The Berlin Air Lift: the story of a great achievement

In 1948 the Russian government blocked road and rail links to Berlin, a city deep in the heart of the part of Germany under Soviet control but divided into zones run by Britain, France and America as well as the Soviet Union.

Britain and America decided that Berlin could still be supplied with food and raw materials by air and for 15 months millions of tonnes of goods landed at Berlin's tiny, crowded airfields. This triumphant film was produced as the blockade was finally being lifted.

Watch more footage from our Film Archive or get creative in our Editor's Room at http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/focuson/film/

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Cold
• War
• Aircraft
• Aeroplanes
• RAF
• propaganda

[colbertLOTR91]

soldier7799

you see there was something called a war,and transport aircrafts dropping supplies deep in Soviet territory after flying from Britanthrough Nazi Germany and Nazi Gemran held territory was well,SUICIDAL and next to impossible.

If you wan't to talk about the west not doing anything to help the Russians in ww2,look up the "Arctic Convoys"

[WpgLwr007]

And to hear the Americans tell it, it was all them and no one else...go figure.

[calambreka]

because, after the war the brits were also devastated economically and in terms of infrastructure

[jaymorpheus01]

A peice of info I heard about world war 2 ending the depression. I've heard that Germany and Japan were supposed to pay for the war in economic terms. It makes me think if Germany was paying the US and the US was helping Berlin... sounds like robbing peter to pay paul... I know the stuff that was dropped didn't come from Germany, but still.

[celticlofts]

Well actually the British had very few aircraft in Berlin compared to the Americans. I believe the british had most of their planes deployed in the middle east at the time so very few were actually used for the Berlin Airlift.

[mcclir]

Whose fault is that?