Just Finished Reading: The Berlin Blockade by Ann & John Tusa (FP: 1988)

This is another of those history books that I picked up years ago (actually probably decades ago), put on my shelf and promptly forgot about… or maybe just lost interest in. But a few weeks ago I was looking for something different so picked it up again. Until delving into this detailed and honestly gripping narrative the only thing I knew about the Berlin blockade and the subsequent airlift was that it happened and that, eventually, the blockade was lifted due to the Herculean efforts of the Allied air forces who supplied the city. The devil, as they say is however in the detail.

As WW2 drew to a close the race was on for Berlin. Unfortunately for the western Allies Russia, after Herculean efforts of her own, made it there first and secured both the city and the surrounding area which would ultimately become East Germany. The problem for the west, and to be honest for Berliners, was that Berlin itself was very firmly within the Russian sphere of influence. But before this had come to pass agreements had been made. Berlin was to be city run by all four powers involved and its administration run by those powers in co-operation. Not surprisingly such co-operation didn’t last very long with the Russians (and sometimes the French) using their veto to get their way. Tensions inevitably built up, words were exchanged and sometimes blows and bullets followed. It was, for many months, very tense indeed. In order to replenish their own garrisons in the city the Allied powers relied on a single road, rail and water link to pass through Russian held territory. From time to time difficulties occurred which restricted traffic but where often cleared up as ‘misunderstandings’. But as the Allied powers wearied of the game and began building up the West Berlin and West Germany economies the misunderstandings grew, lengthened and eventually became a full blown blockade. Only one option existed for the Allies – an air bridge. But such a thing had never been done before and certainly not on the scale envisaged. The initial ad hoc and uncoordinated effort brought in a few percent of the food needed to feed half a city of undernourished civilians. Even with rations cut to the minimum the calorie intake dropped and dropped. There was no way to bring in enough for a few weeks never mind any longer – and winter was coming. Soon simply providing food would not be enough. How do you supply a city with everything it needs on a daily basis – from the air?

Giving in was, of course, not really an option. If the Allies had abandoned Berlin to the Russians and had fallen back to a more defensible position they would have basically had to give up the whole of Germany. Greece was already on the edge of collapse and Italy or France would have followed. Within just a few years all of Continental Europe would have been under Soviet control. It simply could not be allowed to happen. Once the decision was made the US, Britain and to a much lesser extent France, began the biggest airlift in human history. At first using every plane available and relying on grit and determination until a proper plan could be put into place. Over the coming months additional bigger planes came on stream carrying ever greater payloads, new airfields were built, new techniques perfected and sometimes desperate lessons learnt. Despite regular Russian interference and intimidation the tonnage of food and other necessities – including coal – increased until it had reached the point where the airlift could be sustained practically indefinitely. Only then, reluctantly, did the Russians finally back down – but it was already too late for them. By then NATO had been created, the Truman Doctrine had been adopted and the Marshall Plan was in place. The world we knew during the Cold War years had been born.

This well researched and heavily detailed book explains so much as to why the world became the way it did after 1945. Berlin, the blockade and the airlift are central to that understanding. I now have a much greater appreciation of exactly why Europe in particular looked and felt the way it did from the later 40’s to the late 80’s. Berlin. That’s the reason. An excellent read if you can get hold of a copy. If you want to understand the origins of the Cold War this is a definite must read. Highly recommended.