A Record For All Time

On Easter Saturday, General Tunner of the United States Air Force unofficially tried to make 1,400 flights to Berlin happen in a single day. The most common type of cargo transported that day was coal from Fassberg and Celle. Even though that personal, highly ambitious goal was missed very narrowly by two flights, the 1,398 flights over a period of 24 hours set a record for all time. A plane landed in Berlin every 61 seconds on average. Over 11,000 metric tons were flown into the city, more than had been transported into the city either via road, rail or waterway prior to the blockade. The “Easter Parade” demonstrated the capabilities of Anglo-American airlift and showed that the original purpose of the blockade had been resoundingly defeated.