Cold War

The Station Adjutant, Flying Officer “Stan” Stanley, was in the doorway. “Are you aware that we’ve lost power across the airfield, sir?”

“Yes. Check with Lieutenant Colonel Russel about whether his construction crews might have damaged something. Meanwhile, I’ll find out if incoming flights can be diverted to Tempelhof.” As he spoke, he sat down behind his desk and took up the receiver again, requesting a connection to Group Captain Bagshot, the RAF Airlift commander.

Priestman was relieved to be put through to the senior officer promptly, although Bagshot sounded irritated — as if he didn’t like having to deal with Gatow. “Sir, we have a complete power cut here at Gatow. Would it be possible for you to divert traffic to Tempelhof?”

Bagshot grunted his displeasure, but agreed, “I’ll see what they can handle, but it won’t be everything. What the devil caused the power outage and how fast can you get it repaired?” He made it sound as if he suspected Priestman of some sort of negligence.

“I’m checking on that now, sir. There’s an outside chance that the runway construction crew damaged a power cable. However, given that our power comes from the Soviet Zone, I’m afraid we must assume that the disruption was intentional.”

“Did you just say what I think you said?” Bagshot sounded incredulous and his Scottish accent became particularly thick. “Your power comes from the Soviets?”

“That’s correct.”

“Why didn’t they cut it off before now, then?” Bagshot asked flabbergasted.

“You’ll have to ask the SMAD that, sir.”

“Why didn’t anyone tell me about this?”

“I’m sure I mentioned it in your first briefing, sir, but since the Soviets hadn’t cut the power, it appeared that they did not intend to do so.”

“In other words, you assumed everything would be all right,” Bagshot sneered. “Wing Commander” (he stressed the lowly rank of the offender) “Priestman assumed — and was wrong! Don’t you understand that if Gatow has no power we can call this whole thing off? It’s impossible for us to supply everything Berlin needs by air if we have only one receiving airport! But because Wing Commander Priestman assumed the Soviets would not cut off his power, we’ve started this massive operation and crowed about it to the whole world! We’ll certainly look the fool now!”

This outburst, Priestman decided, did not require a response. He confined himself to asking in a clipped, professional voice. “Will you be able to stop incoming flights to Gatow until further notice, sir?”

“Oh, I’ll stop them all right! But if you don’t get this sorted out very soon, you can be sure you won’t be commanding Gatow for very long — or any other station either! I very much doubt you’ll keep your commission after making His Majesty’s entire government look like perfect idiots to the rest of the world!” With that, the Group Captain hung up.

Priestman put the receiver down and stared at it for a moment as if waiting for it to catch fire. Then, unable to sit, he stood and went to the window overlooking the runways. He watched dispassionately as the first of 30 Squadron’s Dakotas set down decorously on his PSP runway and rolled to the far end, braking carefully. As it turned off the runway, it was met by a Land Rover that led it to the apron in front of one of the hangars. Already the next Dakota was in sight, turning in for the final approach.

After several seconds, Priestman realised he’d been left cold by Bagshot’s threats to his career. The far more important issue was the Airlift itself. As Group Captain Bagshot had so bluntly pointed out, supplying Berlin entirely by air was challenging even with two fully operational receiving airfields. It would be utterly impossible to maintain the Airlift if Gatow were knocked out of the game.

Which was exactly what appeared to have just happened. The Ivans were on the brink of shutting down the Airlift before it fully got off the ground. Embarrassingly, they had not even needed to employ force, making a mockery of Clay’s promise that “nothing short of war” could force the Western Allies out. Far from starting a war, all the Ivans had needed to do was flip a switch. Now Gatow was useless, ‘kaput’ as the Germans said, and that meant the Airlift was over.

Yet, some part of Priestman’s brain refused to accept that very simple fact. Some stubborn part of him insisted there had to be a way out of this fiasco.