After the Soviet imposition of a blockade on the Western Sectors of Berlin, the political leadership in London and Washington refused to consider either pulling out or fighting. Within days, a de facto airlift had started and this -- more by default than intent --  became the Allied strategy. Admittedly, not a long-term strategy, but an ad hoc strategy for weathering the immediate crisis until a diplomatic solution could be attained that would re-open the surface access routes.  The problem was that since no one had ever contemplated an airlift on this scale, nobody had the faintest idea of what was needed.   The very first task, therefore, was an accurate assessment of what the population needed to survive. The second step would then be to calculate the resources necessary to meet those requirements. And lastly the resources to meet those requirements would have to be found – if possible. The Allies knew that prior to the blockade 15,500 tons of supplies had been...