The United States and the British Commonwealth provided 55 percent of all the aluminum the Soviet Union used during the war and more than 80 percent of the copper. Report from Mikoyan to Stalin and Molotov regarding Lend-Lease That the Soviet victories of late 1941 were won with Soviet blood and largely with Soviet weapons is beyond dispute. 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]. 15 Great Facts About Ukraine - Discover Walks Blog It seems to fly in the face of some stories I've heard about Stalin ordering the obliteration of all USA and British markings on Lend Lease Materiel so as to maintain the illusion of the USSR doing it all on its own and that the others fighting the common enemy were the "little allies". Churchill called the letter "one of the most important I ever wrote.". [32] In September 1943, he was promoted to Undersecretary of State, and Leo Crowley became director of the Foreign Economic Administration, which was given responsibility for Lend-Lease. The United States did not provide them to the USSR when requested. The Short History Of The Great Patriotic War, also from 1948, acknowledged the Lend-Lease shipments, but concluded: "Overall this assistance was not significant enough to in any way exert a decisive influence over the course of the Great Patriotic War. American aid also provided 4.5 million tons of food, 1.5 million blankets, and 15 million pairs of boots. Even before the United States entered World War II in December 1941, America sent arms and equipment to the Soviet Union to help it defeat the Nazi invasion. It carried 40 Hawker Hurricanes along with 550 mechanics and pilots of No. The United States used lend-lease to induce recipients to the American way of thinking, especially regarding the economy and free-market trade. [1] There was no repayment required. Other largely British-equipped tank units in action with the Western Front from early December were the 131st Independent Tank Brigade, which fought to the east of Tula, south of Moscow, and 146th Tank Brigade, in the region of Kriukovo to the immediate west of the Soviet capital. As one Roosevelt biographer has characterized it: "If there was no practical alternative, there was certainly no moral one either. It provided Britain and the Soviet Union with limited war materiel beginning in October that year. Britain got of their arms and ammunition from this Act. Then in 1972 agreement was reached on $722 . Championed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Lend-Lease Act authorized the transfer . "[10] As the President himself put it, "There can be no reasoning with incendiary bombs."[11]. Most went to Britain, but the Soviet Union received more than $11 billion. The museum was established inside a former school and has been open for 8 years. An estimated 25 million Soviet citizens perished in the titanic conflict with Nazi Germany between June 1941 and May 1945. WWII program to provide U.S. allies with free armaments, This article is about the World War II program. And though rapid increases in tank firepower would soon render the 40mm two-pounder main gun of the Matilda and Valentine suitable for use on light tanks only, the armor protection of these British models put them firmly in the heavy and medium categories, respectively. Could we really have set up the production of our tanks without American steel? Milestones: 1937-1945 - Office of the Historian About $11 billion in war matriel was sent to the Soviet Union under that program. Dec 7, 1941 . (1942). How important was the Lend-Lease to the Soviet war effort? Our Fortresses and Liberators take off from huge air bases built, equipped and serviced under reverse lend-lease at a cost to them of hundreds of millions of dollars. Particularly important for the Soviets in late 1941 were British-supplied tanks and aircraft. 'We Would Have Lost': Did U.S. Lend-Lease Aid Tip The Balance In Soviet Fight Against Nazi Germany? Dalton Delan: It's not World War II, but we are dealing with a new Axis HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. How important was Lend-Lease for the Soviet war effort? [35] Roosevelt made sure that Lend-Lease policies were supportive of his foreign policy goals by putting his top aide Harry Hopkins in effective control of the program. 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. It was quite important, and it became especially important during the second half of WWII when the Red Army went from defending to attacking. Lend-Lease: Western Aid for the Soviet UnionPart of Eastern Front Fortnight (4) on WW2TVWith Denis HavlatDuring WWII the Soviet Union received large amounts . The Lend-Lease act was enacted in March 1941 and authorized the United States to provide weapons, provisions, and raw materials to strategically important countries fighting Germany and Japan primarily, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China. The passage of the 1939 amendment to the previous Neutrality Acts marked the beginning of a congressional shift away from isolationism, making a first step toward interventionism. [33], The program was gradually terminated after V-E Day. 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. Part of the bill required the British to open their empire to trade. How obvious was lend-lease equipment to the average Soviet soldier Evolucin de los . And they would have been perpetually hungry without American canned meat and fats. [73][74], Reverse Lend-Lease was the supply of equipment and services to the United States. [82] In June 1942, SSPort Nicholson was sunk en route from Halifax to New York, allegedly with Soviet platinum, gold, and diamonds aboard; the wreck was discovered in 2008. But for decades the official Soviet line went much further. I will quote at length: Under Lend-Lease, the United States provided more than one-third of all the explosives used by the Soviet Union during the war. Lend-Lease: Western Aid for the Soviet Union - YouTube Dear h, I don't doubt the word of the old gent seeing USA on "Soviet" equipment. The Lend-Lease Memorial in Fairbanks, Alaska, commemorates the shipment of U.S. aircraft to the Soviet Union along the Northwest Staging Route. 'We would have lost': Did U.S. lend-lease aid tip the balance in Soviet uboat.net - Fighting the U-boats - The Lend-Lease Act Photo: Museum of the U.S. Air Force (Courtesy Photo). By the end of the war, the United States had extended over $49 billion in Lend-Lease aid to nearly forty nations. D.C. 4 Ottawa Protocol (July 1, 194430 June 1945). In addition, almost half of all the rails used by the Soviet Union during the war came through Lend-Lease. Soviet industry in World War II - Wikipedia Some 3,964,000 tons of goods were shipped by the Arctic route; 7% was lost, while 93% arrived safely. Canada was not a direct recipient of Lend-Lease aid. 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. It is our living history. In a secret protocol of this pact, the Germans and the Soviets agreed that Poland should be divided between them, with the western third of the country going to Germany and the eastern two-thirds being taken over by the U.S.S.R. Popular Questions What was the cause of World War II? By the end of 1941, the lend-lease policy. Allen (1946) p 252. [24], A total of $50.1billion (equivalent to $606billion in 2021)[26] was involved, or 17% of the total war expenditures of the U.S.[2] Most, $31.4billion ($380billion) went to Britain and its empire. [67][68] The British tanks first saw action with the 138 Independent Tank Battalion in the Volga Reservoir on November 20, 1941. How important was the Lend Lease Act for the Soviet Union - Quora Tomahawks also served in defense of the Doroga Zhizni or Road of Life across the ice of Lake Ladoga, which provided the only supply line to the besieged city of Leningrad during the winter of 194142. Arctic convoys of World War II - Wikipedia The Senate passed it by a vote of 63 to 1. Large quantities of undelivered goods were in Britain or in transit when Lend-Lease terminated on September 2, 1945. How Much Did Lend Lease Help Russia? - Czech Heritage | AHA", "Lend-Lease and Military Aid to the Allies in the Early Years of World, The United States at war; development and administration of the war program by the federal government, Sea routes of Soviet Lend-Lease:Voice of Russia, "$220 Million in Gold Bullion was Recovered from HMS Edinburgh", "Report to Congress on Reverse Lend-Lease", "Chapter XIV: The United States and Canada: Copartners in Defense. 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. 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). And it is a salient point that over 80% of the aid was received after June 1942, when the tide of the war had already turned against the Germans on the Eastern Front. Check out A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn on Amazon https://amzn.to/3lS8oVMLike & Subscribe for Daily US H. Did Russia Really Go It Alone? How Lend-Lease Helped the - HistoryNet He suggested amending the act to allow warring nations to purchase military goods, arms and munitions if they paid cash and bore the risks of transporting the goods on non-American ships, a policy that would favor Britain and France. ", In 1963, KGB monitoring recorded Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov saying: "People say that the allies didn't help us. 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. [35] Most tank units were Soviet-built models but about 7,000 Lend-Lease tanks (plus more than 5,000 British tanks) were used by the Red Army, eight percent of war-time production. How Much of What Goods Have We Sent to Which Allies? | AHA - Historians The invasion had cost the USSR a huge amount of its agricultural base; during the initial Axis offensive of 194142, the total sown area of the USSR fell by 41.9% and the number of collective and state farms by 40%. 2009. . But listen, one cannot deny that the Americans shipped over to us material without which we could not have equipped our armies held in reserve or been able to continue the war.[48]. TNA WO 193/580, Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022, Allied technological cooperation during World War II, "Letter, Winston Churchill to Franklin Roosevelt, December 7, 1940, pp. Supplies that arrived after the termination date were sold to Britain at a large discount for 1.075billion, using long-term loans from the United States. In terms of its relationship with the Soviet Union, lend-lease served as a powerful tool for demonstrating the benefits of the . Each method was difficult. WWII lend-lease: was the US aid that helpful? (I) The Lend-Lease program also provided more than 35,000 radio sets and 32,000 motorcycles. Under the Lend-Lease Act, the United States sent enormous quantities of war materiel to the Soviet Union, which was critical in helping the Soviets withstand the Nazi onslaught. James Phinney Baxter III (Official Historian of the Office of Scientific Research and Development), Wolfgang Schumann (et al. The U.S. received $2 million in reverse Lend-Lease from the USSR. Much of the meaning of Lend-Lease aid can be better understood when considering the innovative nature of World War II, as well as the economic distortions caused by the war. On April 23, 1947, this C-37 was forced to make an emergency landing with 36 people on board near the village of Volochanka on the Taimyr Peninsula. Britain and the Commonwealth were carrying the battle for all civilization, and the overwhelming majority of Americans, led in the late election by their president, wished to help them. One of the greatest differences with prior wars was the enormous increase in the mobility of armies. 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. After a decade of neutrality, Roosevelt knew that the change to Allied support must be gradual, given the support for isolationism in the country. The supplies dispersed under the Lend-Lease Act ranged from tanks, aircraft, ships, weapons and road building supplies to clothing, chemicals and food. How important was the Lend-Lease to the Soviet war effort? billion (about $ billion in prices ) were sent to several dozen recipient countries, including the main ones: While Soviet pilots praised the maneuverability of the homegrown I-153 Chaika and I-16 Ishak fightersstill in use in significant numbers in late 1941both types were certainly obsolete and inferior in almost all regards to the British-supplied Hurricane. [16] Propaganda showing the devastation of British cities during The Blitz, as well as popular depictions of Germans as savage also rallied public opinion to the Allies, especially after Germany conquered France. [76] Australia and New Zealand supplied the bulk of foodstuffs to United States forces in the South Pacific. Bill Introduced in the House Would Allow US to Lend Weapons to Taiwan Lend-Lease Act of 1941: Facts, Summary, and Significance Once again, raw figures do not tell the whole story. The U.S. government never published detailed reports on what and how much was sent under the Lend-Lease program to the USSR. Lend-Lease kept the Soviet home front going through the winter of 1941 and throughout 1942. 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. From 1941 and onwards, the RKKA used extensive numbers . The US Supported Soviet Union with Lend-Lease Program - YouTube 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. In September 1940, during the Battle of Britain the British government sent the Tizard Mission to the United States. 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. [66], By the end of 1941, early shipments of Matilda, Valentine and Tetrarch tanks represented only 6.5% of total Soviet tank production but over 25% of medium and heavy tanks produced for the Red Army. 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. This gold was salvaged in 1981 and 1986. Democrats voted 238 to 25 in favor and Republicans 24 in favor and 135 against. [53] Soviet Ambassador Maxim Litvinov significantly contributed to the Lend-Lease agreement of 1941. 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. This was the first big war in which whole formations were routinely motorized; soldiers were supported with large numbers of all kinds of vehicles. 3, S. 468. US Neutrality Acts of the 1930s and the Lend-Lease Act - ThoughtCo Moscow. [11] Isolationists were strongly opposed, warning it would result in American involvement with what was considered by most Americans as an essentially European conflict. On September 20, 1945, all Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union was terminated. Mystery surrounds the infamous burning of the Reichstag in 1933. Even Joseph Stalin himself would say that the lend-lease was . the president asked at a press conference. It was part of a scratch operational group of the Western Front consisting of the 18th Rifle Brigade, two ski battalions, the 5th and 20th Tank Brigades, and the 140th Independent Tank Battalion. The Viking Press. Lend-Lease Act (1941) | National Archives Lend-Lease: Aircraft to the Soviet Union > National Museum of the A particular critical aspect of Lend-Lease was the supply of food. For European Recovery (June 23, 1997) - Library of Congress - Loc.gov [3] In terms of administration, the president established the Office of Lend-Lease Administration during 1941, headed by steel executive Edward R. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The program started 3 months after the German invasion of USSR in June, 1941. The program sent nearly 2,000 locomotives and innumerable boxcars to the Soviet Union. [18], The vote in the Senate, which occurred on 9 March, revealed a similar partisan difference: 49 Democrats (79 percent) voted "aye" with only 13 Democrats (21 percent) voting "nay". And the Soviet Union didn't pay much of that. Even after the United States forces in Europe and the Pacific began to attain full strength during 19431944, Lend-Lease continued. This is the official website of the U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Russia. Ordnance goods (ammunition, artillery shells, mines, assorted explosives) provided amounted to 53 percent of total domestic consumption. [83] However, none of this cargo has been salvaged, and no documentation of its treasure has been produced.[84]. Under Lend-Lease, the United States provided more than one-third of all the explosives used by the Soviet Union during the war. "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. In 1941, the threat of World War II drove passage of the Lend-Lease Act repealing key provisions of the Neutrality Acts. But the speed at which Britain in particular was willing and able to provide aid to the Soviet Union, and at which the Soviet Union was able to put foreign equipment into frontline use, is still an underappreciated part of this story. Lend-Lease thus provided a massive quantity of foodstuffs and agricultural products.[44]. . First protocol period from October 1, 1941, to June 30, 1942 (signed October 7, 1941), Second protocol period from July 1, 1942, to June 30, 1943 (signed October 6, 1942), Third protocol period from July 1, 1943, to June 30, 1944 (signed October 19, 1943). But according to . 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. But the Soviet Union was never alone: Months before the United States formally entered the war, it had already begun providing massive military and economic assistance to its Soviet ally through the Lend-Lease program. The Lend-Lease act was enacted in March 1941 and authorized the United States to provide weapons, provisions, and raw materials to strategically important countries fighting Germany and Japan -- primarily, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China. 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. 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. Lend-Lease also sent aviation fuel equivalent to 57 percent of what the Soviet Union itself produced. . CMV: Lend Lease to the Soviet Union during WWII was a massive mistake Crowley, Leo T. "Lend Lease" in Walter Yust, ed. Even before the United States entered World War II in December 1941, America sent arms and equipment to the Soviet Union to help it defeat the Nazi invasion. New Ukraine Military Aid Bill Isn't Your Grandfather's Lend-Lease Act 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. (German Language). It is commonly agreed that the implementation of the Lend-Lease Act greatly increased the strength of the Soviet Union and Great Britain against Germany, the two biggest gainers in this Act. [12] The aim of the British Technical and Scientific Mission was to obtain the industrial resources to exploit the military potential of the research and development work completed by the UK up to the beginning of World War II, but that Britain itself could not exploit due to the immediate requirements of war-related production.