70th Anniversary of the Berlin Airlift

I don’t have enough time to write a proper post on this subject, but I cannot ignore the 70th anniversary of the first flight of the Berlin Airlift, on June 26, 1948.  As I have said before, the story of the Airlift is amazing.  On June 24, 1948, the Soviet Union blocked the western land routes to Berlin.  Two days later, and just three years after the Allies had defeated the Germans in a war that lasted almost six years for the British, the U.S. and Britain started an around-the-clock airlift to supply West Berlin with everything it needed to survive, from food to coal.  The Airlift lasted fifteen months, and turned enemies into fast friends.  It may have been the biggest defeat the Soviets suffered in the Cold War until the Wall itself came down in 1989.

Here is a picture I took in December of 2010 of the Airlift (Lüftbrücke) Memorial in Berlin, near the old Tempelhof Airport.  (That's Jennie in the far lower left corner.)  A matching memorial stands in Frankfurt, at Rhein-Main Air Base.  The three spines represent the three air corridors used during the Airlift.