The content details the post-World War II division of Germany and Berlin, focusing on the Soviet blockade of West Berlin and the subsequent Allied airlift, a pivotal event in the early Cold War that demonstrated Western resolve.
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Berlin May 1945 the city in ruins the
Red Army had taken the capital of
Hitler's Germany in a massive battle
district-by-district street by street
room by bloody room at the end they
raised their red banner atop the
shattered Reichstag half of Germany now
lay under Stalin's hand with the western
portions occupied by the Americans
British and French from the 17th of July
to the 2nd of August 1945 while war
still raged against Japan the victorious
Allies met at Potsdam near Berlin to
decide Germany's post-war fate Germany
was divided into four occupation zones
British American French and Soviet
though Berlin was 100 miles or 160
kilometers within the Soviet zone it too
was divided into four allied zones of
occupation in the eastern Soviet zone
Stalin forcibly unified the German
Communist Party with the Social
Democratic Party to create the puppet
socialist Unity Party or sed the sed
apparently spontaneously called for the
establishment of an anti-fascist
Democratic Republic while the Soviets
assets stripped their zone of occupation
of factories technicians and wealth as
war reparations for World War two Stalin
was confident that he could undermine
the British and American presence in
Berlin and eventually occupy the entire
city access to West Berlin was
complicated road and rail access existed
but only Soviet goodwill kept these
routes open there were also 3 air
corridors to fly to Berlin from Hamburg
luka borg and frankfurt within the city
there were at this time no barriers
between the different occupation sectors
the Berlin Wall was to come much later
under the Potsdam agreement Western
Allied Armed Forces personnel and
citizens could freely enter East Berlin
and Soviet troops could enter West
Berlin Berlin became a focal point of
the Cold War the still heavily damaged
city only had a population of just 2.8
million people in a city that in 1939
had numbered 4.3 million
many Germans in the East were hostile to
the Soviet occupiers in free elections
held in 1946 Berliners voted
overwhelmingly for non communists to sit
on the city government in January 1947
the British and American zones were
economically unified the French joining
the following year it was a first step
towards a future West German state in
1948 the London debt agreement had
concluded reducing West Germany's
payments by 50 percent aiding economic
recovery also the Marshall aid plan was
extended to the Western Allied
occupation zones and a system of federal
government put in place the Soviets
reacted by walking out of talks with the
other powers and restricting Western
military and passenger traffic from the
Western occupation zones to Berlin every
truck and train leaving Berlin was also
searched by Soviet authorities the u.s.
commander general blue CST clay ordered
a halt to all military trains and
ordered all military supplies brought
into West Berlin by air to circumvent
the Soviet restrictions
although the Soviets ease their road and
rail restrictions the Americans
continued to supply themselves in Berlin
by air for 75 days 20 flights a day
building up food stockpiles and other
supplies after 75 days general clay had
amassed an 18 days supply of food for
the military which were come in very
handy quite soon the Soviets changed
tactics and started using aircraft to
buzz West Berlin particularly flights in
and out of the airport's tragedy
occurred on the 5th of April 1948 when a
so V
yak-3 fighter collided with a British
European Airways vickers viking 1b
airliner an raf guitar killing all
aboard both planes in June the US
Britain and France introduced a new
currency for their zones the Deutsche
Mark the Soviets refused to recognize it
in East Berlin but it was to be used in
all four sectors of the city
unofficially Stalin decided to force the
issue of Berlin once and for all
the day after the introduction of the
deutsche mark Soviet forces halted all
traffic from West Germany to West Berlin
the Soviet propaganda machine went into
overdrive against the West rumors spread
that the Soviets would take over West
Berlin by force German communist rioted
and blockaded Crowe West German
officials from attending meetings in
East Berlin on the 24th of June the
Soviets cut all land and water
connections to West Berlin in response
the US and Britain stopped all rail
traffic to East Germany over time drying
up vital steel and coal imports
retarding these German economy on the
25th of June the Soviets stopped all
food supplies into West Berlin West
Berlin relied on power generated by
plants in the Soviet zone and
electricity was also cut off the only
way in and out of West Berlin remained
the three air corridors when the
blockade began West Berlin had 36 days
worth of food and 45 days of coal for
heating and so on the much reduced
post-war Allied armies were heavily
outnumbered the Berlin garrison numbered
8,000 973 Americans
seven thousand six hundred and six
British and six thousand one hundred
French in all of West Germany the US had
only 98 thousand troops with one reserve
division available in the States Soviet
military forces surrounding Berlin
numbered one and a half million men in
1948 Western defense rested on atomic
bombs with the US only had
Fatman type nuclear bombs just 35 atomic
capable b-29 Superfortresses were
available to deliver these bombs worldwide
worldwide
none of the b-29s then stationed in
Europe in 1948 were nuclear capable the
first ones only arrived in April 1949
Stalin felt sure the US and Britain
would not want to go to war over West
Berlin the general clay in Berlin felt
the Soviets were bluffing trying to
obtain political concessions when
ultimately unwilling to provoke World
War 3 it was the first really big test
in the Cold War
unlike the ground routes to Berlin the
three air corridors had been agreed to
in writing by the USSR each route was 20
miles wide unarmed aircraft would be
used to supply West Berlin the u.s.
believed the Soviets would not shoot
down unarmed humanitarian aircraft but
it was an horrendous task preventing
starvation on a vast scale general clay
consulted general Curtis LeMay commander
of US air forces in Europe to see if
such an airlift was even feasible LeMay
thought so but general clay also wanted
to enlist the help of the British the
RAF was already running a small-scale
airlift to the British garrison in
Berlin in April 1948 British air
Commodore Reginald Waite calculates
precisely what would have to be brought
into West Berlin daily to support the
population he based his calculations on
a minimum daily ration of 1990 calories
per adult each day West Berlin would
need 646 tons of wheat and flour 125
tons of cereal 64 tons of fat 109 tons
of meat and fish
a hundred and eighty tons of dehydrated
potatoes a hundred and eighty tons of
sugar eleven tons of coffee 19 tons of
powered milk five tons of whole milk
four children three tons of fresh yeast
for baking 144 tons of dehydrated
vegetables 38 tons of salt and 10 tons
of cheese in total 1534 tons of
foodstuffs would have to be flown in
daily to support around 2 million people
but worse was to follow in order to
supply power and heating another three
thousand four hundred and seventy-five
tons of coal diesel and petrol would
have to be flown in daily the grand
total five thousand and nine tons each
day seven days a week where there even
enough aircraft to carry such a tonnage
the US had ninety-six c-47 skytrains or
Dakotas in Europe each capable of
carrying three and a half tons per
flight general LeMay estimated that
running these planes at maximum service
making a hundred plus trips a day they
could deliver about four hundred tons
the RAF
reported it could also deliver 400 tons
daily far short of what was required
the RAF could expand quickly flying in
fresh aircraft from England the British
fleet included 150 dakotas and for T
larger Avro York's the latter with a 10
ton payload the British could now
deliver around 750 tons a day the US
needed more aircraft they needed the
biggest aircraft that could still land
safely at Berlin's airports
the answer was the c-54 skymaster the US
had 565 around the world
planners calculated they could amass 447
for the Berlin operation on the 24th of
June 1948 general LeMay appointed
Brigadier General Joseph Smith has
provisional task force commander
operation vittles the Berlin Airlift
began on the 26th of June 32 c-47s
flew in 80 tons the first RAF lift was
on the 28th of June by July c-54s were
arriving in numbers the Americans and
British used separate air corridors into
West Berlin and a separate command
system British short sundaland flying
boats also joined in landing on the
Havel River near got all aircraft took
off every four minutes flying in
patterns on a loop into West Berlin and
back to their bases in West Germany by
the second week the airlift was managing
a thousand tons a day still too little
for the Allied effort was disorganized
with controllers having no experience of
staging air lifts with inefficient use
of aircraft and crews Major General
William H Tanner who had led the hump
airlift over the Himalayas in World War
two to supply nationalist China from
India was brought in to take over he
unified the US and RAF operations under
a single command 126 c-54s were utilized
with three crews per aircraft to keep
them going round-the-clock new
regulations were issued after a day of
accidents on the 13th of August with
aircraft stacking eliminated accident
rates dropping and tonnage landed
increased one issue was aircraft types
the c-47 was awkward to load and took as
long to load as the bigger c-54 so from
September 1948 c-54s became the primary
US airlift aircraft to maximize aircraft
use general tunner spread aircraft at
three minutes and 500 feet separation
from 4,000 to 6,000 feet maintenance was
stepped up to keep aircraft in the air
he also managed to squeeze in another
shift with a goal of 1440 landings in
Berlin daily the Allies lack manpower
and Berliners volunteered in large
numbers to unload aircraft many were
former Luftwaffe ground crew from world
war ii the record time for unloading 10
tons of coal from a c 54 was by a 12 man
german team in five minutes 45 seconds
by the end of August 1948 one and a half
thousand flights a day were delivering
four and a half thousand tons of cargo
enough to keep West Berliners alive from
January 1949 when 225 c-54s were working
the tonnage increased of 5,000 tons a
day at the same time some enterprising
pilots started dropping chocolate bars
attached little homemade parachutes to
German children as they flew into
Berlin's airports Operation little
vittles was a massive propaganda success
City Hall fell in the Soviet sector of
Berlin and the provisional Parliament
was disrupted by communist bully-boy
tactics SED members tried to take over
the entire parliament in september
pro-western Berliners took to the
streets to protest against the
communists actions five hundred thousand
people gathering in the British sector
outside the Reichstag ruin when the
crowd surged towards the Brandenburg
Gate and tore down the Soviet flag
Soviet military police opened fire
killing one person at this point British
military police intervened pushing the
Soviets away preventing a massacre
Berlin's Parliament convened instead at
a college in the British sector but was
boycotted by SED members he's Berlin
founded its own communist government as
winter 1948 approached the airlift faced
new challenges food tonnage remained the
same but more coal and fuel would be
required for heating bringing the daily
airlift total to six thousand tons the
British added large handley page
hastings aircraft to their flights in
november general tunne hired more X
Luftwaffe ground crews runways were
limited just to at Tempelhof and one at
RAF cuttle another runway was built at
Tempelhof aircraft approaching directly
over city apartment blocks the British
added another runway at gutta the French
couldn't help much they were heavily
involved in the first Indochina war in
Vietnam and Cambodia all they
contributed to the airlift was some old
Yonkers 50
two's captured from the Germans at the
end of World War two but they could
build and they constructed Tegel Airport
in under 90 days the US and British also
installed radar systems at their bases
in Berlin but November and December 1948
were very foggy over Europe many
aircrafts couldn't land at Berlin for
example on the 20th of November 42
aircraft flew into Berlin but only one
actually landed Berlin had only a week's
supply of coal left at this point where
the weather dramatically improved and
the tonnage delivered rose steadily
until over 196 thousand tons was
delivered in March 1949 the Soviets
blinked and ended the ground blockade on
the 12th of May 1949 her British truck
convoy was first into West Berlin
followed by a train general clay retired
and received a ticker-tape parade in New
York City flights continued until the
30th of September 1949 in 15 months of
frenetic activity planes and pilots from
the United States Great Britain
Australia Canada New Zealand South
Africa and France had kept West Berlin
alive 40 British 31 Americans and one
Australian were killed from the airlift
17 US and 8 RAF planes crashed though
the blockade was over divided Berlin was
to face many more crises during the Cold
War particularly when the Soviet Union
and East Germany conspired to imprison
East Berliners
behind a giant wall thanks for watching
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