1. 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

2.  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

3.  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

4.  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

5.  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

6.  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