1948 The Berlin blockade: the Soviet Union blocked supply routes to West Berlin and the western allies countered with an airlift of supplies, in what became one of the first major crises of the cold war. Our editorial reads: “It is hard to see any honourable alternative course before the western allies except to stand firm in Berlin.” The blockade lasted 318 days before Stalin abandoned it on 12 May 1949. The airlift continued until the end of September that year.