IF YOU ENJOYED THIS CONTENT PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, LIKE, AND SHARE THIS PAGE SO THAT WE MAY CONTINUE TO GROW AND CREATE MORE ENGAGING CONTENT
In This Week in Military History, we discuss the Berlin Blockade and Airlift.
After the Second World War, the victorious Allied powers of France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States occupied Germany, nominally coordinating their administration via the Allied Control Council. The capital Berlin was also jointly occupied by these four countries, which was located deep inside the Soviet-controlled east Germany.
In March 1948 the Soviet Union unilaterally abandoned the Council, angered by American policies such as the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine, and the signing of the Brussels Treaty (a precursor to NATO) among Western European countries. Currency reform pursued by the Western Allies in their sections of Germany, and efforts to establish a separate West German state for Europe’s collective defense, further enhanced tensions. Soviet forces reacted by curtailing travel to west Berlin, occupied by the Western Allies. On June 24, they ended all ground and water access, and also shut off power.
Within days the military governor of the U.S. occupation zone, Lieutenant General Lucius D. Clay, initiated an airlift to bring crucial supplies to Berlin. This temporary measure, overseen by Air Force Lieutenant General Curtis B LeMay, was soon expanded and placed under the command of Major General William H. Tunner of the Military Air Transport Service. The U.S. airlift became known as Operation Vittles, while the accompanying effort by British forces was called Operation Plainfare. Over 2 million Berliners depended on Allied aircraft to supply them with vital food, medicine, and coal for fuel.
By the time Soviet forces lifted the blockade in May 1949, American and British planes had flown over a quarter of a million flights, and had delivered more than 2.3 million tons of supplies to the city. One American pilot, Gail Halvorsen, became known as the “candy bomber” for dropping packets of candy for Berlin’s children.
Halvorsen was one of about 70,000 personnel needed to sustain the airlift, which included 4 dozen airmen who died in accidents. Even after the Soviets lifted the blockade, Clay continued the operation until September 1949, in case the Soviets reimposed it. The Berlin Airlift not only sustained West Berlin’s population and protected it from Communist control; it provided a creative and peaceful solution to the Cold War’s first direct confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
