Military Model Scene

Title: Cold War Berlin: An Island City. Vol 1
Author: Andrew Long
Publisher: Helion & Co
ISBN: 978-1-914059-03-2

The Birth of the Cold War and the Berlin Airlift, 1945-1950, this is number 9 in the Europe @ War series from Helion & Co. An 88-page soft-cover book in the standard style for this series, and the first of a multi-volume set covering the story of post-WW2 Berlin.
Starting with an introduction to set the scene, a chronology of events stretching from June 1914 through to October 1949. The end of WW2 set up German to remain in the front line of the Cold War as Berlin, deep in the heart of Soviet controlled East Germany, was split between the victorious allied nations, so USA, UK, France and the Soviet Union. It goes on to explain how East German politics were manipulated by Stalin to create the separate state of East Germany, but very much under the control of the Soviets. There was aid to West Germany thanks to the Marshall Plan. Soviet interference to road, rail and canal routes into Berlin are described as they increased, leaving it to the 3 air corridors as the only remaining route into the city in order to supply both the occupation forces and the civilian population of the city. What follows is an excellent description of the Berlin Airlift, both the politics and the physical details of how it was successfully done. The Soviets didn't resort to open warfare against the airlift, they did carry out some intimidation. There are maps showing the corridors and the airfields in both Berlin itself and the bases used in West Germany. The siege was lifted by the Soviets in 1949 and the road and rail traffic returned to normal. Lots of archive photos and the usual section of colour profiles and maps will offer inspiration for another collection of interesting types for modellers, possibly a theme for a collection including military and civilian operated aircraft which all took part in the airlift.
After all this, Berlin remained under the control of the 4 main powers and deep inside East Germany. This was very much the start of the Cold War, and the city remained in a front-line position for the remainder of it, though the rest of the story remains to be told in other volumes.
Thanks to Helion & Co for the review copy.

Robin