In 1948, in an attempt to drive out the remaining Allied troops in Germany, Soviet forces placed a blockade on Berlin, isolating the citizens in the city’s western sectors. In response, a group of heroic pilots—many of them veterans who had just returned home after World War II—were quickly mobilized and began to fly around-the-clock deliveries of food, fuel, and medicine. The Berlin Airlift, as it came to be known, sustained more than two million Berliners for almost a year. The brave and resolute response of these mainly American and British fliers—a tale of valor and compassion that has often been neglected by historians—is recounted in Richard Reeves’s captivating new book, Daring Young Men: The Heroism and Triumph of the Berlin Airlift, June 1948-May 1949 (Simon & Schuster). In this exclusive audio excerpt, Reeves describes the chronic hunger and desolation that plagued Berlin before the airlift, and the skepticism and doubt that almost stopped the deployment.
Listen to the podcast after the jump.