blockade, 1948-1949

Drawing on service records and hundreds of interviews in the United States, Germany, and Great Britain, shares the stories of the World War II airmen who were once again called to active duty three years after the war ended to try and save the people of the western sectors of Berlin after Joseph Stalin had set up a blockade of the city hoping to force out the American, British, and French occupation troops. Includes black-and-white photographs.

Presents a memoir of a child who lived in Berlin during World War II and how it affected three generations of middle-class German women who endured the bombing, Russian and Allied occupation, the Berlin Airlift, and post-war recovery.

Explains why Berlin was blockaded by the Soviets after World War II, describes life under the blockade, and tells the story of the Allied airlift that brought food and crucial supplies to the city's inhabitants in 1948 and 1949.

The true story of a young German girl, Mercedes Simon, and of the American pilot, Gail Halvorsen, who shared hope and joy with the children of West Berlin by dropping candy-filled parachutes during the Airlift.