SIMPLE CEREMONY MARKED FINISH OF HISTORIC SIEGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27079, 13 May 1949, Page 7

SIMPLE CEREMONY MARKED FINISH OF HISTORIC SIEGE

The blockade was lifted .at one minute past midnight (Berlin time, Thursday). The simple ceremony of the lifting of a white wooden gate on the Helmstedt highway border crossing by a British corporal marked the finish of an historic siege. The first vehicle to raise the blockade—an American jeep—left Berlin at one minute past midnight. A British convoy heading for Berlin passed through the British check point at Helmstedt at six minutes past midnight. Germans threw a bunch of flowers into the American jeep when the blockade was lifted. Another jeep followed, and then a German Mercedes car. . , , At nine minutes past midnight a British convoy passed through the Russian check point and entered the Soviet zone on its journey to Berlin. Within 20 minutes a steady stream of lorries, British and American, were heading for Berlin. Grinning affably, a Russian captain at the Soviet control barrier gave the trucks only a perfunctory inspection before waving them .on. Loud cheers greeted every vehicle passing through. “ Good luck,” “ Get there quickly,” onlookers shouted. Colonel Boris Kalinin, chief of the Soviet garrison of Berlin, who supervised operations at the Russian post' on the city outskirts, told a Reuter correspondent: “I am very glad to see you all.” A British military passenger train, pulled by a giant locomotive decked with festive green branches, was the first Berlin-bound Allied train to cross into the Soviet zone. The passengers included Sir Robert Inglis, chairman of the Bipartite Transport Group, and also scores of British, American and other Allied correspondents and British servicemen. Sir Robert said the lifting of the blockade meant the simultaneous opening of 12 ■ rail gateways for traffic between the bizonal area and the Soviet zone. He hoped that within 24 hours the Helmstedt-Berlin line would again be carrying its daily pre-blockade total of 8000 tons of supplies for Berlin. For the time being, it was planned to send an average of 16 goods trains daily over the Helmstedt - Berlin stretch. Five Allied and one German passenger train would also operate daily. In Berlin itself street and domestic lighting went on a.t one minute past midnight. The SoViet-controlled Berlin radio said the lifting of the blockade would be celebrated in all German factories to-day, and school children would be given a holiday. All Berliners were invited to a mass demonstration in. the Soviet sector “ to manifest the will of Berlin for a united capital and undivided Germany.” While the North-western German radio network in the British zone maintained up -to - the - minute news broadcasts on the lifting of the blockade into the early hours of the morning, the Soviet radio went off the air at the usual time. The western radio filled in the gaps between news despatches with songs and cabaret acts written specially for the occasion. Police patrols who checked cars and pedestrians passing between the Soviet and Western zones were withdrawn at midnight. The British Army jeep which crossed the British zone border at Helmstedt at six‘minutes after midnight, headed for Berlin, halted for a check of papers by the armed guards at the Soviet barrier, then it passed through the second Russian /barrier and entered the Soviet zone. '

A large crowd of Germans and Allied soldiers cheered as the Russian zone border barrier went up fit Helmstedt. Then hundreds of people surged impetuously forward right to the Russian barrier to watch the jeep and the tol lowing vehicles go through. Earlier messages said: The blockade approached its end in a setting of floodlights, flags and press headlines. Floodlights lit a gaudy, flag-decked scene at the highway border crossing at Helmstedt. where the first barrier was to go up. They illuminated the ghost-like Helmstedt railway station, where a number of trains stood waiting the lifting of the blockade. Interest centred in what promised to be a wild road race to Berlin—loo

miles away. There Was considerable jockeying for positions by reporters hoping to get a start in their effort to be the first across the Russian zone. The lead position, however, went by official British orders to a British Army jeep posted at the head of a line, followed by four other British Army vehicles. Check points have been painted, coats of arms have reappeared, and new signs in four languages have been erected. Concrete and steel blocks erected so painstakingly by the Russians along the border between the east and west sectors of Berlin have been ripped down. Along the zonal border barbed wire and trench checks have been removed. The Germans and the occupation forces alike planned special blockadelifting celebrations, with all the night clubs reporting heavy bookings. Mostof Berlin’s night club owners disregarded the official closing hours of 10 p.m. to allow the celebrations to go on? German police officials, with Allied approval, are overlooking licensing breaches. Air Lift Record In the 10 months of the Berlin air lift, British and American planes carried more than 1.500 000 tons of supplies and flew over more than 87,000,000 miles, Of the supplies carried, about 950,000 tons were coal and 438,000 tons were food. By early. May there were 380 British and American planes assigned to the air lift. More than 57.000 air crew members have taken part. During its term of operation, the air lift cost 57 lives, including 22 Americans and 23 British. The other fatalities were German labourers. Eighteen aircraft were lost Since the beginning of the air lift the ground control approach handled 85,000 blind landings. Only about one aircraft in 85 missed the approaches in all types of blind-flying weather. The Allied air lift still roared on, in spite of the lifting of the blockade. Lieutenant-general John K. Cannon, the United States Air Force commander in Europe, stated at Wiesbaden: "The air lift will continue until an adequate stock-pile is available, and we are certain that surface transportation can meet the requirements of Western Berlin.”