The Berlin Airlift

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.