Berlin Airlift, Operation Vittles DVD

This unique documentary packed full of historical archive footage and expert analysis documents one of the first major international crises of the cold war - The Berlin Airlift - that began on June 26 1948 when the Soviets sealed off the western portion of Berlin controlled by American British and French forces. In response the western allies took to the skies and began flying in provisions for West Berlin's 2.2 million residents. In one of the greatest humanitarian actions of all time American and British aircraft supplied the inhabitants of Berlin with food fuel... and other supplies during the unprecedented Berlin Airlift which came to be known as 'Operation Vittles'. At midnight on May 12 1949 the Soviets who had repeatedly claimed the airlift could never possibly work had to admit to a humiliating defeat and reopened land and water routes into Berlin ending the 322-day blockade of the city. Seventeen American and eight British aircraft crashed during the operation. A total of 70 British and American personnel lost their lives during the airlift and related operations however the airlift demonstrated to the Germans that the Western democracies would defend their freedoms. In turn the soldiers of Great Britain and the United States began to see Germans as allies in the struggle against the Soviet Union in the Cold War. The genesis of the Western Alliance can be dated to the Berlin airlift. One lasting legacy of the Airlift are the three airports in the former western zones of the city which served as the primary gateways to Berlin for another sixty years. [show more]

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