Events of the Berlin blockade On 24 June 1948, Stalin cut all land access to Berlin for the Allies, citing ‘technical difficulties'. This became known as the Berlin blockade.

Push Button. The Berlin squeezer was used at full pressure in 1948-49 (when it was broken by the airlift), and at half pressure in 1951, after the West proposed West German rearmament.

During the blockade, rations in West Berlin rose to 2,000 calories, higher than anywhere else in postwar Germany. Diseases like rickets and typhoid that traditionally prey on the malnourished dropped.

BBC news reporter Patrick Smith explains the atmosphere in Berlin as the Soviet blockade takes hold and the Western powers are forced to keep their sectors of the city supplied by flying in ...

It is republished unedited in its original form. Life in Berlin for Americans these days is still fairly normal despite the blockade. Commissaries continue to be well-stocked.