Instigated on 24 June the previous year, the Soviet blockade prevented all rail, road, and water transport between Berlin and the West of the Germany.
Germany had been divided into four parts at the end of the Second World War. Britain, France, the USA and the USSR each administered one area. Buried deep inside the Soviet-controlled zone, the city of Berlin was also divided into four sectors that were controlled by the four powers. It was to the area controlled by the West that the USSR blocked access.
Faced with the possibility of all-out war if they forced their way through the blockade on the ground, the United States opted to make use of the three air corridors that provided unrestricted access to small airfields in Berlin. The USSR knew it risked war if it shot down any aircraft, and was therefore powerless to stop them. Launched four days after the blockade, the Berlin Airlift went on to see over 200,000 individual flights transport up to 8,500 tons of supplies each day.
The pilots and ground crews quickly settled into an efficient rhythm of loading, transporting and unloading. An unusually short winter also helped to keep the airlift running. By the spring of 1949 it was clear that the Western powers had achieved the impossible by supplying West Berlin by air alone.
On 15 April the USSR expressed a willingness to end the blockade and, after a period of negotiation, it was lifted at one minute past midnight on 12 May 1949. Although the blockade was over the Cold War had just begun.
