Dependent for the most part on power from the eastern sector, West Berlin was plunged each night into a blackout. But while West Berliners felt their way through the gloom, still their airlift continued through the hours of darkness. When West Berliners rose each dawn, it was again to the roar of planes, but because of those planes there was bread in the shops, and this was to be the pattern for many a hard month ahead.
It was to be expected that the Soviets would not take the airlift without some reaction. These in turn, led to riots, but forced the non-Communist councillors to abandon the Berlin Town Hall, which lay in the eastern sector. But in the western sectors, unity against the blockade was overwhelming, symbolised by the leadership of Ernst Reuter.
Any joint administration of Berlin as a whole had already ceased to exist, a fact emphasised by the abandonment by the Russians of the Allied Kommandatura. City government for greater Berlin was impossible, since the western councillors had been driven from the east, so Reuter and the non-Communists moved into new quarters in the west, and at their meetings empty chairs stood witness to the fact that the East Berliners were denied the right to choose their representatives freely.
For the West, the Berlin Blockade came as the last straw. Soviet behaviour had demonstrated that no-one was safe. After much negotiation, 12 nations came together to form an alliance for collective defence. Its name: the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Or, as it came to be known, NATO. Together in Washington in April , they put the seal on their union. They were resolved, as they put it, to unite their efforts for collective defence and the preservation of peace and security.
It was to be the end of leaning over backwards in the face of consistent Soviet expansion. Meanwhile, for West Berlin it had been a tough winter. On the airfields, fog, mist and freezing cold. Yet, in spite of the conditions, the airlift had carried on. In spite of the conditions, and the losses. By means of the airlift, West Berlin had been kept alive, but only at a cost. All the sufferings of war, in the midst of peace. But there could be no turning back now. If the Russians thought that the city could not be supplied indefinitely by air, they were going to be proved very long.
For the airlift, all possible reinforcement. More planes, improved runways, greater facilities, and so what had begun as makeshift became routine. Food and supplies, month in, month out. Soon it became clear that the West had not only won a victory against logistics, but also a moral victory, which drew the admiration of the world.
Thanks to the crews of the airlift. Victory through determination to defend the right. Meanwhile, series of signatures on a piece of paper had slowly but surely turned into practical steps towards military cooperation and collective rearmament within NATO. Indeed, the growth of unity in the West was such that the Russians, though still breathing threats, realised that their pressure was inducing the very opposite of that disunity on which they counted.
And so, for the free world, an historic night. The night, when on the autobahn leading to West Berlin the barriers were pushed aside for the first time in nine months. But if the Russians believed that the lifting of the blockade would cause the West to lower its guard, they were mistaken. No stopping now. As yet, forces were still weak, but as soon as possible they must be built up; a strong defensive shield.
And what now, Berlin? Mayor Reuter and the Berliners, having won, with Western help, the battle of the Blockade, now began the process of placing West Berlin onto a basis of economic prosperity. A city still an island, linked with the world only by the arteries, whose continued existence had been so hardly won. But now, through them, West Berlin was to draw strength, to make itself no longer just a fragment of a city, but a unity within itself. Yet, still across Berlin as a whole, there was much traffic over the borders.
On the overhead and underground railways, Berliners came and went. True, the sector boundaries still loomed up, but they did not prevent passage across the city; though it was passage under difficulties. At the eastern sector border the trams, though continuing on, nonetheless were forced to change both drivers and conductors.
While at this border too, anyone passing had first to change his money, for the East did not accept Western Marks, and vice versa. But, at the Potsdamer Platz, on the very border itself, watched by the police on both sides, still a steady movement both ways.
Berlin was a hundred miles into Soviet-controlled territory in East Germany. The presence of a capitalist area isolated like an island a hundred miles inside communist territory irritated the Soviets, who wanted the western powers to leave Berlin. They also did not want Germany to be rebuilt. Although the new currency was not a surprise, the timing had been kept secret until after the banks had closed that day.
The Soviets anticipated that the introduction of the new currency would make the Reichsmark worthless, declared its replacement illegal and immediately began to close access to West Berlin. Street blockades were erected and Allied trains turned back, so that they could not enter the occupation zones.
Over the next ten days the Soviets also extended the blockade to all rail and water routes. This cut the two million people in West Berlin off from outside support. The only option for the allies to support the population was by air, since air corridors into Berlin had been agreed by the victorious powers at the Potsdam Conference in , and the Soviets never seriously challenged this agreement.
At first both the British and Americans doubted whether such an ambitious operation would be possible. But the alternative was to abandon the city to the Soviets, a principle contrary to the Truman doctrine of opposing the expansion of Soviet territory. Czechoslovakia had fallen to the Soviets in February Initial estimates were that the airlift needed to transport 4, tonnes of goods into West Berlin every day, although it took a while to reach that amount.
By the autumn this was raised to 5, tonnes. Of this, food accounted for around 2, tonnes with coal the majority of the rest. Despite impossible odds, the Berlin Airlift succeeded in winning this, the first battle of the Cold War.
By prior arrangement before the blockade, the US, Britain, and France had secured air rights to three narrow mile-wide corridors over east Germany into Berlin. The shortest was miles long. Aircraft were flown into Berlin along the northern and southern corridors. All planes leaving the city used the central corridor. With the total support of President Harry S.
Truman, the military governor of the American zone in Germany, Gen. Lucius D. Clay, organized the airlift. Although pressured by countless calls to abandon Berlin, Clay stood firm. His resolve and ability became the driving force behind this massive task. Curtis E. Wisely, he found the best person to run it. William H. Tunner to assume command of the Combined Airlift Task Force. The airlift had been going on for 10 months, and the Allies had proven they could keep it up indefinitely.
The Russians had gained a reputation as bullies because of their blockade. On top of that, an Allied counter-blockade was causing severe shortages in the Russian sectors, leading to fears of an uprising. Air and ground crews of the U.
Blockade Ends Air and ground crews of the U. During the entire airlift, the U. American aircrews made more than , flights, totaling nearly , flying hours and exceeding 92 million miles. While that crisis ended peacefully, the ideological division of Europe had just begun. By the end of the blockade, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization had been established, partially in response to Soviet aggression.
0コメント