Cold War Blues

1947: Die Luftbrüke

Two years after the war had ended and my city was still in shambles, which was understandable. The allies started helping the country and my city out with reconstruction and supplies, as per usual when it came to post-war. It was going well for the first few months, food and supplies were getting to my people who were living off of cigarettes and bread, hell, even I skipped meals in favor of a cigarette or two. I even got a little bit thinner than I should have been.

What little progress that had been made came to a halt, however, when that communist son of a bitch decided to put up a blockade around my border, rendering any progress that was being made was basically for naught. How was I going to feed my people? How were we going to keep going? We had roughly 36 days worth of food left, and 45 days worth of coal before we were pretty much done for.

Hearing a knock at my door, I sighed heavily and went to answer it, revealing it to be Alfred. I was pleasantly surprised, but I guess he had some news for me or something. I let him in and closed the door. "So what do I owe the pleasure?" I asked.

"We've figured out a way to keep supplying you guys," Alfred said with a triumphant grin.

"Please do fill me in, Herr Jones," I said, folding my arms across my chest, curious as to what hairbrained scheme he and the other's came up with.

"Okay, so, instead of going through by truck– which we can't do right now– we're gonna fly over. The Soviets can't shoot us down because that would mean having another war, and neither of us is equipped for that just yet. So, we'll keep sending supplies until they give up and stop the blockade," he explained.

It was genius, actually.

I nodded after a bit of thought. "That should work... but do you think you have enough manpower for that?" I asked.

Alfred looked up in thought before shrugging. "This is the plan we've got for now, it's either that or you guys starve out. But we're not going to let that happen, because letting the Soviets win isn't really on my to-do list."

"Okay," I said. It was going to take a lot for me to say what I was about to say, considering this man was one of the men who held me down at the Elbe river while his men were shaking hands with the Soviets. This was also the man that was softest on me during my... rezoning, so to speak. "I trust you."

Alfred nodded, the grin on his face never leaving. He had a bag in his hand that he set down on the table, it was somewhat large, so at first, I just thought it was a suitcase. "I also brought you a little taste of what'll be comin' down. I figured you hadn't been eating properly, so I brought some stuff to hold you over until we could actually start the operation."

I let a small smile slide onto my face. "Thank you, Alfred. That means a lot to me."

He didn't have to do that. At least not for me. My people were suffering more than I was at this stage of the game. That being said, I was definitely cooking for some of the people in my building tonight with this, just to make sure I'm not the only one getting fed.

"I should probably get going, though. I've got a lot of shit on my plate now. I'll see you with the first airlift, El," he said, leaning down to kiss my forehead gently before heading out.

I could feel my face heat up. Damn him.

____________________________________

The operation started shortly after, but it wasn't going as well as we would have hoped. While supplies were getting through, it was rough getting them out and we kept having to patch the runway after every flight. There weren't nearly enough supplies to keep us going, but the fact that this was even happening at all was a miracle. I just wished that there was more to keep my people safe.