Douglas C-47 “Raisin-Bombers” being unloaded at Berlin Tempelhof Airport during the Soviet Blockade of 1948-49. The only way to get food, medicine and coal into West-Berlin was by Airplane. At its peak the Allied airbridge brought in more than 10,000 tons of freight per day. 1948 [800×600]
How do these compare to a DC-3? Size, range, capacity?
AfterBill8630
Tempelhof Airport has since been turned into a park for Berliners. I was working in Berlin a few years back and took my little girl and my wife (who were visiting), on a skateboard roll down the old runway
well_shoothed
The reality behind the airlift is an incredible, unpossible story.
If you’re interested in an awesome historical fiction book about it, Leon Uris’ Armageddon is worth the read.
SCPack12
This is what showed the USSR the west wouldn’t relent and that both sides were in this for the long haul. Berlin might have been surrounded but it was still split between the French English US (eventually unified as West Berlin) and USSR.
*You can’t really blame the USSR I mean blocking off Berlin after agreeing to split it is a terrible move but by this point both sides were doing this type of thing and that’s just kinda how stuff operated. It was advantage they had and they played it.
The West near the end of WW2 when the splitting of Europe was decided by the victors had agreed to send industrial materials from west Germany to East Germany. West Germany, even post war, was more prosperous and economically developed or atleast had a much greater potential to return to that. Because of this allies had greater post war spoils as far as Germany went. The allies, although FDR/Churchill agreed to it, did not send materials or machinery to the USSR sector of Germany. Post WW2 in places like Belarus, Poland, Ukraine there were supposed to be elections as agreed to by the USSR and other victors. Of course the elections were hardly elections and more or less the appointing of Moscow approved leaders/pawns. The only place that didn’t happen was with Yogoslavia as their leader at the time,Tito, was an authoritarian leader in the same vain as Stalin and never relented control to the USSR. (Huge thorn is Stalins side). The lack of democratic elections handled by the USSR and the west’s walking back of helping Eastern Germany industrially really gave the green light to the Cold War. This was on top of the French/US and English sectors being coalesced into the allied sectors marking a unified front and the Marshall Plan + creation of the World Bank tying the capitalist world to the US $ reinforcing that unified front. The ideologies conflicted of course and given the defeat of Nazi Germany its only natural was political poles (power centers) to turn toward one another but in truth there was an innate lack of trust (and communication) between Moscow and Washington that only grew with each post war act until both sides felt their was nothing left but being diametrically opposed.
tommygun1688
My grandfather was one of the officers organizing the British side of the Berlin Airlift. Very interesting event.
DepressedMemerBoi
Isn’t this the same airport where there was sort of a last stand by the Germans? I remember hearing about an airport in Berlin that was reinforced and had anti tank guns and anti aircraft guns put on top of the building to try and slow down the Soviets.
sward1990
This airport is amazing! Been there a couple times and it’s great
HoosierTrey
Fun fact: that airport has since been turned into a racetrack
angryshark
I was stationed at Tempelhof AFB in Berlin for 3 years, ’77-’80 and it was a very interesting place. So much history.
sussyman
Amazing video about the airlift by ExtraCredits: https://youtu.be/nwjFSQCrShM
monkeythumpa
How do these compare to a DC-3? Size, range, capacity?
AfterBill8630
Tempelhof Airport has since been turned into a park for Berliners. I was working in Berlin a few years back and took my little girl and my wife (who were visiting), on a skateboard roll down the old runway
well_shoothed
The reality behind the airlift is an incredible, unpossible story.
If you’re interested in an awesome historical fiction book about it, Leon Uris’ Armageddon is worth the read.
SCPack12
This is what showed the USSR the west wouldn’t relent and that both sides were in this for the long haul. Berlin might have been surrounded but it was still split between the French English US (eventually unified as West Berlin) and USSR.
*You can’t really blame the USSR I mean blocking off Berlin after agreeing to split it is a terrible move but by this point both sides were doing this type of thing and that’s just kinda how stuff operated. It was advantage they had and they played it.
The West near the end of WW2 when the splitting of Europe was decided by the victors had agreed to send industrial materials from west Germany to East Germany. West Germany, even post war, was more prosperous and economically developed or atleast had a much greater potential to return to that. Because of this allies had greater post war spoils as far as Germany went. The allies, although FDR/Churchill agreed to it, did not send materials or machinery to the USSR sector of Germany. Post WW2 in places like Belarus, Poland, Ukraine there were supposed to be elections as agreed to by the USSR and other victors. Of course the elections were hardly elections and more or less the appointing of Moscow approved leaders/pawns. The only place that didn’t happen was with Yogoslavia as their leader at the time,Tito, was an authoritarian leader in the same vain as Stalin and never relented control to the USSR. (Huge thorn is Stalins side). The lack of democratic elections handled by the USSR and the west’s walking back of helping Eastern Germany industrially really gave the green light to the Cold War. This was on top of the French/US and English sectors being coalesced into the allied sectors marking a unified front and the Marshall Plan + creation of the World Bank tying the capitalist world to the US $ reinforcing that unified front. The ideologies conflicted of course and given the defeat of Nazi Germany its only natural was political poles (power centers) to turn toward one another but in truth there was an innate lack of trust (and communication) between Moscow and Washington that only grew with each post war act until both sides felt their was nothing left but being diametrically opposed.
tommygun1688
My grandfather was one of the officers organizing the British side of the Berlin Airlift. Very interesting event.
DepressedMemerBoi
Isn’t this the same airport where there was sort of a last stand by the Germans? I remember hearing about an airport in Berlin that was reinforced and had anti tank guns and anti aircraft guns put on top of the building to try and slow down the Soviets.
JGreaser
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gail_Halvorsen
rumborak
Right now Berlin would probably love to have that airport still.
-H-E-L-I-X-
Probably lived better than half of the US