Berlin Blockade & Airlift (jun 24, 1948 – may 12, 1949)

Description:

What did the Berlin Blockade mean for West Berlin?

Berlin could now only be accessed by air, resulting in a restriction on the freedom to travel outside Berlin for all Germans.
A shortage of food - West Berlin only had enough food for 36 days.
A lack of basic goods like fuel and medicines.

The reaction of western allies:

The Berlin Blockade was the first real test for the American policy of containment. As forcing their way into the city by land could have led to another war, the Allies decided that their sectors of Berlin would be supplied by air. This became known as the Berlin Airlift and it lasted for eleven months until the Blockade was lifted in May 1949.

At the height of the Berlin Airlift, a plane landed at Berlin’s Templehof Airport every minute. Keeping West Berlin supplied in this way cost the USA $350 million and Britain £17 million.

Stalin was powerless to stop the Berlin Airlift. To shoot down the planes could have provoked World War Three, and at this stage, unlike the USA, the USSR did not have nuclear weapons.

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