60 years ago, in the night from the 23rd to the 24th of June, the lights went of in West Berlin. All traffic from and to the city was blocked by the Soviets. They wanted to hold the whole city in their communist fist, under their power.
General Lucius D. Clay called in Ernst Reuter, the Mayor-elect of Berlin, who was accompanied by his aide, Willy Brandt. Clay told Reuter, "Look, I am ready to try an airlift. I can’t guarantee it will work. I am sure that even at its best, people are going to be cold and people are going to be hungry. And if the people of Berlin won’t stand that, it will fail. And I don’t want to go into this unless I have your assurance that the people will be heavily in approval." Reuter, although skeptical, assured Clay that Berlin would make all the necessary sacrifices and that the Berliners would support his actions.
June 25th, General Clay gave the order to launch the Berlin Airlift, also called Operation Vittles, and on the next day the first C-47 cargo planes landed at Tempelhof Airport. The isolated Berlin- a city under siege- with every product necessary to keep the city and its more than two million inhabitants alive. Coal, heating oil, medicines, food and necessary supplies were airlifted into Berlin in an endless stream of transport aircraft operation at 2 minutes intervals, and at its highest even 30 seconds intervals, day and night in all kind of weather. And one of its most famous pilots, especially for the kids, was Gail Halvorsen, the chocolate uncle.
On September 6, 1948, East German Communists occupied the city council building, to block new elections. Three days later the RIAS Radio, urged West Berliners to protest the East German actions. A crowd of 500,000 people gathered at the Brandenburg Gate, next to the Reichstag (the war-ruined German Parliament house). The Airlift was working so far, but many West Berliners feared that the Allies would eventually abandon them to the Soviets. They needed reassurance that their sacrifices would not be for nothing. Ernst Reuter took to the microphone and plead for his city, "You peoples of the world. You people of America, of England, of France, look on this city, and recognize that this city, this people must not be abandoned — cannot be abandoned!" The crowd surged towards the east and someone ripped down the Red Flag from the Gate. Soviet military police responded, killing one 15 year old boy.
The elections went ahead for December 5, and again the Communists attempt to disrupt them. When it came clear that their affords where failing again, they withdraw from the process and elected a Communist government for East Berlin.
The blockade lasted nearly one year and was lifted at midnight May 12th 1949. The attempted strangulation of Berlin by the Soviet Union to force the Western Allies out of the city and put the citizens under Communist force failed. 31 Americans and 39 British soldiers left their lives and many civilians too.
Neverless, the Berlin Blockade, and subsequent Airlift, went on to symbolize the uneasy peace of the Cold War.
Update: A documentation from the German TV
Sources: Berlin Blockade, Spirit of freedom, Army Logistician
