London Airlift (Napoleon's World)

The London Airlift is the name referring to a lengthy period during the English Anarchy between late 1953 and early 1954 in which American, Scottish and Portuguese planes flew supplies in and out of London, as all land routes into the city were either occupied by hostile English guerillas or the French Army stationed on the city's southern outskirts. Almost 40,000 American soldiers as well as several hundred thousand civilians were trapped inside the city and the shipping of fuel, food and other necessities during the Airlift helped keep London in safe hands. The Airlift also provided a period of previously unseen stability in the previously volatile capital, which directly helped foster a culture in which the nascent English Republican Army could recruit members, train and supply itself for its campaigns in the spring and summer of 1954.

It is estimated that in January of 1954, at the peak of the London Airlift, planes were landing and taking off at London's Barham Airfield at a rate of ten per hour, or one plane every six minutes.