But it cannot be denied that the Americans sent us materiel without which we could not have formed our reserves or continued the war. While much of the documentary evidence remains classified secret in the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense and the Russian State Archive of the Economy, Western and Russian researchers have been able to gain access to important, previously unavailable firsthand documents. But the Germans were doggedly held off in front of Moscow in late November and early December, and then rolled back by a reinvigorated Red Army in a staggeringly brutal winter counteroffensive. United States and Britain, not the Soviet Union, China, or other United Nations . Even aid that might seem like a drop in the bucket in the larger context of Soviet production for the war played a crucial role in filling gaps at important moments during this period. [75] Reciprocal contributions included the Austin K2/Y military ambulance, British aviation spark plugs used in B-17 Flying Fortresses,[75] Canadian-made Fairmile launches used in anti-submarine warfare, Mosquito photo-reconnaissance aircraft, and Indian petroleum products. newsletter for the best of the past, delivered every Monday and Thursday. Totaling $11.3 billion, or $180 billion in today's currency, the Lend-Lease Act of the United States supplied needed goods to the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1945 in support of what Stalin described to Roosevelt as the "enormous and difficult fight against the common enemy bloodthirsty Hitlerism." Payment was to be stretched out over 50 annual payments, starting in 1951 and with five years of deferred payments, at 2% interest. Marshall Plan Countries. This act set up a system that would allow the United States to lend or lease war supplies to any nation deemed "vital to the defense of the United States." . The dispute remained unresolved until 1972, when the U.S. accepted an offer from the USSR to repay $722 million linked to grain shipments from the U.S., representing 25% of the initial debt with inflation taken into account, with the remainder being written off. [49], Roosevelt, eager to ensure public consent for this controversial plan, explained to the public and the press that his plan was comparable to one neighbor's lending another a garden hose to put out a fire in his home. It is our living history. It provided Britain and the Soviet Union with limited war materiel beginning in October that year. According to research by a team of Soviet historians, the Soviet Union lost a staggering 20,500 tanks from June 22 to December 31, 1941. [36] Most belligerent powers severely decreased production of non-essentials, concentrating on producing weapons. [34], Lend-Lease contributed to the Allied victory. A steady stream of British-made tanks continued to flow into the Red Army through the spring and summer of 1942. Thanks to Lend-Lease, during the war years, the Soviet Union received about 14.8 thousand aircraft, 7.1 thousand tanks, 8.2 thousand anti-aircraft guns, a large number of cars, tractors and other vital supplies. US Government Printing Office. 19329 posts. Answer (1 of 14): Lend Lease was pretty much strategic charity. After the German assault on Russia in June 1941, the defenders got aid with this system through war material, food, fuel and other important raw materials. And they would have been perpetually hungry without American canned meat and fats. How important was lend lease to Soviet Union? The munitions totaled 308m (not including naval munitions supplied), the food and raw materials totaled 120m in 1946 index. Particularly important for the Soviets in late 1941 were British-supplied tanks and aircraft. aid from Britain can be argued to have had the most significant impact. [65], Warsaw 1945: Willys jeep used by the Polish First Army as part of U.S. Lend-Lease program. This was mostly in the form of landing, servicing, and refueling of transport aircraft; some industrial machinery and rare minerals were sent to the U.S. By the end of 1941 Britain had delivered 466 tanks out of the 750 promised. . The country's agriculture was in a difficult situation. ", In 1963, KGB monitoring recorded Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov saying: "People say that the allies didn't help us. From 1941 to 1945, total lend-lease aid to the Soviet Union accounted for only 5% of the Soviet GDP in total. [nb 2][9] Sympathetic to the British plight, but hampered by public opinion and the Neutrality Acts, which forbade arms sales on credit or the lending of money to belligerent nations, Roosevelt eventually came up with the idea of "lendlease". Exmo. About $11 billion in war matriel was sent to the Soviet Union under that program. [6], After the Fall of France during June 1940, the British Commonwealth and Empire were the only forces engaged in war against Germany and Italy, until the Italian invasion of Greece. Congress did not allow the aid to be free, so the U.S. discounted it's Lend-Lease supplies by 90 percent of costs. [40] In total, 92.7% of the wartime production of railroad equipment by the USSR was supplied by Lend-Lease,[35] including 1,911 locomotives and 11,225 railcars[41] which augmented the existing stocks of at least 20,000 locomotives and half a million railcars.[42]. Most famously, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin raised a toast to the Lend-Lease program at the November 1943 Tehran conference with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. The aid was given for free on the basis that such help was essential for the defense of the United States. Even after the United States forces in Europe and the Pacific began to attain full strength during 19431944, Lend-Lease continued. [33], The program was gradually terminated after V-E Day. [64], From October 1, 1941, to May 31, 1945, the United States delivered to the Soviet Union 427,284 trucks, 13,303 combat vehicles, 35,170 motorcycles, 2,328 ordnance service vehicles, 2,670,371 tons of petroleum products (gasoline and oil) or 57.8 percent of the aviation fuel including nearly 90 percent of high-octane fuel used,[35] 4,478,116 tons of foodstuffs (canned meats, sugar, flour, salt, etc. This Douglas is the only Lend-Lease aircraft that remains in Russia.". Part of the bill required the British to open their empire to trade. Lend-Lease aid to the USSR was nominally managed by Stettinius. Nearly $8billion (equivalent to $124billion today) worth of war material was provided to U.S. forces by its allies, 90% of this sum coming from the British Empire. the president asked at a press conference. Some 3,964,000 tons of goods were shipped by the Arctic route; 7% was lost, while 93% arrived safely. In addition, almost half of all the rails used by the Soviet Union during the war came through Lend-Lease. 4, 48/Maslov MA Bomber PE-8. The plane spent 69 years on the tundra before a Russian Geographical Society expedition rescued it in 2016 and returned the wreckage to Krasnoyarsk. In 1939, after Germany invaded Poland, Roosevelt bypassed these restrictions by persuading Congress to permit the government to sell military supplies to France and Britain on a cash-and-carry basisin other words, they could pay cash for American-made supplies and then transport them on their own ships. Collection. In May 1942, HMSEdinburgh was sunk while carrying 4.5 tonnes of Soviet gold intended for the U.S. Treasury. But Was He Drugged Into Confessing. On February 24, 1943, a Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft with serial number 42-32892 rolled out of a factory in Long Beach, California, and was handed over to the U.S. Air Force. This is the official website of the U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Russia. The United States and the British Commonwealth provided 55. Nikolay Ryzhkov & Georgy Kumanev Food and other strategic deliveries to the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease Act, 19411945, pp. It is obvious from this information that during the period of October 1, 1941, to May 1, 1944, the U.S.A., under Lend-Lease, Sent the Soviet Union arms, equipment, materials, and food totaling $5,357,300,000 and weighing 8,514,000 long tons, not including the weight of 92 delivered ships or the weight of 3333 airplanes, which arrived by air. The railroads would have periodically come to a halt. Overcoming massive defeats and colossal losses over the first 18 months of the war, the Red Army was able to reorganize and rebuild to form a juggernaut that marched all the way to Berlin. Without Lend-Lease food, clothing, and raw materials (especially metals), the Soviet economy would have been even more heavily burdened by the war effort. In th. From 1941 and onwards, the RKKA used extensive numbers . In April, this policy was extended to China,[20] and in October to the Soviet Union. [55], In total, the U.S. deliveries to the USSR through Lend-Lease amounted to $11 billion in materials: over 400,000 jeeps and trucks; 12,000 armored vehicles (including 7,000 tanks, about 1,386[57] of which were M3 Lees and 4,102 M4 Shermans);[58] 11,400 aircraft (of which 4,719 were Bell P-39 Airacobras, 3,414 were Douglas A-20 Havocs and 2,397 were Bell P-63 Kingcobras)[59] and 1.75million tons of food. Lend-Lease also sent aviation fuel equivalent to 57 percent of what the Soviet Union itself produced. LEND LEASE. At a time when the majority of Americans opposed direct participation in the war, Lend-Lease represented a vital U.S. contribution to the fight against Nazi Germany. For foreign citizens who want to live permanently in the United States. Roosevelt approved $1billion in Lend-Lease aid to Britain at the end of October 1941. Canada would eventually produce 1,420 Valentines, almost exclusively for delivery to the Soviet Union. But according to . Dear h, I don't doubt the word of the old gent seeing USA on "Soviet" equipment. The first of these units to have seen action seems to have been the 138th Independent Tank Battalion (with twenty-one British tanks), which was involved in stemming the advance of German units in the region of the Volga Reservoir to the north of Moscow in late November. The Neutrality Acts, enacted between 1935 and 1939, were intended to prevent the United States from becoming involved in foreign wars. But in order to sustain the war effort all the way back to Germany, Lend-Lease was decisive. [43] Lend-Lease also supplied significant amounts of weapons and ammunition. In turn, this would have allowed the German commanders to escape at least some encirclements, while forcing the Red Army to prepare and conduct many more deliberate penetration attacks in order to advance the same distance. On May 11, 1947, 27 people were rescued, having spent nearly three weeks in the icebound wreck. Fourth protocol period from July 1, 1944 (signed April 17, 1945), formally ended May 12, 1945, but deliveries continued for the duration of the war with Japan (which the Soviet Union entered on August 8, 1945) under the "Milepost" agreement until September 2, 1945, when Japan capitulated. Lend-Lease effectively ended the United States' pretense of neutrality which had been enshrined in the Neutrality Acts of the 1930s. Totaling $11.3 billion, or $180 billion in today's currency, the Lend-Lease Act of the United States supplied needed goods to the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1945 in support of what Stalin described to Roosevelt as the "enormous and difficult fight against the common enemy bloodthirsty Hitlerism." The captain, two crew members, and six passengers had left earlier in an ill-fated effort to get help. However, the real significance of Lend-Lease for the Soviet war effort was that it covered the "sensitive points" of Soviet production -- gasoline, explosives, aluminum, nonferrous metals, radio communications, and so on, says historian Boris Sokolov. north, and in particular for the Northern Fleet.102Much of the material. Supply volumes and the significance of lend-lease. At the end of 1941 there were greater numbers of the MiG-3, but the plane was considered difficult to fly.
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