Berlin Airlift Begins (1948)
On June 24, 1948, the Soviet Union blockaded all road, rail, and canal routes into West Berlin, cutting off two million people from food, fuel, and supplies. Two days later, the Western Allies launched one of history's greatest logistical feats: the Berlin Airlift, which sustained an entire city by air for more than a year.
The Soviet Blockade
Berlin lay deep inside the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, but the city itself was divided into four sectors controlled by the US, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. Tensions over Germany's postwar future had been building for years. When the Western Allies introduced a new currency, the Deutsche Mark, in their zones in June 1948 — a critical step toward a stable West German state — Soviet leader Joseph Stalin responded with a total blockade. On June 24, 1948, the Soviets cut all surface access routes to the Western sectors of Berlin. West Berlin's stockpiles could sustain the population for only weeks. Soviet officials expected the West would either abandon Berlin or be forced to negotiate on Soviet terms. Instead, American General Lucius Clay proposed something unprecedented: supplying an entire city by air.
Did You Know?
US Air Force pilot Gail Halvorsen, known as the "Candy Bomber" or "Uncle Wiggly Wings," began dropping candy and chocolate attached to tiny handkerchief parachutes for the children of West Berlin after noticing them watching the planes land at Tempelhof Airport. When word got out, thousands of Americans mailed candy to the Air Force to drop, and the informal program flew on for years after the airlift ended.
Operation Vittles
The American airlift operation was code-named "Operation Vittles"; the British called theirs "Operation Plainfare." At the airlift's peak, a plane was landing at West Berlin's Tempelhof Airport every 45 seconds, around the clock. The operation required extraordinary coordination: pilots flew three air corridors, each just 20 miles wide, and navigated in all weather without ground-controlled radar for much of the operation. Crews maintained precise altitude separation to prevent collisions. Cargo ranged from food and coal to disassembled power plant components. By the spring of 1949, the airlift was delivering more tonnage to West Berlin than had previously come in by rail. The Soviets had badly misjudged both Western resolve and the capabilities of American logistics.
Victory and Cold War Legacy
On May 12, 1949, the Soviet Union lifted the blockade — a tacit acknowledgment of defeat. The airlift had delivered 2.3 million tons of supplies in 278,228 flights over 11 months. Seventy-eight Western aircrew members and at least eight Germans died in accidents during the operation. The airlift was a defining moment of the Cold War: it demonstrated that the West would hold Berlin at significant cost, transformed West Berliners from former enemies into symbols of democratic resistance, and showed the world that America's commitment to its allies had teeth. The Federal Republic of Germany was formally established on May 23, 1949 — eleven days after the blockade ended — cementing the division of Germany that would last for forty years.