When the war ended, Germany was divided into four sections(Britain, US, France, and USSR) The Soviet Union had a very different way of rebuilding Germany, and Berlin back up The Soviets were tired of Western Germany, and tried to stop supplies from West Germany, to Western Germans in Berlin

 Eastern Germany wanted to get rid of the Western Germans in Berlin  They figured if they cut their supplies off, they’d retreat  This was a better, and less violent approach than starting a war

 The Soviets wanted to stop Western Germany’s influence on Berlin  In June of 1948, Eastern Germany begun to stop Western Germany trains and boats carrying supplies to Berlin  The Eastern Germans would return the Western trains, with their train pulling it back, and load it with armed guards

 Were the US and Britain going to let the Soviets push them around like that?  There were different options we could resort to  Use some military to push their way to Berlin  Drop an atomic bomb  Or supply Berlin by air transport

 We chose to supply Berlin by air  We were able to do so, because it was written that there would be a 20 mile wide air corridor safe to all, to Berlin  We had to supply a little over 2 million people  The most productive numbers, a plane was landing or taking off, every 30 seconds  Every day, 3,500 tons of supplies were needed to keep the population set

 One day, there was a record of 13,000 tons of supplies delivered in one day  The biggest planes available at the time were called C-54 Skymaster, capable of carrying 10 tons  In order to keep up with the demand, we would need to have 350 planes per day, loaded with supplies