Berlin Airlift model aeroplanes. Children playing with model aeroplanes near Berlin's Tempelhof Airport during the Berlin Airlift of 1948-9. This was a response to the Berlin Blockade, an attempt by the Soviet Union to gain complete control of the German capital which had been divided between the USA, the UK, France, and the USSR following World War II. Over 200,000 flights of cargo planes by the Western Allies over 15 months ensured that the blockade failed. Here, the children are playing with model US Air Force planes in a game called 'Luftbrucke' (air bridge). The model US planes were sold in German toy shops throughout the western sector of Berlin.