Consequently, on 30 November 1945 the ACC approved a paper which created three air corridors into Berlin from the Western zones, each twenty miles wide and extending from the ground to 10,000 feet and meeting a circular zone above Berlin twenty miles in diameter. There was a general recognition that the immediate post-war situation whereby pilots did more or less as they pleased in the airspace around Berlin (and which had led to a number of near misses) needed to be addressed. The only question of access on which the occupying powers reached agreement was in respect of the air. Some western officials wanted to include formal agreement on access corridors to Berlin through the Soviet Zone but, partly because the US military regarded that as solely a matter for them, and partly because others were anxious to maintain good relations with the Soviets and believed any problems would be solved with patience and goodwill, no such agreement was included. The EAC proposed that each occupation zone should have a military governor with wide powers and that they would act collectively through an Allied Control Council (ACC) to reach agreement on matters of common or wider interest such as German disarmament, de-Nazification, and the post-war German economy and government including elections. Berlin had been the capital of Germany since German unification in 1871, and the boundaries agreed placed the city deep inside the Soviet Zone but it too was to be sub-divided zonally between the four occupying powers. Amongst the many issues they agreed in outline were the boundaries of the three occupation zones, soon extended to four with the addition of a French zone. However, they did, through summit meetings at Yalta and Potsdam and via a joint European Advisory Council (EAC), settle the outlines of their post-war intentions and policies towards a defeated Germany. Relations between the victorious Allied powers, Britain, the USA and the USSR during the Second World War were not always entirely harmonious. Wing Commander “Mick” Ensor DSO* DFC* AFC RNZAF & RAF Wartime veteran of Coastal Command, after flying 200 airlift sorties with 206 Squadron on the Avro York. Then he created the Berlin Airlift to cure keen pilots of their sinful desire to fly aeroplanes. In the beginning, God created Heaven and Earth. Short of an act of war, or the airlift failing (as the Soviets expected it would) the Soviets could not prevent the aerial relief operation and were eventually forced to concede defeat in the first serious clash of the Cold War. The Allies used air power to airlift supplies to a city of 2.5 million people isolated in the middle of the Soviet Zone. The Soviets, recognising an economic and political threat to their position in Germany, instituted a blockade of land routes into Berlin. The Western Allies determined to introduce reforms, including currency reform, in the Western Zones with or without Soviet agreement. Courtesy of Air Historical Branch (Royal Air Force).Ībstract: In the early months of 1948, Britain, the United States and France became frustrated at Soviet obstructionism over economic reform in Germany, which theoretically required all four powers’ agreement. Operation PLAINFARE - Avro York C.1s of Transport Command being unloaded at Gatow during the Berlin Airlift.
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