October 13, 2005 - The U.S. returned the Rhein-Main air base to Germany
Photo of the day From the Stripes archives - Rhein-Main Air Base, Germany, June 26, 1948
Soldiers at Rhein-Main Air Base tally supplies to be loaded on planes as the airlift to relieve Soviet-blockaded Berlin gets under way. By the time the Berlin Airlift ended in September, 1949, a total of 278,228 U.S., British and French flights carried 2,326,406 short tons of material into the city. There were 39 British and 31 American airlift-related deaths during the difficult flights.