The Berlin Blockade - Softcover

From the beginning of 1948 the Russians gradually mounted a siege against the Western sectors of Berlin occupied by American, British and French troops since the end of the war against Nazism. By June 1948 the blockade seemed total. Would the two and a half million West Berliners choose defiance and starvation or capitulation and absorption into the Soviet bloc? Would the Western allies withdraw to avoid a new World War or stay to defend not just Berlin but West Europe against apparently limitless Russian ambition? This book recounts the story of how Berliners stood firm and endured hunger, cold and intimidation. It tells how the West transformed a pitifully makeshift airlift into a relief column of a size and scale never before imagined but for months stood on the brink of failure. It explains how politicians and diplomats kept their nerve and stopped the siege developing into outright war. It connects the events in one city with the creation of two German states and the division of Europe into two armed camps. John Tusa, originally from Czechoslovakia, spent much of his career as a freelance radio and television reporter and is now Managing Director of the BBC's External Services. John and Ann Tusa's first book, "The Nuremburg Trial" was published in 1983.