The Big Lift

In post-WWII Berlin, the Russians have set up blockades on all ground and water transportation routes in and out of the city in an effort to starve the western sectors of the city to force who were their Allied partners in the war out. As such, those Allied partners, with the support of the German citizenry in Berlin, decide to airlift supplies in and out of the western sectors of the city in not bowing down to the Russians' force. Two of the enlisted US Air Force airmen taking part in the airlift mission, which will continue indefinitely as long as the Russians have set up the blockades, are friends Sgt. Danny MacCullough, who is part of an air crew flying those supplies from Rhein-Main Air Base in Frankfurt to Tempelhof Field in the western sector of Berlin, and M/Sgt. Hank Kowalski, a ground control approach (GCA) operator based at Tempelhof. Hank's respectful request to be excused from this assignment is denied, his strong anti-German feelings stemming from his time in a German POW camp during the war which are still fresh in his mind. While in Berlin, Hank, however, is not averse to satisfying his personal needs in beginning a casual relationship with a fraulein named Gerda, whose naivety is borne solely out of not being exposed to the world, especially as the Nazis propagated lies to the German citizenry. Because of the in and out nature of the flights, Danny is not given the opportunity to get into Berlin to explore at all. His want to do so increases when he meets at Tempelhof Frederica Burkhardt, a German war widow whose enlisted husband was killed in the war. Danny seizes upon an opportunity he probably would not have partaken in if not for the benefit of getting into Berlin proper and seeing Frederica. In addition to Frederica, Hank and Gerda, who collectively get into one adventure after another due to the political situation of Berlin, Danny is able to see much of what is truly the life of Berliners through the eyes of one of Frederica's neighbors, Herr Stieber, a German national who is more than willing to help the Russians in acting a Russian spy as he knows the information he is providing them is virtually useless. Through all these encounters, Danny and Frederica fall in love and want to get married. There are many obstacles in their way, including from Hank, whose anti-German feelings extend to not fully trusting Frederica.