BERLIN AIRLIFT

BERLIN AIRLIFT. The Berlin Blockade of 1948 to 1949 became one of the earliest tests of the U.S. Cold War policy of containment of the Soviet Union. The U.S. response to the challenge, history's largest exclusively aerial supply effort in the form of the Berlin Airlift, was initially designed as a temporary measure but became symbolic of American ingenuity and resolve.

The crisis had its origins in World War II–era agreements on the occupation of postwar Germany that placed a jointly occupied Berlin approximately 110 miles within Soviet-occupied territory. Between 1945 and 1948 relations between the international forces stationed in Germany deteriorated, with the growing conflict coming to a head in mid-1948. Protesting the merging of the British, French, and American occupation zones, Soviet officials in Germany walked out of the Allied Control Council, the quadripartite governing body, and the West implemented currency reform in the Western zones. In response, the Soviets announced that they were taking steps to preserve the economic integrity of the Soviet occupation zone and that effective 24 June "technical difficulties" would prevent land access between the Western zones of Germany and Berlin.

Once it became clear that the Soviets had in fact blockaded Berlin, President Harry Truman responded with a firm decision that the United States would maintain its right to be in Berlin even at the risk of war. As a temporary effort to maintain the small Western military garrisons in the city, British and American forces implemented a small-scale airlift. Flying along air corridors established under separate agreements with the Soviets, the airlift was gradually built up to sustain the population of 2.5 million civilians in the Western sectors of the city, an effort code-named Operation Vittles and directed by U.S. Military Governor General Lucius D. Clay.

Mounting an airlift on such a scale proved an enormous logistical challenge, particularly in light of U.S. postwar demobilization. During the airlift over a quarter of a million flights supplied the city with basic needs, including food and coal, at a rate of a plane landing every two to three minutes around the clock. Although Soviet forces harassed some flights, they never did so to the extent of interfering seriously with the airlift. Inclement weather and fatigue ultimately proved more dangerous, and the operation cost thirty-one American, thirty-nine British, and nine German lives. The impasse was finally resolved through informal talks between the American and Soviet representatives to the United Nations, and the blockade was lifted on 12 May 1949. Beginning 1 August 1949, the airlift was gradually phased out over a three-month period.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Collier, Richard. Bridge Across the Sky: The Berlin Blockade and Air Lift, 1948–1949. London: MacMillan, 1978.

Shlaim, Avi. The United States and the Berlin Blockade, 1948–1949. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.

Tusa, Ann, and John Tusa. The Berlin Blockade. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1988.

David G.Coleman

See alsoCold War .