June, 2008 marked the 60th
anniversary of the beginning of the Berlin Airlift,
which saved 2.5 million residents of West Berlin from
starvation during the Cold War.
In 1948, the Soviet Union closed the
rails and roads leading from West Germany into Berlin in
an attempt to take over Berlin from the Americans,
British and French.
The air lift officially began June
26, 1948, and although the Russians lifted the blockade
May 10, 1949, Allied supply efforts did not cease until
September 30, 1949. By the time the air lift ended,
there had been 278,228 flights into Berlin on all types
of Allied cargo air craft, including C-47s and C-54s.
The U.S. alone delivered some
1,783,571 tons of material on 189,963 flights. This
broke down to 296,319 tons of food and 1,421,118 tons of
coal, with another 66,134 tons of goods classified as
"miscellaneous." This was the first major victory for
West in the long Cold War with the Soviet Union.
... James Collins
