By N. La Varl Christensen Midway. Driller WIIUIKWB Correspondent Thirty-five years nge. the historic Berlin AirlIft was winding down to an official ending Sept. 80, 1949, after thw arting a cruel Soviet plan to starve allied-held Berlin into submission by blockading road, rail and waterway transportation. By the post-World War ll strategem, according to news accounts of the period. the Russians hoped to squeeze out the other occupiers and gain complete control fo the strategic city. The American-British French airlift (nicknamed “Operation Vittles”) was began two days after the Soviets finished clamping on their Berlin Blockade June 24. 1948. leaving the allies only three air corridors to the city. U.S. President Harry Tmman made up his mind quickly: ‘We’ll stay in Berlin – period.” Britain and France made similar vows. The airlift started on a modest haais, but built to a mighty crescendo as transport planes were summoned from farflung bases. With remarkable ingenuity and teamwork, the allies at peak efficiency landed one place every three minutes 24-hours-aday with livegiving supplies of food and coal for the war-devastated city. They had to produce miracles to sustain 2.5 million people with the basic necessities, entirely by air. The Reader’s Digest called the accomplishment “one of the free world’: finest hours.” I-inally recongnizing defeat, the Soviets lifted the blockade May 12. 1949 after 320 days. The Allies continued their “aerial railroad” until the end of September to build stockpiles. Thus the lift functioned a total of 15 months. Duringthe period, Berlinners “went from defeated enemy to gallant ally,” says Robert Van Der Ligden, an assistant curator at the Smithsonian Institution’! National Air and Space Museum in Washington. D.C. “They pitches in to help under incredible circumstances.” Momentous events had preceded the Berlin Blockade and Berlin AirlIft. Germany had been conquered in 1946. V-E Day May B saw Berlin prostrate, many or its people ragged and hungry.