The Airlift

<p><strong>‘A thrilling portrait of the Berlin Airlift as seen through the eyes of those who lived through it ’</strong> - J.M. Tyree, editor of <em>Film Quarterly</em></p><p><strong>In this captivating account of the Berlin Airlift, Joseph Pearson tells the forgotten story of a group of airmen who, in 1948–49, just years after bombing Berlin in the Second World War, returned to the skies.</strong> This time they risked their lives to drop chocolate, not bombs. Meanwhile, German citizens looked upwards not with dread and hatred but with hope and admiration.</p><p><em>The Airlift</em> is not your standard military history. Drawing on first-hand interviews and untapped sources from both German and Anglo-American archives, Pearson interweaves personal tales into an extraordinary story: an American pilot crashing in Soviet territory; a Jewish photographer struggling to reconcile with the Germans; the 17,000 women who built Tegel Airport; Cambridge University actors performing in the ruins for British intelligence; Hollywood star Montgomery Clift filming at Tempelhof Airport; and a Berlin girl trying to outrun the boys reaching for chocolate.</p><p>Through this deeply human lens, Pearson offers crucial historical insight into how lasting new battlelines were formed. The Berlin Airlift didn’t just supply a city; it wrote the playbook of the Cold War and continues to influence Western thinking and diplomacy with Russia to this day.</p>