The Berlin Airlift (1948–1949), codenamed “Operation Vittles”
Looking back on the biggest aerial resupply mission ever launched
After World War II ended, the Allies partitioned the defeated Germany into a Soviet-occupied zone, an American-occupied zone, a British-occupied zone, and a French-occupied zone.
Berlin, the German capital city, which lay deep inside the Soviet zone, was also divided into four sections of occupation; the Soviets controlled the eastern portion while the United States, the United Kingdom, and France occupied the western half.
At that time Germany was in ruins, and the situation in Berlin was dire, with about 2.5 million Berliners forced to live with scarce food, difficulty of finding shelter amid all the rubble, and the black market dominating the city’s economic life.
The Western powers were secretly planning to create a new German state out of their zones. In June 1948, the U.S. and U.K. introduced a new currency, the Deutschmark, to their zones, including West Berlin. They kept it from the Soviets because they wanted to regain economic control from Russia and quell the rampancy of the black market, as well as bring in aid under the Marshall Plan — the U.S. strategy initiated by Secretary of State George Marshall for the purpose of not only supporting economic recovery in Western Europe, but also creating a bulwark against communism by drawing participating states into the US economic orbit.
The Berlin Blockade
But the problem was that Berlin was located far within the Soviet-occupied East Germany. In June 1948, the Soviets — who wanted Berlin all for themselves — blockaded all highways, railroads, and water routes from western-occupied Germany into western-occupied Berlin, stifling the vital flow of food, coal, and any other supplies. This, they reasoned, would eventually drive Britain, France, and the U.S. out of the city for good. This blockade left the western section of Berlin and its 2 million people deprived of food, heating fuel, and other crucial supplies.
The biggest aerial resupply mission ever launched
Although some in U.S. President Harry Truman’s administration called for a direct military response to this aggressive Soviet move, Truman was concerned that using military force to strike back against the Soviet blockade could turn the Cold War into an actual war — even worse, a nuclear war. The U.S. and its allies, therefore, decided to provision West Berlin, isolated by the Soviet blockade, from the air. On June 26, the U.S. launched a massive airlift operation, codenamed “Operation Vittles,” under the control of General Lucius D. Clay, the American-appointed military governor of Germany — the biggest aerial resupply mission ever embarked upon. This campaign is known as the “Berlin Airlift.”
For more than a year, hundreds of American, British, and French cargo planes ferried provisions from Western Europe to the Tempelhof (in the American sector), Gatow (in the British sector), and Tegel (in the French sector) airfields in West Berlin. At the beginning of the operation, the planes delivered about 5,000 tons of supplies to West Berlin every day; by the end, those loads had increased to about 8,000 tons of supplies per day. The Allies carried about 2.3 million tons of cargo during the entire airlift.
During the Berlin airlift, an Allied supply plane took off or landed in West Berlin every 30 seconds. The planes made nearly 300,000 flights in all.
The Soviet finally gave in and lifted the blockade
Having being scorned by the international community as bullies for subjecting innocent men, women, and children to hardship and starvation because of their blockade, things went badly against the Soviets and an Allied counter-blockade was also causing severe shortages in the Soviet sectors, leading to fears of an uprising. The Soviet Union finally gave in and lifted the blockade in May 1949. However, the airlift itself — called die Luftbrucke or “the air bridge” in German — didn’t end until September 1949 at a total cost of over $224 million, just in case the Russians decided to reinstate the blockade.
The U.S. and U.K. delivered more than 2.3 million tons of food, fuel, and other supplies to West Berlin via more than 278,000 airdrops in all over the course of the airlift. American aircrews made more than 189,000 flights, totaling nearly 600,000 flying hours and exceeding 92 million miles.
The ideological division between East and West in Europe
The Berlin Airlift was America’s first major test of resolve during the Cold War and one of the largest humanitarian aid missions in history. The airlift demonstrated America’s innovative spirit, efficiency, perseverance, and leadership. When the crisis ended, the eastern section of Berlin was absorbed into Soviet East Germany, while West Berlin remained a separate territory with its own government and close ties to the state of West Germany. This resulted in solidifying the ideological division between East and West in Europe, with East and West Berlin becoming a symbol of their respective political views — democracy and freedom in the West versus communism in the East.
Shortly before the end of the blockade, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) — a defense alliance of Western capitalist countries — had been established by the Western Allies, partially in response to Soviet aggression. Stalin responded to the formation of NATO with the Warsaw Pact — an alliance of Eastern European communist countries for their mutual defense — in 1955, after West Germany’s accession to NATO.
