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Wings over Berlin: the airlift's 60th anniversary

60th Anniversary of Berlin Airlift

Martin Oeser AFP/Getty Images

Gail Halvorsen, a Berlin airlift pilot who won the nickname of "the Candyman," speaks at a ceremony in Frankfurt, Germany, marking the 60th anniversary of the 1948-49 operation which kept divided Berlin's western sectors supplied with food, coal and other provisions during a Soviet blockade -- one of the opening salvos of the Cold War. Halvorsen was the first of the so-called "Candy Bombers" who dropped treats to the children of Berlin during the airlift.

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60th Anniversary of Berlin Airlift

Ralph Orlowski / Getty Images

William Morrissey, another Berlin airlift veteran, attends a 60th anniversary ceremony at the Frankfurt , Germany, airport. The United States, Britain and France transported 2.3 million tons of food and other supplies with about 277,570 flights, primarily from Frankfurt and Wiesbaden, Germany to the three western zones of the blockaded city of Berlin after World War II. The Berlin blockade that lasted from June 24, 1948, to May 11, 1949, was initiated by the Soviet Union at the beginning of the Cold War.

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