After World War II ended, the Cold War began. One of the most interesting events that occurred during that time was the blockade of Berlin by the Russians and the organization of the Berlin Airlift. In 1945, Germany was divided into four sectors: the British, French, American, and Russian zones. Berlin, 110 miles inside the Russian zone, was also divided into four sectors. The Russians did not want the democratic ideas of the US, France, and Britain to affect the people of their sector, so they decided to blockade Berlin, not allowing trains, cars, trucks, or river barges to reach the city. By cutting off land and water travel to West Berlin and blocking all food and fuel shipments, the Russians hoped that West Berliners would beg the Western Allies to leave so they could be fed by the Soviets.
For sixteen months, the Western Allies flew almost non-stop into Berlin delivering food and fuel to that worn-torn city. Besides delivering the necessities of life, one American pilot, Lt. Gail Halvorsen, came upon another way to help the people of this city. He, with the help at first of a few of his fellow pilots, devised a way of making candy drops to the children of the city. They fashioned small parachutes out of handkerchiefs and dropped their cargoes over the city. The children knew that it was Halvorsen’s plane because he told them he would wiggle his plane’s wings, thus becoming “Uncle Wiggly Wings.”
The “Candy Bomber” by Michael O.Tunnell is an account of Halvorsen’s mission. Tunnell also explains the historical background of what happened after the war and how the Allies mounted the enormous undertaking of the airlift. This is a very readable book and would be appropriate for good readers from grade five up. What makes this book so appealing to any reader is Tunnell’s first-hand accounts by Lt. Halvorsen and the children who looked to the skies for the plane with the wiggling wings. Letters, photographs, drawings, and maps bring this very human story alive.