General LeMay put his logistics staff to work to figure out what it would take to build an air bridge to the city with the aircraft available in the theater. Logistics experts quickly calculated that it would require 2,000 tons of coal and 1,439 tons of food per day to meet the minimum basic needs of the 2 million inhabitants. The normal total tonnage requirement for the city was 13,500 tons daily. But even 3,439 tons flown in each day with the few available C-47s appeared an impossible task.

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In spite of the heroic efforts of a few hastily rounded-up pilots and ground personnel, the Western three sectors of the city seemed doomed to capitulate. Berlin's Lord Mayor-Elect Ernst Reuter told Clay that his people were grateful for the efforts being made for them, but that they knew the city did not have a chance with the entire armed might of the Soviet Union backing up the blockade.

There was also understandable pessimism among the Allied nations. No city had ever been kept alive solely by airlift. The tonnage requirements were simply too great, especially in winter. Why try to hold Berlin anyway? Why not withdraw all Allied claims to Berlin and let the Soviets have it?

The world's press debated these questions while the U.S. Air Force went to work in concert with the British. The French were eliminated from participating in any airlift because of language difficulties. By prior agreement, the Americans and British would fulfill the French military requirements. As an interim measure to continue the flow of critical supplies before larger aircraft could be assigned, the C-47s, capable of hauling 3 tons each, were ordered to report from all over Europe to Wiesbaden and Frankfurt, site of the two large American bases closest to the East German border.

Meanwhile, four-engine Douglas C-54 transports that could carry 10 tons each were ordered from Panama, Guam, Hawaii, Alaska, Japan and the United States. While they were winging their way to Central Europe with flight crews and ground personnel, the faithful Gooney Birds flew round-the-clock missions from the two U.S. bases to Berlin and back. Ground crews, mostly German civilians, were hurriedly hired at both ends of the airlift to load and unload the vital supplies. The RAF marshaled some of its Douglas C-47 Dakota, Handley Page Hastings and Avro York aircraft and also began to fly the air corridors to Gatow, an airfield in the British sector of Berlin. During the summer months, the British also occasionally used amphibious aircraft that landed on the waterways in the city.

Within four days, a C-47 was landing at Tempelhof every eight minutes to discharge 2 1/2 tons of cargo–well over 150 planeloads a day. The supplies were immediately trucked to warehouses strategically located throughout the western sectors of the city. However, this was only about one-thirtieth of the food, fuel and medicines that would be required.

The Communist press in East Berlin ridiculed the efforts being made to counter Soviet demands. It derisively referred to "the futile attempts of the Americans to save face and to maintain their untenable position in Berlin."

Those first few days were brutal for the pilots and ground crews. The aircrews flew eight hours, did eight hours of ground duty, then, if they were lucky, could sleep six or seven hours. The weather did not cooperate, although it was midsummer. They sometimes ran into rain, fog, hail and even snow flurries, all on one flight.

The daily tonnage increased. Within the first 10 days, more than 1,000 tons of cargo had been carried to Berlin, including the first shipment of coal loaded in GI duffel bags. By mid-July, 1,500 tons a day were being flown in by American planes, while the British were flying in 500 tons daily with smaller transports from their bases at Celle and Fassberg. By this time, the world news media had focused on the effort. The press delighted in describing how pilots formerly assigned to desks were now flying around the clock to keep the city alive in what was quickly dubbed Operation Vittles.

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