Narration: In 1945, British and American pilots had rained death and destruction on Germany.

Now in 1948, they were flying again to Berlin.

This time, they were keeping the city alive.

Berliners were a beaten people in 1945. Their fate was in the hands of the Russians, Americans, British and French -- their conquerors. Germany was divided into four occupation zones -- Soviet, American, British and French. Three and a half million Berliners lived in a city 110 miles behind the Russian lines. Berlin was linked to the West by a highway and a railway which ran through the Soviet zone. The city itself was divided into four sectors -- Soviet, American, British and French.

Interview: Mikhail Semiryaga, Soviet military administration

"Berlin and Germany were the only places where the two sides came into contact, that is Soviet troops and troops from the Allied countries. In other places we didn't have direct contact between our two armed forces. That was one of the reasons why Berlin became a battlefield for the Cold War."

Narration: Berliners had lived a precarious existence for years. Food was at near-starvation levels and currency was worthless. The black market was king.

Interview: Ella Barowsky, Berlin councilor

"We bartered everything. A non-smoker who got cigarettes with his ration cards would gladly take them because he could barter them for something more useful. Naturally, we all did it. Cigarettes were our currency. The black market was the only thing that kept us alive."

Narration: British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin had a plan for Germany. He didn't like the Germans but believed that European recovery depended on them.

Archival Footage: Ernest Bevin

"We have to try and recreate Germany on a democratic basis, give her a chance to live, at the same time make sure that the security of the rest of Europe is preserved and that aggression cannot take place again."

Narration: Soviet military maneuvers near Berlin. By 1948 the honeymoon among the Allies was long over. The Soviets wanted a weak Germany under Four Power control. America, Britain and France were secretly planning a new German state in their occupation zones.

Spies told the Soviet military governor, Marshal Vassily Sokolovsky, about the plan.

Interview: Konstantin Koval, Soviet military administration

"He gathered all of us together and read out an intelligence report. The report stated that a secret conference about Germany was held in London. He read out everything that was discussed in London."

Narration: Sir Brian Robertson, the British military governor, and his American counterpart, Gen. Lucius D. Clay, had to implement the Western plans.

Interview: Robert Lochner, U.S. military government

"Gen. Clay was the hardest working man I've ever encountered. No vacation. He skipped lunch because he considered that a waste of time. Instead, he had 20 cups of coffee and two packs of cigarettes a day. What impressed me particularly was his fantastic ability to absorb difficult questions that were quite outside of the framework of his experience. After all, he was a professional soldier."

Narration: The Allied Control Council met regularly in Berlin. Usually, as here, the proceedings followed a well-worn path. The American Gen. Clay and his Western partners exchanged routine information with their Soviet counterparts. But on March 20, 1948, Sokolovsky wanted more.

Interview: Konstantin Koval, Soviet military administration

"The Russian just stood up and he had about five or six of them on the left and on the right of him and they just walked out which was not called for because when they closed the meeting it was always done in a professional manner and the general just told everybody just stay put, 'cos the meeting wasn't over."

Narration: The former Allies provoked each other. The West had no intention of budging from Berlin but knew the Soviets wanted them out. They feared Stalin might risk war to achieve it.

The Western Allies planned a currency reform in their zones. It would wipe out black market profiteers by making old currency valueless, and it would tie Germans to the West. The Russians weren't told.

May Day 1948. In the Soviet zone, Stalin had merged the Socialist and Communist parties. The new grouping, the Socialist Unity Party, was out in strength.

There was even a side swipe at Winston Churchill.

For the demonstrators, the real target was the city council, the Magistrat, which wanted to run all Berlin on Western lines.

Interview: Stefan Doernberg, Socialist Unity Party

"The majority of the Berlin City Council, supported by the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats, believed that with currency reform there would be an immediate upturn in the economy. In particular, there would be increased investment by entrepreneurs. On the other hand, the Socialist Unity Party councilors saw it as a threat to the still incomplete nationalization of property which had belonged to the big companies, to war criminals and to Nazi party members -- generally to all those whom the Socialist Unity Party blamed for supporting Hitler in 1933."

Narration: The stage was set for confrontation between the Socialist Unity Party and their pro-Western opponents. These were led by Ernst Reuter, whose family had once been forced to flee from Hitler. His election as mayor of all Berlin had been vetoed by the Russians.

Archival Footage: Ernst Reuter

"It was a very tense atmosphere again, full of possibilities that the Russians would try to enforce their power in that part of the country, in the city of Berlin of course, that maybe the family again would have to flee from dictatorship."

Narration: West Germans lined up for their new money -- the deutschmark. Each person could exchange 40 marks and only 40 marks. All other old money was worthless. The Soviets retaliated by issuing their own new currency, which, they insisted, would include all of Berlin.

Interview: Edzard Reuter, son of Ernst Reuter

"Currency and political power were synonymous at that time. And therefore it was so important that the Western currency, the d-mark, had to be introduced into West Berlin and not the eastern German currency."

Narration: Gen. Clay and the Western Allies were persuaded by Ernst Reuter to issue the new deutschmark in West Berlin.

The new deutschmark, stamped with a "B" for Berlin, was introduced in the Western sectors on June 23. There were now two currencies in the city.

Berliners discovered that the Western d-marks were worth more.

Interview: Hildegarde Herrberger, Berlin resident

"Many people from the West frequently traveled to the East and, of course, bought up what they could. East marks and West marks, if you can call them that, were usually one to seven or one to five, that is, we got seven or five East German marks for one West mark. And, as we found out later, it was a sellout, at least around Berlin."

Narration: The introduction of the new Western currency in Berlin infuriated the Soviets, who debated what to do next.

"Sokolovsky picked up the special phone and rang Molotov. He said 'We're discussing these matters. What shall we do?' We all understood the seriousness of the situation. Molotov replied, 'You're not planning to bring tanks out into the streets, are you?' Sokolovsky said, 'No, not in the streets but I'll move them closer to Berlin.' 'No, don't do that!' Molotov said. 'Let's wait a bit. If you bring in the tanks you will be accused of planning to seize the whole of Berlin and they will bring out their tanks. It's better to resolve this issue by using diplomatic language.'"

Narration: The Soviets blocked all major road, rail and canal links between West Berlin and Western Germany. They made no concerted effort to seal every route, but delivery of the 12,000 tons of food and coal normally supplied by the West to Berlin every day was now impossible. The Soviets cut electricity supplies to factories and offices. West Berliners could do little. Their only large power station had been dismantled for reparations by the Soviets in 1945.

The Western Allies imposed a counter-blockade on the Soviet zone. Workers throughout the whole of Berlin faced unemployment and hardship.

Interview: Ella Barowsky, Berlin councilor

"First of all, it was a terrible shock. Wherever you went, everyone asked, 'Oh my God! What will happen to us now?'"

Narration: Stalin's purpose was clear: to force the Western Allies to change their policies or quit Berlin.

In 1945 the Western Allies had made a written agreement with the Soviets. Planes could fly along three air corridors 20 miles wide to two Berlin airfields, Tempelhof and Gatow. Seaplanes could also set down on Lake Havel.

The British responded to the challenge. They planned an airlift. Foreign Secretary Bevin put his weight behind the idea.

Archival Footage: Ernest Bevin

"The physical suffering of two and a half million people in Berlin to try and influence the Allies -- the, the Western powers -- in their treatment of the Germans and to try to force us out is one which we are unable to accept."

Narration: Gen. Clay, the American commander, didn't believe an airlift would work. He had wanted to test Soviet resolve by running an armed convoy through the blockade. Reluctantly, he agreed to pursue the airlift idea with Ernst Reuter.

Interview: Robert Lochner, U.S. military government

"He'd call up Gen. LeMay and said, 'General, we're going to haul coal into Berlin!' 'Coal?' Gen. LeMay said. He said, 'Yeah, we're going to keep this city alive.'"

Narration: The Berlin airlift began at the end of June. The Americans called it "Operation Vittles", the British "Plain Fare".

The airlift had to deliver 2,000 tons of supplies a day. Without it, West Berliners couldn't survive: they had coal for only 45 days and food for only 36.

Interview: Ella Barowsky, Berlin councilor

"The airlift began, which was welcomed with incredible enthusiasm. People had such confidence in it. It was really remarkable. People thought, 'Why shouldn't it work?' They dropped so many bombs on Berlin -- they should be able to drop potatoes!'"

Narration: Thousands of Berliners found jobs -- and one hot meal a day -- working for the airlift.

Interview: Heinz Weber, Berlin resident

"We were divided into work gangs supervised by an American overseer. Each gang was ordered one by one to the planes as they came in. "Go to the next plane."

Narration: Each of the larger planes carried nine tons.

Interview: Heinz Weber, Berlin resident

"We could unload each plane in roughly seven minutes -- that was 'nine short tons' of coal."

Narration: The British hired civilian operators.

Interview: Sir Freddie Laker, civilian charter pilot

"There weren't many people in England that had any airplanes, but I was very lucky at the time, er, in as much that I actually owned 12 converted Halifax bombers. The government came along and said, "Oh, can we do something with these airplanes." I said, "Of course." But, remember, we all thought that the Berlin airlift was only gonna last two or three weeks or there would have been a war."

Narration: America now raised the stakes by sending B-29 bombers, capable of carrying atom bombs to Britain. The move was highly publicized.

Archival Narration:

So grave is the crisis that Gen. Clay is recalled to Washington to report on the situation. He is greeted by Secretary of the Army Royall, and then is welcomed by Chief of Staff Omar Bradley. On his shoulders may rest the responsibility for peace or war, and the commander in chief at the White House awaits his appraisal of the most explosive situation yet in the struggle between East and West."

Narration: Clay argued once again that he be allowed to confront the Soviets with an armed convoy.

Interview: Clark Clifford, special counsel to President Truman

"Now if the Soviets stepped aside and the convoy went through, then peace would continue. If they chose not to let the convoy through, then it meant war. It was just that simple. And the last thing in the world President Truman wanted to do was see our country get into another great war. We had just come out of one."

Narration: So, no armed convoy, but more planes for the airlift.

Archival Footage: Gen. Clay

"Since I have been in Washington, I have been assured of an additional supply of C-54s which carry 10 tons to replace the C-47s. And this will enable us to build our airlift up to 4,500 tons a day. This tonnage will enable us to maintain Berlin indefinitely while we try to find a peaceful solution to the Berlin problem."

Narration: In August, Stalin visited an air show near Moscow. He was confident that the Soviet blockade of Berlin's Western sectors would be enough to force the Allies back to the negotiation table.

But time wasn't necessarily on his side. The West's counter-blockade of coal, steel and machine tools was beginning to bite.

When Western diplomats asked for talks, he agreed.

Interview: Vladimir Yerofeyev, Soviet Foreign Ministry

"He saw that Germany was going to be divided, with a strong Western Germany supported by America and the West and anyway being three quarters of the total part of Germany which would become an independent country. And he wanted to stop that."

Narration: In Berlin, the Western Allies and the Soviets returned to the negotiating table. The Russians demanded the withdrawal of the Western deutschmark from the city.

They also applied pressure in the air corridors.

Interview: Sir Freddie Laker, civilian charter pilot

"We'd come up and have a Yak come head on with you right nose to nose and at the last minute would peel off. Or come up behind you so you couldn't see him and then come up over the wing. But they didn't shoot."

Narration: Bad weather caused delays and accidents.

The airlift was not delivering enough food and virtually no coal had been stockpiled for the harsh winter to come. Berliners knew they were living on the edge. Electricity came on for only four hours a day.

Interview: Hildegarde Herrberger, Berlin resident

"We did the washing at night. Because I had a small baby, I had to boil the nappies and do the cooking. If we didn't have an electric iron then we'd go to a neighbor and do the ironing together. It's always the same in bad times. People stick together through thick and thin."

Narration: The Soviet blockade didn't prevent West Berliners from moving about freely within the city. The eastern sector behind the Brandenburg Gate could be very enticing.

Interview: Heinz Weber, Tempelhof airport worker

"I often went across into East Berlin. If you wanted to go out, you had to go into the eastern sector. There were dance halls, there was music, there was electric lighting. The rooms were heated and normal peacetime conditions prevailed."

Narration: The Russians offered West Berliners the chance to buy food in the Soviet sector. Nearly one in 10 accepted. The Soviets didn't impose a complete blockade. But West Berliners who went to East Berlin were harassed.

Interview: Hildegarde Herrberger, Berlin resident

"We could get out by train but we were constantly checked here, there and everywhere by the Russians. They came into the station and either demanded our identity papers or searched our bags and rucksacks. You had the feeling that if a Russian didn't like the look of a German he would take him away."

Narration: Tension among the former wartime Allies was increasing. The city was splitting apart.

On September 6, communist-led activists converged on a full meeting of the city council in East Berlin. They were looking for trouble.

Interview: Stefan Doernberg, Socialist Union Party

Word got around. We couldn't work there. Some people had already been beaten up. So we had to leave."

Narration: Councilors driven out of the City Hall met in the safety of West Berlin. With them was Ernst Reuter, who now appealed to all Berliners to gather at the Reichstag to protest. RIAS -- Radio in the American Sector -- spread the news.

Interview: Col. William Heimlich, RIAS director

"This was a show of unity by the people of Berlin. There was nothing else in our heads but the thought: We stand united, we are against the Russians and we support the Western Allies."

Narration: Nearly 300,000 Berliners, many from the East, assembled at the Reichstag.

Interview: Edzard Reuter, son of Ernst Reuter

"Today no diplomat or general will speak or negotiate. Today the people of Berlin will make their voice heard. People of America, England, France, Italy -- look at this city. You cannot abandon this city and its people. You should not abandon it."

Narration: When the rally was over, the Soviet flag on the Brandenburg Gate was torn down. East sector police and Soviet soldiers opened fire. Twelve people were injured. One young Berliner was killed. And the day was not yet over. A delegation went to the Allied Control Council, where they feared a deal with Stalin to withdraw the Western d-mark from Berlin was being hatched. The Allies got the message. The d-mark stayed.

Newsreel Narration:

"You want to take off in this weather? Certainly, the Berliners are expecting me!"

Narration: The blockade and the airlift went on.

Interview: Col. Gail Halvorsen, U.S. Air Force

"We were sitting around. The teachers of the history department and of others said, 'Uh, the Americans understand historical materialism better than we.' And so we were looking -- historical materialism better than we? 'Yeah, they understand that you have to have a basis of food and help before you can begin party education. The Americans understand historical materialism.'"

Narration: Airlift pilots could fly up to three missions every day. An American pilot brought his own 8 mm movie camera.

Interview: Col. Gail Halvorsen, U.S. Air Force

"I went back to Berlin to get this picture inside the barbed wire. Kids came up on their side of the barbed wire and look at me in uniform. They came up and start talking to me. 'How many sacks of flour you got? How's it going to be tomorrow?' They got off the subject of flour very quickly and on the subject of freedom. They said, 'Look', they said, 'Someday we'll have enough to eat. Just give us a little. Just don't give up on us when the weather gets bad. We'll have enough but if we lose our freedom, we may never get it back.' And these kids were 8 to 14 years old. They blew my mind with their maturity and understanding of what was important."

Narration: Halvorsen promised the children that he would return with chewing gum and chocolate dropped from tiny parachutes.

Interview: Hildegarde Herrberger, Berlin resident

"It was amazing all the things they brought over in their planes. I still remember my youngest boy was there when American soldiers dropped little parachutes with sweets, chewing gum and chocolate."

Narration: Word of Halvorsen the candy bomber spread quickly. He was summoned to see his commanding officer.

Interview: Col. Gail Halvorsen, U.S. Air Force

"He really chewed me up. And then he reached under the counter, pulled out a newspaper and there on the front page was an airplane with parachutes coming out of it. He said, 'You almost hit a German newspaperman on the head with a candy bar in Berlin yesterday. He's got this story all over the world.' He said, 'The general read it and called me to find out what was going on. I didn't know anything about it! I'll never get promoted! Why didn't you tell me?' I said, 'I didn't think you'd approve it, sir.' He said, 'You're right! But the general thinks it's a good idea. Keep doing it!'"

Narration: For both East and West, radio was an important weapon in the propaganda war. Radio in the American Sector -- RIAS -- was run by William Heimlich.

Interview: Col. William Heimlich, RIAS director

"The weather is bad but the airlift is proceeding well. The first Skymasters have landed at Tempelhof with coal."

Narration: A young Berlin dancer called Christina Ohlsen became a popular RIAS performer -- and later Mrs. Heimlich.

Interview: Christina Heimlich, RIAS broadcaster

"Will you vote on Sunday?" "Yes." "And you?" "Sure -- we'll all go." "Naturally I will vote." "Will you vote?" "Most certainly."

Narration: In December 1948, West Berliners voted for a new council to run their half of the city. The Socialist Unity Party, which dominated the old council in the Soviet sector, boycotted the elections.

Interview: Ella Barowsky, West Berlin councilor

"For the moment, we are a divided city. There is nothing we can do about it. Our survival now depends on developing extremely strong ties with West Germany."

Narration: Ernst Reuter was now mayor, with Luise Schroeder as his deputy -- but only in one half of Berlin.

For the American garrison in Berlin and for Gen. Clay, Christmas entertainment was provided by Bob Hope and by the great Tin Pan Alley composer Irving Berlin.

Archival Footage: Irving Berlin and Bob Hope

Irving Berlin (singing): "Not long ago, a group we called the Air Corps Helped win the war and took a bow. Not long ago, we cheered the fighting Air Corps. Let's see what's happened to them now! Operation Vittles....'"

Narration: Operation Vittles -- the American code name for the airlift -- was working at last, thanks to an unusually mild winter. On Easter Sunday 1949, a record 13,000 tons was airlifted in 24 hours. The gamble had worked. Berlin could be supplied indefinitely by air.

Interview: Yakov Drabkin, Soviet military administration

"We lived at Karlshorst and could hear the noise of the airplanes which delivered everything including chocolate and Christmas presents. We couldn't match it. We were poor and the West was rich, and, of course, this crazy blockade was bound to fail."

Narration: The Soviets had failed to drive the British, Americans and French out of Berlin. The Allied counter-blockade was hurting the Soviet zone. On May 12, 1949, Stalin called it quits.

Archival Narration:

"As midnight nears, tension mounts at the British frontier control post. Familiar with the old Russian habit of changing their minds when it suits them, seasoned campaigners could not quite grasp this new mood of cooperation. As on the stroke of 12, the barrier goes up and a British jeep leads the race into Berlin."

Narration: Many people thought the ending of the Berlin blockade meant an end to the Cold War.

Interview: Heinz Weber, Tempelhof airport worker

"Sheer joy, nothing else. We had done it! It does work with the West! That was so very important. The West has won!"

Narration: It was Gen. Clay's time to go back home. After a goodbye parade, he paid a final visit to Berlin.

Interview: Robert Lochner, U.S. military government

"I shall not use the English word 'goodbye' but rather try to say to you 'Auf Wiedersehen!'"

Narration: The day Gen. Clay said, 'Auf Wiedersehen,' the head of the future West German republic, Konrad Adenauer, addressed Berliners.

Archival Footage: Konrad Adenauer

"The Berlin crisis, on reflection, resulted in a division of Europe. The government in West Germany was created, and two weeks later on our side the German Democratic Republic was born. That division went right across Germany."

Narration: In April 1949, British Foreign Secretary Bevin's dream of a strategic alliance between Western Europe and North America came true with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty.

Interview: Sir Frank Roberts, British Foreign Office

"The overall success of the Berlin airlift was, first of all, it persuaded a lot of very frightened people throughout Europe that they had to come into the Atlantic Alliance, which provided the security or the general feeling that we are safe, in spite of these very much larger Russian forces which were next door."

Narration: August 29, 1949 -- the Soviets detonated their first atomic bomb.

The American nuclear monopoly was over.

The world was now split down the middle by two competing superpowers.

At its heart lay a divided Germany and a divided Berlin.