FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1996.PDF
799 FLIGHT International, 14 November 1963 The first C-I3SB unloading at Rhein Main at dusk after a lO^hr non-stop flight from Bergstrom. It is surrounded by journalists and local troops waiting to greet Gen Burba, commander of the 2nd armoured division Up to their Eyes in Soldiers LOOKING BACK AT BIG LIFT "Flight International" photographs BY any standards, exercise Big Lift, in which more than 15,000 soldiers and a composite air striking force were flown from the US to Europe in justover63 hours, was a major venture and a resounding success. Unfortunately, the political implications and the sheer complexity of the exercise defeated most attempts to produce a clear description of it. Rarely have newspapers differed so widely in reporting numbers and times. Few have yet mentioned that a more leisurely Big Lift will take place in reverse at the end of this month, when all the equipment will be returned to the prestocking areas and the men flown back to their bases in Texas and elsewhere. But while at least the partial objective of Big Lift was to inspire European confidence in the ability of the US to reinforce the area quickly, it seemed to set the seal of certainty on the far more disturbing prospect of a serious reduction in locally based army strength. A reduction of supporting personnel with a counter balancing increase in fire-power at the sharp end had been in the wind for months, and is still mooted, but Big Lift appeared in Europe to be such an excellent lever for a much more extensive reduction in forces, particularly in view of internal American pressures to this end, that its very success compounded local consternation. And this became doubly disturbing to those who felt that all concerned were deluding themselves in supposing that a Big Lift could be remotely successful in the face of the slightest opposition. Precise numbers and times became immaterial as the ^T ^m^NK; Right, troops disembarking during Wednesday morning. The C-I35s were the only aircraft to make two return flights during the 63hr Big Lift operation. Below, evening at Rhein Main, with a C-124, 98 of which formed the slow but capacious backbone of Big Lift
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
