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OME 7,000 tons of food supplies and petrol were airlifted into West Berlin by British and American aircraft in a single day 70 years ago on September 18.

It was part of a massive crisis response in defiance of a threemonth Russian blockade and provided much-needed aid to the stricken city.

West Berlin Mayor Ernst Reuter had pleaded earlier in September: “People of this world look upon this city and see that you should not and cannot abandon this city and this people.”

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had warned two years earlier of an “Iron curtain” descending across Europe and splitting east from west.

By April, 1948, his sombre prophecy appeared to have become reality. A monetary crisis in East Germany led to a Russian blockade of traffic into West Berlin.

Russia, angry at what they believed was a Western plot to take control of Germany, decided to make the first move and isolated West Berlin from the outside world.

Goods and food were not allowed to enter the city... not even from Soviet controlled East Berlin.

The Red Army also took control of road and rail links and a major international crisis began to develop. Telephone lines were cut and water supplies blocked.

The three powers in official control of Berlin, America, France and the UK, decided the only way forward was to airlift food and medical supplies into the isolated city and the Allied airlift was codenamed Operation Vittles.

American Air Force General Curtis LeMay oversaw the operation and declared: “We can haul anything” when asked about the feasibility of an airlift and if the planes could haul coal.

The airlift was even nicknamed The LeMay Coal and Feed Delivery Service in the early days.

Around 2,500 tons had to be dropped daily just to provide the minimum amount of food necessary and hundreds of planes began taking off from airbases in West Germany, such as Hanover, to help the besieged city and circumvent the Russian blockade.

The rate at which the aircraft were reloaded and prepared ready for their next sortie was incredible taking only a matter of minutes.

The Allied powers’ response to the Russian blockade was in essence simple yet in practice extremely