The Berlin BlockadeJune 1948-May 1949

The Potsdam Agreement(AKA- The Three Power Conference of Berlin)

July 17- August 2, 1945 US, UK, France & USSR agree on what to do

with Germany De-Nazification Demilitarization Decentralization Democratization

Results in German territory divided amongst the 4 countries.

Berlin was also divided

Soviet Plans Stalin wanted to remove other countries from

Germany. In 1946 he stated that “Germany must be both

Soviet and communist.” No official agreement granted rail & road access to

UK, US & France through Soviet territory The Soviets began by limiting the Allies to ten trains

per day.

The Marshall Plan The US determined that economic stability in

Germany was essential to security US Secretary of State Gen. George Marshall held

talks with Soviet leaders to plan for Germany's economic success.

Stalin showed little interest in a prosperous Germany and talks ceased after six weeks

On June 5, 1947 Marshall announced the “European Recovery Programme” which offered US$ to all European countries that wished to build their economies. This became known as “The Marshall Plan”

It included Eastern Europe and the USSR

Stalin was against the Marshall Plan The USSR had the “Eastern Bloc” which was a

“buffer zone” between Russia and Western Europe He also preferred a weakened Germany, dependent

on the USSR. The Soviets described the Marshall Plan as “dollar

imperialism,” (USA inserting its economic, political and cultural dominance)

Despite Stalin's resistance the Allied powers decided to apply the Marshall Plan to Germany in March 1948

The April Crisis

The USSR increased restrictions on transportation between allied zones in Berlin.

All trains had to be searched and approved by a Soviet commander.

The US temporarily supplied zones by air The Soviets believed that air supply would be

too expensive for the allies to continue for a long time

The Currency Crisis Both the USSR and the USA had plans to

implement their own currency in Germany (Ostmark & Deutsche Mark)

In June, the USA swent forward and implemented the Deutsche Mark.

The Deutshe mark had the financial backing of the Marshall plan and was bound to be successful

This was the final straw. Stalin wanted the allies out of Germany for good.

The Blockade Begins

All supply trains were halted on June 21, 1948. On June 22, the Soviets implemented their

own currency the Ostmark June 24- All communications between areas in

Berlin were cut and barge traffic halted UK, USA and France argued that they had a

right to use roads in Soviet territory, but there were no official agreements

Much needed supplies At the time Berlin had only 36 days worth of food

and 45 days worth of fuel USA and UK had pulled most of their soldiers from

Germany after WWII, but there were still 1.5 million USSR troops

USA military strategy relied on atomic bombs. (Won't help save Berlin)

Stalin was certain he could starve the allied areas into submission

Airlift

Although land routes had not been negotiated, air routes had.

Nov. 30, 1945 the four countries agreed on 3 air routes that could be used

Also, cargo planes were clearly non-military so the Soviets could not shoot them down and claim they thought it was a threat.

We Can Haul Anything! The big question was: Is it possible to supply 2

million people by air alone? They would need 1534 tons of food and another

3475 tons of fuel DAILY!!! Each aircraft could carry approx. 3.5 tons The total aircraft in Germany could carry 900

tons/day The UK and USA had to provide more planes Additional support from France, Canada and

Australia made the plan feasible.

Success?

Due to maintenance and loading times the airlift got off to a slow start.

The first week they moved only 90 tons/day The next week they reached 1000 tons daily This encouraged the Soviets

Lt. Gen. William Tunner

Tunner took command of the operation on July 28, 1948

He had successfully organized the supply of China from India during WWII

After some initial failures (Black Friday) he reorganized everything: Instrument flight only Replace 3.5 ton C47s with 10 ton C54s Mobile snack bars for pilots Reorganized the landing procedures to allow 1440

landings/day Central control point for all air traffic in and out

By the end of Aug. they were doing 1500 landings/day and offloading 4500 tons

Winter The airlift was successful, but was only supposed

to work for a couple months at most The Soviets kept the blockade into the late fall of

1948 and showed no signs of letting up Plans had to be made to keep the Berliners alive

over the winter. Food supplies would be the same, but an additional

6000 tons of coal daily would be needed to provide heat

More planes were supplied, airports were upgraded and new runways were built

The Blockade Ends By the following spring, the operation was running

so smoothly, that more supplies were being brought in by air than had ever been brought by land

By May, the Soviets and allies came to an agreement and the blockade was ended.

In total the allies flew: 2,326,406 tons on 278,228 flights Over 92 million miles flown 101 fatalities Total cost was US$224 million (2.2 billion today)