment. Being there during Deutsche Wiedervereinigung was pretty special. An actual Historical event that I was a part of. Myself and 3 of my other friends(1 Air Force and 2 German guys) all rode our Motorcycles to Berlin. We were told to not enter the construction areas were they were dismantling the wall. We did it anyway and took chunks of the walls for ourselves. It was one of my German friends that brought the hammer and chisels. His mother was from Berlin when it was under Soviet control. I still have that fist sized chunk of concrete from the wall sitting on a shelf here at home all these years later.
Wow. Also former USAF. Amazing.
What a cool piece of memorabilia!
My mom has the Berlin Wall as well, forgot how she got it.
My father was in the Air Force and ran the control tower in West Germany that sent out the planes to Berlin. It really was a logistical nightmare, but they got the job done by working their tails off.
Its crazy to think some of the German mechanics served with the Luftwaffe fixing and maintaining German aircraft before. With the Berlin Airlift, they were serving British and American aircraft making them arguably the most knowledgeable plane mechanics on the planet!
*Versatile, not necessarily knowledgeable.
@@BHuang92 makes me perfectly good sense to me. The rank and file privates, sargents, non general or flag Officers, most of weren't even Nazis probably. Also, after being defeated and probably feeling demoralized and like they failed their own people, they would be honored to be able to help their own people. Even if more so, the victors (allies) for allowing them to be part of it gives them dignity, chance to make ammends and also shows those defeated that the victors see them as humans and actually want to see them at some point prosper and recover, it's a win-win. The reason Germany (initially West Germany) and Japan fully recovered, prospered and succeeded. The US mostly in Japan and the allies in Germany were fair, just and humanitarians to the German and Japanese people which in turn created a future of strong ties and friendship, at least for myself who lived in Japan for nearly a decade while in the military.
Basically, the US told the Soviets "We are flying unarmed US military cargo planes from our sector of Germany to our sector of Berlin and if the Soviets shoot down one, WWIII will pretty much be on. Do you want that?" The Soviets didn't. The treaty setting up the zones never mentioned airspace.
The reason the air route was not closed was because at the Yalta conference, before the war ended, 3 air routes for the west were agreed upon and put in writing. If the USSR closed those routes, it would be braking the treaty while the land route being open was depending on their good will and wasn't in writing, and they didn't think it could be done by air alone, so as they saw it they could get their way without braking the treaty
Because "airspace" was so new it wasn't a thing yet. After WWII and the development of American Strategic Air Command in the war, and the commercial air traffic took off, then satellites and intercontinental missiles, and now it is a very big deal.
The USA started it. By going to soviet territory and trying to spread its woke new world order which will collapse soon
@@karenk2409 The guy above you was actually correct. The concept of airspace was already known, but the three air corridors that the Fat Electrician mentioned at 8:30 were the only airspace that the allies were allowed to fly in. Everything else was closed off as it was considered Soviet airspace as per the Yalta conference.
What’s amazing is that the UK was not exactly rolling after the war, AND the Germans used their home field knowledge to make this work. A testament to what magnanimity after conflict can lead to.
The supplies were mostly from the USA, the UK was mainly supplying additional pilots and planes.
That’s not amazing at all.
Because the UK only played a tiny role.
America did the vast majority of the work.
@@blake7587 The UK did not play a tiny role that is completely wrong.
There are so many factors that the UK played that it was literally impossible for the Allies to win without the British empire, Royal navy, RAF, British army, UK intelligence and British technology.
The US could not have possibly contributed to the European theatre without training, support and general effort from Britain. To a lesser degree not even the Pacific theatre.
@@fot6771 ...I'm fairly certain you're arguing that "The UK did not play a tiny role in the war", when the previous person said "The UK played a tiny role in making Berlin Airlift work". Those are 2 separate concepts. Please stop yelling at people only selling oranges about the smell of rotting apples.
@@fot6771The UK played a huge roll. But America saved the UK. If the US had not entered the war, the UK would have had to surrender at some point.
My uncle was involved in the Berlin Airlift. I never knew that until I found his military records and found that he was awarded a medal from the US Air Force.
My grandfather was one of the pilots of the Berlin airlift I'm very proud of him R.i.p thank you all
My dad was part of that. He has a Berlin Airlift - Occuoation of Berlin medal. After landing on the beaches of Normandy , and fighting the Battle of the Bulge. Among others. He said how beautiful Germany is when there’s no fighting. And the one thing he talked about a lot was a cathedral in Cologne . And another in a town/city whose name currently escapes me at the moment. Sorry.
Having visited Germany a number of times, and being an American of German descent, your dad was absolutely right about Germany being beautiful when there's no fighting.
@@philkarn1761 except when the farmers have just put horse manure on the field and you pass on the Autobahn with the windows down ...
@@eTraxx Not unique to Germany. Near the farming area of Lost Hills, CA is "Brown Material Road". Open your car window and there's no doubt what the brown material is.
The cathedral of Cologne is a beautiful thing to behold, even if it’s only through the lenses of war. I remember seeing it for the first time through the footage of the Panther/Pershing duel that occurred in the town, and it was honestly such a beautiful sight even then.
@@philkarn1761 Those are feed lots where cattle are kept for the purpose of collecting their manure for fertilizer, you can see giant mounds of it. They have several in the San Joaquin Valley, which also help to grow many of the roses used by florists and gardeners nationwide that come from the southern part of that valley. The motel near Harris Ranch had an abundance of flies asserting their intentions to share my room with me. Definitely keep your car window closed.
He meant to say 92 million miles. Good catch. 600,000 hours of flight time.
Shows how treating Germany differently than at Versailles made an ally. The West would not let Berlin starve.
Forced them to starve after WW1... I think its a big step forward that The West realized it was not the right way to go about it the first time around, and the Germans were willing to look past the previous situation to see that it wasn't some sort of grandstanding and was legitimate goodwill to the survivors of the war to get back on their feet. All it would have taken was some present day equivalent of a far left loon saying "They're just delivering us millions of pounds of food every day to make themselves look better", get a braindead movement going, and they'd have been back to starving again.
Just a note, I lean slightly left of center politically in the US, but I don't know who i despise more, the far left or the far right.
The US refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles and signed a different treaty with Germany after WW1. The US even tried helping Germany pay off its debts before the Great Depression happened.
@@moosefromsky3986 intersting..... never heared of that. Thx mate
I was going to say at the start when he said because the Germans started it......I was like well arguably the bogus treaty of Versailles started it. That's not excusing what the Nazis did mind you, but if not for the horrible Versailles plan the Nazis would have never come to power in the first place.
I'm 72 and the daughter of a career AF pilot. I remember our family watching this on TV and being so proud of both our and UK's Air Force and the German people in Berlin. They even saved their zoo animals. It was absolutely AMAZING!!! I remember the "candy drop"! We kids in the US were all in it to send candy to the kids in Berlin! And it was all on TV, the brand-new mass media in the world.
Yes, Chris, they even delivered cars to West Berlin.
Chris, please study the ideology and methodology of communist movements beginning with the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, Stalin's forcible industrialization and murder of the Russian peasantry, the Holodomor in Ukraine, keep on going to Mao's actions in the 20th century and the USSR's behavior in eastern Europe. There is so much more, but that's a start. Then we can talk.
1968 Prague Spring. 1920 Soviet-Poland War.
And a whole bunch of people want to vote for two communists...God help us. Please.
That was a time when the people of The United States of America had compassion and caring in their hearts for other people, instead of hatred and anger. I pray to God we can become that again.
German -Swiss American here! Many Americans have German ancestry! General Dwight David Eisenhower ! My Great-Uncle died on a beach in Anzio, Italy. He was a Staff Sgt.in the US Army. And he definitely was NOT A LOSER! 🇩🇪 🇨🇭 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Who said he was a loser?
As an american (USAF member briefly) let me just say I love this story and my German brothers and sisters who needed this desperately.
"A little Austrian painter started it"🤣 Well-said, sir! Well-said, indeed!
Bro! That was funny as heck to me too… and accurate
@@jacobninedorf4121 😆
haha, that caught me off guard.
Thank god for this comment. I replayed that part dozens of times and kept thinking he said Austin Painter started it
@@nip9898 🤣🤣🤣
my maternal grandfather escaped communism ... he would be in agreement with the Fat Electrician ... plus I believe my paternal Uncle Garfield was involved in the Berlin Airlift (he would also agree with the Fat Electrician)
God bless you and your grandfather, my mother fled communism and came here to the US.
Great to hear. There are many great stories about people escaping East Germany :)
My girlfriend fled that $hit too.
@@georgemartin1436 I am glad she is safe now!
@@Chrisb.reacts When will you be reacting to the world's leading capitalist nations (United States, UK, Canada, Gmany, France) assisting capitalist Is reel as it starves to de@th the 2.3 million people in azaG?
I went to East Berlin. Was a dystopic nightmare. The E. Berliners hated living there and loathed the Soviets.
I’m 50, American and had no idea that this happened. Thank you for sharing. The story brought tears to my eyes. The capacity of humanity is unstoppable. It is heartbreaking to see the fear tear us all apart.
I was still in diapers when this happened.
you been living under a rock then
My old man was one of those pilots. The Soviets did attempt to close the air space - the US and UK said like hell.
My neighbor growing up grew up in East Berlin. Her stories in my childhood was an early lesson to always be thankful for what you have. It amazed me the first thing they ventured into West Berlin for after the wall came down was bananas. She hadn't had one in years at that point. It's the little things.
Americans generally refer to the Soviet Union as communist and communism. He clearly knows what the precise definition of communism is versus capitalism. It is generally how Americans talk about it.
Also, the Fat Electrician was also making many jokes, American style, which as a German you were not recognizing as jokes. It is similar to how the Germans didn’t understand the American response during the battle of the Bulge in WW2, when the Germans asked for the Americans to surrender and the American response was only the single word, “nuts”.
Thank you for seeing this in a not populistic way :)
Anthony McAuliffe.
When Patton heard about it he said "We have to rescue this man. I want him as my speechwriter."
Nuts can be interpret in two ways (as far I'm aware as an American)
1. No Understanding Term of Surrender (nuts)
2. "You gotta be fucking nuts to think we'll Surrender to the Germans? Surrounded? We're Airbourne! We were MADE to be surrounded!"
@@GrimReaperNegi to the german commander
NUTS
Being a USAF veteran, this branch of the military takes pride in knowing that their first official campaign was a humanitarian one.
It's touching to see how he's literally speechless and looks so euphoric and grateful for the help they gave his people.
the berlin airlift is one of the many good things US president Harry Truman did after being initially derided when he replaced Roosevelt after his sudden death. Afterwards UK PM Churchill said to Truman " At first I detested you after you succeeded Roosevelt. But you have done more than any one man to save western civilization. ⚛😀
Truman really was a decent man
Having not being bombed , I could understand the Americans being magnanimous towards the Germans . But the British did suffer on a personal level ,which makes their involvement even more generous
That's a fair point. It was still great that they both decided to help even if it wasn't their responsibility.
German cities were destroyed too…and it was in Englands best interest at the time to have Germany as a Allie too since it was the Cold War…
Brits had no choice. USA keeps the vast majority of the world free...still.....
Yes it does. Note that the French did not assist. Nazi occupation of France was still fresh in their minds…and it was harsh, to put things mildly.
@@jimreilly917the French did assist. Less, but they did help. Also keep in mind that they had recently been occupied and needed to put resources into rebuilding infrastructure and growing their economy back up. Additionally, they had fewer planes than either the UK or US. Sure, they may have had a grudge. Probably did. But was it exclusively the grudge, or were there other reasons that were completely reasonable as well?
1. The USSR controlled most of the Eastern European countries, forcing them to communist or they got punished.
2. Communism has killed MILLIONS because they HAVE to rule by fear, and they must stamp out any who do things that the “government” does not tell them to do, even when the government has no idea what it’s doing. Look at china’s “Great Leap Forward”.
3. My college American history professor was a former Russian who was born under the USSR. I asked him one day after class what his childhood was like and if he ever visited Russia again.
He told me that when he was 10, his family made a desperate attempt to get over the communist border to freedom.
He and his parents made it, but his grandparents were to slow.
Just 20 feet across the border, he watched the police capture his grandparents still in the communist border then get shot by the police while being declared traitors by the state.
He said he has never gone back and he is so depressed by the college kids he sees going to these protests in America trying to advocate for communism.
Sad for your grandparents.
If only due to the sheer difference in pre- and post-industrial revolution populations, I think Communism may actually have the highest death toll of a single ideology... EVER. More than organized religion and the many crusades.
It's an ideology that sounds like it would be fair and looks like it could work - on paper - until you realize that it would really never work on any decently large scale due to the sheer fact of human nature being what it is. There are some portions of it (financial safety nets for the worst off/those not able to help themselves, for one) that can work in conjunction with other systems of government, but as an all-encompassing ideology communism fails in the end. And while I (for the most part) identify as a conservative, unbridled absolute capitalism would be just as ruinous to a nation as would communism, which is why literally no 'capitalist' country in the world operates that way, including Canada (where I am from) and the USA.
@johnj.spurgin7037 The Crusades at least had some justification. Prior to the first Crusade, Muslims had been invading Christian lands for 800 years without end.
@@johnj.spurgin7037 I'd contest those numbers.
What's qualifying a death that would explicitly and solely attributed as being 'caused by communism' (As opposed to say, an paranoid dictatorial leader like Stalin who-unlike his predecessor-was more interested in maintaining and cementing his own power than implementing the ideology he's nominally ruling on behalf of)?
How can that actually even truly be quantified?
How is communism being defined there?
I say all of this because I've seen historians retort that the same can be said of *_capitalism,_* possibly *even **_more so._*
Young Adults today think I'm pulling their legs, when I tell them my parents always told me to finish my meal, because kids in Germany were starving. And they were. I was also lucky enough to know two pilots who were called back into the service to fly in the airlift.
You said that Germans love their potatoes...I know! When I was in Trier, in 2014, one of the best things I ate were these French-fried potatoes sold in the street. They were SO GOOD! This little trailer, all they sold were French fried potatoes...you could watch a person cutting the potatoes into strips, what the British would call "chips." and another would put them in a fryer, submerge them in boiling oil, pull them out, dump them on this tray, and sprinkle a little salt...so simple yet SOOOO GOOOOOD! It was late February/early March, just a little cold, and they were so hot and tasty! Oh, a weird thing for an American, they all came with a little container of mayonnaise, which to my surprise was also fantastic! Dang, you Germans can be such culinary geniuses!
A running joke on this channel (and several others who are friends with TFE) is that "Americans will use anything but the metric system." This video has a rare example where he does provide a metric measurement, but usually he will use things like blue whales or Volkswagens instead.
I don’t know why but parts of this made me cry, this is about the time my grandpa was in Germany as a Marine.
Isn't it wonderful what human kind CAN do?! We are a unique creation.; capable of such horror and such beauty.
My name is Steve. My wife is Lyn. I am 71 and out of high school I joined the army. I spent 1971 and 1972 in Frankfurt then Berlin. Going from Frankfurt to Berlin thru E Germany on a train we were guarded by Russian soldiers with machine guns. There were 5 Russian divisions surrounding us. I would be at the Berlin wall and look over at the barbed wire and minefields known as no mans land on the eastside. A few of us went thru checkpoint Charlie to E Berlin. We had to wear our uniforms and it was like going from a thriving W Berlin to a still wrecked E Berlin. I loved the German people and took lots of pictures. I was born in Colorado and now live in Sioux Falls SD, the Rushmore state. If you are ever in the USA stop by and I will take you to the mountain with the Presidents faces. PS I also visted Munich, Hamburg and a few other countries. GERMANY was amazing!
Moving from Colorado to SD is insane to me. I spent the first 26 years of my life over near Spearfish (35 miles or so from Rapid City if you don't spend any time on that end of the state ever), moved to the east coast. At least Sioux Falls makes sense. "I want to be in the middle of nowhere, but I still want a FEW people around me!"
I was stationed in Wiesbaden when they had a 50th anniversary of the Berlin airlift. Seeing a C-54 on the airfield broght tears to eyes of those who went through ordeal.
My uncle (from Michigan) was involved in the Berlin Airlift. He passed away 2 years ago at the age of 94.
My salute 🫡 for your uncle!
I think some of Chris's confusion about communism is a terminology thing. In the US, we tend to refer to communism as being the whole package, and socialism as being bits and pieces, such as the social safety net that he mentioned. So you could say a policy was more socialist or capitalist, but when people talk about communism, they're including the country, policies, and everything. And of course there's overlap and ambiguity, but those are the tendencies.
I think far too many confuse welfarism and socialism.
Thank you, finally, somebody that understands this :) I think people forget that English isnt my native language lol, which should make me proud i guess lol
@@Chrisb.reacts it’s easy to lose tiny things in translation. I think overall you do a fantastic job (source: worked with cultural experts and interpreters for ≈9 years). Keep up the great work!
@@Chrisb.reacts What you are describing is welfare capitalism. A far far cry from socialism.
@@Chrisb.reacts You also have to factor in that communism and socialism are words peddled by the fear mongers in America who want to place everyone who is politically left of George W Bush into the same category so they can demonize them and use them as scapegoats for everything they see wrong with the country. To the American right, which is off the right side of the charts in comparison to the political right in Germany (and everywhere else in the 1st World), communist/communism and socialist/socialism are the ultimate of insults. Many of them have very little understanding of what either of those words truly mean.
That says much more about any flak you have taken over your use of the terms than your ability to speak English.
Sir, there is a grassroots organization of people in the US decrying capitalism and extolling communism constantly, that is why he often talks about it. Love your videos and Fat Electrician’s videos. Loved the time I spent in Germany, it was awesome, my daughter still can speak German (I only speak English, Spanish and Korean). Be safe sir, love your content.
Well said. The wanna be commies do get the news, but would probably not do well with an actual communist government. Oh, you "only speak English, Spanish, & Korean"! You are miles ahead of most of us in the United States, (excluding recent immigrants).
I am retired Air Force and was stationed in Germany 2 for 7 years. This is also required learning in the Air Force as it was the first true test of the newly formed Air Force back then. There is also a monument to this at the Frankfurt Airport. It is a statue that is curved and reaches the sky towards Berlin. There is the other one at Tempelhof Flug Platz pointing to Frankfurt.
I've noticed that monument at FRA. Nobody around me on the plane seemed to know what it was.
@@philkarn1761 Believe me this was required learning while I was in the Air Force. This was the first test of the newly formed Air Force.
Both of my grandfathers were second generation german Americans and were sent to the pacific theatre in WW2. In the 1974, my uncle joined the army andwas sent to Germany. He was in the supply corps and went from west Germany to west Berlin for two years.
I met the candy bomber when i lived in West Berlin in the 70s. He was a very humble hero
I am American, but myy grandparents are from Bremen, and i was stationed in Ansbach. I appreciate your channel as it helps get me back to my German heritage. Vielen danke!
Ah cool Ansbach is in Franken (near Nürnberg), I am from Franken too :)
I appreciate your German perspective. Thanks for the reaction.
I like the fact that you were so quick to catch his math error. To me it says that you were listening closely.
“Operation Vittles”: The German Airlift. The actual English word is “victuals” (pronounced vittles) meaning food.
There are videos about Operation Little Vittles; I would suggest you review one of them.
Operation Little Vittles was the name of the dropping of candy for E Berlin children.
“Colonel Gail S. Halvorsen, also known as the "Candy Bomber" or "Uncle Wiggly Wings", was a United States Air Force pilot who dropped candy to children in West Berlin during the Berlin Airlift of 1948-1949. Halvorsen's actions helped to boost the spirits of the children and others suffering during the Soviet blockade, which cut off food, supplies, electricity, and roadways from more than two million people.”
“Halvorsen's story began when he encountered a group of children outside Tempelhof Airfield and gave them some gum from his ration pack.” (Each American serviceman received chocolate, gum, and cigarettes in each of their ration packs. M&Ms were created for this because the hardened candy coating kept them from melting as quickly as regular chocolate bars would.) “When he saw the children share the gum and even the wrappers, he promised to drop more candy for them the next day.” [He was so touched by the children breaking up the gum into tiny pieces to share with others and even tearing the wrappers up to share so they could sniff the gum scent later.] “Halvorsen attached chocolate bars to handkerchief parachutes and dropped them from his plane, often wiggling the wings as he flew over the airport to let the children know it was him. He also asked other pilots to donate their candy rations, and soon the operation became known as "Operation Little Vittles". In total, 23 tons of candy and other treats were delivered to Berlin during the airlift.”
“Halvorsen's actions are considered to have changed the lives of the children and may have even helped the West win the ideological war with the Soviets over Germany's future.”
I am 71 and have been taught [and learned about on my own] "THE BERLIN AIRLIFT" although I learned many details from this video. So, THANK YOU, it is very much appreciated!!! AND i AM LEARNING EVEN MORE FROM THE COMMENTS
IMPORTANT: Thanks for your notices that the word Communism as a totally different meaning in 🇺🇸 and 🇩🇪. We mostly use it to describe just the economic system and not the ideology or countries itself. Just for a clearification nobody in 🇩🇪 (or only some few idiots) want communism. We are all happy with our Soziale Marktwirtschaft (social market economy) and love to be able to choose our job, starting our own business and seeking our luck in life, while having the safety nets of affordable health care, free education, subsidized public transportation and financial help for people in need. Although I am a bit envy of the lack of regulations and bureaucracy that you have in 🇺🇸. I removed the parts with my misleading use of the term communism. Sorry for the misunderstanding. 😊
It's interesting to get another perspective on the word - and understandable, since we are 2 different countries.
@@hollysanders1590 Many people say here Communism is an evil ideology, and maybe itsbecause we consider Nationalsozialismus (which has nothing to do with Socialism btw), Antisemitism or Racism in any Kind are evil ideologies, and tbh Communism is far from that level of evil. Thats why we probably dont call that. Communism is a stupid idea, which leads to countries having to do things that are against human dignity. But communism is far from the earlier ones, which practice genocide.
Just curious because I was wondering about what you said about the fat electrician being wrong about the Soviet Union inflating and destroying virtually everyones liquid assets. You said that it was during the 1920s. If you look up your country's economic history yes the market dipped multiple times in the 1920s the whole world did. In America we refer to that time peroid the great depression. However during there was a dip twice as bad from the 1920s in 1948. Ludwi Erhard abolished the reichsmark and created the deutchmark june 21 1948. Not only did this allow Germany to rebuild their economic structure but also abolish all the Nazi's occupations laws and regulations there were laid out.
There's no such thing as" free" health care or "free" education because the taxpayers are the people who are paying for it. It's why ALOT of Americans don't want it.
@@DeepTonesParanormal I meant the pictures where people carry money in litteral trucks are from the 1920s not the 1940s, of course the soviets didnt have anything todo with the hyperinflation in 1923.
I remember watching the Berkin Wall come down.
Reminder: Communism killed 100 Million people in the 20th Century.
Castroism is not communism. It's a deformed workers state suffering under a never-ending embargo.
100+ Million OF THEIR OWN PEOPLE. That we know about.
Yeah, back in the 80s I remember my map of the world and two Germanys. It’s weird looking back…fall of Soviet Union, Berlin Wall, reunification, Yugoslavia conflict, etc. remember the IRA bombing stuff…
@@jryan9547And they’re right back at it, with Ukraine.
Pretty amazing what people can accomplish when they work together. The personal stories of your family as well as learning your perspective on this made this a very enjoyable watch. Thanks for Sharing :)
I appreciate the way your mind is open to new ideas.
My favorite part of the battle between the metric system and imperial measurements is the length that we will go to not use the metric system. 87 Blue Whales, bigger than half a giraffe, 19 school buses stacked end to end
The reason that they were called the Raisin Bombers instead of the Candy Bombers is that while the Berlin Airlift was going on California just happened to have a bumper crop of raisens, so much so the price of raisins crashed. So all the money that was raised in the states for candy for the kids in Berlin went to buy raisins.
Declaring a no fly zone (shutting down the sky) is viewed as an act of war in many cases. That's why the USSR didn't stop the planes coming in. Nobody wanted to take that final step to total war.
People need to think a little more about this because not long ago some people in the US(government) were talking about trying to create a no fly zone over Ukraine. Just think about it, how do you enforce a no fly zone. It's pretty simple to see how this can be viewed as an act of war... That's why the USSR didn't do it back then.
The air lanes were guaranteed by treaty; that's why they remained opened. It is not an act of war to declare a no-fly zone over your own territory, which East Germany was at the time.
The treaty in question made no guarantees about anything that wasn't an air lane, so the roads, waterways, &c. could be closed at any time for any reason (or for no reason at all).
“Starvation is bad for business”
- capitalism
"Price gouging is great for business." - capitalism
@@Galeoloc “pRicE GoUgiNg iS gReaT FoR BusInEss”
- person who never grew up in Soviet occupied Eastern Europe
I’m East German I grew up in that political/ideological hell and now live in America, I’ll take higher prices on bare necessities and the ability to be vocal about my dislike of how a bunch of idiots who’ve never had a real job in their life are making the prices high, over not having necessities and being questioned by the Stasi or worse because my opinions aren’t “conducive to my work” or they are “counter to the narrative of the state”
Capitalism like all human creations are subject to being tainted by corruption of backhanded people who have no right to be in positions of authority or power but they exploited the western systems to move up the ladder for personal gain. But having lived in both worlds, I’ll hands down take capitalism.
If you don’t like capitalism and all the amazing benefits it’s had on the people and the world as a whole, then that’s your choice and unlike how things were back home when I was growing up, I support your right to view things differently than I do.
Take care.
😂
@@EdvardEngland damn…
@@EdvardEngland For the record, I think they both suck.
I'm talking about capitalist price gouging and you're ranting about people not having "real" jobs making prices higher? That's...that's not how capitalism works. Prices will move to whatever the market/buyer can pay in capitalism and still maintain a profit. Unless you're just saying, "Screw the elderly and kids with their medications and food, I got mine, its you're own fault your poor," in which case I can totally believe the Stasi'd have you under scrutiny.
This is one of the reasons I love modern Germany after WW2. The people of Germany are a perfect example of what happens when you face the mistakes of your past and become better for it. Look at what we can do when we all come together. Much love from Virginina in the US my European brother ❤
This is similar to how I teach the Berlin airlift...but with more detail, more humor, and more statistics. One morning driving my kids to school, I told them the story about the Berlin Airlift when they were 7 or 8.
I was an American Military member during the reunification of Deutschland. I lived in Berlin from 1990 -1993. I married a German woman in 1992…..still married to this day. Germans are great people that have the strongest economy in Europe. Berlin is still my favorite city to this day.
Recently, in the US, young impressionable people have been seduced by the siren song of Marxism.
Young impressionable Americans that are seduced by those ideologies usually don't understand anything about them.
Marxism, like libertarianism and pure democracy are political ideas that sound terrific on paper, and can sort of work on the very small scale. Once you get beyond that scale, they don't work.
@@NorbrookcYeah, a system that might work for a town of 1,000 may be a complete disaster for a city of 1,000,000.
They don't live under it. They're not old enough to process the complexity of life (theirs, their country's, the world's) and they're upset that the ideal world of their childhood is not what they thought. I know, I went through the same thing in the 1960s - 70s ... and then I grew up. Give them time.
Well, otherwise, I'd take libertarianism off that table, but otherwise I'd agree with you.
Your description "A LITTLE AUSTRIAN PAINTER STARTED IT" was brilliant!
Greetings from Coventry U.K.
I mean in Vienna and also in Germany there were antisemitic tendencies in the early 20th century but only after the Dolchstoßlegende it became a thing in the public. Hitler described all of his plans in Mein Kampf, which he wrote in Prison in 1923, so around 10 years before his rise to power. It is true, that the Treaty of Versailles was seen as a great insult, so that the thirst for revenge was a bit prevalent in the German society, but I doubt that without Hitler this would have been possible as fast, or even at all.
Interestingly, Austria, who arguably started the ball rolling which led to WW1 was made to pay few reparations and eventually none. For its part in WW2, Austria also was relieved of most responsibility. And yet, in both cases, the historical blame is solely placed on Germany when Austria was - at absolutely minimum - an extremely willing partner... Nowadays, they aren't even in NATO (but they are partnered like fellow great military powers Ireland, Cyprus and Malta).
@@poorwotan while I don't agree with it...your 100% correct. the reason Austria got off after WWI was because it wasn't the same " country " anymore. Pre-WWI it was the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After WWI it was just Austria and then Hungary...two seperate countries. Germany was the only wholly intact country from the Central Powers that was still left. So they got the blame and the reperations.
The whole WWI thing really gets crazy when you think of it as a family quarrel. The King of England, The Kaiser, and the Zsar were all cousins...let that sink in a moment, with Queen Victoria being their grandmother...
Edit: don't agree with them getting off scott free after the war...
"Now THERE was a painter! He could paint an entire apartment in ONE afternoon! TWO coats!" (The Producers)
While the Candy Bomber made headlines, it was a taciturn man named William Tunner whose previous experience was the Hymulayan Airlift during WW2.
just stumbling across this today, it was sure nice to be able to see a German reaction to this as my grandfather was a part of the Berlin airlifts they really did have all hands on deck. He was a military photographer just hopping on the planes. he used to talk about how they used to keep up morale on the planes by everybody contributing to a large barrel of alcohol, which was a mix of all different types of liquors. 😂
We were stationed at Rhein-Main Air Base, now the Frankfurt am Main International Airport. At the gate of Rhein-Main was a three pronged statue to commemorate its role in the airlift. It was affectionately known as the Hunger Rake!
In West Berlin they called it the Famine Fork.
Hey Chris, this is my first time sitting in with you on this fine day! Thank you so much for allowing me to do that! I enjoyed the time I spent here, listening to your commentary of the Fat Electrician, I subscribed and left a like for you!
I am from the Great Lake state of Michigan!
How are you?
Best of luck with your channel!
Deb
Everybody loves potatoes but not for every meal, every day especially if you only have bread to go with it!
Thank you for the heart, I appreciate it!
Truman said, "We will stay in Berlin, period."
And Patton said we'd have to fight the Rooskis sooner or later. They were an even bigger threat than the Nazis and arguably worse.
Going everything against the founding fathers wanted
Loved your video- love all of your videos. It's so nice to see things from another's perspective, especially someone from Germany. WW2 was before my time but I still felt the impact. I appreciate you bringing that time frame to light!!
One veteran who had been part of the occupation force in Germany said the American soldiers were treated as persona non grata by the German civilians, until the Berlin airlift. After the airlift started, he said you couldn't drink all the beer the Germans would buy for the American soldiers.
Great video dude! I'm glad that the U.S. and Germany are now allies! Even though I'm an American.…I have German ancestry in me, and I'm proud of what the Berlin Airlift accomplished!! The German people are great people, and deserve to have freedom and economic prosperity!
Thank you, Chris, for reacting to this excellent video!
Gen Tunner also noticed that it took basically the same time to unload the 2.5 tons off of a C-47 (military version of the DC-3) as it took to unload the 5 tons off of a C-54 (military version of the (4 engine) DC-4), so he was able to commandeer every C-54 within reasonable distance, including those in Hawaii, and the US Navy versions of the C-54s!
I grew up in the Candy bomber's hometown, in 2023 Bear River High School the local high school was a part of a German led program I think was called Art Against Walls and Students were given small replicas of sections of the Berlin wall to paint which were then displayed in the school
The fact that we went from flying in tons of bombs to tons of food to the same people who only a short time before had been shooting at us while USSR was trying to starve them into submission says all that you really need to know about the philosophical differences between the two powers and why we were destined to become enemies
At the end of world was 2 so many were hell bent on revenge against Germany and Japan that they forgot their humanity and became worse than the bad guys. Shame. Thank God it was short lived.
Under Communism, the people line up for bread.
Under Capitalism, bread is lined up for the people.
You give me hope for the future.
Under capitalism: useless wars for the elites and destroying other countries
Even in the 1980s when Ronald Reagan was president, he famously met in Berlin with Gorbachev and told him to tear down the wall that was still separating East and West Berlin. The Soviets actually did it shortly after Reagan's visit.
My uncle, Colonel John Sorenson was a pilot in that effort. He later became a SAC pilot during the cold war.
Thanks.. I have met many people from Germany whom I consider friends.. All great people. Keep making content...good job.
The greatest example of building "good will capital" in modern times! Rhetorically speaking, if you were a scared and starving adult and you got the supplies to feed you and keep you warm OR if you were a scared and starving child and you got some chocolate candy and felt like a kid again, what are the chances you would really hate America?
The US is KING in logistics. No other country can come close.
which is ironic, cuz we have no kings, there was a war about that
The US military is a logistics company that sometimes dabbles in warfare 🤣
Loved visiting the American Sector of Berlin! Walked across at Checkpoint Charlie and went to Alexanderplatz and Museum Island.
Checkpoint Charlie is no more. It's a shopping mall.
My mother lived in Berlin as a young teenager, she saw it all and the airlift.
12:50 wait really😲, that’s wholesome as fuck?! I feel like I’ve heard the candy part a long time ago in school and it was something like a cliff note in a textbook or something… and SHOULD HAVE BEEN ONE OF THE FOCUSES!!!!
If schools taught subjects like the fat electrician does we’d have geniuses and historical experts everywhere man!
I am in Michigan, I am German, Dutch, Irish and Welsh. My sister Linda found our generation from the 60 s
16oo s
Communism wouldn't be so bad under a perfect system, but a perfect system could never exist.
Exaclty
precisely, if you could eliminate human greed and scarcity of recurses it would work great. Unfortunately we live in this place called real life and not a fantasy movie.
This right here is what I've always said. Communism is the ultimate answer, in the best of worlds. We however, do not have not and will not ever live in the best of worlds. We live in the one we have and should treat it as such. I don't know how much I like or dislike capitalism, but I know I think the government officials running the USA are braindead corrupt rotting corpses, so I'm unclear how much I can blame of my country's failings on capitalism over corruption. I'd like to see capitalism the way its meant to run to give it a fair shake. Then again, I'd like to see Communism the way its "meant to run", because that is the overall best plan if people didn't suck. Ah well, do what you can with what you have. Now we just need to get rid of corruption in the capitalist economy, its running better than corruption in a communist economy, but its still going downhill quickly.
He meant to say 92 million miles 😂
Which is almost the distance from the Earth to the Sun (94,507,000 miles or 152 094 273 km).
While stationed at Ramstein AB in the 70's, we took the troop train from Frankfurt to West Berlin. The train was sealed, and made no stops during the trip until reaching Tempelhof train station. We toured West Berlin, then took a military transport through Checkpoint Charlie, and toured East Berlin. Night and Day. There was nobody on the streets in the East, the majority of the buildings were stark, gray concrete. Upon returning back through Charlie to the West, everything was lit up, people were out on the streets, and the difference in architecture was stunning.
Reference the satellite pictures between North and South Korea today ...
My dad was stationed in post war W. Germany where I was born in 1948 (Schweinfurt) and he flew on many missions as a loadmaster over Berlin during the Berlin airlift. He died in an accident at Langley AFB, Va in 1954 when I was six. I recall seeing his Air Force medals when I was young and one in particular ribbon stood out with two miniature bronze airplanes attached to the medal. Also, I have a newspaper clipping showing dad receiving his first air force uniform when the army air corp became the U.S. Air Force in September 1947. By the way, I'm a retired USAF Msgt from 1987 and my son is a retired major USAF in 2022.
It isn't that there are a lot of communists in the US. It's that we were in a Cold War with the USSR for a long time, and that really shaped our viewpoint of Communism.
Communism is a dirty word in America.
❤Love this story❤
Except in Berkley (and most OTHER colleges).
@mikeh8416 AH yes, unfortunately, true.
After your comment, about the German money only being worthless after WWI, I did a quick check, and it does seem that after WWII, the German currency was also next to worthless. The main difference was, that after WWI, Germany was being taken advantage of by the Allied powers, and also be bled to death by the reparations demanded by Allies. After WWII, the Allies, while slowly, helped support the German economy rebuild itself. I really enjoy you channel, and always give it a thumbs up, keep up the good work👍👍
Yes. The Marshal Plan delivered lots of loan money to Europe (including Germany) to rebuild their economies. It worked. Europe was destroyed by WW2 but it was rebuilt and they paid off the loans with interest. The European economy owes its success today to the Marshall plan.
Soooo the Allies thought that if they didn't restrain Germany they would rearm and attack them. Guess what? The first thing Germany did when they broke the treaty was, rearm and attack the Allies, exactly as feared. It's perfectly logical to think that if Germany hadn't been under the Versailles Treaty, they would have rearmed earlier and attacked the Allies as soon as the Americans went home. Never trust a German. Ever.
That is not what i said, I said, that the hyperinflation was way worse in 1923. The money was also worthless in 1945 yes, but in 1923 we talk about that a bread costs 1.000.000.000.000.000 RM which cost 1 year earlier 2 RM. That is soooo much more.
I guess the allies learned from their mistakes the first time.
We realized making people desperate leaves them open to manipulation by extremists.
14 :11 as a teenager in 1960 California, we used to say, "East is least and West is best," as a friendly rivalry 😂