Gail Halvorsen "Candy Bomber" Passes away at 101

[Gildwiller1918]

Gail Halvorsen, also known as the Candy Bomber passed away on the 16th of February 2022, he was 101 years old. Halvorsen gained fame during the Berlin Airlift in which he earned the nickname, the candy bomber. Halvorsen said he had met about "30 kids at the barbed wire fence at Tempelhof in Berlin" one day in July 1948. He said that he had two sticks of gum on him at the time and decided to break them in two and pass them through the fence. "The result was unbelievable. Those with the gum tore off strips of the wrapper and gave them to the others. Those with the strips put them to their noses and smelled the tiny fragrance. The expression of pleasure was unmeasurable," he said. “I was so moved by what I saw and their incredible restraint that I promised them I would drop enough gum for each of them the next day as I came over their heads to land," he said, adding that "they would know my plane because I would wiggle the wings as I came over the airport.”

"Two million people in Berlin needed food, mostly women and children. And so I felt very good about helping the former enemy, because they were grateful," Halvorsen said during an interview in 2009. He became known to young Berliners as the Chocolate Uncle, and received stacks of mail with thanks and requests.

Halvorsen's actions laid the groundwork for what would come to be known as "Operation Little Vittles," an effort to continue dropping candy to German children during the Berlin Airlift from 1948 to 1949. 

I also had to honor of meeting him in 2008, he was a very humble and kind man. 

Halvorsen demonstrating his handkerchief parachutes for dropping candy in 1949. 

Greeting a group of enthusiastic Berliners. 

[Fritz]

I saw a documentary about him around 2008. I think that's around when they made the film about the airlift, it was on tv in several parts.
Here is a full length film, over 3 hours, made around 2005.

 

[Fritz]

Luftbrücke - Film available.