A similar blog post originally appeared in 2020 on my website dealing with Royal Signals honours and awards. With the closure of that site I have updated it and moved it here. The events that it commemorates began 74 years ago this week. The ‘On This Day‘ series by the Royal Signals Museum also has a short piece about the Berlin Airlift.

A Royal Air Force Avro York at landing at RAF Gatow

In 1948, plans to create a new West German state from the zones occupied by the Western Allies, and the introduction of a new currency—the Deutschmark—resulted in the withdrawal of the USSR from the Allied Control Council and the blockade of road, rail, and canal links into West Berlin. In response, the United States began Operation Vittles on 26 June, and the United Kingdom followed with Operation Plainfare two days later. The operations proved to be an extraordinary success and lasted until the blockade was lifted on 11 May 1949.

The Royal Signals support to the operation was directed by Colonel L. de M. Thullier OBE, Chief Air Formation Signal Officer, Headquarters British Air Forces of Occupation. His account of the operation and the part played by 11^th Air Formation Signal Regiment appeared in The Wire in March 1950, which is easily found in the archive.^[1] Other unit articles can be found in various editions from 1947 to 1950.

The importance of the work and the manner in which it was executed resulted six awards to 11^th Air Formation Signal Regiment, which were announced in the 1950 New Year honours list.^[2] Unfortunately, the original recommendations have not survived.

OBE:

Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel A. T. Sladen^[3]

MBE:

Warrant Officer Class II (Squadron Sergeant Major) G. M. Derwent^[4]

British Empire Medal:

Squadron Quartermaster Sergeant (Foreman of Signals) C. P. Bolton, for his work establishing a new teleprinter room at Headquarters British Air Forces of Occupation.

Sergeant S. F. Caird, NCO i/c Lines, No. 67 Wing Signal Troop.

Sergeant N. S. Richardson, No. 112 Terminal Equipment Troop.

Signalman P. Cowley.

Squadron Quartermaster Sergeant (Foreman of Signals) C. P. Bolton BEM

Sergeant S. F. Caird BEM

1. (Back) ‘Operation Plainfare’. The Wire, March 1950, pp 91-93.
2. (Back) London Gazette 2 January 1950; 38797.
3. (Back) Obituary: The Wire, January 1985, p. 8.
4. (Back) Details corrected in London Gazette 28 March 1950; 38873.