The Soviet blockade of Berlin began June 24, 1948, when all road, rail, and barge routes to the Western sectors of the city were closed. The stated reason was 'technical difficulties'—the real reason was to force the Western powers out of Berlin, whose location deep within the Soviet occupation zone made it strategically vulnerable. West Berlin held 2.5 million people and roughly 36 days of food supplies and 45 days of coal.

The Calculation

The Western options were stark: attempt to force a convoy through by ground (risking war), abandon Berlin (politically catastrophic), or try to supply a city of 2.5 million by air (technically improbable). General Lucius Clay, US military governor, chose the third option. Initial calculations suggested 4,500 tons of supplies daily would be the minimum. The US and Britain together had fewer than 100 transport aircraft available in Europe. They flew anyway.

Operation Vittles

The airlift grew rapidly from initial improvisation into an industrial operation of remarkable efficiency. Aircraft landed every 90 seconds at Tempelhof Airport at peak operations. USAF pilot Gail Halvorsen began dropping candy on tiny parachutes to Berlin children—an act of decency that became one of the defining images of the entire Cold War. By April 1949, airlift tonnage reached 8,893 tons in a single day, more than had previously moved by road and rail combined.

Stalin Backs Down

The Soviet Union lifted the blockade on May 12, 1949—eleven months after it began. The airlift had demonstrated that Western technological capability and organizational will could sustain Berlin indefinitely; the blockade was achieving nothing except accelerating West Germany's integration with the Western alliance. The Berlin Airlift cost 79 Allied aircrew lives in accidents. It created the template for non-military responses to Soviet pressure that would define Western Cold War strategy for the next four decades.