Dear Gramps,
A question that I have been discussing with my History teacher, and we can’t seem to find an answer: When the Berlin Blockade was set up, did USSR distribute supplies? And so were supplies being distributed from both USA and USSR at the same time to create a dependency on the two countries by Berlin? So the Blockade was unsuccessful because Berlin was not fully dependent on USSR only?
Akondwa, from Malawi, Africa

Dear Akondwa,
From the Postdam conference, at the end of WWII, the Russians had gained the right to take 10% of the industrial equipment of western Germany, and as whatever they wanted from their own zone in eastern Germany. Stalin wanted to destroy Germany, not resupply it, and the US and Britain wanted to rebuild the country. The Marshall reconstruction plan was instituted to do just that. However, Stalin even forbade the Communist countries to ask for money from the Marshall plan.
Following the war, the city of Berlin was divided into four occupation zones–Soviet, French, English and American. But Berlin fell within the Soviet sector of occupied Germany. So for the West to gain access to Berlin they had to cross a section of Germany controlled by the Soviets. Because the allies were providing food and other goods to the western sector of Berlin, on June 2, 1948 the Soviet Union imposed a blockade on all roads and railroads from the West into Berlin. The purpose of that blockade was specifically to prevent supplies from the West from getting into Berlin. The Soviets were not providing sustenance for the Germans, and they wanted to prevent the West from doing so. The response by the west to this act of the Soviets to continue the destruction of Germany was to initiate the Berlin airlift on June 27, 1948. During that time the airlift carried over two million tons of supplies in 270,000 flights. The blockade of Berlin was finally lifted by the Soviets on May 12, 1949.
By the way, one of the Berlin airlift pilots, who still lives in Utah, Gail Halvorsen, became known as the Candy Bomber. When the relief planes would land at the Berlin airport, children would congregate at the fence to watch the proceedings. Gail noticed on one occasion when he gave a stick of gum to one of the children across the fence, that the child broke the stick of gum into five pieces, giving one to each of his four companions. This so touched Gail that he began dropping candy attached to parachutes made from handkerchiefs for the children as his plane approached the airport. His actions were soon noticed by the press and gained widespread attention. A wave of public support led to donations which enabled Halvorsen and his crew to drop 850 pounds of candy. By the end of the airlift, around 25 plane crews had dropped 23 tons of chocolate, chewing gum, and other candies over various places in Berlin. Halvorsen also began dropping candy to the children in the Soviet zone of Berlin, but the Soviets required that the action be stopped.But that didn’t stop the candy bomber. Even today when the Salt lake City Chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association sponsors fly-ins at different airports in Utah, the candy bomber flies over the crowd of onlookers in a light plane and drops candy attached to parachutes to the children on the ground.
Gramps