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Following World War II, the Soviet Union drew an Iron Curtain across Europe, crowning its efforts with a blockade of West Berlin in a desperate effort to prevent the creation of an independent, democratic West Germany. The United States and Great Britain, aided by France, responded with a daring air logistical operation that in fifteen months delivered almost three million tons of coal, food, and other necessities to the people of Berlin. Now, drawing on rare U.S. Air Force files, recently declassified documents from the National Archives, records released since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the memories of airlift veterans themselves, Roger G. Miller provides an original study of the Berlin Airlift. The Berlin Airlift was an enterprise of epic proportions that demonstrated the power of air logistics as a political instrument. What began as a hastily organized operation by a small number of warweary cargo airplanes evolved into an intricate bridge of aircraft that flowed in and out of Berlin through narrow air corridors. Hour after hour, day after day, week after week, a stream of airplanes delivered everything from food and medicine to coal and candy in defiance of breakdowns, inclement weather, and Soviet hostility. And beyond the airlift itself, a complex system of transportation, maintenance, and supply stretching around the world sustained operations. Historians, veterans, and general readers will welcome this history of the first Western victory of the Cold War. Maps, diagrams, and more than forty photographs illustrate the mechanical inner workings and the human faces that made that triumph possible.
Describes how the German Army Group centre developed a 'master of defence' strategy, which inflicted atrocious losses on the Red Army's attack formations in 1942 and 1943. Explores the German defensive operations around the River Dnepr and Sea of Azov in September 1943, as well as the subsequent German retreat and the air bridge operation to Cherkassy in early 1944. Examines the major Soviet offensive in mid 1944, the fall of Romania and the autumn battles in Poland, Courland and on the Vistula, ending with the major Soviet winter offensive of early 1945 against the Neisse and Oder rivers and last-ditch battles over Berlin itself.
When the western Allies moved to consolidate their areas of control in occupied Germany, the USSR responded by cutting off land access to West Berlin, holding over two million residents of that city hostage in an aggressive act of brinkmanship. General William Henry Tunner was given a task that seemed doomed to failure--to supply a major city by air with everything it needed to survive from food to a winter's supply of coal--and made it a brilliant success, astonishing the world in a major public relations defeat for the Soviets, and demonstrating the unexpected capacity of air fleets in a postwar world.
Many books, pamphlets & reports have been written about the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49. These have ranged from the almost encyclopaedic British Air Ministry publication to short leaflet summaries. They have been concerned primarily with the truly impressive statistics, & some have concentrated almost exclusively on the aircraft. But none has seemed to approach this historical event from the viewpoint of its historical perspective. John Provan & Ron Davies have now cooperated in this Paladwr Press book to try to compensate for this past shortcoming. The first part of the narrative explores the political & economic circumstances that led to the crisis of May 1948, & it also takes a look at the situation as it probably appeared to the Soviet Union. To have a capitalist enclave within its jealously (& military)-guarded sphere of influence must have seemed something of an imposition in Muscovite eyes. On the other hand, many readers may be surprised to realize that Berlin is only 30 miles from Poland. And--again to remember perspectives of time, as well as of place & motivation--how many recall that the Airlift was launched only three years after the end of the Second World War? In addition to picture-descriptions of all the transport aircraft, U.S. & British, military & civilian, involved in the Airlift, this book has delved into the problems of logistics, on the ground as well as in the air & has not forgotten the human aspects, for example, the famous exploits of the Candy Bomber & the Camel Caravan. Here is a book that, in addition to being a useful reference to one of the great events of transport aviation history, should delight the eye; & even, here & there, amuse. For without a sense of humor, the Berlin Airlift would have been a grim experience for all the participants.
The fate of the free world hung in the balance. Stalin's Soviet Union sought to drive the Western democracies from Germany to continue the communist advance across Europe. The first step in Stalin's scheme was to bring Berlin under Soviet control. Berlin was situated deep inside the Soviet-occupied region of the country, but the German capital had been divided into two halves, one of which was occupied by the Soviet Union, the other, in separate sectors, by Britain, France and the USA. Stalin decided to make the Allied hold on West Berlin untenable by shutting down all the overland routes used to keep the city supplied. The choice faced by the Allies was a stark one - let Berlin fall, or risk war with the Soviets by breaking the Soviet stranglehold. In a remarkably visionary move, the Allies decided that they could keep Berlin supplied by flying over the Soviet blockade, thus avoiding armed conflict with the USSR. On 26 June 1948, the Berlin Airlift began. Throughout the following thirteen months, more than 266,600 flights were undertaken by the men and aircraft from the US, France, Britain and across the Commonwealth, which delivered in excess of 2,223,000 tons of food, fuel and supplies in the greatest airlift in history. The air-bridge eventually became so effective that more supplies were delivered to Berlin than had previously been shipped overland and Stalin saw that his bid to seize control of the German capital could never succeed. At one minute after midnight on 12 May 1949, the Soviet blockade was lifted, and the Soviet advance into Western Europe was brought to a shuddering halt.
A daredevil pilot joins the Berlin Airlift to fight for democracy in this Cold War adventure from “a whale of a writer” (The New York Times). When his plane goes down over Germany, Neil Fraser vows not to die in a POW camp. He tunnels out beneath the barbed wire, commandeers a Messerschmitt fighter plane, and flies it home to England. He’s been stealing planes ever since. After the war, Fraser falls in with an international ring of thieves, lifting planes from England and flying them to the land that will soon be known as Israel. But his luck doesn’t last. The owner of a charter company catches Fraser in the act and gives him a simple choice: Work for him, or rot in jail. His new boss, Bill Saeton, a ruthless tycoon with dreams of conquering the sky, has a contract that could make his fortune—if only he can get his newest plane into the air. Together, Saeton and Fraser embark on the most astonishing adventure of the Cold War: flying in the skyborne armada of the Berlin Airlift, to live or die in the skies above a divided Germany. Authored by Hammond Innes, who witnessed the Berlin Airlift firsthand, Air Bridge is the incredible story of the men who fought impossible odds to win one of the most crucial battles of the Cold War.
The Soviets have cut off food and fuel supplies to West Berlin in a final attempt to force a stranglehold over the city. The Allied response is the Berlin airlift: thousands of planes carrying supplies - a lifeline to the people of the city. A chance for heroism perhaps, but not for Neil Fraser or Bill Saeton. One is an ex-RAF pilot on the run from the law, the other will stop at nothing to build the perfect aircraft engine. In an abandoned hangar in the British countryside, tensions rise to boiling point.