A timeline of the Berlin Airlift
By APTuesday, May 12, 2009
A timeline of the Berlin Airlift
Key events of the Berlin Airlift:
1948:
June 24: A steadily tightening noose of travel restrictions, begun nearly three months earlier, culminates in a full-blown Soviet blockade of Berlin.
June 26: Airlift begins with 32 American C-47 flights bringing 80 tons of supplies — mainly powdered milk, flour and medicine — into Tempelhof airport.
August 12: American and British planes deliver 4,742 tons of supplies, the first time the airlift exceeds the 4,500 daily tons believed necessary to sustain 2 million West Berliners for a single day.
October 26: The Soviet Union vetoes a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for action to resolve the blockade.
December 20: “Operation Santa Claus” brings Christmas gifts to 10,000 Berlin children.
1949:
January/February: Airlift averages 5,500 tons of supplies each day.
February 18: Total airlifted supplies top one million tons.
April 16: The so-called “Easter Parade” operation breaks a 24-hour-delivery record, with some 1,400 flights carrying in nearly 13,000 tons of coal — an average of one plane touching down every 62 seconds.
May 12: At one minute after midnight, the Soviets lift their barricades and restore access from West Germany to Berlin.
September 30: The last of more than 278,000 flights lands in Berlin. Of these, Americans flew nearly 190,000, the combined British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, and South African forces flew nearly 90,000, France more than 400. Total payload: some 2.3 million tons of food, coal, medicine and other supplies. Seventy-three Allied airmen and at least five Germans died in accidents during the operation.
