The Rotary Club of Edinburgh
Bulletin 2263 - 15th June 2009
LAST WEEK:
President Tim Simpson gave a special welcome to visiting Rotarian John McKinstry from Iowa City and to seven prospective members, Pat Harkin, Ian Moss, Andrew Quinn, Jon Hoffer, Nick Gould, Des Brogan and Margaret Butler. Tim’s grace was: Bless our friends, Bless our food, May our talk, Do us good. AmenSecretary Colin Mackay:
Attendance was 52 members, 1 visitor, 8 guests, a total of 61.Next week will be the Club Assembly and members’ views will be eagerly sought.
The Greetin’ Meetin’ would take place on Thursday 11th June in the Apex City Hotel at 6 pm for the final council meeting and at 7 pm for the dinner for the current year’s and next year’s council. Tickets were to be booked with Alex Gillies. Last week Tim invited the other office-bearers as well.
Colin looked forward to seeing everyone at KidsOut on 10th June.
There is still space for six Edinburgh couples at the
Fiesole dinner on Tuesday 23rd June. Book your space today with Iain Robertson.
President’s Business:
President Tim exchanged banners with John McKinstry and noted that Arthur Anderson has visited RC Helensburgh. Tim invited each guest by name to the top table to receive a copy of the Colour Bulletin which contained a list of our club’s activities. He hoped they would enjoy today and consider the wider aspects of Rotary as new members.Tim talked about KidsOut:
On Wednesday, John Williams and his team were to organise one of our flag ship events. KidsOut this year was expected to be even bigger and better with more diversions and entertainments than in previous years. We were expecting 290 Children from a wider catchment of special needs schools round the Lothians, and we will have a far wider support from other Clubs around the District. The new events include Gorgie Children's Farm and there are the usual ponies, bouncy castle, fire engine, face painting, sponge throwing, football, picnics and lunch for all the children and helpers, ice creams and in the afternoon, entertainer and disco at the end.Tim mentioned that our visitors from Fiesole in Italy at the end of June will bring with them a proposal for a new award scheme for young people embarking on their University career, and is to encourage people with exceptional talents. The idea is fairly broad, in that it is for Artistic, Scientific or Literary excellence. The award would be presented locally, but as an International award, recipients will be entered into the “Golden Book” of winners. This would be called, naturally enough since it comes from Florence, The Giotto Award. Tim has more information and is inviting comment, since our visitors will be expecting a decision when they arrive on 22nd June.
Guest Speaker:
President Tim introduced Stan Wilkinson who hails from Edinburgh and is a Herioter. He trained both with the GPO and the services as a Telephone and Radio Engineer. After the war, he then ran exchanges and became a trouble shooter with emergency mobile exchanges. In the sixties, he modernised the telephone service in the Highlands. Stan then moved on to manage operator services, which is now a thing of the past with our modern automatic and unmanned telephone network. Stan served in the RAF and spoke from personal experience about the Berlin Airlift.Stan Wilkinson:
The Berlin Airlift.. Stan gave a fascinating talk on the build up, operation and success of the 1948 – 49 relief of the city of Berlin when the Russians closed the land corridors supplying the French, British and American sectors of the city.The situation began with the Potsdam Conference when Germany was divided into four sectors at the end of WWII and Berlin, over 100 miles into the Russian Sector, was also split into four zones.
Three 20 mile wide air corridors between 1,000ft and 10,000ft were allocated to the Allies. The crunch came when West Germany restructured their currency into the Deutschmark. A soviet fighter flew under an air transport heading to Berlin, rose up and collided, killing both pilot and freighter crew. On 26th June 1948 the Russians cut off the land links to Berlin and the blockade began. At that time Berlin had a population of 2.5 million and needed 5,500 tons of supplies each day to survive. The Americans began lifting cargo on 26th June, the British on 28th June beginning with 44 tons increasing quickly to 80 tons. Avril York transports, Dakotas, converted Lancaster bombers and even Sunderland Flying boats were used to feed the population of Berlin. Civil as well as military aircraft were employed, flying non-stop 24 hours a day. Most flights came into Templehoff but another airport was built from scratch in 3 months – a dismal comparison to our new trams. It should be remembered that there were no computer systems or GPS to aid traffic control and navigation and the manual systems managed to keep 700 aircraft running all the time. In July 1948 40,000 tons were delivered this increased to 119,000 tons in August and reached 138,000 tons in September. Planes touched down at the rate of one a minute. All in all 2.3 million tons were airlifted, 276,000 flights completed, 80,000 tons exported and 167,000 passengers airlifted. Unfortunately this came at a cost and 78 people were killed during the operation. 50 years on the Willi Brandt Trust still pays out for the children of those killed in the Berlin Airlift.