Electronic Precinct - July 1999

Memories of the Berlin Airlift

Combined Honours student Elaine Bradley recently attended a ceremony commemorating those who lost their lives in the Berlin Airlift, which ended 50 years ago. She took with her the log-book in which her father recorded the operations he flew in the five years before he died in the Airlift, at the age of 23.

Roy Gibbs was a Flight Sergeant with 47 Squadron of the Royal Air Force, based in Dishforth, Ripon. His log-book documented the operations he flew from the end of World War II up to the Berlin Airlift in 1949.

'It was upsetting going to Berlin', said Elaine, 'but I was very proud to take part in the commemoration ceremony. I met some of the men who flew with my father and I was able to show them the log-book containing their signatures. I was also able to find out more about the crash in which my fathe r died, which seems to have been the result of a combination of simple factors.'

Elaine is one of the first students on the part-time Flexible Degrees programme which started last October. She is studying History and Irish Studies, whilst continuing with her considerable responsibilities as a theatre sister at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital.