lins exports as well as undernourished children and those in need of medical treatment who otherwise would not have survived. Berlin drew hope and sustenance from the transport planes, sometimes even piloted by men who just a few years earlier had hurled bombs upon the same city, and the same people.As winter engulfed Berlin, the airlifts did not stop. Supplies, coal, and food continued to arrive hundreds of times a day. The quantity of supplies had increased greatly, but the airlift was still supplying less than half of what Berlin needed. Clay made the observation, We are not quite holding our own, (McCollough 665). The record for the airlift was 1450 tons in one day. However, Berlin needed 2000 tons of food a day to survive, plus 12,000 tons of fuel and other supplies.At first, when the airlift was failing, the Soviets felt they had the upper hand and demanded nothing less than the stoppage of plans to create West Germany in return for lifting the blockade. Later on, when the airlift turned into a success, the Soviets lowered their demands to just having only the eastern currency in all of Berlin. However, the Allies were now convinced that the airlift could work indefinitely, so they held their position and agreed to nothing. At the same time, the Allies also initiated a counter-blockade which stopped the shipment of all supplies to the Soviet sector from the west. At this time the Soviet zone had deep economic problems and the East Germans were importing most of their goods from the west. The counter-blockade ended up hurting the Soviets in their sector more than the initial blockade hurt West Berlin. Therefore, in 1949 the Soviets realized the blockade was a failure and started looking for a way out. The Soviet Union hinted that there could be a way out of the stalemate, but until negotiations began, the blockade was imposed more tightly than ever before. At this time it was also common for anti-Communist Berliners to be ki...
