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Cold War: Stories from the Big Freeze

Documentaries

Factual: History

Bridget Kendall presents an oral history tracing decisive moments of the Cold War.

Cold War: Stories from the Big Freeze: Series 1

Cold War: Stories from the Big Freeze: Series 1: Episode 4: The Berlin Blockade

Episode 4

Episode 4: The Berlin Blockade

Series 1

The Berlin Blockade

BBC Radio 4 - Cold War: Stories from the Big Freeze, Series 1, The Berlin Blockade

In 1948 Stalin blockaded Berlin. Bridget Kendall hears from three people who were there.

In 1948 Stalin blockaded Berlin. Would Britain and America do anything to help the Berliners? Bridget Kendall hears from three of them about life under the blockade.

As part of her series tracing the crucial turning-points of the early Cold War, Bridget Kendall tells the story of the Berlin Blockade - with the help of three people who lived under the Blockade for a year.

In 1948, Stalin was alarmed and frustrated by moves by America, Britain and France to forge the Zones of Germany that they occupied into a new state - what would become West Germany. 

But the Western Allies had a weak point - Berlin was surrounded by the Soviet Occupation Zone, and within the city, Britain, America and France each ran a sector. So Stalin retaliated by placing the Western sectors under Blockade in a bid to drive the Western Allies from the city.

Would the West help the stranded Berliners? How could it, without risking World War Three? Would it leave them to their fate - either starvation or Soviet occupation?

Bridget Kendall hears from three young Berliners of the time about how the hungry city held its breath. And how the West scrambled to establish what had been thought impossible: an Airlift to feed well over two million people a day.

And she explores how the eventual against-the-odds success of the Airlift had a consequence Stalin hadn't intended - driving the Western nations together into a more cohesive military bloc to oppose Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe.

With: Jürgen Blask, Gisela Bilski, Gerhard Bürger

Producers: Phil Tinline and Sabine Schereck.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Bridget Kendall presents an oral history of the early Cold War.

Bridget Kendall presents an oral history of the early Cold War. Using interviews collected by the BBC for this series, Bridget traces the crucial turning points of the early Cold War.

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Cold War: Stories from the Big Freeze

Series 1

Episode 4: The Berlin Blockade

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