Us Army Europe Berlin Airlift W Col Merch

The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. The Soviets offered to drop the blockade if the Western Allies withdrew the newly introduced Deutsche Mark from West Berlin. The Western Allies organised the Berlin airlift (26 June 1948 – 30 September 1949) to carry supplies to the people of West Berlin, a difficult feat given the size of the city's population.

U.S. Army Berlin (USAB) was a command of the United States Army created in December 1961 at the height of the Berlin Wall Crisis. It was created as a separate command from the U.S. Army Europe (USAREUR) which had previously been in command of American troops in Berlin.

The Berlin Blockade was from 24 June 1948 to 11 May 1949. It began when the Soviet Union blocked railway and road access by the three Western powers (the Americans, British, and French) to the Western-occupied sectors of Berlin. The Blockade stopped after the Western powers used airplanes to airlift food and other things that people needed. The Soviet Union began the blockade because they thought that monetary reform in the three German Occupation zones controlled by the Western powers which started on 21 June 1948 made the western parts of Germany too strong and wanted to force the west out of their occupation zone. The Russians wanted one Germany, without an army, that they could control.