It has been 70 years since the ‘Iron Curtain’ was drawn around the Western-occupied sectors of Berlin by the Soviet Union.
Having occupied Berlin three years earlier, Russian forces managed to enforce a blockade on the city in June 1948, preventing the Western Allies access by road, rail or canal. Effectively condemning the people of Berlin to starve, Russia refused to lift the blockade until the Deutsche Mark was withdrawn from West Berlin.
Forced to find another way to deliver supplies to the trapped citizens, the Western Allies began one of the most remarkable operations in history: the Berlin Airlift. Bravely flying over the beleaguered city to drop in nearly 13,000 tons of food and fuel every day, the Royal Air Force, the United States Air Force and other nations faced a dangerous mission. In saving thousands of innocent civilians from starvation and death, 70 members of the aircrew gave their own lives–a sacrifice the Berliners have never forgotten.
In this stunning recreation by RAFVR Squadron Leader and veteran author Robert Jackson, the fifteen months between the start of the blockade and the fall of the Iron Curtain are recounted with vivid detail.
France, May 1940. Seated in the cockpit of his Hurricane, Sergeant George Yeoman - young, eager, and innocent in the ways of war - is on his way to join his first operational squadron. Meanwhile, the German Panzers advance unchecked through the Ardennes, and as the allied bombers plead to strike at them, the Luftwaffe is already set to launch a decisive blow. Disaster beckons and Yeoman and No. 505 Squadron soon find themselves courting death in a series of increasingly desperate sorties as the allied army begins its retreat towards Dunkirk. There are only a handful of them against the might of Hitler's war machine, and with each sortie the ranks of the Squadron grow ever more depleted. The odds stacked against them are hopeless...
Summer 1940, and the Battle of Britain is about to begin. After his time in France and the nightmare of Dunkirk, Sergeant George Yeoman of No. 505 Squadron R.A.F. no longer has any illusions about the war he is fighting. Those months' service have left Yeoman a battle-wearied flying ace, but if it is rest he's after, then he is sorely mistaken. His commission finally through, Yeoman finds himself presented with new responsibilities and challenges when he is temporarily attached to a Polish fighter squadron. Meanwhile Lieutenant Joachim Richter, Yeoman's great adversary and opposite number in the Luftwaffe, is readying his men for the storm to come. Hurled across the Channel, the Luftwaffe begins to pound away at the defences, and with no reserves left the Few are all that stands between Britain and defeat.
April 1941. As Rommel's Africa Korps thunder towards Tobruk, the last bastion of British defence in North Africa, Flying Officer Yeoman is assigned to defend the dwindling British lines. The blazing African sky is studded with Stukas, Fiats and hellish anti-aircraft fire. While on the ground, the desert is littered with mine-fields and German armour. The RAF in North Africa are as much at their wit's end as they were over the channel during the Battle of Britain. The fighting is just as ferocious. The Germans appear just as unstoppable...
