It was the biggest aerial resupply mission ever embarked upon. launched Operation Vittles, which the U.K. and UK forces took to the skies to get supplies to the Allied sectors. Soviet troop numbers dwarfed those of the Allies, which had drawn down after the war, so there was little the Allies could do about it militarily.īut the Soviets couldn't block Allied airspace, so U.S.

On June 24, 1948, Soviet forces blockaded all road, rail and water routes into Berlin's Allied-controlled areas, stifling the vital flow of food, coal and other supplies. strategy to rebuild Europe.īut the problem was this – Berlin was located far within Russia's East Germany, so the Soviets took advantage, leading to the first Berlin crisis of the Cold War. They kept it from the Soviets because they wanted to regain economic control from Russia and quell the black market that was running rampant, as well as bring in aid under the Marshall Plan, a U.S. introduced a new currency, the Deutschmark, to their zones, which included West Berlin.

and France after the war to coordinate occupation policy between the varying zones, but it stopped in early 1948 when it found out the other three nations were secretly planning to create a new German state out of their zones.

Russia met regularly with Britain, the U.S.

Why it was called the cold war