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Showing posts from June 21, 2015

The Berlin Airlift, 1948-1949

On this day, 26 June 1948, the Berlin Airlift began. The Berlin Airlift is one of American Armed Forces’ great humanitarian achievements. It was successfully executed on short notice by a military that was gutted from post-World War II hasty downsizing. It was agreed at the Potsdam Conference that at the end of World War II Germany would be divided into 5 occupying zones: France, Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was assigned the Eastern Zone, which they had conquered and occupied by May of 1945. Berlin fell within the Soviet Zone and it was determined jointly that Berlin would be a “free city” divided into two sectors (East Berlin and West Berlin). The civil governance of the Western Zone was shared by the French, British, and Americans; East Berlin was governed by the Soviet Union. The Soviets allowed access to West Berlin by one autobahn, one railroad, and two air corridors. West Berlin, the largest post-war German city with a populat