VOA标准英语2008年-Berlin Airlift Remembered After 60 Years

By Kent Klein
Washington
20 June 2008

June 26, 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift - one of the biggest humanitarian¹ operations ever, and a turning point in the Cold War. VOA's Kent Klein looks back at the Berlin Airlift, with a man who took part in it, and a woman who is still grateful for it.
　

Air Force pilot Col. Gail Halvorsen (File)

Retired² U.S. Air Force Colonel Gail Halvorsen drops candy to children from a transport plane that flew in the Berlin Airlift. He does this at air shows around the United States, like this one at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. He is known as "The Candy Bomber³."

"We fly this 'Spirit of Freedom,' this C-54, to remind old people what it was about, and educate the young people of America what freedom meant to the kids in Berlin," he explains.

Sixty years ago, Halvorsen was a part of the Berlin Airlift - one of the largest humanitarian missions in history, and one of the first crises of the Cold War.

After World War II, a divided Berlin was surrounded by Soviet⁴-occupied eastern Germany. In May, 1948, the Soviet Union blocked U.S., British and French access to the western part of the city, hoping the Allies would abandon it.

The two million people of West Berlin had only 35 days' worth of food. On June 26, the U.S. and Britain started flying food, coal and other vital supplies to them.

Halvorsen is one of the best-known pilots of the Airlift. He dropped American chocolate bars, tied to small parachutes, to the children of West Berlin. Halvorsen says the idea occurred to him as he was talking with some children across a barbed-wire fence at a Berlin airport.

"I wanted to give them something, because they did not beg," he explains. "I only had two sticks of gum, broke them in half, four pieces through the barbed wire. Kids with half a stick looked like they got a million bucks⁵."
　

Undated file photo shows Berlin children sitting on fence of Tempelhof airport watching so called 'Raisin6 Bomber' approaching for landing

One child who was grateful for the arrival of the Airlift was Helga Stege. Today, she's Helga Johnson, a U.S. citizen who vividly⁷ remembers living in a partially⁸ bombed-out apartment building in postwar Berlin.

"We really had nothing to eat. There was nothing available," Johnson recalls. "We had some old potatoes or something. We were hungry all the time. We went to bed dressed because we had no coal to heat the house. Some of the windows were broken."

And she recalls the feeling of hope when she heard the sound of American and British transport planes landing.

"We were so grateful to the Americans that they helped us," she says. "You have to remember, we were the enemy, and the war was only over three years, and then the Americans helped us to stay alive."

Johnson also travels to air shows on the transport plane called the "Spirit of Freedom," which serves as a traveling museum of the Berlin Airlift.

Washington's International Spy Museum has an exhibit on Berlin's role in the Cold War. Executive Director Peter Earnest, a retired CIA agent, says the Berlin Airlift altered the course of the Cold War.

"It was just that the Blockade was so dramatic, so sudden and provoked such a sharp reply that it clearly sharpened the formation of those opposing blocs⁹, if you will. And in that sense, I think, it played a key role in the Cold War," Earnest says.

Halvorsen says the Berlin Airlift stopped Soviet leader Joseph Stalin from marching westward¹⁰, by turning world opinion against him.

"He had to take West Berlin before he went to West Germany," notes Halvorsen. "He got stopped in West Berlin by world opinion, because he was starving people, and the British, French and Americans were feeding them."

The Soviets¹¹ ended their blockade of Berlin in May, 1949. The airlift ended in September.

Andrei Cherny, who's written a book about the Berlin Airlift, titled The Candy Bombers¹², says the airlift set the course for the rest of the Cold War.

"The Soviets, after that point, never gained a single inch of territory in Europe, and never really tried again after that," he says.

In 15 months, the U.S. and Britain had delivered more than 2.3 million tons of food and supplies on more than 278,000 flights into Berlin. A total of 101 people died in the operation. The transport planes together flew more than 148 million kilometers, almost the distance between the earth and the sun.

Andrei Cherny says the pilots of the Berlin Airlift earned their place in history.

"This is a story, really, about when America was at its best, when we were doing the right things in the world, when people all over the world looked to us as a source of goodness and decency¹³ and humanity," he says.

1 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

2 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

3 bomber   

n.轰炸机，投弹手，投掷炸弹者

参考例句：

• He flew a bomber during the war.他在战时驾驶轰炸机。
• Detectives hunting the London bombers will be keen to interview him.追查伦敦爆炸案凶犯的侦探们急于对他进行讯问。

4 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

5 bucks   

n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃

参考例句：

• They cost ten bucks. 这些值十元钱。
• They are hunting for bucks. 他们正在猎雄兔。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 raisin   

n.葡萄干

参考例句：

• They baked us raisin bread.他们给我们烤葡萄干面包。
• You can also make raisin scones.你也可以做葡萄干烤饼。

7 vividly   

adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地

参考例句：

• The speaker pictured the suffering of the poor vividly.演讲者很生动地描述了穷人的生活。
• The characters in the book are vividly presented.这本书里的人物写得栩栩如生。

8 partially   

adv.部分地，从某些方面讲

参考例句：

• The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
• The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。

9 blocs   

n.集团，联盟( bloc的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The division of Europe into warring blocs produces ever-increasing centrifugal stress. 把欧洲分为作战集团产生了越来越大的离心效果。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The policy of the two blocs was played out. 把世界分为两个集团的政策已经过时了。 来自辞典例句

10 westward   

n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西

参考例句：

• We live on the westward slope of the hill.我们住在这座山的西山坡。
• Explore westward or wherever.向西或到什么别的地方去勘探。

11 soviets   

苏维埃（Soviet的复数形式）

参考例句：

• A public challenge could provoke the Soviets to dig in. 公开挑战会促使苏联人一意孤行。
• The Soviets proposed the withdrawal of American ballistic-missile submarines from forward bases. 苏联人建议把美国的弹道导弹潜艇从前沿基地撤走。

12 bombers   

n.轰炸机( bomber的名词复数 )；投弹手；安非他明胶囊；大麻叶香烟

参考例句：

• Enemy bombers carried out a blitz on the city. 敌军轰炸机对这座城市进行了突袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Royal Airforce sill remained dangerously short of bombers. 英国皇家空军仍未脱离极为缺乏轰炸机的危境。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 decency   

n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重

参考例句：

• His sense of decency and fair play made him refuse the offer.他的正直感和公平竞争意识使他拒绝了这一提议。
• Your behaviour is an affront to public decency.你的行为有伤风化。