View on Biblioguides
I first learned about the Chocolate Pilot, Lt. Gail Halvorsen, through Diane’s recommendation of The Candy Bomber, and ever since, I’ve loved having that book available in my library. So when my trusted friends at Biblioguides pointed me to Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot, I knew I had to track it down. It looked beautiful, but was expensive—so onto my wishlist it went, always in hope of a secondhand miracle. This year, at a library sale, I found it. I was sad to see it discarded from the library, but delighted to re-home it in my little library.
Both the author and the illustrator were new to me, but what an introduction. This is the kind of picture book that is truly special—it tells a true story so moving, so human, that you want to hand it to everyone you know. Set during the Berlin Airlift of 1948–49, the book focuses on one pilot’s act of kindness during one of the greatest humanitarian missions the world has ever known: “Like a great skybridge, airplanes flew 24 hours a day, three minutes apart, to feed 2.2 million people for 15 desperate months.” (Introduction) That quote captures the awe of the effort, but this story zooms in on a particular, personal, human corner of it: a pilot dropping candy bombs.
Lt. Halvorsen began dropping candy from the sky for the German children gathered near the Tempelhof runway. One child, Mercedes, wrote him a letter thanking him—and gently noting that his planes were frightening her chickens into not laying eggs, but explaining that she knew those planes were worth it. She described how he might find her: look for the girl in the yard with four white chickens. But Lt. Halvorsen was never able to find her house. Still, he remembered her. One day, a package arrived at Mercedes’ home, sent from the airbase. Inside were sweets and a letter just for her.
More than two decades later, when Halvorsen returned to Berlin as colonel of the airbase, he was invited to dinner by a couple he had never met. At the end of the evening, the wife brought out the letter he had written to her all those years ago. Mercedes. He was sitting in her home. Moved, he added another line to the letter—and every time he visited over the years, he added others still.
This is a story of service, but also one of memory, kindness, and the unexpected reach of generosity. Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen’s illustrations bring the story to life with warmth and historical richness.
This is a book for every library. For every family. It’s a perfect addition to any study of World War II, or a celebration of simple, lasting acts of goodness.