Operation Vittles

US (1948): Documentary

Russian dictator Joseph Stalin chose the night of 23 June 1948 to make good his threat to cut overland supply lines to West Berlin. He wanted to vent his frustration at refusal by the western allied powers to accept East Berlin as the capital of a communist puppet regime and at the introduction of the Deutsche Mark in West Berlin. For nearly one year to come, the needs of West Berlin would be supplied by airlift on a scale never seen before. The U.S. played a central role in the airlift. Operation Vittles, a round-the-clock airborne shuttle from U.S. airbases outside Frankfurt at Rhein Main and nearby Wiesbaden, Germany, supplied food, fuel, and occasionally candy to the beleaguered city and its children. Memories of the recent World War gave way to a new, human partnership as the months wore on and it became apparent the inconceivable would work. (Berlin Airlift Operation Vittles)

· Documentary (Short Subjects) 1948: U.S. Army Air Force

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