On 12 May 1949, the Soviets lifted the blockade of West Berlin and the phenomenal operation was drawn to a close the following month.ĭuring the 13 months from 26 June 1948 until 1 August 1949, more than 266,600 flights, carrying over 2,223,000 tons of food, fuel and supplies, were made to Berlin by British and US aircraft. The Western Allies responded. On 26 June 1948, the Berlin Airlift, a mission to supply the city by air, commenced. But it was not long before war loomed once again on the horizon. It was headquartered in the spa town of Bad Oeynhausen in North Rhine-Westphalia. In a matter of weeks, the British had moved from conquerors to occupiers and governors. To facilitate this, the conquering forces quickly evolved 21st Army Group was dissolved in August 1945 and became the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), with an administrative rather than a military role. The Allies would work together in the Berlin-based Allied Control Council, constituted on 30 August 1945, which would oversee matters relating to the country as a whole. The conference also confirmed the zones of occupation and the joint administration of Berlin. These insisted that Germany be demilitarised and that de-Nazification take place.
The Potsdam Conference in July-August 1945 later formalised their goals. The Allies would be the sole political and legal authority in the defeated Germany. This structure was established by the Berlin Declaration on 5 June 1945, which pronounced the end of the Third Reich and the replacement of all German civic and political authority by that of the Allies. Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery had talked about winning the peace in May 1945 now was the time to do it.Īt Yalta in February 1945 the Allies had decided that Germany would be divided into four occupation zones, with each of the victorious powers taking responsibility in their zone. In the aftermath of the Second World War (1939-45), there was a clear plan for how to deal with a defeated Germany.
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