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Berlin Blockade: the story on HearLore | HearLore
— Ch. 1 · Background And Tensions —
Berlin Blockade.
~10 min read · Ch. 1 of 7
The Potsdam Agreement signed between the 17th of July and the 2nd of August 1945 divided defeated Germany into four temporary occupation zones. The United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union each controlled one zone. Berlin sat inside the Soviet zone but was also split into four sectors. Marshal Georgi K. Zhukov, General Lucius D. Clay, and Sir Robert Weeks established a verbal agreement allowing three 20-mile-wide air corridors for Western planes. On the 30th of November 1945, the Allied Control Council approved this written transportation agreement. Stalin told German communist leaders in June 1945 that he expected to undermine British power within their zone. He predicted the United States would withdraw within a year or two. By early 1946, Soviet leaders told Bulgarian and Yugoslavian delegations that Germany must be both Soviet and communist. Local elections in 1946 resulted in a massive anti-communist protest vote in the Soviet sector of Berlin. Citizens overwhelmingly elected non-Communist members to its city government. In January 1947, James F. Byrnes resigned as Secretary of State and was succeeded by George C. Marshall. Truman adopted a policy of containment involving significant money given to capitalist Western European countries. This plan became known as the European Recovery Program or the Marshall Plan. It was introduced in June 1947. The Soviets stopped delivering agricultural goods from their zone in eastern Germany in 1946. American commander Lucius D. Clay responded by stopping shipments of dismantled industries from western Germany to the Soviet Union. A public relations campaign against American policy began shortly after. An article by Yuliana Semyonova in Pravda on the 12th of June 1947 claimed America's geopolitical strategy was fascist. On the 30th of November 1948, the SED gathered its elected parliament members and held an unconstitutional so-called extraordinary city assembly in East Berlin's Metropol-Theater.
Currency Reform And Blockade
The Deutsche Mark was introduced in the Western zones on the 21st of June 1948. The Soviets refused to permit its use as legal tender in Berlin. They had already transported 250,000,000 Deutsche marks into the city before the announcement. On the 22nd of June 1948, the Ostmark was introduced as currency in the Eastern zone. The day after the 18th of June 1948 announcement of the new Deutsche Mark, Soviet guards halted all passenger trains and traffic on the autobahn to Berlin. On the 24th of June 1948, Joseph Stalin ordered Soviet troops to block all rail and barge traffic in and out of Berlin. The Soviets stated that the reason for withdrawing the West's access to Berlin was technical difficulties on the railways and roads. Electricity was restricted to only two hours a day in the western areas of Berlin. Foot traffic between zones continued throughout the Airlift operation. Public transportation by U-Bahn and S-Bahn remained open. Believing that Britain, France, and the United States had little option other than to acquiesce, the Soviet Military Administration in Germany celebrated the beginning of the blockade. General Clay felt that the Soviets were bluffing about Berlin since they would not want to be viewed as starting a Third World War. He believed that Stalin did not want a war and that Soviet actions were aimed at exerting military and political pressure on the West. Over the following months, this counter-blockade would have a damaging impact on East Germany. The drying up of coal and steel shipments seriously hindered industrial development in the Soviet zone. On the 5th of April, a Soviet Air Force Yakovlev Yak-3 fighter collided with a British European Airways Vickers Viking 1B airliner near RAF Gatow airfield. This event became known as the Gatow air disaster and killed all aboard both aircraft.
Logistics And The Airlift
On the 25th of June 1948, Clay gave the order to launch Operation Vittles. The next day, 32 C-47s lifted off for Berlin hauling 80 tons of cargo including milk, flour and medicine. On the 28th of July 1948, Tunner arrived in Wiesbaden to take over the operation. He reached an agreement with LeMay to form the Combined Airlift Task Force overseen by the United States Air Forces Europe. On the 30th of July 1948, the Airlift Task Force was formed but there were coordination issues between the British and American operations due to increasing air traffic. The CALTF was officially established on the 15th of October 1948 and controlled both USAFE and RAF lift operations from a central location. On the 6th of July the Yorks and Dakotas were joined by Short Sunderland flying boats. Flying from Finkenwerder on the Elbe near Hamburg to the Havel river next to Gatow, their corrosion-resistant hulls suited them to delivering baking powder and other salt into the city. During the first week, the airlift averaged only ninety tons a day. By the second week it reached 1,000 tons. On the 28th of July 1948, Tunner decided to fly to Berlin to grant an award to Lt. Paul O. Lykins. Cloud cover over Berlin dropped to the height of the buildings and heavy rain showers made radar visibility poor. A C-54 crashed and burned at the end of the runway while a second one landing behind it burst its tires. This event became known as Black Friday. As a result of Black Friday, Tunner instituted new rules. Instrument flight rules would be in effect at all times regardless of actual visibility. Each sortie would have only one chance to land in Berlin. Stacking was eliminated. With straight-in approaches, planners found that in the time it had taken to unstack and land nine aircraft, 30 aircraft could be landed. By August 1948, Rhein-Main and Wiesbaden were the two German airfields facilitating American flights to Berlin. On the 20th of August active flights into Gatow began in addition to the existing use of Tempelhof. By the end of August 1948, daily operations flew more than 1,500 flights a day and delivered more than 4,500 tons of cargo.
Humanitarian Efforts And Morale
Lieutenant Gail Halvorsen arrived at Tempelhof on the 17th of July 1948 on one of the C-54s. He walked over to a crowd of children who had gathered at the end of the runway to watch the aircraft. As a goodwill gesture, he handed out his only two sticks of Wrigley's Doublemint Gum. The children quickly divided up the pieces as best they could even passing around the wrapper for others to smell. Before he left them, a child asked him how they would know it was him flying over. He replied I will wiggle my wings. The next day on his approach to Berlin, he rocked the aircraft and dropped some chocolate bars attached to a parachute made from a handkerchief to the children waiting below. Every day after that, the number of children increased and he made several more drops. Soon there was a stack of mail in Base Ops addressed to Uncle Wiggly Wings. His commanding officer was upset when the story appeared in the news but Tunner heard about it and approved of the gesture. Other pilots participated and when news reached the US, children all over the country sent in their own candy to help out. Major candy manufacturers joined in. In the end, over three tons of candy were dropped on Berlin. German children christened the candy-dropping aircraft raisin bombers or candy bombers. Soft Power: the Elizabethan Festival began in late August and early September 1948 with the Red Army Choir performing for mass audiences in public squares of the Soviet Zone. The British countered with an Elizabethan Festival featuring small high-culture productions. University of Cambridge students performed works by William Shakespeare and Henry Purcell. Der Spiegel described the contrast saying the change from the Russians to the British was like a lesson in international psychology.
Diplomacy And Resolution
On the 25th of April 1949, the Soviet news agency TASS reported a willingness by the Soviets to lift the blockade. The next day, the US State Department stated that the way appears clear for the blockade to end. Soon afterwards, the four powers began serious negotiations and a settlement was reached on Western terms. On the 4th of May 1949, the Allies announced an agreement to end the blockade in eight days. The Soviet blockade of Berlin was lifted at one minute after midnight on the 12th of May 1949. A British convoy immediately drove through to Berlin and the first train from West Germany reached Berlin at 5:32 am. Later that day, an enormous crowd celebrated the end of the blockade. General Clay received a ticker tape parade in New York City and was invited to address the US Congress. Supply flights to Berlin continued for some time to build up a comfortable surplus though night flying and then weekend flights could be eliminated once the surplus was deemed large enough. By the 24th of July 1949, three months worth of supplies had been amassed ensuring there was ample time to restart the airlift if needed. The Berlin Airlift officially ended on the 30th of September 1949 after fifteen months. On the 18th of August 1949, Flt Lt Roy Mather DFC AFC and his crew flew back to Wunstorf for the 404th time during the blockade. This was the record number of flights for any pilot of any nationality either civilian or military.
Casualties And Costs
In total, the USAF delivered 1,783,573 tons and the RAF 541,937 tons totalling 2,326,406 tons. Nearly two-thirds of this cargo was coal. Pilots came from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa. The Royal Australian Air Force delivered 7,968 tons of freight and 6,964 passengers during 2,062 sorties. A total of 101 fatalities were recorded during the operation including 40 Britons and 31 Americans mostly due to non-flying accidents. One Royal Australian Air Force member was killed in an aircraft crash at Lübeck while attached to No. 27 Squadron RAF. Seventeen American and eight British aircraft crashed during the operation. The cost of the airlift was shared between the US, UK, and German authorities in the Western sectors of occupation. Estimated costs range from approximately US$224 million to over US$500 million. At the height of the airlift, one plane reached West Berlin every thirty seconds. The C-47s and C-54s together flew over almost the distance from Earth to the Sun. Operational control of the three Allied air corridors was assigned to BARTCC air traffic control located at Tempelhof. Diplomatic approval was granted by a four-power organisation called the Berlin Air Safety Centre also located in the American sector.
Geopolitical Consequences
The Soviets refused to return to the Allied Control Council in Berlin rendering the four-power occupation authority set up at the Potsdam Conference useless. The Blockade helped to unify German politicians in these zones in support of the creation of a West German state. Some of them had hitherto been fearful of Soviet opposition. The blockade also increased the perception among many Europeans that the Soviets posed a danger helping to prompt the entry into NATO of Portugal, Iceland, Italy, Denmark, and Norway. It has been claimed that animosities between Germans and the Western Allies were greatly reduced by the airlift with former enemies recognising common interests. The events of the Berlin Blockade are proof that the Allies conducted their affairs within a rational framework since they were keen to avoid war. In 1955, West Germany entered the NATO orbit several years later. Millions of East Germans escaped to West Germany from East Germany and Berlin became a major escape route. This led to major-power conflict over Berlin that stretched at least from 1946 to the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Dwight D. Eisenhower became US president in 1953 and Nikita Khrushchev became Soviet leader in the same year. Khrushchev tried to push Eisenhower on Berlin in 1958, 59. The Soviets backed down when Eisenhower's resolve seemed to match that of Truman.
When did the Soviet Union blockade of Berlin begin and end?
The Soviet Union blockade of Berlin began on the 24th of June 1948 when Joseph Stalin ordered Soviet troops to block all rail and barge traffic. The blockade ended at one minute after midnight on the 12th of May 1949 when the Allies announced an agreement to lift it.
Who organized Operation Vittles during the Berlin Blockade?
American commander Lucius D. Clay gave the order to launch Operation Vittles on the 25th of June 1948. General Curtis LeMay and General William Tunner later formed the Combined Airlift Task Force to oversee USAFE and RAF lift operations from a central location.
How many tons of cargo did the United States Air Force deliver during the Berlin Airlift?
The United States Air Force delivered 1,783,573 tons of cargo during the operation. This amount combined with Royal Air Force deliveries totaling 2,326,406 tons for the entire airlift effort.
What caused the Gatow air disaster in 1948?
A Soviet Air Force Yakovlev Yak-3 fighter collided with a British European Airways Vickers Viking 1B airliner near RAF Gatow airfield on the 5th of April 1948. The collision killed all aboard both aircraft.
Why did Lieutenant Gail Halvorsen drop candy to children in Berlin?
Lieutenant Gail Halvorsen dropped chocolate bars attached to parachutes made from handkerchiefs as a goodwill gesture after handing out gum to children at Tempelhof airport. He wiggled his wings to identify himself to the waiting children which led to the operation being called the Candy Bomber mission.