Code: P27183
Form 1767. Flying log book for navigators, air bombers, air gunners and flight engineers. Named to Sgt Peter J. F. Horn (3033268). He passed the Flight Engineer Course at St. Athan in November 1944 and attended No.12 Air Gunners Course at Bishops Court between December 1944 and February 1945 on Ansons and Wellingtons. The next entries date from June 1947 at No.4 Operational Training Unit Pembroke Dock on Sunderland flying boats as a flight engineer. In September he was posted to No.236 Operational Conversion Unit on Lancasters at Kinloss where various training flights and exercises were undertaken. In February 1948 he was posted to 37 Squadron at Ein Shemer (based at Luqa, Malta from May '48). He converted to York C.1s at 241 O.C.U. Dishforth in April 1949 before joining 40 Squadron at Bassingbourne in June 1949, and then to 59 Squadron the following month. During this period he flew approximately 30 sorties from Wunstorf to Gatow in support of the Berlin Airlift. Following the Potsdam agreement at the cessation of WW2, Germany was divided into four Allied occupation zones with the Soviets controlling the Eastern sector. The Berlin Blockade (24th June 1948 – 12th May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War when the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. In response to this the Western Allies organised the Berlin Airlift from 26th June 1948 to 30th September 1949 to carry supplies to the people of West Berlin and prevent possibe starvation. American and British air forces flew over Berlin more than 250,000 times, dropping fuel and food supplies daily. At the peak of this action over 12,000 tons of supplies were being dropped on a daily basis with one plane reaching West Berlin every thirty seconds. Sgt. Horn flew back from Wunstorf, Germany, on 13th August 1949 and there are no further flights until 1954 when he had just 4 on Lancasters at the School of M.R. (Reserve Training). An interesting late war, Berlin Airlift log. Horn has covered the book with a period plotting map. Shows wear and use but in good overall condition. Stock code P27183.
