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Battle for Berlin
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  • Length

    52:00 mins

  • Education Subject Areas

    World Cultures

    World History

  • Year Produced

    1998

  • Production Code

    20898

  • Title

    Battle for Berlin

Battle for Berlin

Fifty years ago, West Berlin was the last bastion of democracy in communist Eastern Europe. They called it an island in a Red Sea. But Stalin wanted to drive the western allies out, and in 1948 the Soviet Union laid siege to the city. They closed all routes in and out. With rations enough for only a month, it seemed the West Berliners would have to choose between starvation and Soviet domination. National Geographic joins airlift veteran Colonel Gail Halvorsen, as he flies one of the original airlift planes back to Berlin half a century later.

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