The Berlin Airlift and the Making of the Cold War

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781648430602
Total Pages : 216 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (36 download)

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Book Synopsis The Berlin Airlift and the Making of the Cold War by : John M Schuessler

Download or read book The Berlin Airlift and the Making of the Cold War written by John M Schuessler and published by . This book was released on 2022-06-15 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For eleven months that spanned 1948 and 1949, cargo aircraft from the air forces of the western Allies carried out one of the most extraordinary feats of peacetime military power projection in history: ferrying supplies to the city of Berlin, then under Soviet blockade. By spring 1949, the Berlin Airlift, initially considered unlikely to succeed, had convinced the Soviets that their efforts to force a solution to Berlin's future were badly miscalculated. The city became a symbol of the escalating division of Europe into competing blocs in a new Cold War order. This largely improvised military action had exerted unforeseen influence on the post-World War II world. The Berlin Airlift and the Making of the Cold War brings together historians and political scientists to explore the origins, course, and impacts of the Berlin Airlift after seventy years. Here, scholars and authorities on the Airlift, its logistics, the great power competition involved, and the position of Berlin within a divided and occupied Central Europe discuss not only the Airlift itself but also the critical role the operation played in shaping the physical and mental landscape of Cold War confrontation in Europe. The Berlin Airlift was just one of a series of decisions and events that shaped the Cold War across a global stage. It was a pivotal moment in the story of how Germany and its people experienced recovery and rebuilding after 1945. This book offers fresh insights into the legacies and lessons of the Airlift in theoretical and historical context.

The Berlin Airlift

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Author :
Publisher : Icon Books
ISBN 13 : 178578255X
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (857 download)

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Book Synopsis The Berlin Airlift by : Barry Turner

Download or read book The Berlin Airlift written by Barry Turner and published by Icon Books. This book was released on 2017-10-05 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acclaimed historian Barry Turner presents a new history of the Cold War's defining episode. Berlin, 1948 – a divided city in a divided country in a divided Europe. The ruined German capital lay 120 miles inside Soviet-controlled eastern Germany. Stalin wanted the Allies out; the Allies were determined to stay, but had only three narrow air corridors linking the city to the West. Stalin was confident he could crush Berlin's resolve by cutting off food and fuel. In the USA, despite some voices still urging 'America first', it was believed that a rebuilt Germany was the best insurance against the spread of communism across Europe. And so over eleven months from June 1948 to May 1949, British and American aircraft carried out the most ambitious airborne relief operation ever mounted, flying over 2 million tons of supplies on almost 300,000 flights to save a beleaguered Berlin. With new material from American, British and German archives and original interviews with veterans, Turner paints a fresh, vivid picture the airlift, whose repercussions – the role of the USA as global leader, German ascendancy, Russian threat – we are still living with today.

Berlin on the Brink

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Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
ISBN 13 : 081313613X
Total Pages : 434 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (131 download)

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Book Synopsis Berlin on the Brink by : Daniel F. Harrington

Download or read book Berlin on the Brink written by Daniel F. Harrington and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2012-05-15 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines the 'Berlin question' from its origin in wartime plans for the occupation of Germany to the Paris Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in 1949. Tracing the blockade's origins, it explains why British and American planners during the Second World War neglected Western access to post-war Berlin and why Western officials did little to reduce Berlin's vulnerability as Cold War tensions increased.

To Save a City

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Author :
Publisher : Texas A&M University Press
ISBN 13 : 9781603440905
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (49 download)

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Book Synopsis To Save a City by : Roger G. Miller

Download or read book To Save a City written by Roger G. Miller and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2008-04-21 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following World War II, the Soviet Union drew an Iron Curtain across Europe, crowning its efforts with a blockade of West Berlin in a desperate effort to prevent the creation of an independent, democratic West Germany. The United States and Great Britain, aided by France, responded with a daring air logistical operation that in fifteen months delivered almost three million tons of coal, food, and other necessities to the people of Berlin. Now, drawing on rare U.S. Air Force files, recently declassified documents from the National Archives, records released since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the memories of airlift veterans themselves, Roger G. Miller provides an original study of the Berlin Airlift. The Berlin Airlift was an enterprise of epic proportions that demonstrated the power of air logistics as a political instrument. What began as a hastily organized operation by a small number of warweary cargo airplanes evolved into an intricate bridge of aircraft that flowed in and out of Berlin through narrow air corridors. Hour after hour, day after day, week after week, a stream of airplanes delivered everything from food and medicine to coal and candy in defiance of breakdowns, inclement weather, and Soviet hostility. And beyond the airlift itself, a complex system of transportation, maintenance, and supply stretching around the world sustained operations. Historians, veterans, and general readers will welcome this history of the first Western victory of the Cold War. Maps, diagrams, and more than forty photographs illustrate the mechanical inner workings and the human faces that made that triumph possible.

The Berlin Airlift

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Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1510740627
Total Pages : 636 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis The Berlin Airlift by : Ann Tusa

Download or read book The Berlin Airlift written by Ann Tusa and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-07-23 with total page 636 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Simon & Schuster eBook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every reader.

The Berlin Airlift

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Author :
Publisher : Capstone
ISBN 13 : 0756534860
Total Pages : 50 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (565 download)

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Book Synopsis The Berlin Airlift by : Michael Burgan

Download or read book The Berlin Airlift written by Michael Burgan and published by Capstone. This book was released on 2008 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses the hardships West Berlin residents faced during a period in which Western Allies (United States, United Kingdom, France) attempted to deliver aid to a city devastated by war and political turmoil. The success of the airlift kept Berlin free from total Soviet occupation until the eventual reunification of Germany. Features include journal entries, letters, and personal interviews.

The Berlin Blockade

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Publisher : Ayer Company Pub
ISBN 13 : 9780405129636
Total Pages : 423 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (296 download)

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Book Synopsis The Berlin Blockade by : Walter Phillips Davison

Download or read book The Berlin Blockade written by Walter Phillips Davison and published by Ayer Company Pub. This book was released on 1980-01-01 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Cold War Berlin

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Publisher : Europe@War
ISBN 13 : 9781914059032
Total Pages : 80 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (59 download)

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Book Synopsis Cold War Berlin by : Andrew Long

Download or read book Cold War Berlin written by Andrew Long and published by Europe@War. This book was released on 2021-02-28 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the end of the Second World War, the city of Berlin was located 100 miles (160 km) inside the Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany. The Western Allies insisted on keeping part of the city for themselves, and so it was divided into four sectors, mimicking the rest of Germany. Stalin needed to persuade the British, French and Americans to leave so that there would be nothing in the way of him completing the strategic buffer of territory reaching from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic, which Churchill would later christen the 'Iron Curtain'. Cold War Berlin, an Island City is the story of how Stalin imposed his iron will over eastern Germany, and how he tried to squeeze his former allies out by cutting off their lines of supply and blockading the city. It examines the logistical miracle of the Berlin Airlift, which fed and heated a city of over two million people for almost eleven months. It is a story of alliances forged in the uncertainty of conflict, based on common interests and pragmatic convenience, alliances that would shape the twentieth century but would be betrayed for strategic or political reasons. It is also the tale of how competing ideologies came face to face in the city of Berlin and the new "Cold War" that would come to dominate the second half of the 20th century was created out of the embers of the Second World War. The book is richly illustrated with photos, numerous maps and color profiles and is the first in a mini-series by this author for Helion's Europe@War series on Cold War Berlin.

The Berlin Airlift

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Author :
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781985027114
Total Pages : 102 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (271 download)

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Book Synopsis The Berlin Airlift by : Charles River Charles River Editors

Download or read book The Berlin Airlift written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-02-04 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the blockade and airlift by Berliners, American officials, and pilots *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "Here in Berlin, one cannot help being aware that you are the hub around which turns the wheel of history. ... If ever there were a people who should be constantly sensitive to their destiny, the people of Berlin, East and West, should be they." - Martin Luther King, Jr. In the wake of World War II, the European continent was devastated, and the conflict left the Soviet Union and the United States as uncontested superpowers. This ushered in over 45 years of the Cold War, and a political alignment of Western democracies against the Communist Soviet bloc that produced conflicts pitting allies on each sides fighting, even as the American and Soviet militaries never engaged each other. Though it never got "hot" between the two superpowers, the Cold War was a tense era until the dissolution of the USSR, and nothing symbolized the split more than the division of Berlin. Berlin had been a flashpoint even before World War II ended, and the city was occupied by the different Allies even as the close of the war turned them into adversaries. If anyone wondered whether the Cold War would dominate geopolitics, any hopes that it wouldn't were dashed by the Soviets' blockade of West Berlin in April 1948, ostensibly to protest the currency being used in West Berlin but unquestionably aiming to extend their control over Germany's capital. By cutting off all access via roads, rail, and water, the Soviets hoped to force the Allies out, and at the same time, Stalin's action would force a tense showdown that would test their mettle. In response to the blockade, the British, Americans, Canadians, and other Allies had no choice but to either acquiesce or break the blockade by air, hoping (correctly) that the Soviets wouldn't dare shoot down planes being used strictly for civilian purposes. Over the course of the next year, over 200,000 flights were made to bring millions of tons of crucial supplies to West Berlin, with the Allies maintaining a pace of landing a plane in West Berlin every 30 seconds at the height of the Airlift. As the success of the Berlin Airlift became clear, the Soviets realized the blockade was ineffective, and both sides were able to save face by negotiating an end to the blockade in April 1949, with the Soviets ending it officially on May 12. The Airlift would technically continue until September, but for all intents and purposes, the first crisis of the Cold War had come to an end, and most importantly, the confrontation remained "cold." For the next decade, West Berlin remained a haven for highly-educated East Germans who wanted freedom and a better life in the West, and this "brain drain" was threatening the survival of the East German economy. In order to stop this, access to the West through West Berlin had to be cut off, so in August 1961, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev authorized East German leader Walter Ulbricht to begin construction of what would become known as the Berlin Wall. The wall, begun on Sunday August 13, would eventually surround the city, in spite of global condemnation, and the Berlin Wall itself would become the symbol for Communist repression in the Eastern Bloc. The Berlin Airlift: The History and Legacy of the First Major Crisis of the Cold War chronicles the history that led to the Soviet blockade and the famous relief efforts undertaken to beat it. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Berlin Airlift like never before, in no time at all.

Berlin In The Balance

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Author :
Publisher : Da Capo Press, Incorporated
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 424 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (555 download)

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Book Synopsis Berlin In The Balance by : Thomas Parrish

Download or read book Berlin In The Balance written by Thomas Parrish and published by Da Capo Press, Incorporated. This book was released on 1999-05-06 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In June 1948, Soviet authorities in Germany announced a land blockade of the American, British, and French sectors of Berlin. Isolated more than one hundred miles within Soviet-occupied territory, western Berlin was in danger of running out of coal, food, and the courage to stand up to Joseph Stalin.As Berlin in the Balance recounts, this crisis was a turning-point for U.S. policy. Just three years earlier, the Soviet Union had been an ally and Berlin the target of American bombers. In 1946 Winston Churchill had ignited protests by calling for an Anglo-American alliance against the USSR. The Berlin blockade made Churchill's ”iron curtain” through Europe an inescapable reality.Led by Harry S. Truman, the Western Allies refused to back away from Berlin. Instead, they took to the air, packing passenger planes with coal, potatoes, flour, and other necessities. Not even the commanders of the year-old U.S. Air Force believed this fleet could supply western Berlin for long. Its main airport was squeezed among apartment buildings. Autumn would bring blinding fogs. And nobody had ever tried to supply a city of millions by air. Berlin in the Balance tells the full, gripping story of this critical conflict—how it developed and how it played out. Noted historian Thomas Parrish shows us the crisis through the eyes of Truman, Stalin, and other leaders. We hear Berliners cheer the arrival of each ”raisin bomber”; the planes' roar was assurance that the democratic powers had not abandoned them. Through sources made available only after the fall of the USSR, we learn how Soviet leaders planned their strategy to drive out the West, what they feared, and what they hoped to achieve. Berlin in the Balance spotlights a different kind of air force heroism—flying heavy transport planes in weather so bad ”the birds walked,” harassed by Soviet fighters but never firing a shot. Under the decisive leadership of General William H. Tunner, crews took off every three minutes around the clock. Soldiers rushed to maintain the airplanes and runways, master a new radar system, even build a new airport. The operation depended on support from Frankfurt to London to Montana, on the sacrifices of German civilians and the boldness of French saboteurs. Using archives and fresh interviews, Parrish details the full scope and success of ”Operation Vittles.”The Berlin airlift stopped Stalin's expansion in Europe. It helped Truman win his upset election in 1948. And it set the course of East-West conflict for the next forty years. More than sixty U.S. and allied fliers died in this great operation, keeping a besieged city fueled, fed, and free. Berlin in the Balance is a masterful chronicle of this crucial, stirring saga.

To Save a City

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 140 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (31 download)

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Book Synopsis To Save a City by : Roger Gene Miller

Download or read book To Save a City written by Roger Gene Miller and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like the rest of Germany, Berlin had suffered enormous damage. In May 1945, 2.8 million people remained in the city, down from a prewar population of 4.6 million. In the confusion of ending the war, Allied planners overlooked a significant detail: no formal agreement guaranteed Western access by surface transportation. Air routes were another matter. in 1945, concerns about air safety led to a written guarantee signed by all participating nations. The wartime illusion that the United States could work with a friendly Soviet Union died a relatively quick and probably inevitable death in the post-war period. Unification of the Western zones of occupation meant introducing a single currency that would be outside Soviet control. In response, Stalin ordered a progressively tightening blockade around the city.

The Berlin Airlift and Berlin Wall

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Author :
Publisher : Independently Published
ISBN 13 : 9781098732868
Total Pages : 138 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (328 download)

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Book Synopsis The Berlin Airlift and Berlin Wall by : Charles River Editors

Download or read book The Berlin Airlift and Berlin Wall written by Charles River Editors and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2019-05-14 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading In the wake of World War II, the European continent was devastated, and the conflict left the Soviet Union and the United States as uncontested superpowers. This ushered in over 45 years of the Cold War, and a political alignment of Western democracies against the Communist Soviet bloc that produced conflicts pitting allies on each sides fighting, even as the American and Soviet militaries never engaged each other. Though it never got "hot" between the two superpowers, the Cold War was a tense era until the dissolution of the USSR, and nothing symbolized the split more than the division of Berlin. Berlin had been a flashpoint even before World War II ended, and the city was occupied by the different Allies even as the close of the war turned them into adversaries. If anyone wondered whether the Cold War would dominate geopolitics, any hopes that it wouldn't were dashed by the Soviets' blockade of West Berlin in April 1948, ostensibly to protest the currency being used in West Berlin but unquestionably aiming to extend their control over Germany's capital. By cutting off all access via roads, rail, and water, the Soviets hoped to force the Allies out, and at the same time, Stalin's action would force a tense showdown that would test their mettle. As the success of the Berlin Airlift became clear, the Soviets realized the blockade was ineffective, and both sides were able to save face by negotiating an end to the blockade in April 1949, with the Soviets ending it officially on May 12. The Airlift would technically continue until September, but for all intents and purposes, the first crisis of the Cold War had come to an end, and most importantly, the confrontation remained "cold." After the Soviets' blockade of West Berlin was prevented by the Berlin Airlift, the Eastern Bloc and the Western powers continued to control different sections of the city, and by the 1960s, East Germany was pushing for a solution to the problem of an enclave of freedom within its borders. West Berlin was a haven for highly-educated East Germans who wanted freedom and a better life in the West, and this "brain drain" was threatening the survival of the East German economy. In order to stop this, access to the West through West Berlin had to be cut off, so in August 1961, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev authorized East German leader Walter Ulbricht to begin construction of what would become known as the Berlin Wall. The wall, begun on Sunday August 13, would eventually surround the city, in spite of global condemnation, and the Berlin Wall itself would become the symbol for Communist repression in the Eastern Bloc. It also ended Khrushchev's attempts to conclude a peace treaty among the Four Powers (the Soviets, the Americans, the United Kingdom, and France) and the two German states. The fall of the Berlin Wall is often considered the end of the Cold War, and the following month both President Bush and Gorbachev declared the Cold War over, but the Cold War had been thawing for most of the 1980s. President Reagan is remembered for calling the Soviet Union an "evil empire" and demanding that Gorbachev tear down the wall, but he spent the last several years of his presidency working with the Soviet leader to improve relations. The end of the Soviet Union came when Gorbachev resigned on December 25, 1991. The Soviet Union formally dissolved the next day, and the Cold War was over, with the United States outlasting its long-time adversary. The Berlin Airlift and Berlin Wall: The History and Legacy of the Fight Over the Occupied City during the Cold War chronicles the history that led to the Soviet blockade, the famous relief efforts undertaken to beat it, and the construction of the 20th century's most notorious wall.

The Berlin Airlift

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Author :
Publisher : Air World
ISBN 13 : 9781526711014
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (11 download)

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Book Synopsis The Berlin Airlift by : Andrew D. Bird

Download or read book The Berlin Airlift written by Andrew D. Bird and published by Air World. This book was released on 2024-04-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It was a time of high drama. The tension mounting with each passing day, with each new restriction, each demonstration of strength. Berlin was the battleground, located within the Soviet sector of Occupied Germany. The Western Allies were determined to maintain their rights of access to the German capital; the Soviets were equally determined to isolate Belin. The result was that in the summer of 1948 the Soviets severed all over-ground links. This meant the only way by which the Allies could to deliver the vital supplies of food and fuel to the beleaguered Berliners was by air. So began the greatest logistical air operation in history.On 24 June 1948, the Berlin airlift began. Aircrews from the USAF, RAF, Royal Canadian Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force, Royal New Zealand Air Force and South African Air Force flew more than 1,500 flights every twenty-four hours, delivering up to 8,893 tons of necessities each day.As it became clear that the Allies were both willing and able to continue the airlift indefinitely, in the spring of 1949 the Soviets announced that they were prepared to negotiate an end to the blockade of Berlin. It was finally lifted on 12 May that year.In total 2,326,406 tons of materials and products were delivered to Berlin on 278,228 flights. Some 692 aircraft were engaged in the Berlin Airlift, more than 100 of which belonged to civilian operators, flying nineteen different types of aircraft, including flying boats which landed on Berlin's Spree and Havel rivers.The result of the Soviet blockade was the formation of the state of West Germany, and the introduction of its new currency, the Deutschmark.

The Berlin Airlift

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Author :
Publisher : Pen and Sword
ISBN 13 : 152675827X
Total Pages : 189 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (267 download)

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Book Synopsis The Berlin Airlift by : John Grehan

Download or read book The Berlin Airlift written by John Grehan and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2019-04-30 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Stuffed with great images . . . and perfectly detailed information, superbly illustrating one of the first major international crises of the Cold War.” —Vintage Airfix During the multinational occupation of post-World War II Germany, Stalin decided to make the Allied hold on West Berlin untenable by shutting down all the overland routes used to keep the city supplied. The choice faced by the Allies was a stark one—let Berlin fall, or risk war with the Soviets by breaking the Soviet stranglehold. In a remarkably visionary move, the Allies decided that they could keep Berlin supplied by flying over the Soviet blockade, thus avoiding armed conflict with the USSR. On 26 June 1948, the Berlin Airlift began. Throughout the following thirteen months, more than 266,600 flights were undertaken by the men and aircraft from the US, France, Britain and across the Commonwealth, which delivered in excess of 2,223,000 tons of food, fuel and supplies in the greatest airlift in history. The air-bridge eventually became so effective that more supplies were delivered to Berlin than had previously been shipped overland and Stalin saw that his bid to seize control of the German capital could never succeed. At one minute after midnight on 12 May 1949, the Soviet blockade was lifted, and the Soviet advance into Western Europe was brought to a shuddering halt. “The book is packed full of fascinating photographs detailing the huge variety of aircraft involved in the airlift, each accompanied by detailed explanations and text. The book is a fitting tribute to the aircrew who lost their lives in this incredible operation.” —Army Rumour Service (ARRSE)

The Blockade Breakers

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Author :
Publisher : The History Press
ISBN 13 : 0752468030
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (524 download)

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Book Synopsis The Blockade Breakers by : Helena P Schrader

Download or read book The Blockade Breakers written by Helena P Schrader and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2011-09-30 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 24 June 1948 the Sovient Union abrubtly closed all land and water access to the Western Sectors of Berlin. Over 2 million civilians, dependent on the surrounding territory and the West for food, fuel, and other basic goods, were suddenly cut off from all necessities of life. The Western Allies had the option of withdrawing their garrisons and allowing the Soviet Union to take control of the entire city, or of trying to supply the city by air. Never in history had 2 million people been supplied exclusively by air before. None of the senior military commanders believed it could be done. But the political leadership in London and Washington insisted that it must be done. A withdrawal from Berlin would discredit the West at a critical moment in history, when the Soviet Union was expanding aggressively across Europe. Worse, it would endanger the political stability and economic recovery of all of Europe. So the largest and most ambitious Airlift in history was set in motion. It began without the West really knowing what the Berliners needed in order to survive - much less how much those supplies weighed. It was launched despite a lack of airlift expertise in theatre or a unified command structure, an almost complete absence of aircraft and aircrew resources in Germany and serious inadequacies in airfields and air traffic control. But once it took wing, it flew and turned into something that not even its originators and advocates had ever imagined or expected.

Operation Vittles

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Author :
Publisher : Xlibris Corporation
ISBN 13 : 1469143925
Total Pages : 71 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (691 download)

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Book Synopsis Operation Vittles by : Renita Menyhert

Download or read book Operation Vittles written by Renita Menyhert and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2012-03-22 with total page 71 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After World War II and before the Korean War, the fi rst battle of the Cold War was fought. Not with machine guns, fi eld artillery, and tanks, but astuteness, wit, courage, and dedication. Although the Berlin Airlift lasted just under a year and is over 60 years old, the fact is this monumental effort by the Americans, British, French, and West Berliners saved a city, West Germany and undoubtedly the rest of Europe from Communism. I trust these stories about their extraordinary accomplishment will entice us all to stop and realize the signifi cance of the Berlin Airlift. I pray this book gives them all the honor and glory they so richly deserve.

Checkpoint Charlie

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Author :
Publisher : Scribner
ISBN 13 : 1982100044
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (821 download)

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Book Synopsis Checkpoint Charlie by : Iain MacGregor

Download or read book Checkpoint Charlie written by Iain MacGregor and published by Scribner. This book was released on 2020-11-10 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “constantly captivating…well-researched and often moving” (The Wall Street Journal) history of Checkpoint Charlie, the famous military gate on the border of East and West Berlin where the United States confronted the USSR during the Cold War. In the early 1960s, East Germany committed a billion dollars to the creation of the Berlin Wall, an eleven-foot-high barrier that consisted of seventy-nine miles of fencing, 300 watchtowers, 250 guard dog runs, twenty bunkers, and was operated around the clock by guards who shot to kill. Over the next twenty-eight years, at least five thousand people attempt to smash through it, swim across it, tunnel under it, or fly over it. In 1989, the East German leadership buckled in the face of a civil revolt that culminated in half a million East Berliners demanding an end to the ban on free movement. The world’s media flocked to capture the moment which, perhaps more than any other, signaled the end of the Cold War. Checkpoint Charlie had been the epicenter of global conflict for nearly three decades. Now, “in capturing the essence of the old Cold War [MacGregor] may just have helped us to understand a bit more about the new one” (The Times, London)—the mistrust, oppression, paranoia, and fear that gripped the world throughout this period. Checkpoint Charlie is about the nerve-wracking confrontation between the West and USSR, highlighting such important global figures as Eisenhower, Stalin, JFK, Nikita Khrushchev, Mao Zedung, Nixon, Reagan, and other politicians of the period. He also includes never-before-heard interviews with the men who built and dismantled the Wall; children who crossed it; relatives and friends who lost loved ones trying to escape over it; military policemen and soldiers who guarded the checkpoints; CIA, MI6, and Stasi operatives who oversaw operations across its borders; politicians whose ambitions shaped it; journalists who recorded its story; and many more whose living memories contributed to the full story of Checkpoint Charlie.