The Big Lift

 

I have seen “The Big Lift” many times.

It stars Montgomery Clift (in his second film filed in 1940s Post-War Germany) and was filmed on location in West Berlin, East Berlin and in West Germany and released in 1950.

It is about the Soviet Blockade of Berlin (located 100 miles inside the Soviet Zone of Occupation) from June 25, 1948 until May 12, 1949 (323 Days) when the Soviets tried to starve the Citizens of West Berlin and to force the French, the British and the Americans from West Berlin.

The Soviets closed all Train, Land and Sea Traffic to West Berlin and offered extra Food Rations to any West Berliners that moved to East Berlin (the Berlin Wall stopping traffic between West and East Berlin wasn’t built until 1961.)

There were only 8,973 Americans, 7,606 British and 6,100 French Soldiers in West Berlin at the time. There were an additional 48,000 Americans in the rest of West Germany.

There were 1.5 Million Soviet Troops in and surrounding Berlin at the time.

Since the Soviets blocked all other routes the Western Allies started the Berlin Airlift to fly supplies (food, coal, medicines, into Berlin) using 3 twenty-mile-wide Air Corridors from West Germany to West Berlin.

The planes (from the French, the British and the Americans) going to supply West Berlin flew out of Lubeck or Rhein Main and those returning from West Berlin flew into Celle.

Based on a Minimum Daily Ration of 1,990 Calories the American Military Government set a total of daily supplies needed at 646 tons of flour and wheat, 125 tons of cereal, 64 tons of fat, 109 tons of meat and fish, 180 tons of dehydrated potatoes, 180 tons of sugar, 11 tons of coffee, 19 tons of powdered milk, 5 tons of whole milk for Children, 3 tons of fresh yeast for baking, 144 tons of dehydrated vegetables, 38 tons of salt and 10 tons of cheese.

 In all, 1,534 tons were required each day to sustain the over 2 Million People in West Berlin.

 Additionally, for heat and power, 3,475 tons of coal, diesel and petrol were also required daily.

The Planes flew one after another and only had a few minutes to attempt to land in West Berlin or abort (due to the weather, interference from Soviet planes, or plane malfunction) and returned to West Germany without delivering their supplies.

1 Western Allied plane reached West Berlin every 30 seconds where West German Workers worked fast to unload the supplies so the plane could return to West Germany.

Colonel Gail Seymour "The Candy Bomber" Halvorsen, besides, bringing much-needed supplies to West Berlin, also dropped American Chocolate Bars (23 tons total) to the Children in West Berlin. Halvorsen died in 2022 at 101 years old.

Stalin and the Soviets saw they had failed in getting the French, the British and the Americans to abandon West Berlin as well as for West Berliners to flee to Communist East Berlin and so they ended the Blockade of Berlin in May 1949 (the Airlift continued until September 1949 – to stock-up in case the Soviets tried another Blockade.)

After the Blockade more East Germans and East Berliners moved to West Berlin (rather than the other way around as expected by the Soviets.)

39 Brits, 1 Australian and 31 American Soldiers were killed during the Berlin Airlift.

The Blockade cost the Western Allies US $500 Million Dollars (equivalent to $6.15 Billion Dollars in 2024.)

I often went to the places in Germany that were used during the Berlin Blockade including the Wiesbaden Air Base and the Rhein Main Base.