More than 70 veterans are gathering at Duxford Imperial War Museum, near Cambridge to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift. Former service personnel who took part in the airlift will lay a wreath at the museum's Handley Page Hastings Transport aircraft.
Veteran, Jeff Smith, from Peterborough, said everyone just pulled together.
The western allies delivered more than 2.3m tons of food during the Soviet blockade of West Berlin during 1948/49.
Thousands of flights made
Veteran Jeff Smith said: "We were just doing our jobs. We went to work, it was a 24-hour a day schedule. People were doing eight hour shifts.
"I suppose it was many years afterwards that we realised we'd been part of history."
From June 1948 the western allies made more than 277,000 flights, delivering food, fuel and medicine to Berliners in an attempt to beat the Soviet blockade.
At the peak of the airlift, aircraft were taking off and landing about every minute.
Aircraft and crews were rushed to Germany from all parts of the world including RAF squadrons from bases in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, using airfields like Oakington and Honington.
On May 12, 1949, the Soviets ended the blockade.
Thirty eight Britons and 31 Americans lost their lives in the airlift.
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