European Aviation History

The Western Allies' absurd position at the start of the Berlin Blockade in June 1948 had a long and torturous history. The roots of the crisis stretched back to the Second World War, and the alliance cobbled together to defeat National Socialist (Nazi) Germany. An understanding of the situation in Berlin 1948 requires a closer look at alliance of convenience. The victorious powers were from the start “strange bed-fellows,” who had been dragged into a wartime alliance they did not want by the aggression of Nazi Germany. Britain had been the first of the four powers to attempt to call a halt to Nazi aggression by declaring war on Germany after its invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939. France reluctantly followed the British lead, but the Soviet Union was at that time an Ally of Nazi Germany, very happy to participate in the invasion and partition of Poland. In the following months, while the Soviet Union engaged in aggression of its own against Finland and the Baltic States, it ...