Berlin Airlift: The Cold War Begins - Extra History

I've seen PBS documentaries, and read fiction (Leon Uris' Armageddon) and non-fiction about the airlift. You've all created a very thorough, very balanced summary of what went on. And I didn't recall the US military advising only other courses of action, and being against the airlift idea. Wonderful job, and thank you, DomiNations. Now I'm really interested in your games. :)

Bill Lemmond

This episode was done by a guest artist, Joe Maslov! He'll be back before you know it. :)

Extra History

Hey what is with the artistic style change? It seems different. Still pretty good.

Mortimer

It's pretty notable. The most decorated fighter pilot and the most decorated sniper in Russian history were both women and were heavily used in propaganda afterwards. My parents actually met the fighter pilot while living in Moscow and found her to be an insufferable braggart about her military prowess and all the men she had killed.

Christina Maria Jessen

I would totally do this! That sounds incredible!

Extra History

Aw, thank you! I'll make sure to pass this along to the writer, Rob Rath!

Extra History

Yeah, our mistake, sorry! Maps are... hard.

Extra History

It's quite unintentional. Women are so often left out of historical narratives, especially military ones, that I try to keep an active eye out for places where I know I can include them; the French D-Day episodes, for example, did not include women soldiers but DID include women of the Resistance, so in that sense our depiction of women's participation was equal for those two nations. But I didn't know about women's participation in the Red Army till this thread and now that I do I'll be actively looking for more ways to show that in future episodes!

Extra History

Yeah, we goofed there, it should have been Clement Attlee!

Extra History

@Turmoil No, I'm not referring to North Korea; if you ask me they're far more akin to Imperial Japan or Nazi Germany to qualify as a Communist State; in other words, they're Barbarians. @Pavel Yakushevich Again, I respectfully disagree; but I should probably point out that my Marxist-Leninist beliefs are well Known, so I have NO objectivity. ;-)

Martin Verran

Because of the candy drops, in German, these airplanes got the nickname 'Rosinenbomber' which literally means 'Raisin bombers'. And if you ever are in Berlin, you can even book a sightseeing flight in one of the original airplanes!

Felizitas H

I happen to have first-hand experience with this product or service. Can confirm, doesn't work.

Pavel Yakushevich

If you're talking about North Korea, just because it still exist, doesn't prove the point wrong.

Jaka Torkar

I know, I'm just stating random fact that has nothing to do with video other than involving a nation that would collapse because of the ideology.

Jaka Torkar

@Turmoil I respectfully disagree.

Martin Verran

Even after the end of WWII, women in technical expert and management positions was far my common in Eastern Europe than in Western Europe, where it was still more common than in the US. First Western Europe (except for Switzerland, which was just horribly retrograde) and then the US would catch up to and surpass the East Block. In most cases before the end of the Cold War, but not in all. Switzerland is the most infamous exception where women weren't enfranchised in every canton until 1983, but the US and West Germany had pretty dismal legal records as well. The US still doesn't specify that men and women are equal in its constitution. In Germany, full equality in the domestic sphere only happened after Angela Merkel achieved sufficient power in the CDU to stop the CDU/CSU from blocking legislation that would achieve it. The Soviet Union wasn't a paradise of gender equality by any means. It was thoroughly awful. The point is that the west was a lot worse than we like to pretend it was.

Christina Maria Jessen

Stalin was many horrible, awful, monstrous things, but he wasn't really a warmonger. Stalin's foreign policy was consistently aimed at keeping the Soviet Union, himself and his horrifying actions safe from foreign influence and invasion. He did want land, but most of the land he targeted was land that in some way helped maintain Soviet territorial integrity and in places too far away, he bent to avoid conflict. There was no Soviet influence in the Greek civil war or the internal chaos of post-war Italy, for example, and in Korea he made sure to remain above it all to let Mao take the fall instead. Similarly, he's the one behind changing Soviet doctrine from the very aggressive goal of world revolution to "Socialism in one country". European peace was entirely in line with this goal. He just wanted a European peace that was more favorable to him than what he ended up with.

Christina Maria Jessen

Congrats on one of the best Extra History episodes I've seen so far.

Kael Hankins

Which pair of socks would you like me to hold on to? I have many. ;-)

Martin Verran

Great episode! But being Austrian, I noticed that you colored Austria entirely red at the end, when Austria was in fact also partitioned into 4 zones, just like Germany.

Might I ask a source for women being bared from serving in the Soviet Red Army before Operation Barbarossa? According to 'Women in Direct Combat: What is the Price for Equality?' by Major Marc Alderman (Page 17) it states that women were already serving in the Red Army before Operation Barbarossa, and that it was after the invasion that conscription of women began. And while I acknowledge that it was only a small part of the Red Army that had women on the front lines, it was certainly much larger than the western allies use of women in general. And yes, while the Soviets did not continue to have the progressive policies they did under WW2, they still allowed women to continue to serve in the Soviet Armed Forces unlike NATO members. Mostly as Pilots, admittedly, to free up men for combat roles.

Alan Haskayne

Nope, Churchill lost his re-election in 1945, partly because some people were afraid he'd start a war with Russia. He wouldn't become PM again until 1951.

SpoonofEvil

The inclusion of women in the Red Army was more out of necessity than any sort of forward thinking on the part of the Soviets. They were actively barred from enlisting until Barbarossa happened, when the Red Army suddenly found themselves in dire need of manpower. And even then, only a tiny fraction actually served in frontline combat roles, with many taking up noncombat roles similar to what many other armies did at the time. And yes, even though on paper the Soviets considered women "emancipated" and they could legally serve in the army, the reality was that the majority opinion did not consider women suitable for frontline combat. After WWII ended, the Red Army rolled back a lot of their policies concerning women.

SpoonofEvil

So, I just realized this after thinking about it at work, bear with me please for a moment. I was watching some old Extra Credits episodes about Call of Juarez, about the Division, and about Propaganda in games, and then a small fact hit me like a brick thinking about your Extra History series. You don't show Soviet women as soldiers I am sure it is totally unintentional, that you don't mean for this message to be included in your videos, but you show two women in your entire Kursk series both simple Partisans (Now don't get me wrong, they served a very important role, but in the end they were not part of the Red Army). This could be seen as nothing more as an oversight until I realized that the French in your D-Day series are seen having women soldiers, and women have a prominent place even in the American part of the video. In your resource war episodes you depict women as part of the Merchant Marine, which while their sacrifice was very real, and for the time numerous, they pale in comparison to the number of women of the Red Army. In this episode as well, you show no women in the Soviet armed forces, even though a fair number remained part of the army after WW2. The point I feel you are (Hopefully) unintentionally putting across is that the Western Allies had women in their armed forces, helping men fight on the front lines while the backwards Soviets only allowed women to fight when they were in resistance groups. As you yourselves said, you have to be careful about what message you send out, because even if unintentional it can still change people's perception about historical events. This is especially important context to have in the Cold war, for despite all the other failings of the Warsaw Pact, DPRK, and PRC they were decades ahead of the NATO nations when it came to women's rights. If even one person thinks it is the other way around because of your series... I am sure you would completely agree that is unacceptable. Sorry for this little rant, I just felt like it was something unintentional and easy to fix for future series involving Communist nations.

Alan Haskayne

Was Churchill still in office at this point? Because this would actually give a lot of context to why he developed a plan to go to war with the Soviets if this was the kind of bullshit they were pulling.

Bright Ops

The episode writer, Rob Rath, was kind enough to write up an answer for me when I passed along your question! Here you go: Good question. These planes aren't just flying to and from Berlin—they're also flying to bases outside Germany for repair and delivering more crews into and out of the country. And, inevitably in the days of radio and map navigation, some also just got lost at night. In one infamous incident, crews realized they could pick up the 1948 Army-Navy Football game while in the air—they got so caught up in it that three planes overshot Berlin and wound up in Soviet airspace. One even landed at what they thought was Berlin—only to find they were in Prague. Luckily no harm was done. They had a small party with the local ground crew and took off when a warning came that Soviet troops were on their way. I don't remember the specifics of when or where the mountain crash was, to be honest, but I do remember reading about one.

Extra History

Got an answer for you direct from this episode's writer, Rob Rath! Here you go: Yes, that's true! So the main French contribution to the Airlift was constructing Tegel Airport—they did it in under 90 days, directing crews of German women who often worked in high heels (the only shoes they had). But two radio towers, owned by a pro-Communist station, sat directly on the approach path creating a navigational hazard. The French commander formally asked the Soviets to remove them, but when he got no response, he finally sent troops in to evacuate the area and demolish both with dynamite. I was *so sorry* this story didn't make it in—especially since the French don't get much attention in this episode—but it was cut for time. French engineers supported the Airlift and a few pilots flew missions, but they didn't have enough equipment to fully participate. Most French air assets were in Vietnam, attempting to win the colony back after Ho Chi Minh declared independence in the wake of Japan's surrender.

Extra History

Huzzah!!

Kathyrne

Then you're in for a treat, Kitty, because we've got more of these coming up! Not quite right away but... soon. :D

Extra History

Oh that's awesome! There's an old airfield in Seattle that got converted to a public park, and wandering around the old overgrown landing strips feels pleasantly post-apocalyptic and rather neat. I'd certainly check out Templehof too if I got the chance to go to Berlin! -Soraya

Extra History

If I had insider knowledge... and I might... I would say that someone else planted this idea in Stalin's head, someone whose contribution may not be recorded by history, someone who could probably credited with causing a lot of historical avalanches through his meddling influence... someone whose identity... well... It was Walpole.

Extra History

I really wish the Cold War were covered more in K-12 history classes! I had some great teachers but the curriculum (US History) was so heavily skewed towards pre-WW2 history that it felt like I didn't get to learn anything about that period. Thank heavens for Rob Rath, who's been killlliiing it with these modern history episodes!

Extra History

Maybe, but I'm not sure that this video proves it. ;D Making a bluff and getting it called proves that bluffs don't work against a sufficiently motivated/audacious opponent though...

Extra History

If this makes your dream come true, then hold onto your socks, because we do have more Cold War episodes with DomiNations coming up! They'll be after the break though, in early 2018. ;)

Extra History

Dis kitty is always up for extra-Extra History! Much thanks to the EH crew and to DomiNations!!

Kathyrne

If you visit Berlin you can cycle around the old Templehof airfield. It is unbelievable close to the city centre and a cool place to visit. At this moment it hasn’t been ‘redeveloped’ so go soon!

Huw Rollinson

Well, there's always this one: <a href="http://www.the-berg.de/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.the-berg.de/</a> ;-)

Jon

Where exactly did they fly from to crash into mountains? There's not that many around Berlin.

Ksqared

So what you are saying is Stalin accidentally created European peace? :P

Alan Haskayne

The things you learn. I honestly never knew this bit in the aftermath of WWII.

Leo Archon

Lets say it together, everybody: "COMMUNISM DOESN'T WORK!"

Jaka Torkar

I always heard of a story about French troops crossing into East Berlin to blow up a Soviet radio tower since the signals it was broadcasting were interfering with the planes.

SpoonofEvil

Comment came a little late as I was distracted by Europa Universalis IV [Playing as Denmark currently.] Almost all of my Dreams have come true at Once! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYY!!!

Martin Verran