Berlin Airlift
At the end of WWII a defeated Germany was divided amongst the victors with the United States, France, and Great Britain taking the the Western half with the Soviet Union taking the Eastern half. The capital of Germany, Berlin divided into four creating a four provisional government called the Allied Control Council. The council's goal was to rebuild and control the city of Berlin. However, the Western Powers plan to rebuild Germany conflicted with those of the Soviet Union. As a result Stalin wanted them out of Berlin. Tensions rose on April 9,1948 when he ordered all American Military personnel with communication equipment out of Berlin. On June 21, the Soviets halted a US supply train and denied it passage Berlin. And finally in hope to make the Allied powers pull out of Germany he cut off all land and water access to Allied controlled Eastern Berlin. This would leave the the occupation forces and over two million Berliners outside of Soviet territory without necessary supplies. It seemed as if World War 3 was bound to happen, yet however British Commander Sir Brian Robertson had another plan. The plan was to supply the city by air at the airport on the allied controlled Western side. More airplanes were brought in and delivered 4,700 tons of necessities daily with more than 200,000 flights that year. It was clear that the operation was a success with Soviets lifting the blockade in May of 1949. This led to the creation of two separate German states, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) split up Berlin.