Comments: Softcover, 128 pages, all black-and-white photos, seven color plates
ISBN: 9-781526-708267
Price: $22.95
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
From the publisher: It is 25 years since the end of the Cold War that began more than 75 years ago, in 1944 — long before the last shots of World War II — with the brutal Greek Civil War. The battle lines are no longer drawn, but they linger on, knowingly or not, in conflict zones such as Iraq, Somalia, and Ukraine. In an era of mass-produced AK-47s and ICBMs, one such flashpoint was Berlin.
Allied agreements entered into at Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam for carving up postwar Berlin now meant nothing to the Soviet conquerors. Their victory had cost millions of Russian lives — troops and civilians — so the hammer and sickle hoisted atop the Reichstag was more a claim to ownership than success. Moscow’s agenda was clear and simple: the Western Allies had to leave Berlin. The blockade ensued as the Soviets orchestrated a determined program of harassment, intimidation, muscle flexing, and Socialist propaganda to force out the Allies. But Britain and America would not be cowed. History’s largest airborne relief program was introduced to save the beleaguered city. In a war of attrition, diplomatic bluff and backstabbing, and mobilizing of forces, the West braced itself for a third world war.
FSM says: Deep background, modelers would be in it more for the story than the photos.
