{"id":31773068,"date":"2026-11-08T11:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T10:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/william-tunner-berlin-airlift-hump-black-friday-airlift-general\/"},"modified":"2026-11-08T11:12:04","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T10:12:04","slug":"william-tunner-berlin-airlift-hump-black-friday-airlift-general","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/de\/william-tunner-berlin-airlift-hump-black-friday-airlift-general\/","title":{"rendered":"William Tunner: The General Who Made the Berlin Airlift Work"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\r\n\r\n<style>\r\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid 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The clouds had dropped to the rooftops, a cloudburst had swallowed the runway, one transport had crashed and burned at the end of it, and a stack of transports circled overhead in the murk with nowhere to go.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The passenger was Major General William H. Tunner, and he had been in Germany barely two weeks. What he did next, from the cabin of his own circling aircraft, turned a heroic improvisation into the most efficient airlift the world had ever seen.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Tunner is the man Berliners named a street after and most aviation fans have never heard of. The Candy Bomber gets the films. Curtis LeMay got much of the early credit. But the airlift that fed two million people for more than a year ran on Tunner&rsquo;s clockwork, and he had already built that clock once before, over the Himalayas.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f4f6f9;border:1px solid #e2e7ee;padding:18px 22px;margin:22px 0 26px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:700;color:#0d1117\">Quick Facts<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:18px\"><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Name:<\/strong> Lieutenant General William H. Tunner, USAF (1906&ndash;1983)<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Nicknames:<\/strong> &ldquo;Willie the Whip&rdquo;, &ldquo;Tonnage Tunner&rdquo;<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>The Hump:<\/strong> Commanded the India-China Division, Air Transport Command, from 4 September 1944; peak month July 1945, 71,042 net tons<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Berlin Airlift:<\/strong> Arrived in Wiesbaden 28 July 1948; Black Friday over Tempelhof on 13 August 1948<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Easter Parade:<\/strong> 15&ndash;16 April 1949: 12,941 tons in 24 hours, no accidents<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Airlift total:<\/strong> Some 277,000 flights and roughly 2.3 million tons, June 1948 to September 1949<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Korea:<\/strong> Commanded Combat Cargo Command from 1950; awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by MacArthur<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Later:<\/strong> Commander, Military Air Transport Service, from 1 July 1958; retired 1960<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The ferry pilot who loved a timetable<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Tunner graduated from West Point in 1928 and earned his pilot&rsquo;s wings in 1929, his final check ride flown with a captain named Claire Chennault. A decade of routine postings followed. Then, in June 1941, he became one of the first staff officers of the new Air Corps Ferrying Command, the outfit that delivered aircraft from American factories to the front and grew into the Air Transport Command.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>As head of its Ferrying Division, Tunner backed a plan drawn up by pilot Nancy Harkness Love and in September 1942 set up the Women&rsquo;s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, the women civilians who flew new warplanes from factory to airfield. That story has its own chapter on Afterburner: <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/nancy-harkness-love-wafs-founder-wasp-ferry-pilots-b-17\/\">Nancy Harkness Love: The Pilot Who Founded the WAFS<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Taming the Hump<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>In 1944 he was sent to fix the most dangerous supply route of the war. Since Japan had cut the Burma Road, everything China needed to keep fighting was flown from India over the Himalayas, a route crews simply called <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/the-hump-airlift-himalayas-cbi-wwii\/\">the Hump<\/a>. Tonnage was rising, but so was the toll of wrecked transports and dead crews.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/11\/c-46-commando-flying-the-hump-himalayas-1945.jpg\" alt=\"An Air Transport Command C-46 Commando flying over snow-covered Himalayan peaks on the Hump route to China\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">An Air Transport Command C-46 Commando over the Himalayas on the Hump route between India and China, the airlift Tunner took over in September 1944. US Army Air Forces photo \/ public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Tunner piloted a <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/c-46-commando\/\">C-46 Commando<\/a> over the Hump himself on an inspection trip that June and took command of the India-China Division on 4 September 1944. He ran it like a big business. Each base got daily and monthly tonnage quotas, the larger four-engined C-54 took over more and more of the load, and in February 1945 he brought in production-line maintenance, towing each aircraft through a row of specialised stations.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>He also brought back inspections, parades and dress standards, which earned him the nickname &ldquo;Willie the Whip&rdquo;. It worked. In July 1945 the airlift hauled 71,042 net tons into China, its peak month, while the accident rate fell far below where it had been when he arrived.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zli3PgXh0ME\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic;margin:0 0 24px\">British Path&eacute; newsreel footage from 1945 of transports flying the Hump between India and China.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Black Friday over Tempelhof<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>On 24 June 1948, the Soviet Union cut all rail and barge traffic into West Berlin. The Americans and British answered with an airlift that was brave, busy and badly organised. The <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/air-forces\/united-states-air-force\/\">US Air Force<\/a> in Europe was a tactical command with no airlift experience, and the operation was being run like a bombing campaign.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Washington sent for Tunner. He arrived in Wiesbaden on 28 July 1948 and two weeks later flew to Berlin to present an award to the pilot with the most trips into the city. That was the flight that ended up in the stack over Tempelhof on Black Friday. On the ground, unloaded planes were refused permission to take off for fear of collision, so the jam grew in both directions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #d32f2f;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;This is a hell of a way to run a railroad.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>William H. Tunner<\/strong> &mdash; Recalling Black Friday over Tempelhof, 13 August 1948, in his memoir Over the Hump (quoted by HistoryNet, 2023)<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Tunner radioed the tower and, as quoted in HistoryNet&rsquo;s account, said: &ldquo;This is 5549, Tunner talking, and you better listen. Send every plane in the stack back to its home base.&rdquo; Nobody was killed that day, but he later said the success of the airlift dated from it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The new rules came fast. Every flight would fly on instruments, whatever the weather. Every aircraft got exactly one chance to land in Berlin; if it missed, it flew home with its load and rejoined the flow. Stacking was abolished. According to US Air Force historian Roger Miller, in the 90 minutes it had taken to bring in nine stacked aircraft, 30 C-54s carrying 300 tons could now land on straight-in approaches at three-minute intervals.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/11\/berliners-watch-airlift-c-54-tempelhof-1948.jpg\" alt=\"Berlin civilians standing on a wall and a lamp post next to a Tempelhof sign watch a C-54 transport approach the airport in 1948\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Berliners watch an airlift transport approach Tempelhof in 1948. After Black Friday, aircraft landed on straight-in approaches at fixed intervals instead of circling in stacks. US Air Force photo \/ public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The cadence: a city on a conveyor belt<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Tunner&rsquo;s whole philosophy fitted into one idea: rhythm. Aircraft moved through the corridors at fixed intervals, crews reported their times over radio beacons and adjusted speed to hold their slot, and the system could be sped up or slowed down like a conveyor belt. He hated the romance of the early days, the crews sprinting to planes for the newsreels.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;The actual operation of a successful airlift is about as glamorous as drops of water on stone.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>William H. Tunner<\/strong> &mdash; Over the Hump (quoted by HistoryNet, 2023)<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>He attacked every wasted minute on the ground. Crews in Berlin were no longer allowed to leave their aircraft; mobile snack bars came to them while the cargo came off. He replaced the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/c-47-skytrain\/\">C-47s<\/a> with C-54s, because unloading a C-47&rsquo;s three-odd tons took as long as unloading a C-54&rsquo;s ten, and the switch was complete by the end of September 1948. In mid-October 1948 the American and <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/air-forces\/united-kingdom-royal-air-force\/\">Royal Air Force<\/a> efforts were merged under one Combined Airlift Task Force, with Tunner in charge.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>When a young pilot named Gail Halvorsen got into trouble for dropping sweets to Berlin children on tiny parachutes, Tunner approved and expanded it into Operation Little Vittles. You can read that story in <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/the-candy-bomber-two-sticks-of-gum-that-changed-berlin\/\">The Candy Bomber: Two Sticks of Gum That Changed Berlin<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wQUPec_eP8E\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic;margin:0 0 24px\">British Path&eacute; newsreel of the Berlin Airlift in 1948, the operation Tunner turned into a conveyor belt.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Easter Parade<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>By April 1949 the airlift was running so smoothly that Tunner worried about complacency. So he staged a show. From noon on 15 April to noon on Easter Sunday, 16 April, crews flew coal and only coal, around the clock. They delivered 12,941 tons in nearly 1,400 flights in 24 hours, without a single accident.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>That was about what West Berlin had received daily by rail, road and water in peacetime. Daily tonnage stayed higher afterwards. On 12 May 1949 the Soviets lifted the blockade. Flights continued until 30 September 1949 to build up stocks, by which time the airlift had flown some 277,000 flights and delivered roughly 2.3 million tons.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/11\/c-54-skymasters-wiesbaden-berlin-airlift-1949.jpg\" alt=\"Rows of C-54 Skymaster transports parked on a snow-covered apron at Wiesbaden Air Base during the Berlin Airlift\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">C-54 Skymasters on the snow at Wiesbaden Air Base in March 1949. Tunner replaced the airlift&rsquo;s C-47s with C-54s, which carried about ten tons each. US Army photo \/ public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Afterburner has told the bigger story of the airlift in <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/one-aircraft-every-62-seconds-the-berlin-airlift\/\">One Aircraft Every 62 Seconds: The Berlin Airlift<\/a>. The man who set the metronome summed up what he wanted in a line that is pure Tunner.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have much of a natural sense of rhythm. I&rsquo;m certainly no threat to Fred Astaire, and a drumstick to me is something that grows on a chicken. But when it comes to airlifts, I want rhythm.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>William H. Tunner<\/strong> &mdash; Over the Hump (quoted by HistoryNet, 2023)<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Korea: airlift under fire<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>A year after leaving Germany he was in Tokyo. When the Korean War broke out in 1950, Tunner was sent to build Combat Cargo Command, which handled airlift inside the theatre: supply runs, paratroop drops and casualty evacuation. Its first big job was supporting the Inchon landings and the drive north that followed.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>General Douglas MacArthur pinned the Distinguished Service Cross on him on the spot. When Chinese armies struck in late 1950, Combat Cargo carried out what the National Museum of the US Air Force calls the largest airdrops in history up to that time, keeping retreating UN troops supplied. In early 1951 the command was replaced by a permanent organisation, and Tunner went home.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The general who made airlift a weapon<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>He later commanded US Air Forces in Europe and, from 1 July 1958, the Military Air Transport Service itself, before retiring in 1960. He died on 6 April 1983 and is buried at Arlington. Today Air Mobility Command gives the Lieutenant General William H. Tunner Award to its outstanding strategic airlift crew, and Berlin has a William-H.-Tunner-Stra&szlig;e.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6121-H_87ws\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic;margin:0 0 24px\">The opening of the Legends of Airpower episode on William Tunner.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Every <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/c-17-globemaster-iii\/\">C-17<\/a> that lands on a schedule, every humanitarian airlift that runs like a timetable, owes something to the general who stood in a stack over Tempelhof and decided that heroism was not a system. Tunner&rsquo;s gift was making it boring. That boredom kept a city alive.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>Sources: Wikipedia (William H. Tunner; Berlin Blockade; The Hump), HistoryNet, Air &amp; Space Forces Magazine, PBS American Experience, National Museum of the US Air Force, The Army Air Forces in World War II (Vol. VII)<\/em><\/p>\r\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\r\n\r\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\r\n\r\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\r\n\r\n\r\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>Who was William H. Tunner?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">William H. Tunner was a US Air Force lieutenant general and the leading airlift commander of his era. He ran the Hump airlift from India to China from September 1944, rebuilt the Berlin Airlift in 1948 and 1949, led Combat Cargo Command in Korea and later commanded the Military Air Transport Service.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What was Black Friday in the Berlin Airlift?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Black Friday was 13 August 1948, when bad weather over Tempelhof caused a crash, burst tyres and a dangerous stack of circling transports, with Tunner himself overhead. He ordered the stacked aircraft home and then made instrument flying mandatory, banned stacking and gave every flight one chance to land.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What did William Tunner change in the Berlin Airlift?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Tunner introduced fixed intervals between aircraft, straight-in approaches, one landing attempt per flight and instrument flight rules at all times. He replaced C-47s with larger C-54s, kept crews at their aircraft during unloading and merged the American and British efforts under one Combined Airlift Task Force.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What was the Easter Parade in the Berlin Airlift?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The Easter Parade was a record effort Tunner staged from noon on 15 April to noon on 16 April 1949. Flying only coal, the airlift delivered 12,941 tons to Berlin in nearly 1,400 flights in 24 hours without a single accident.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What did William Tunner do on the Hump airlift?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Tunner took command of the India-China Division of Air Transport Command on 4 September 1944. He set tonnage quotas, brought in more C-54s and production-line maintenance, and enforced strict discipline. The airlift peaked in July 1945 at 71,042 net tons while the accident rate fell sharply.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Why was William Tunner called Willie the Whip?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">William Tunner earned the nickname Willie the Whip for his strict discipline on the Hump airlift, where he restored inspections, parades and dress standards, and for his tight control of the Berlin Airlift. He was also known as Tonnage Tunner for his focus on delivered cargo.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What did William Tunner do in the Korean War?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">In 1950 Tunner set up Combat Cargo Command in the Far East to run airlift inside the Korean theatre, including support for the Inchon landings, paratroop drops and supply drops to retreating UN troops. General Douglas MacArthur awarded him the Distinguished Service Cross on the spot.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Who was William H. Tunner?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"William H. Tunner was a US Air Force lieutenant general and the leading airlift commander of his era. 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General Douglas MacArthur awarded him the Distinguished Service Cross on the spot.\"}}]}<\/script><div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/one-aircraft-every-62-seconds-the-berlin-airlift\/\">One Aircraft Every 62 Seconds: The Berlin Airlift<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/the-hump-airlift-himalayas-cbi-wwii\/\">The Hump: The Deadliest Airlift of the War<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/the-candy-bomber-two-sticks-of-gum-that-changed-berlin\/\">The Candy Bomber: Two Sticks of Gum That Changed Berlin<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/nancy-harkness-love-wafs-founder-wasp-ferry-pilots-b-17\/\">Nancy Harkness Love: The Pilot Who Founded the WAFS<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lt Gen William H. Tunner ran the Hump airlift, rebuilt the Berlin Airlift after Black Friday in August 1948 and led Combat Cargo Command in Korea.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":31772952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31773068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>William Tunner: Master of the Berlin Airlift | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"William Tunner ran the Hump, fixed the Berlin Airlift after Black Friday on 13 August 1948 and led Combat Cargo Command in Korea.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/de\/william-tunner-berlin-airlift-hump-black-friday-airlift-general\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"William Tunner: Master of the Berlin Airlift | MiGFlug\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"William Tunner ran the Hump, fixed the Berlin Airlift after Black Friday on 13 August 1948 and led Combat Cargo Command in Korea.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/de\/william-tunner-berlin-airlift-hump-black-friday-airlift-general\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Afterburner - MiGFlug&#039;s Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MiGFlug\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-11-08T10:01:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-11-08T10:12:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/11\/william-tunner-airlift-commander-desk-portrait.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tamika Johnson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@migflug\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@migflug\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tamika Johnson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"13 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/william-tunner-berlin-airlift-hump-black-friday-airlift-general\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/william-tunner-berlin-airlift-hump-black-friday-airlift-general\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tamika Johnson\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/88afb39d0a02d6de10537662492fb68d\"},\"headline\":\"William Tunner: The General Who Made the Berlin Airlift Work\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-11-08T10:01:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-11-08T10:12:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/william-tunner-berlin-airlift-hump-black-friday-airlift-general\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":2082,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/william-tunner-berlin-airlift-hump-black-friday-airlift-general\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/4\\\/2026\\\/11\\\/william-tunner-airlift-commander-desk-portrait.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"History &amp; 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