IGCSE History Exams

Read all the sources carefully and answer all the questions.

The Soviet military government was forced to take emergency measures to protect the life and currency of East Germany. Checks were made on travellers coming from West Germany… some routes between Berlin and the western zones were cut.

The Soviet authorities were ready to provide food and fuel for the whole of Berlin. However, the western occupying powers deprived the inhabitants of West Berlin of the possibility of obtaining any help from East Germany. The western powers claimed there was a blockade of West Berlin by the Soviet Union.

The USA organised a so-called ‘airlift’ to supply West Berlin by air. This stunt served the purposes of propaganda. [It made] the ‘Cold War’ worse.

It is probable that Stalin’s main aim was defensive, that he was simply trying to recover control of the city he had held in 1945 and then lost. To achieve this, Stalin believed he had the perfect bluff. Even in the uncertain situation of 1948, there was almost no possibility that the West would start World War Three over access to Berlin. Late in June 1948, the Soviet authorities cut off all access to Berlin by road, railway and canal. This was blackmail, to force the Western allies to renegotiate the arrangements for Berlin and for Germany as a whole.

The Western response was the Berlin Airlift.

There will be only 4 hours of electric light a day. All normal transport will stop from 6.00 p.m. to 6.00 a.m. Power for industry will be reduced by 80%. Tonight 50% of Berlin’s industrial workers face immediate unemployment. Wives and children in the French community of 8,000 have been advised to leave Berlin as soon as possible owing to the food shortage.

From a British newspaper, 9 July 1948. Back to Questions

In the 318 days since the airlift began British and US aircraft have made 195 530 flights to

Berlin, carrying 1 583 686 tons of food, coal and other stores. In the reverse direction, British aircraft carried out of Berlin about 30 000 tons of freight and over 65 000 passengers...Gatow, which at present handles nearly 1000 aircraft movements in 24 hours, can claim to be the busiest airfield in the world.

Arthur Henderson, the member of the British government responsible for the airlift, speaking 11 May 1949 Back to Questions

SOURCE E

Eventually Stalin had to admit that his attempt to starve out West Berlin had failed. In May 1949 the Soviet authorities called off the blockade. The airlift was a triumph for the American and British air forces.

The airlift was an expensive and dangerous mistake. Had the Allies placed tanks at the head of the convoys of supply trucks, Moscow would have given orders that they be allowed through. Whether the West could have supplied Berlin forever was not tested.

From a British book published in 1993. Back to Questions

Now answer all the following questions. You may use any of the sources to help you answer the questions, in addition to those sources you are told to use. In answering the questions you should use your knowledge of the topic to help you interpret and evaluate the sources.

1. Study Sources A and B.

How far do these sources agree about the causes of the Berlin Airlift? Explain your answer. [6] Answer

2. Study Sources C and D.

Is one of these sources more useful than the other as evidence about the Berlin Airlift? Explain your answer. [9] Answer

3. Study all the sources. A B C D E F G

Source G claims that the airlift was ‘and expensive and dangerous mistake’. How far do the sources support this claim? Explain your answer. [10] Answer

Suggested Answers

Question 1

The question asks ‘how far? And therefore you must evaluate the similarities/ differences between the sources. As you would expect from two very different sources (Soviet historian/ British school book) written at very different times (during and after the Cold War), they identify significantly different causes of the Berlin Airlift. Despite these differences though, there are some interesting similarities.

Both sources agree that the USSR was responsible for cutting the routes from the West to Berlin. Source A says ‘The Soviet military government…[cut] routes between Berlin and the western zones’ and similarly Source B ‘…the Soviet authorities cut off all access to Berlin…’ Also both sources imply that the Soviet authorities actions were intended to defend their position in East Germany: Source A ‘emergency measures to protect’; Source B ‘Stalin’s aims were defensive’. Both sources also agree that the ‘airlift’ was the West’s response to the Soviet Union’s actions.

The differences however, are rather more important. They differ on the purpose of the Soviets’ action: Source A claims a limited motive of protecting the ‘currency’, in contrast claims a more far reaching Soviet goal of ‘recovering control of the city’. On the central question of who was to blame for the crisis, the sources offer completely opposite interpretations. Source A denies that there was a Soviet blockade but that this was merely a western ‘claim’. In fact, argues Source A ‘Soviet authorities were ready to provide food and fuel’ but this was prevented by the ‘western occupying powers’. The real reason for the airlift was as western propaganda, merely a ‘stunt’. In contrast Source B argues that the blockade was absolute: ‘Soviet authorities cut of all access’ and it actually condemns this policy as ‘blackmail’. For Source A then, the Berlin crisis was to be blamed on the West, for Source B the blame rests firmly with the Soviet leader Stalin. Back to Questions

Question 2

What makes a source useful? Remember the three ‘R’s: Relevant, Revealing and Reliable. On all three criteria, Source D is much the more useful source about the Berlin Airlift.

Although Source C is a contemporary account about the causes of Berlin crisis it is not directly relevant to the airlift. It is concerned with consequences of the blockade and was produced before the airlift began and as such reveals little other than background information about the airlift. Furthermore, this information does not come from the most reliable of sources. A British newspaper at the beginning of the blockade (and the Cold War) is unlikely to give an objective account of the crisis. Produced as the blockade was beginning to have an impact it predicts some of the potential consequences: ‘will be’, ‘will stop’ ‘workers face’, ‘have been advised’. The statistical information reflects that uncertainty as rounded up ‘guesstimates’.

In contrast, Source D is both directly relevant and reveals much about the nature of the airlift.  Produced the day before the blockade ended it gives a lot of detailed statistical information about the extent of the airlift over the previous 10 months including the number of flights made and amount of goods transported.  The precision of the information (1 583 687 tons of food) and the provenance of the source (the government minister responsible for the airlift) suggest this is probably a very reliable source of information. Back to Questions

Question 3

As always begin by carefully comparing the sources but remember that marks will be given for good, relevant use of contextual knowledge. On the whole there is very little support for the claims in Source G. Sources B and C deal with the causes of the airlift rather than the consequences and as such are not relevant to the question. Source D, in detailing the actions that were taken by the British government and military, presents some evidence for view that the airlift must have been expensive. Over a million tons of food and 1000 flight a day do not come cheap! But there is very little support for the view that the airlift was a mistake, other than the last comment of Source A that it made ‘the Cold War worse’ but this is not explained.  In fact the airlift did mark a turning point in the history of the Cold War, resulting as it did in the permanent division of Germany, the setting up of first of the two opposing military alliances NATO (1949) and the nuclear arms race. In contrast, both Sources E and F claim that the airlift was a great success: In Source E the American soldiers celebrate in front of the camera with a sign that reads ‘airlift – wins’; in Source F the school textbook claims the airlift was ‘a triumph for the American and British air forces’.  Back to Questions