Most went to Britain, but the Soviet Union received more than $11 billion. But Was He Drugged Into Confessing. Agriculture also suffered a loss of labour; between 1941 and 1945, 19.5 million working-age men had to leave their farms to work in the military and industry. Initially, this proposal failed, but after Germany invaded Poland in September, Congress passed the Neutrality Act of 1939 ending the munitions embargo on a "cash and carry" basis. 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." . In 1941, the threat of World War II drove passage of the Lend-Lease Act repealing key provisions of the Neutrality Acts. "One-on-one against Hitler's Germany, we would not have withstood its onslaught and would have lost the war. In practice, most equipment was destroyed, although some hardware (such as ships) was returned after the war. Lend-Lease aircraft supplied to the Red Air Force 1942-1944: References and literature American M3 tanks on the railway near Murmansk after arriving in Northern Russia. Lend Lease For Ukraine: It was not a Good Deal for US - SOFREP How important was the Lend Lease Act to the Soviet Union? In 1944, Britain transferred several of the US-made destroyers to the USSR. By the end of 1941 Britain had delivered 466 tanks out of the 750 promised. Part of the bill required the British to open their empire to trade. Actual military production was achieved by sacrificing the civilian economy for short-term gain (and likely by burning up pre-existing stockpiles of raw materials). "In a hypothetical battle one-on-one between the U.S.S.R and Germany, without the help of Lend-Lease and without the diversion of significant forces of the Luftwaffe and the German Navy and the diversion of more than one-quarter of its land forces in the fight against Britain and the United States, Stalin could hardly have beaten Hitler," Sokolov wrote in an essay for RFE/RL's Russian Service. 'We Would Have Lost': Did U.S. Lend-Lease Aid Tip The Balance In Soviet Britain had been paying for its materiel with gold as part of the "cash and carry" program, as required by the U.S. Neutrality Acts of the 1930s, but by 1941 it had liquidated a large part of its overseas holdings and its gold reserves were becoming depleted in paying for materiel from the United States. Without Lend-Lease, Russia would not have been able to carry out the Stalingrad counteroffensive and Operation Bagration. Extrapolating from available statistics, researchers estimate that British-supplied tanks made up 30 to 40 percent of the entire heavy and medium tank strength of Soviet forces before Moscow at the beginning of December 1941, and certainly made up a significant proportion of tanks available as reinforcements at this critical point in the fighting. Ordnance goods (ammunition, artillery shells, mines, assorted explosives) provided amounted to 53 percent of total domestic consumption. By the end of 1942, the Nazi advance into the Soviet Union had stalled; it was finally reversed at the epic battle of Stalingrad in 1943. The Government of Mongolia donated its gold and hard currency reserves to the Soviet Union for four years in a row. The legislation is modeled off the World War II-era Lend-Lease Act that allowed the US to arm the Soviet Union, Britain, and other allies prior to its entry into the war. Roosevelt approved $1billion in Lend-Lease aid to Britain at the end of October 1941. ", "How America Helped Build the Soviet Machine | American Heritage", "Ford Motor Company signs agreement with Soviet Union", "Russian historian: Importance of Lend-Lease cannot be overestimated", "Russia and Serbia, A Century of Progress in Rail Transport", "How Much of What Goods Have We Sent to Which Allies? north, and in particular for the Northern Fleet.102Much of the material. 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. Crowley, Leo T. "Lend-Lease". It has been estimated that American deliveries to the USSR through the Persian Corridor alone were sufficient, by US Army standards, to maintain sixty combat divisions in the line. Once again, raw figures do not tell the whole story. The Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937 intended to keep the United States out of war, by making it illegal for Americans to sell or transport arms, or other war materials to warring nationsneither to aggressors, nor to defenders. D.C. 4 Ottawa Protocol (July 1, 194430 June 1945). Originally, the American policy was to help the British but not join the war. This is the official website of the U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Russia. [38] With the outbreak of war these plants switched from civilian to military production and locomotive production ended virtually overnight. From the depths of the Cold War to the present day, many Soviet and Russian politicians have ignored or downplayed the impact of American assistance to the Soviets, as well as the impact of the entire U.S.-British war against the Nazis. Under Lend-Lease, the U.S. shipped more than $50 billion in supplies equivalent to more than $700 billion today. However, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov both stated that Lend-Lease enabled the Soviet Union to defeat Germany on the Eastern Front. Alerts and Messages for U.S. visitors to Russia. Balances for the Soviet Union were solved through a payment scheme in 1972, where they pledged to make three initial payments. 1. Langer, William L. and S. Everett Gleason. 151 Wing of the RAF, which operated briefly from Soviet airfields near Murmansk. US Government Printing Office. $31 billion went to Britain, $11 billion to the Soviet Union, $3 billion to France, and $1.6 billion to China. The pact was terminated when Germany launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union. Lend-Lease: Western Aid for the Soviet Union - YouTube Reverse Lend-Lease to the United States totalled $7.8 billion. According to the Russian historian Boris Vadimovich Sokolov, Lend-Lease had a crucial role in winning the war: On the whole the following conclusion can be drawn: that without these Western shipments under Lend-Lease the Soviet Union not only would not have been able to win the Great Patriotic War, it would not have been able even to oppose the German invaders, since it could not itself produce sufficient quantities of arms and military equipment or adequate supplies of fuel and ammunition. Agricultural issues were also compounded when the Soviets were on the offensive, as areas liberated from the Axis had been devastated and contained millions of people who needed to be fed. Lend Lease was pretty much strategic charity. . L. 77-11, H.R. The United States and the British Commonwealth provided 55. How important was the Lend-Lease to the Soviet war effort? [53] Soviet Ambassador Maxim Litvinov significantly contributed to the Lend-Lease agreement of 1941. But in order to sustain the war effort all the way back to Germany, Lend-Lease was decisive. In the case of the Soviet Union, this residual civilian-type lend-lease was valued by the United States at $2.6 billion (out of total lend-lease to the Soviet Union of $10.8 billion). It allowed the USSR to conquer and subjugate eastern Europe and Manchuria and allowed them to prop up communist dictatorships in Eastern Europe, China and North Korea. Russian historian: Importance of Lend-Lease cannot be overestimated The history of Lend-Lease began on May 15, 1940 when UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill asked Roosevelt to temporarily. Without Lend-Lease food, clothing, and raw materials (especially metals), the Soviet economy would have been even more heavily burdened by the war effort. American deliveries to the Soviet Union can be divided into the following phases: Delivery was via the Arctic Convoys, the Persian Corridor, and the Pacific Route. The plan proposed by FDR was to "lend-lease or otherwise dispose of arms" and other supplies needed by any country whose security was vital to the defense of the United States. The first lend-lease shipments, consisting largely of food and industrial commodities, arrived in England at a time when the German submarine blockade was close to starving out the British Isles. re: In hindsight was it a mistake for the US to ally with the Soviet Union during WW2. "During World War II, only the supplies brought in by Lend-Lease prevented the paralysis of rail transport in the Soviet Union." The Lend-Lease program also sent tons of factory equipment and machine tools to the Soviet Union, including more than 38,000 lathes and other metal-working tools. A total of $50.1 billion (equivalent to $719billion in 2021) worth of supplies was shipped, or 17% of the total war expenditures of the U.S.[2] In all, $31.4 billion went to the United Kingdom, $11.3 billion to the Soviet Union, $3.2 billion to France, $1.6 billion to China, and the remaining $2.6 billion to other Allies. Britain also supplied extensive material assistance to American forces stationed in Europe, for example the USAAF was supplied with hundreds of Spitfire Mk V and Mk VIII fighter aircraft. "It should be remembered that during World War I, the transportation crisis in Russia in 1916-17 that did a lot to facilitate the February Revolution [which lead to the abdication of the tsar] was caused by a shortage in the production of railway rails, engines, and freight cars because industrial production had been diverted to munitions," Sokolov wrote. [35] One item typical of many was a tire plant that was lifted bodily from the Ford Company's River Rouge Plant and transferred to the USSR. The total amount that Canada agreed to pay under the new arrangement came to about $76,800,000, which was some $13,870,000 less than the United States had spent on the facilities. Under Lend-Lease, the United States provided more than one-third of all the explosives used by the Soviet Union during the war. on the Soviet war effort during the first year of the war was in the far. Posted on 2/25/23 at 2:25 pm to WPBTiger. Both were superior to all but the Soviet KV-1 and T-34 in armor, and indeed even their much maligned winter cross-country performance was comparable to most Soviet tanks excluding the KV-1 and T-34. Materials totalling $. 1415 FDR Library", "Anglo-American Mutual Aid Agreement, February 28, 1942", "The Hyde Park Declaration 1941: Origins and Significance", "Consumer Price Index, annual average, not seasonally adjusted", "Consumer Price Index by product group, monthly, percentage change, not seasonally adjusted, Canada, provinces, Whitehorse, Yellowknife and Iqaluit", "America Reports On Aid To Allies etc. A total of 22,800 armored vehicles were delivered to the Red Army during World War II, of which 1,981 were lost in dangerous Arctic convoys. Havlat, Denis. Dalton Delan: It's not World War II, but we are dealing with a new Axis Lend-Lease - Wikipedia Lend-Lease Act of 1941: Facts, Summary, and Significance [55], The Pacific Route opened in August 1941, but was affected by the start of hostilities between Japan and the U.S.; after December 1941, only Soviet ships could be used, and, as Japan and the USSR observed a strict neutrality towards each other, only non-military goods could be transported. An estimated 25 million Soviet citizens perished in the titanic conflict with Nazi Germany between June 1941 and May 1945. The others were never found. Lend-Lease Helped Win World War II, But Not On The Eastern Front BM-13N Katyusha on a Lend-Lease Studebaker US6 truck, at the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, Moscow, In June 1941, within weeks of the German invasion of the USSR, the Anglo-Soviet Agreement was made and the first British aid convoy set off along the dangerous Arctic Sea route to Murmansk, arriving in September. Report from Mikoyan to Stalin and Molotov regarding Lend-Lease . 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. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. American aid also provided 4.5 million tons of food, 1.5 million blankets, and 15 million pairs of boots. After this final payment, Britain's Economic Secretary to the Treasury formally issued thanks to the U.S. for its wartime support. Lend-Lease Act (1941) | National Archives 4, 48. Russia's War in Ukraine: Putin's Soviet Delusion Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (Pub. While the Matilda Mk II and Valentine tanks supplied by the British were certainly inferior to the Soviets homegrown T-34 and KV-1, it is important to note that Soviet production of the T-34 (and to a lesser extent the KV series), was only just getting seriously underway in 1942, and Soviet production was well below plan targets. Known today as Lend-Lease. The cooperation that was built up with Canada during the war was an amalgam compounded of diverse elements of which the air and land routes to Alaska, the Canol project, and the CRYSTAL and CRIMSON activities were the most costly in point of effort and funds expended. The British Military Mission to Moscow noted that by December 9, about ninety British tanks had already been in action with Soviet forces. I was recently able to examine Russian-language materials of the State Defense Committeethe Soviet equivalent of the British War Cabinetheld in the former Central Party Archive. A steady stream of British-made tanks continued to flow into the Red Army through the spring and summer of 1942. 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. One of the greatest differences with prior wars was the enormous increase in the mobility of armies. There were apparently only 263 LaGG-3s in the Soviet inventory by the time of the Moscow counteroffensive, and it was an aircraft with numerous defects. To: The War Office. The Soviets have long insisted that Lend-Lease aid made little difference. Canada also aided the United Kingdom and other Allies with the Billion Dollar Gift and Mutual Aid totalling $3.4 billion in supplies and services (equivalent to $61 billion in 2020) .[4][5]. In addition, almost half of all the rails used by the Soviet Union during the war came through Lend-Lease. Joseph Stalin never revealed to his own people the full contributions of Lend-Lease to their country's survival, but he referred to the program at the 1945 Yalta Conference saying, "Lend-Lease is one of Franklin Roosevelt's most remarkable and vital achievements in the . . 2009. . newsletter for the best of the past, delivered every Monday and Thursday. "During World War II, only the supplies brought in by Lend-Lease prevented the paralysis of rail transport in the Soviet Union.". [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. Although British shipments amounted to only a few percent of Soviet domestic production of machine tools, the Soviet Union could request specific items which it may not have been able to produce for itself. How much Soviet equipment was Lend-Lease? The Lend-Lease Program, 1941-1945 - FDR Presidential Library & Museum Campbell, Thomas M. and George C. Herring, eds. In April 1945, Congress voted that it should not be used for post-conflict purposes, and in August 1945, after Japan surrendered, the program was ended. How Much Did Lend Lease Help Russia? - Czech Heritage Lend-lease was a system of U.S. assistance to the Allies in World War II.It was based on a bill of March, 11, 1941, that gave the president of the United States the right to sell, transfer into property, lease, and rent various kinds of weapons or materials to those countries whose defense the president deemed vital to the defense of the United States itself. In particular, it shows that British Lend-Lease assistance to the Soviet Union in late 1941 and early 1942 played a far more significant part in the defense of Moscow and the revival of Soviet fortunes in late 1941 than has been acknowledged. . CMV: Lend Lease to the Soviet Union during WWII was a massive mistake [61][62], Restrictions in the supply of weapons from the United States were mainly limited to heavy bombers. By spring and summer of 1942 the Hurricane had clearly become the principal fighter aircraft of the Northern Fleets air regiments; in all, 83 out of its 109 fighters were of foreign origin. On May 11, 1947, 27 people were rescued, having spent nearly three weeks in the icebound wreck. How obvious was lend-lease equipment to the average Soviet soldier The Soviet Northern Fleet was also a major and early recipient of British Hurricanes, receiving those flown by No. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. Most visibly, the United States provided the Soviet Union with more than 400,000 jeeps and trucks, 14,000 aircraft, 8,000 tractors and construction vehicles, and 13,000 battle tanks. [73][74], Reverse Lend-Lease was the supply of equipment and services to the United States. Lend-Lease Act - Conservapedia And now they are saying that we had plenty of everything on our own.". [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]. Even after the United States forces in Europe and the Pacific began to attain full strength during 19431944, Lend-Lease continued. The British shared technology included the cavity magnetron (key technology at the time for highly effective radar; the American historian James Phinney Baxter III later called "the most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores"),[13][14] the design for the VT fuze, details of Frank Whittle's jet engine and the FrischPeierls memorandum describing the feasibility of an atomic bomb. ): Deutschland im Zweiten Weltkrieg. [60], Roughly 17.5million tons of military equipment, vehicles, industrial supplies, and food were shipped from the Western Hemisphere to the USSR, 94% coming from the US. Lend-Lease tanks and aircrafts > WW2 Weapons When the House of Representatives finally took a roll call vote on February 9, 1941, the 260 to 165 vote was largely along party lines. Under Lend-Lease, the United States provided more than one-third of all the explosives used by the Soviet Union during the war. Materiel delivered under the act was supplied at no cost, to be used until returned or destroyed. Member since Oct 2007. "The Museum of the Allies and Lend-Lease is a unique, one-of-a-kind museum," said Borodin. 1776, 55 Stat. How important was Lend-Lease for the Soviet war effort? [80], The final payment of $83.3million (42.5million), due on December 31, 2006 (repayment having been deferred in the allowed five years and during a sixth year not allowed), was made by Britain on December 29, 2006 (the last working day of the year).