The Berlin Airlift Began Supplying a Blockaded City
On this day · 24 June 1948
When the Soviets sealed off West Berlin, the West chose to feed two million people entirely from the sky.
On 24 June 1948, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered all rail, road, and water access to the Western-controlled sectors of Berlin cut off, severing supplies to roughly two million people deep inside the Soviet occupation zone. Rather than abandon the city or risk war by forcing the roads, the Western Allies made an audacious choice: they would resupply Berlin entirely by air.
Two days later, on 26 June 1948, the United States launched Operation Vittles, with Britain following with Operation Plainfare. Cargo planes streamed into the city around the clock, hauling coal, flour, and other necessities.
Allied aircraft landed in Berlin more than 250,000 times before the blockade broke.
The scale grew relentlessly. An effort that began aiming for a few thousand tons a day was, by spring 1949, regularly delivering far more, peaking at nearly 13,000 tons in a single day. Faced with this quiet defiance, the Soviets lifted the blockade on 12 May 1949, though flights continued for months to build a reserve.
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