In 1948, during the beginning of the Berlin crisis, the U.S. decided to deploy jet fighter to Europe. The deployment concerned 16 Lockheed F-80s of the 56th Fighter Group. On July 22, 1948, they arrived at Fürstenfeldbruck in southern Germany. They crossed the Atlantic in a twelve-day pioneering trip. During their two-week stay, however, the 56th Fighter Group saw little action, and their presence remained primarily a propaganda stunt, to impress the Soviets who had blocked Berlin.
The F-80s had come to Western Europe to demonstrate the USAF’s ability to deploy a squadron of fighters overseas quickly. By August 14, they had all left to make way for USAFE’s planned reinforcements. The 36th Fighter Group, equipped with 80 F-80s in three squadrons, was shipped from Panama to Glasgow in two stages. The first thirteen Shooting Stars arrived aboard the U.S. Army freighter SS Barney Kirchbaum on August 4, 1948, in Glasgow, Scotland.
The Navy aircraft carrier CVE-18 USS Sicily entered port three days later with sixty-nine F-80s on board and most of the group’s personnel. The aircraft were disembarked by cranes at the Meadowside of the Clyde River and taken by road—pulled by jeeps—to nearby Renfrew Airport. There the jets went for final assembly and were made airworthy by Scottish Aviation. From Renfrew Airport, the jets flew to Fürstenfeldbruck with stopovers at RAF Manston on the Channel and Wiesbaden Air Base. On August 13, the first F-80s arrived at the air base in Southern Germany. USAFE put the three squadrons (the 22nd, 23rd, and 53rd Fighter Squadrons) rapidly into readiness at Fürstenfeldbruck. To this end, a training program began immediately to become familiar with the environment and flying conditions in the relatively small European airspace. Germany’s airspace then still had the handicap of having to be shared with the other occupying forces. This posed no problem with the French and British, but the Soviet Union was a different story. In those parts of Germany and Austria that they occupied, the Soviet Union only tolerated air traffic in corridors, and anyone outside these corridors could count on a brutal welcome. The American pilots had to get used to this, similar to the European weather conditions, which were quite different from what they were used to on the American continent. So, the new 36th Fighter Group and its jet fighters did not participate in the largest British postwar air exercise. And certainly, neither did the 86th Fighter Group at Neubiberg. The F-47 piston-engined Thunderbolt was no match for the British jets defending their country against the intruding bombers. That meant they were neither a match for the Russian jets whose stationing in the Iron Curtain countries would not be long coming.
Abstract from ON THE EDGE – PART ONE. Turning point Berlin.