Soviet Harassment During the Berlin Airlift
The Airlift was the first battle in the Cold War and it largely established the rules of engagement. Most importantly, both parties avoided direct military confrontation, preferring proxies and indirect means of fighting. Thus, although the Soviets could easily have stopped the Airlift by shooting down Allied aircraft, they instead sought to interfere using tactics that fell short of outright hostilities. One obvious Soviet harassment tactic was to try to interfere with Airlift aircraft navigation. Many British and American pilots reported the jamming of the radio frequencies used for the vital ground-to-air communications, either by blasting a monotone sound over the airwaves that blocked out other transmissions or by filling the air with ceaseless Russian chatter. Fortunately there were many frequencies that could be used and pilots knew how to switch rapidly. Less frequent was the Soviet use of devices that confused radio compasses. These were particularly dan...