BY DENNIS HOEY

MaineToday Media, Inc.

Three Maine men were recognized Wednesday night for their roles in a post World War II event that historians say was one of the greatest humanitarian efforts of all time.

Sixty years after the Berlin Airlift, Harry Winger of Portland, Linwood Wright of New Sharon, and John Zazzera of Kittery received the German-American Friendship Award for their part in the operation which supplied food and fuel to Berliners who were trapped in a Soviet land and waterways blockade.

However, American and British planes were able to airlift enough food and fuel to the city, convincing Stalin to lift the blockade after 322 days.

Officials said the veterans deserved recognition, especially since they were being asked to aid a country that they had been at war with just three years before. World War II ended in 1945. The Berlin Airlift began on June 26, 1948.

"It didn't bother me to return (to help Germany)," said Winger, who spent one year in a German prisoner of war camp after the plane he was piloting was shot down. "What could I say? I was ordered to go and I went."

Dr. Bernd Rinnert, the German Consul General based in Boston, presented the Friendship Award to 16 New England veterans during a ceremony at the Portland International Jetport.

The event also kicked off a new exhibit at the jetport that celebrates the Berlin Airlift's 60th anniversary.

The "Friends Always" exhibit, which features facts and photographs from the Berlin Airlift, will remain on display through Aug. 29. After Portland, the exhibit will begin a two-year tour of the United States.

Portland Mayor Edward J. Suslovic said the veterans who were assigned to transport food and fuel to Berlin saved western Europe from decades of Communist rule.

Though Germany was divided into occupation zones after World War II, the Soviets wanted to force the Western Allies out of Berlin.

"America was done with being an international savior (in World War II). We owe you all a great debt of gratitude," Suslovic said. "Not only did you save western Europe, but you helped transform our relationship with Germany from adversary to ally ... you are heroes, every single one of you."

Thirty-one American and 39 British airmen died in plane accidents during the airlift.

Winger, 83, flew his C-54 transport plane on more than 300 missions.

"He (Winger) is for me a symbol of the attitude of forgiveness. He fought the Germans and he came back to help us," Rinnert said.

Wright, who flew missions during World War II, said he flew 110 missions during the airlift. He left during the middle of his junior year at the University of Maine at Orono to participate in the Airlift.

"I am kind of overwhelmed by all of this," Wright said, after being honored. "I never thought what we did was all that special."

Zazzerra served as an aircraft dispatcher during the Berlin Airlift.

According to exhibit records, U.S. and British planes logged more than 277,000 flights into Berlin.

U.S. planes flew around the clock delivering more than 1.7 million tons of food and materials.

Adrian P. Kendall, an honorary consul to Germany, who lives in Cumberland, said allied aircraft landed in Berlin every three minutes.

Their efforts to provide food and heating fuel saved the lives of the two million people living in Berlin at the time, Kendall said.

"This was one of the greatest humanitarian efforts of all time," he added.