Airlift

Act of transporting items or individuals by air from one point to another. The airlift has played a critical role in military, aid, and relief operations since the development of large aircraft capable of traveling long distances. Transport aircraft have played a key part in the rapid transfer of cargo, equipment, and ammunition. During the latter half of the 20th century, large aircraft replaced ships as the primary means of delivering troops, and airlift operations have been enlisted to evacuate casualties and drop paratroopers.

A distinguishing feature of the airlift is that it usually occurs in crisis or combat situations. The counterpart to the airlift is the use of freight aircraft to transport goods. For the most part, however, air freight is carried in the holds of commercial passenger aircraft.

The virtues of the airlift include speed, efficiency, and the ability to cross boundaries that may be impassable over land or water. Specialists can be airlifted into crisis situations to provide medical care, distribute food, or provide other types of assistance. Alternatively, individuals can be lifted out who would be forced to remain if they were dependent on other types of transportation. These include disaster victims, refugees, or civilians caught in military crossfire.

The Berlin Airlift

In the aftermath of World War II, Germany was partitioned into four sectors managed by the four Allied powers: the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. Although the capital city, Berlin, lay within the eastern Soviet sector, it was also partitioned because of its social, economic, and symbolic importance. In June 1948, the Soviet Union attempted to take control of Berlin by cutting off the city from road and rail transportation to the rest of Germany. In response, the United States initiated a relief operation to deliver food and other materials to the residents of West Berlin.

Warm wartime relations between the United States an the Soviet Union quickly deteriorated given the absence of a common enemy and the ideological conflict between communism and capitalism. On June 18, 1948, the Western Allies announced the institution of currency reform as the first step in the formation of a West German government. This was the immediate provocation for the blockade, which began on June 24. Other events taking place that same year, such as the founding of the state of Israel and the communist coup in Czechoslovakia, added to the growing Cold War tensions.

The United States, Great Britain, and France had never actually bothered to obtain a guarantee of their rights to overland transportation across the Soviet sector to Berlin. The Soviets now rejected the claim that use of these links in the years after the war justified the assumption of free access. The Berlin airlift began as an almost immediate response on June 28 and continued for the next 324 days.

The United States was primarily supported by Great Britain, which conducted 87,841 flights and nicknamed the airlift Plain Fare. The United States conducted 189,963 flights and nicknamed the airlift Operation Vittles. The French contributed 424 flights, and crews also came from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Canada. The airfields of Tempelhof, Tegel, and Gatow were used, and at the height of the operation, a plane landed nearly every minute. A total of 2,236,406 tons of cargo consisting of food, coal, and other supplies were ultimately delivered.

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