Airbridge to Berlin

Photos from
"Eye of Storm"

• US military police at Potsdamer Platz where the US, British and Soviet sectors meet. The square was often the scene of confrontations between Communists and supporters of Western democracy

• British soldiers relax in their occupation sector. The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the background still sits on the Kurfustendamm and has been left in its ruined state as a memorial to war.

• The Unter den Linden in the Soviet sector looking toward the Brandenburg Gate and British Sector.

• The May 13, 1948 meeting of the Berlin Kommandantura, one of last meetings that the Soviets representatives attended.

• Civilians milling about in Anhalter station on 1 April. The Soviets deployed, but did not completely stop civilian rail traffic during this period.

• Supplies for the US garrison in Berlin being unloaded from C-47 aircraft at Tempelhof during the emergency air movement later dubbed the Little Lift, 2 April 1948.

• May Day demonstration in Berlin, 1948. Part of the crowd is turning left to the Reichstag rendezvous of anti-communists while others continue to a Soviet demonstration. This photo was taken from the border of the British and Soviet Sectors ata point where the Berlin wall would later be constructed.

• Rail and barge traffic begins to stack up as the blockage begins in earnest. Before the currency reform, black-market activity was common throughout Germany.

• Rail and barge traffic begins to stack up as the blockage begins in earnest. Before the currency reform, black-market activity was common throughout Germany.

• US troops check identification cards and search for unauthorized goods during a search and seizure operation.

• Allied financial experts explain the currency reform at a press briefing at OMGUS headquarters, 18 June 1948. US Deputy Assistant Financial Advisor Jo Fisher Freeman is speaking, British and French advisors are seated to his right and the man at far left against the wall is believed to Edward Tenenbaum.

• West Sector residents exchanging Reichsmarks for Deutsche Marks.

• The Soviet side of their checkpoint on the autobahn at Helmstedt.

• President Truman with Secretary of State Marshall, Marshall Plan administrator Paul G. Hoffman and Averell Harriman in the oval office of the White House.

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