The first major challenge for the U.S. Air Force after it was named an independent service in 1947 was delivering supplies to Berlin. The massive airlift was the largest humanitarian operation ever undertaken by the air force. The more than 2.3 million tons of supplies flown into the city over approximately 10 months dwarf all future operations. Even the airlift to war-torn Sarajevo between 1992 and 1997 brought in only 179,910 tons—less than the amount flown into Berlin in one month alone.
At the end of World War II, a defeated Germany had been divided into four sectors, controlled by the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France. The capitol city of Berlin, deep in the Soviet sector, had been divided in half, with West Berlin controlled by the western Allies and East Berlin by the Soviets. West Berlin would be supplied from outside the Soviet sector by roads, railroads, canals, and three air corridors. The air corridors led to Berlin from the German cities of Frankfurt, Hanover, and Hamburg and were each 20 miles (32 kilometers) wide.
The Soviets, though, were acting in an increasingly aggressive manner toward the capitalist western nations. In 1948, when the western nations released a new German currency in an attempt to restart the economy in their sectors, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered his ground troops and air force to "harass" the supply traffic to Berlin. Then, on June 22, 1948, the seventh anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Russia, all ground traffic to Berlin was stopped, halting 13,500 tons of daily supplies to Berlin. Only the air corridors, protected by treaty, remained open.
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