Berlin Blockade

Soviet Chokehold and the Great Allied Airlift 1948-1949

Gerry van Tonder

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781526708267
• eBook ISBN: 9781526708281
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

When the world held its breath It is 25 years since the end of the Cold War, now a generation old. It began over 75 years ago, in 1944long before the last shots of the Second World War had echoed across the wastelands of Eastern Europewith the brutal Greek Civil War. The battle lines are no longer drawn, but they linger on, unwittingly or not, in conflict zones such as Iraq, Somalia and Ukraine. In an era of mass-produced AK-47s and ICBMs, one such flashpoint was Berlin.Allied agreements entered into at Teheran, Yalta and Potsdam for the carving up of postwar Berlin now meant nothing to the Soviet conquerors. Their victory had cost millions of Russian lives troops and civilians so the hammer and sickle hoisted atop the Reichstag was more a claim to ownership than success. Moscows agenda was clear and simple: the Western Allies had to leave Berlin. The blockade ensued as the Soviets orchestrated a determined program of harassment, intimidation, flexing of muscle, and Socialist propaganda to force the Allies out. Truman had already used the atomic bomb: Britain and America would not be cowed. Historys largest airborne relief program was introduced to save the beleaguered city. In a war of attrition, diplomatic bluff and backstabbing, and mobilizing of forces, the West braced itself for a third world war.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Timeline 1945–1949
• Dramatis Personae
• Introduction
• 1. ‘I Can Hear the Red Army Tank Calls’
• 2. A Cigarette Economy
• 3. High-Stakes Gamesmanship
• 4. Flight of the Gooney Bird
• 5. Cold Winter, Cold Relations
• 6. Small Movements of the Boa Constrictor
• 7. At What Cost?
• Acknowledgements
• About the Author
• Plate section