<P> As the tempo of the Airlift grew, it became apparent that the Western powers might be able to pull off the impossible: indefinitely supplying an entire city by air alone . In response, starting on 1 August, the Soviets offered free food to anyone who crossed into East Berlin and registered their ration cards there, but West Berliners overwhelmingly rejected Soviet offers of food . </P> <P> Throughout the airlift, Soviet and German communists subjected the hard - pressed West Berliners to sustained psychological warfare . In radio broadcasts, they relentlessly proclaimed that all Berlin came under Soviet authority and predicted the imminent abandonment of the city by the Western occupying powers . The Soviets also harassed members of the democratically elected citywide administration, which had to conduct its business in the city hall located in the Soviet sector . </P> <P> During the early months of the airlift, the Soviets used various methods to harass allied aircraft . These included buzzing by Soviet planes, obstructive parachute jumps within the corridors, and shining searchlights to dazzle pilots at night . Although the USAFE reported 733 separate harassing events, including flak, air - to - air fire, rocketing, bombing, and explosions, this is now considered to be exaggerated . None of these measures were effective . Former RAF Dakota pilot Dick Arscott described one "buzzing" incident . "Yaks (Soviet plane) used to come and buzz you and go over the top of you at about twenty feet which can be off putting . One day I was buzzed about three times...The following day it started again and he came across twice and I got a bit fed up with it . So when he came for the third time, I turned the aircraft into him and it was a case of chicken, luckily he was the one who chickened out ." </P> <P> In the autumn of 1948 it became impossible for the non-Communist majority in Greater Berlin's citywide parliament to attend sessions at city hall within the Soviet sector . The parliament (Stadtverordnetenversammlung von Groß - Berlin) had been elected under the provisional constitution of Berlin two years earlier (20 October 1946). As SED - controlled policemen looked on passively, Communist - led mobs repeatedly invaded the Neues Stadthaus, the provisional city hall (located on Parochialstraße since all other central municipal buildings had been destroyed in the War), interrupted the parliament's sessions, and physically menaced its non-Communist members . The Kremlin organised an attempted putsch for control of all of Berlin through a 6 September takeover of the city hall by SED members . </P>

Airlifting food to break the berlin blockade is an example of