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Posted on 09/20/2004 8:10:50 PM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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DIVIDED GERMANY  Three and a half million Berliners live deep inside Soviet lines. The Nazis' once-proud capital, reduced to a pile of rubble by Allied anger, is down to its bare essentials. CURRENCY REFORM In June 1948, an announcement by the Western Allies brings a crisis to Berlin. They establish a currency reform meant to wipe out the German black market and further tie the vulnerable German economy to the West. The Soviets are not told and are infuriated by the action. Moscow says Berlin is located in the Soviet zone and therefore "economically forms part of it."  Sir Brian Robertson (Great Britian), Pierre Koenig (france), Lucius D. Clay (USA). Sir Brian Robertson, the British military governor in Berlin, along with his U.S. counterpart, Gen. Lucius Clay, respond by introducing a special version of a new German currency, the deutschmark, stamped with a "B" for Berlin. AIRLIFT On Thursday, June 24, 1948, West Berlin wakes to find itself under a Soviet blockade -- and in the midst of the first major confrontation of the Cold War. The Western Allies impose a counter-blockade on the Soviet zone. The Soviets hope to starve the West out of Berlin.  The West had been through a similar short-term Soviet blockade of Berlin two months earlier -- and had responded with an airlift using air corridors set up in a 1945 agreement with the Soviets. Now, new plans are drawn up -- for long-term replenishment of West Berlin from the air. NEW ALLIES The Berlin airlift brings a new mindset to the Western Allies, who start thinking of West Germany as an ally, rather than an occupied territory. In West Berlin, the airlift brings people sustenance and hope. In one memorable instance, the airlift -- in the form of American pilot Gail Halvorsen -- rains candy on West Berlin's desperate children.  In 1948, Halvorsen’s bunk was a factory for miniature parachutes weighted with chocolate bars. He became known as the 'Candy Bomber,' 'Uncle Wobbly-Wings' and 'Der Schokoladen Flieger' ('Chocolate Pilot'). (U.S. Air Force photo) As it becomes evident that the Soviets are not going to back down from their blockade, the Western Allies consider how to expand their airlift operations. Larger cargo planes are brought in, as well as bombers with cargo capacity. WEST-EAST  Berliners are still free to move around their city, despite the Soviet blockade. While West Berlin is suffering through shortages of electricity and other essentials, the eastern sector offers a relatively normal lifestyle. Politically, however, the city is on edge.  Soviet troops harass West Berliners who go to the eastern zone. And in September, a communist attempt to take over the city council sparks mass protests -- which end in violence. BLOCKADE ENDS The Soviet Union ends its blockade of Berlin on May 12, 1949. A month earlier, at the airlift's peak, Western cargo planes were landing at one of Berlin's three airports at a rate of one every 62 seconds. By the time the airlift ended, more than 275,000 flights had carried 2.3 million tons of supplies to Berlin -- an effort that went down in history as an aviation and logistical feat.  At least 79 people, including 31 Americans, 39 British and nine Germans, had lost their lives, mostly in plane crashes. But the confrontation proved to be only the opening act in the decades-long Cold War.
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You don't look like this??? :-)
PC and stupid political smiles just make us sick!
A lot of us here never bought into that crap either, but it's been forced down our society's throat.
Evening PE.
Another good one today. :-)
IMHO, his best works were "The Stand" and "Salem's Lot"
Paid to take days off. Government workers are genius inventors, like the invention of new holidays.
Aha! I KNEW it!!
Hiya Sam, did you and Snippy get out early enough to join the DC chapter FReeping CBS?
Thanks for the corrections, and clarifications PAR35.
I'm still trying to figure out why the US and Britain allowed the french to have an occupied sector in Germany. IMHO, they didn't earn the right to one.
I don't blame you, even after events are proved to be true, the Libs still can't admit they were wrong. Have to throw in that slam in their accounts.
LOL. Not yet, but we 're keeping our fingers crossed. Snippy is getting a lot of good ideas from these classes. :-)
I don't want Kerry getting anywhere near the finish line, no matter what shape he's in.
The CNN series is what this series of threads is based on. What I like and am impressed by is the way our readers are catching the "spin" and or ommissions included. :-)
The "blacklist" was done by the studios because they rightly judged the public wouldn't want to watch commie propaganda movies, something modern Hollywood has forgotten.
Today, the studios and the actors/directors are the Commie propagandists.
Evening aomagrat.
She doesn't look much larger than some of today's Coast Guard Cutters.
Evening Victoria.
I didn't know about it, we're in class untill 5pm.
Are the sessions you're going to targeted specifically at running a Wild Bird's Unlimited store, or running a small business in general?
Agreed!!!
They're pretty much targeted to running the Wild Bird Center type of store. Although there is some "general" small business tips.
Is this the store name? I'm had it twisted into Wild Bird's Unlimited, which has a few sites in my area.
According to the book I just read, Stalin was opposed and Roosevelt described as reluctant out of concern that the minor allies might also seek a share. They (and the authors are British) say that Churchill pushed for it and list several reasons. First, he wanted to spread out the burden of the occupation. Second, the Americans had threatened to leave Europe in a couple of years and he was trying to buy French support to help balance the Soviets. Stalin went along when the French zone was carved out of the British and American zones. Even then, Roosevelt wanted to keep the French off of the Allied Control Commission, but Harry Hopkins sided with Churchill and the French.
As it turned out, initially the French behaved much like the Russians, looting industrial facilities for reparations and living off the land while the Germans starved. (Except in the Saar, which they at the time hoped to incorporate into France.)
I knew Stalin only agreed if the frecnh sector came out of the Brit and US sectors. Didn't know it was Churchill who pushed for it though.
We decided to go with Wild Bird Center. We looked into Wild Bird's Unlimited but like the Center's philosophy and more freedom to operate the store our way.
Good evening Victoria.
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