During the Berlin Airlift of 1948, a French general blew up two Soviet radio towers. When the Russian general asked how he could do such a thing, he replied: "With dynamite, my dear colleague."

Brigadier General Jean Ganeval was the Commandant of the French Sector of Berlin during the time of the Berlin Airlift. French participation in the Airlift was limited compared to British and US participation, but when winter came, France played a major role.

Britain and the USA could not keep up with delivering the demand for coal by air, because supplies had to be more than doubled.

France stepped in and built a new airfield in the French sector, Tegel. They accomplished this in a mere 90 days!

There was a problem, though. Two Soviet-controlled radio towers made the approach to the Tegel airfield unacceptably dangerous. Brigadier General Jean Ganeval requested the Soviets to take it down or to move it. They refused.

Ganeval warned them that, if they did not remove the towers, he will remove it for them. They ignored him. He kept his word and on 16 December 1948, on Ganeval's orders, the towers were blown up using explosives.

The Soviets were outraged in their disbelief! Lieutenant General Alexej Kotikow called his French counterpart and asked him how he could possibly have done such a thing.

General Jean Ganeval responded in true French style: "With dynamite, my dear colleague." Unfortunately there is no recorded record of General Kotikow's reaction to this laconic reply.

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