The end of the Berlin Airlift on September 30, 1949, marked a stunning, early victory in the Cold War. The crisis grew out of a plan by the United States, Britain, and France a year earlier to create a stable currency for West Germany. The Soviets reacted angrily, wanting to control the country's postwar economy. They cut off power, rail, road and water access to West Berlin, which lay deep inside the Soviet zone. President Harry S Truman rejected his generals' advice to launch a military confrontation and instead worked with the air forces of allied nations to launch the largest humanitarian airborne operation in history. The Americans called the bold plan Operation Vittles, while the British dubbed it Plainfare. Over 15 months, more than 200,000 planes delivered about 2.3 million tons of supplies to the beleaguered city, which convinced the Soviets to end their blockade.
The Berlin Airlift 70 Years On
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A U.S. Air Force C-54 Skymaster descends into Berlin's Tempelhof Air Base as hopeful Berliners watch on August 10, 1948. The airlift was in operation for 15 months after the Soviet authorities cut off the city. Some 101 participants died, including 40 Britons and 31 Americans, mostly due to nonflying accidents.
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A U.S. soldier checks a manifest while overseeing the loading of flour into a C-47 transport at Frankfurt's Rhein-Main Air Base on June 29, 1948. The base was the main supply hub for the Berlin Airlift.
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Most U.S. planes used the southern corridor, which connected Frankfurt and Tempelhof, the U.S.-operated base in the heart of the city. All British planes and about 40 U.S. planes used the northern corridor, running southeast from the Hamburg area and landing at the British-operated Gatow airfield in West Berlin. Planes flew 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and would land as often as every minute.
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West Berliners wait to fill their water buckets at a fire hydrant on July 3, 1948. After the Soviets cut off supplies, residents were forced to queue for hours.
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Tempelhof Airport in West Berlin during operations on July 24, 1948. The facility was located in the city center, with residential areas built right up to the hangars.
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Three U.S. soldiers coordinate the heavy air traffic into Tempelhof on July 1, 1948.
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U.S. Air Force C-47 transports in line at Tempelhof on July 1, 1948 as their cargo of food, including milk and flour, is unloaded onto waiting army trucks.
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Youngsters stand on a bomb-damaged building near Tempelhof as a U.S. cargo plane flies overhead after delivering a load of coal on July 9, 1948. It was estimated that 4,500 tons of food and coal would be needed every day for the city to survive the Soviet blockade. The efficient coordination of flights allowed the allies to exceed the minimum within months.
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Children sift through a slag heap outside a West Berlin factory for pieces of coal on August 27, 1948. The fuel flown in during the airlift was crucial in keeping factories and utilities operating.
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A German worker carries away the millionth sack of coal delivered to West Berlin on September 20, 1948. The tag on the sack reads "From Fassberg with compliments," crediting the British zone airfield used as a base for what became known as "flying coal carts."
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Children await candy bars dropped from a C-54 Skymaster on its approach to Tempelhof. Lieutenant Gail Halvorsen, known as the "candy bomber," dropped sweets with handkerchief parachutes to youngsters on his trips to Berlin.
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A vital link in the maintenance of RAF planes was Operation Plumber, the name for the major servicing unit of the transport command at Honington in Great Britain. There, a fleet of six C-47s was kept busy flying aircraft parts from Germany for replacement. Here, a giant wheel for a York aircraft is trundled out.
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A Short Sunderland of the RAF, moored on the Havel River in West Berlin. Sea planes carrying cargo also landed on Lake Wannsee from July until mid-December 1948, when the threat of winter ice made it unsafe.
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Children sit in an RAF Sunderland flying boat before taking off on November 25, 1948. They were en route to the British zone of occupation, where they remained until the Soviet blockade was lifted. A program to spare children the bitter cold of winter, when fuel was at a premium, was set up by German, U.S., and British welfare officials. More than 2,000 children were flown out in about two months.
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People waiting for their ration of coal in the West Berlin district of Neukoelln on November 27, 1948.
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Young Berliners get a treat at Tempelhof Airport in Berlin on December 15, 1948: Christmas gifts from a flying Santa Claus, also known as Lieutenant John Konop of Astoria, New York. This was the first planeload from American donors to be distributed under the U.S. Air Force program known as Operation Santa Claus.
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A U.S. Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter approaches Tempelhof over the rooftops of Berlin, coming from Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on May 4, 1949. The plane could carry 25 tons of goods.
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Workers in the Soviet sector of Berlin remove barricades on May 11, 1949. The blockade didn't achieve its goals, prompting the Soviet leadership to reopen the land routes between Berlin and West Germany. The Berlin Airlift continued until the end of September to stockpile fuel, food and medicine in case the Soviets restarted the blockade.
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During the Berlin Airlift, Allied forces flew a total of 278,228 transport flights from the West to foil the Soviet blockade.
