Air-Transport to Berlin

One good book on the Airlift that also explains a lot of the background, is ‘The Berlin Airlift’ by Robert Jackson (Patrick Stephens Ltd – 1988)

One good book on the Airlift that also explains a lot of the background, is ‘The Berlin Airlift’ by Robert Jackson (Patrick Stephens Ltd – 1988)

In Berlin Crisis, free-Western raised the most scale transportation for saving west Berlin from Soiet at that time. My question is:
1) Why Soviet didn’t forbidden the air as well as ground? Is that for political consideration or military consideration?

As far as I’ve been able to understand, they chose to impose an arbitrary set of restrictions, with an aim, rather than a particular method or adhering to some ultimate, higher level agreement re- air corridors over other communications access. The point was they were certain that Berlin couldn’t be kept going by airlift – they were, remarkably, wrong.

2) Did Soviet has any ability to forbidden the air?

Yes and no. They could easily have started shooting down the freight aircraft, but that would have escalated to a war very quickly. The alternative was to fly harassing flights, which they did (answer to (4) )

3) What about the ground blockade be hold much longer by Soviet, would Western be endurable more longer than Soviet’s blockade?

Not sure I get what you are asking. A ground blockade is easier to make – closing a road (or indeed a port) than an air corridor to an airport you don’t control. However it is clear that the airlift couldn’t have lasted or done the job for much longer.

4) What about any kind of disturbance would be made by Soviet in the air?

There were multiple dummy attacks and flybys by Russian fighters, and at least one fatal mid-air, from memory. Details are out there on the web.

I wrote an article for my blog (see here) comparing Berlin to Haiti, which has a good deal of tangential data and some references in the embedded links.

HTH

In Berlin Crisis, free-Western raised the most scale transportation for saving west Berlin from Soiet at that time. My question is:
1) Why Soviet didn’t forbidden the air as well as ground? Is that for political consideration or military consideration?

As far as I’ve been able to understand, they chose to impose an arbitrary set of restrictions, with an aim, rather than a particular method or adhering to some ultimate, higher level agreement re- air corridors over other communications access. The point was they were certain that Berlin couldn’t be kept going by airlift – they were, remarkably, wrong.

2) Did Soviet has any ability to forbidden the air?

Yes and no. They could easily have started shooting down the freight aircraft, but that would have escalated to a war very quickly. The alternative was to fly harassing flights, which they did (answer to (4) )

3) What about the ground blockade be hold much longer by Soviet, would Western be endurable more longer than Soviet’s blockade?

Not sure I get what you are asking. A ground blockade is easier to make – closing a road (or indeed a port) than an air corridor to an airport you don’t control. However it is clear that the airlift couldn’t have lasted or done the job for much longer.

4) What about any kind of disturbance would be made by Soviet in the air?

There were multiple dummy attacks and flybys by Russian fighters, and at least one fatal mid-air, from memory. Details are out there on the web.

I wrote an article for my blog (see here) comparing Berlin to Haiti, which has a good deal of tangential data and some references in the embedded links.

HTH

Some info here on Soviet attempts to disrupt the air channels

http://dakotarestoration.com/history_G-AJAZ.htm

Click on the article.

P.S. the pilot Freer is no relation.

Some info here on Soviet attempts to disrupt the air channels

http://dakotarestoration.com/history_G-AJAZ.htm

Click on the article.

P.S. the pilot Freer is no relation.