Berlin Airlift
Cold War logistics
The Berlin Airlift was the 1948–1949 operation in which Western powers flew supplies into West Berlin after the Soviet Union blockaded land routes to the city.
For nearly a year, American and British aircraft delivered food, fuel, and necessities to over two million residents.
The airlift demonstrated Cold War resolve and became a symbol of Western commitment to defending free societies against Soviet expansion.
- Cold WarProlonged East-West standoff
- divided cityMunicipality split between factions
- Marshall PlanPostwar American economic assistance
- air corridorsDesignated aerial travel routes
- containment policyStrategy limiting rival expansion
Soviet Union · cargo planes · coal · tonnage · Truman Doctrine · raisins · 1948 · candy · food shortages · NATO · Potsdam Conference · humanitarian · rationing systems · Warsaw Pact · zones · supply chains · Stalin · radar systems
- Cold WarIron Curtain, arms race, Warsaw Pact, Cuban Missile Crisis, Eastern Bloc
- 1948Marshall Plan, London Olympics, NHS, LP record
- 1949NATO, Mao Zedong, China, apartheid, South Africa
- Berlin historyBrandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, divided city, reunification, fall of the wall
- Cold War ConflictsKorean War, Vietnam War, Cuban Missile Crisis, Bay of Pigs, Prague Spring
- Cold War GermanyEast Germany, West Germany, German reunification, divided Germany, Checkpoint Charlie
Berlin Airliftrail shipment
Cargo transported by train
truck convoy · road transport · rail transport · sea transport
Berlin AirliftBerlin Blockade
Soviet isolation of western sectors
Iron Curtain · Berlin Wall · Soviet occupation · Cuban Missile Crisis
Berlin AirliftBerlin Blockade
Soviet isolation of western sectors
siege · embargo · siege warfare · isolation · encirclement