Happy 60th Birthday, Berlin airbridge

[Angus]

Yup, it's been sixty years.
Short facts....
The USSR blocked the transport of goods to those 2.000.000 people on the 26th of June in 1948. They first opened up again in May 1949, that gives some 10 months.
In that period, the USA and the UK airlifted some odd 23 MILLION tonnes of supplies to W-Berlin in some 278.000 sorties. Those were mostly flown from Wiesbaden and Frankfurt.
I salute the brave airlifters
 

[wrongwayric]

What? The U.S. and U.K. did something good for someone? INFEDEL!!! You shall be punished! How soon the world forgets huh?!

[Dowding]

How soon the world forgets huh?!

Sometimes, people do good things without regard or care for recognition. A wise man once talked about that at length.

In the case of Berlin, losing the city to Stalin would have been a disaster for the Western powers.

[Boroda]

Beautiful.

Again the same old propaganda crap about Evil Russians trying to starve poor Berliners.

I am happy that in Russian media they finally don't ignore that sad event, but try to explain the real resons behind the blockade.

[Dowding]

...but try to explain the real resons behind the blockade.

Evil reactionary trotskyists twisting the the words of Fuhrer Comrade Stalin, who was kept in the dark about the whole thing?

[Boroda]

Evil reactionary trotskyists twisting the the words of Fuhrer Comrade Stalin, who was kept in the dark about the whole thing?

I have posted it many times here. In brief: Western "allies" started to print new currency for their occupational zones, and wanted to pay for supplying West Berlin with occupational marks, that were printed in London and were still accepted in Soviet zone.

Another thougt: Do you really believe that "airlift" could feed all the Berlin's population?

[Serenity]

Beautiful.

Again the same old propaganda crap about Evil Russians trying to starve poor Berliners.

I am happy that in Russian media they finally don't ignore that sad event, but try to explain the real resons behind the blockade.

Sorry buddy, im not usually one to just outwardly accuse a country of something, but I really don't:

1) see any possible "kind"/"not-evil" motive for that blockade
2) See any reason whatsoever to trust what you see on T.V. Documentaries ESPECIALLY in Russia. No offence, but your country doesn't have a very good record of being honest with their people.

[Boroda]

Sorry buddy, im not usually one to just outwardly accuse a country of something, but I really don't:

1) see any possible "kind"/"not-evil" motive for that blockade

See my post above.

"Allies" issued new currency for their zones, while still printing "occupational marks" that were issued in Moscow and London. So they forced a huge ammount of now-useless money to flow into Soviet zone, literlally making Soviet Union pay the bills issued in London, and it happened in 1948, when half of the USSR was still in ruins, less then a year after a famine of 1947. And they also wanted to pay Soviets for supplying their zones in West Berlin with this useless paper. So, USSR refused to accept it and wanted to get paid in hard currency.

The severity of the "blockade" is seriously exaggerated, West Berlin got most of the supplies from market, not from the "airlift".

2) See any reason whatsoever to trust what you see on T.V. Documentaries ESPECIALLY in Russia. No offence, but your country doesn't have a very good record of being honest with their people.

Nor does your country. You need to understand that 90% of what you learned about USSR from your media is nothing but a lie.

I have never heard of Berlin blockade before TahGut asked me here about it, so I had to dig into some books and found out the Soviet side of the story. Look, Stalin was rational. Do you really think that Evil Russians (tm) just wanted to starve poor Berliners because they were bloodthirsty savages and it was their natural behaviour?

[Serenity]

See my post above.

"Allies" issued new currency for their zones, while still printing "occupational marks" that were issued in Moscow and London. So they forced a huge ammount of now-useless money to flow into Soviet zone, literlally making Soviet Union pay the bills issued in London, and it happened in 1948, when half of the USSR was still in ruins, less then a year after a famine of 1947. And they also wanted to pay Soviets for supplying their zones in West Berlin with this useless paper. So, USSR refused to accept it and wanted to get paid in hard currency.

The severity of the "blockade" is seriously exaggerated, West Berlin got most of the supplies from market, not from the "airlift".

Nor does your country. You need to understand that 90% of what you learned about USSR from your media is nothing but a lie.

I have never heard of Berlin blockade before TahGut asked me here about it, so I had to dig into some books and found out the Soviet side of the story. Look, Stalin was rational. Do you really think that Evil Russians (tm) just wanted to starve poor Berliners because they were bloodthirsty savages and it was their natural behaviour?

Oh I agree! I do not trust much of anything our television tells us! I do however trust a good friend of mine who spent the better part of his life as a fighter pilot in the Soviet Union.

[Boroda]

Oh I agree! I do not trust much of anything our television tells us! I do however trust a good friend of mine who spent the better part of his life as a fighter pilot in the Soviet Union.

You mean Belenko? Is he still alive? Or maybe he's living in a cardboard box after his CIA "friends" abandoned him?

I gave you a Soviet POV on blockade of Berlin, looks like you have nothing to answer? Do you really think we are just evil and want to kill everyone?

[lasersailor184]

You mean Belenko? Is he still alive? Or maybe he's living in a cardboard box after his CIA "friends" abandoned him?

I gave you a Soviet POV on blockade of Berlin, looks like you have nothing to answer? Do you really think we are just evil and want to kill everyone?

We don't have to answer, history does it for us.

[Boroda]

We don't have to answer, history does it for us.

What? History?

That crap they show on "history channel"? LOL

Bunch of liars justifying their war-crimes and mass-murders, that's who feeds you "history". Goebbels could be proud.

I gave you a reasonable explanation to blockade of Berlin, you still stick to "evil commies" and other propaganda crap. Is the mental damage already unrecoverable?

Even after your so-called "capitalism" that you are so proud of will finally collapse, and it seems to me that 1929 will be remembered as a "golden age" compared to what's about to come, you'll still say that it was Communism that "failed" because it "can't work" because they said it on the TV.

Look, your system is already agonizing, unable to withstand 1% of what my country faced in XX century. History, you say!? 

[leitwolf]

Boroda, why would the allies fly so much stuff around if Berlin actually had access to most goods?

Even if what you say about the worthless money is true (in light of the emerging cold war at the time it just might).. do you think it was a good idea to cut off Berlin from supplies which, if nothing had be done, would have caused two million people to starve?

There are a lot of people who don't buy into all of the negative propaganda against your country during the cold war, however, in this case, the "evil russians" (you play the victim card so often, there's no need for that) brought that image on themselves just fine.

[indy007]

Look, your system is already agonizing, unable to withstand 1% of what my country faced in XX century. History, you say!? 

  The only way to starve here is go hiking and get lost. Don't confuse whining with agonizing.

And Communism didn't last 10 seconds. If an IL2 plant in ww2 met high production goals, they received bonuses. That is Capitalism.

[Hornet33]

I suppose you have a "good" reason for the Berlin Wall as well? How about all the people that were shot trying to get out of East Germany by Soviet Border Guards and Red Army personel? Many of these incidents were caught on film by news crews from all over the world.