The Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Airlift was a massive 1948-1949 operation in which Western allies flew supplies into blockaded West Berlin, becoming one of the first major confrontations of the Cold War.
When the Soviet Union tried to starve West Berlin into submission by cutting off all ground access, the Western allies responded with an audacious solution: supplying an entire city entirely by air.
A Soviet Blockade
The crisis began when the Soviet Union blockaded all ground access to West Berlin, an enclave of Western-controlled territory deep within Soviet-occupied East Germany, attempting to force the Western allies out.
An Audacious Airlift
Rather than abandon the city, the United States and United Kingdom launched a massive airlift, flying in food, fuel, and supplies around the clock to sustain over two million West Berlin residents.
A Year of Continuous Flights
The airlift continued for nearly a year, with aircraft landing at West Berlin airports at a rate of one plane every few minutes at its peak, an extraordinary logistical achievement.
A Cold War Victory
The Soviet Union lifted the blockade in May 1949, having failed to force Western withdrawal, marking an early and significant symbolic victory for the West in the emerging Cold War.
