In June 1948, the Soviet Union blockaded all road, rail, and water access to West Berlin, cutting off two and a half million people from food, fuel, and essential supplies. The Western Allies faced an impossible choice: abandon the city, risk war by forcing the blockade with armed convoys, or attempt something that virtually every military expert considered logistically impossible. They chose the impossible option, and the Berlin Airlift became one of the greatest logistical achievements in human history. The blockade was Stalin's calculated gamble to force the Western powers out of Berlin. The city sat deep inside the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, connected to the West only by narrow corridors that the Soviets could easily cut. Stalin believed the Western Allies would rather surrender Berlin than risk a military confrontation so soon after th ...