Checkmate in Berlin

Berlin in 1945 was divided among Soviet, American, British and French occupation authorities whose cooperation quickly gave way to rivalry. Giles Milton follows military governors, diplomats, intelligence officers and civilians as they confronted food shortages, denazification, political coercion and competing plans for Germany’s future. The relationship between American commandant Frank Howley and Soviet commandant Aleksandr Kotikov becomes a close view of the widening conflict between the former allies.

When the Soviet Union blocked the western land routes into Berlin in 1948, the Western powers answered with an airlift that supplied the city for almost a year. The book reconstructs the logistical operation, the danger faced by aircrews and the political calculations in Washington, London and Moscow. It shows how the struggle for Berlin transformed occupation policy, hardened the division of Germany and made the former Nazi capital a defining front line of the early Cold War.