Although surprised by the willingness and ability of the West to supply Berlin by air during the long warm days of summer, the assumption in Moscow and the Soviet Military Administration in Germany was that winter would defeat the Airlift. Based on historical precedent such as the Napoleonic and Nazi invasions of Russia, the Russians had developed an unshakeable faith in the partisanship of "General Winter."  They had miscalculated. After the disastrous month of November, when fog had frequently closed down the Airlift resulting in a decline in deliveries and increasing shortfalls, the Russians expected the remainder of the winter to bring snow and ice that would ground aircraft while the freezing Berliners flooded to the East to register for coal rations. Instead, the winter of 1948-1949 proved astonishingly mild. There were fewer deaths from cold in Berlin despite the Blockade than there had been in the first post-war winter. In short, from the Soviet perspective, General ...

  In the environment of the Second World War, the women of the ATA also played a role that is probably impossible in today's world. Working at the interface between the civilian and military spheres, engaged in activities that were almost exclusively male, yet still -- in accordance with the customs of their age -- very feminine in behaviour, the women pilots of the ATA had an impact on the morale of the fighting men in unique ways.   This role is best illustrated by a series of anecdotes reported directly.  In December 1944, a Mosquito Squadron suffered severe losses in a short space of time and needed a large number of replacement aircraft. These new Mosquitos were an newer Mark and had different flying characteristics. The CO contacted the ATA and suggested his men could do with some 'bucking-up' so a group of particularly attractive women pilots were assigned to collecting the replacement aircraft and told to fly them to the squadron with explicit instructions to...

The spectacular success of the Berlin Airlift in 1949 has largely obscured the fact that it came very close to failing. In November and December of 1948 weather conditions combined to make flying nearly impossible on some days. The deliveries of essentials dropped dramatically, and Berlin's reserves dwindled. The Allies came close to a humiliating defeat. Below the details.   Winter in Berlin typically starts with foggy days  and November of 1948 was no exception. Visibility was so bad on so many days that Tunner reduced the minimums for flying from 400 feet visibility to 200 ft. But this wasn’t enough to overcome the problems. The meteorologists were predicting that the fog might persist for weeks, and on Sunday, November 28, it got substantially worse. A fog blanket spread across Europe from Finland to Italy that was so dense that it closed down practically every airport in all of Northern Europe – for the next 100 hours. On November 29, the Airlift came to a complete ...