The last RAF flight of the Berlin Airlift

By October 1949, after a very intensive period of flying supplies to Berlin, most of Transport Command’s squadrons were returning to normal operations. The RAF’s Dakota, York and Hastings transport aircraft could return to routine flying around the world, from the UK as far as Singapore and Australia. But a smaller number of transport aircraft continued to fly to Berlin until, on 6 October 1949, the last RAF flight of the airlift was made. This was by Flight Lieutenant Donald Harper and his crew, flying a Handley Page Hastings of 53 Squadron from Schleswigland to Gatow and back, by way of Celle (another airfield in West Germany).