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The Berlin airlift was supposed to be a short-term measure, but it settled in for the long haul as the Soviets refused to lift the blockade. This project, code-named “Operation VITTLES” by the American military, was known as the “Berlin airlift.” (West Berliners called it the “Air Bridge.”) Allied cargo planes would use open air corridors over the Soviet occupation zone to deliver food, fuel and other goods to the people who lived in the western part of the city. It was quickly settled: The Allies would supply their sectors of Berlin from the air. The Berlin Airlift: “Operation VITTLES” Begins Finding another way to re-provision the city seemed to the Allies to be the only reasonable response. “If we withdraw,” said the American military commander, “our position in Europe is threatened, and Communism will run rampant.” President Harry Truman echoed this sentiment: “We shall stay,” he declared, “period.” Using military force to strike back against the Soviet blockade seemed equally unwise: The risk of turning the Cold War into an actual war-even worse, a nuclear war-was just too great.
Thus began the blockade of Berlin.Īs far as the western Allies were concerned, withdrawal from the city was not an option. On June 24, 1948, the Soviet authorities announced that the Autobahn, the highway connecting western Germany to Berlin, would be closed indefinitely “for repairs.” Then, they halted all road traffic from west to east, and barred all barge and rail traffic from entering West Berlin. If West Germany was to become its own country, they argued, then Berlin, located more than 100 miles from its border, could no longer be its capital.
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They withdrew from the Kommandatura and began a blockade of West Berlin, a maneuver that they hoped would effectively starve the western powers out of Berlin. They decided that something needed to be done to stop this creeping unificationism. The Russians were also concerned about a unified West Berlin: a capitalist city located right in the middle of their occupation zone that would likely be powerfully and aggressively anti-Soviet. In turn, those nations agreed to cede a small part of their territories to France.ġ995 All-female team competes in America's Cup sailing for first time The Berlin Airlift: The Berlin Blockade The agreements split the defeated nation into four “allied occupation zones”: They gave the eastern part of the country to the Soviet Union and the Western part to the U.S. The Berlin Airlift: The Partitioning of BerlinĪs World War II came to an end in 1945, the Allied powers held peace conferences at Yalta and Potsdam to determine how they would divide up Germany’s territories. This effort, known as the “Berlin Airlift,” lasted for more than a year and carried more than 2.3 million tons of cargo into West Berlin. and its allies decided to supply their sectors of the city from the air. Instead of retreating from West Berlin, however, the U.S. This, they believed, would make it impossible for the people who lived there to get food or any other supplies and would eventually drive Britain, France and the U.S. In June 1948, the Russians–who wanted Berlin all for themselves–closed all highways, railroads and canals from western-occupied Germany into western-occupied Berlin. Berlin, the German capital city, was located deep in the Soviet zone, but it was also divided into four sections. The Berlin Airlift: The End of the BlockadeĪfter World War II, the Allies partitioned the defeated Germany into a Soviet-occupied zone, an American-occupied zone, a British-occupied zone and a French-occupied zone.The Berlin Airlift: “Operation VITTLES” Begins.
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The Berlin Airlift: The Berlin Blockade.The Berlin Airlift: The Partitioning of Berlin.