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With strong insight into the characters of Ernest Bevin, General Clay, Dean Acheson, and Robert Schumann, and now with a foreword by former British minister to Berlin Sir Michael Burton, this a story of individual heroism and high brinkmanship politics, of daily life under appalling circumstances, and great achievements against all odds.

The Berlin blockade brought former allies to the brink of war. Britain, France, the United States and the Soviet Union defeated and began their occupation of Germany in 1945, and within a few years, the Soviets and their Western partners were jockeying for control of their former foe. Attempting to thwart the Allied powers' plans to create a unified West German government, the Soviets blocked rail and road access to the western sectors of Berlin in June 1948.

In 1948 West Berlin, Mercedes and her mother rely on the noisy American planes that form a “sky bridge” into the city, bringing vital food and supplies. But the planes deliver more than flour, clothing, and coal. Every day, one special plane wiggles its wings, and its pilot drops small candy-filled parachutes for the children. How can Mercedes get the “Chocolate Pilot” to drop some candy just for her?

In the wake of World War II, the European continent was devastated, and the conflict left the Soviet Union and the United States as uncontested superpowers. This ushered in over 45 years of the Cold War, and a political alignment of Western democracies against the Communist Soviet bloc that produced conflicts pitting allies on each sides fighting, even as the American and Soviet militaries never engaged each other.

One WWII pilot's mission to lift the spirits of children living in war-torn Berlin in 1945 comes to life in this moving middle-grade historical account. After World War II the United States and Britain airlifted food and supplies into Russian-blockaded West Berlin. US Air Force Lieutenant Gail S. Halvorsen knew the children of the city were suffering. To bring a bit of hope, he began dropping chocolate and chewing gum by parachute. Candy Bomber is an important and interesting addition to studies of World War II.