Soviet Union didn't singlehandedly win WWII: Lend Lease

[Profileid]

Russian historian: Importance of Lend-Lease cannot be overestimated

RBTH: How great was the economic importance of military cooperation between the USSR and the U.S.? What is the importance of Lend-Lease for the formation of economic relations between our countries?

Oleg Budnitsky: It was large-scale military technical assistance from the Allies, especially the U.S., but also the UK and Canada. Volumes of this support are assessed differently. In the Soviet tradition, it was assumed that it was 4 percent of the total production capacity of the USSR, but the latest research shows that in reality the level was as high as 7 percent. The importance of economic cooperation with the U.S., UK and Canada cannot be overestimated. According to the dollar rate of 2003, the inflation-adjusted value of these supplies amounted to $130 billion. These supplies were critical in some key areas. For example, in the beginning of 1942, Western tanks fully replenished Soviet losses, and exceeded them by three times. About 15 percent of the aircraft used by Soviet air forces were supplied by Allies, including the Airacobra fighter and Boston bomber. The Allies supplied 15,000 state-of-the-art machines at that time; for example, famous Soviet ace Alexander Pokryshkin flew Airacobra, as did the rest of his squadron. He shot down 59 enemy aircraft, and 48 of them were thanks to American military equipment.

RBTH: If we speak not only about the supply of military equipment, but also industrial appliances and accessories, what was the volume of cooperation here?

O.B.: One of the main areas of cooperation was aviation fuel. The USSR could not produce gasoline with high octane. However, it was this fuel that was used by the equipment supplied by the Allies. In addition, the Achilles heel of the Soviet Army was communication and transport. The Soviet industry simply could not meet the demand either in number or in quality.

For example, the army lost 58 percent of its vehicles in 1941 alone. To recover these losses, the Allies supplied more than 400,000 vehicles, mainly trucks, to the USSR. During the occupation, the German concern Daimler Benz set up a vehicle assembly line at a factory in Minsk (now the capital of Belarus). After the liberation of the city, the assembly of American vehicles under Lend-Lease was organized there.

It was not only supplies of finished products, but also raw materials that were extremely important – metals, chemicals and products, which were either not produced in the USSR or lost to the enemy. For example, more than half of Soviet aircraft were produced using aluminum supplied by the Allies.

RBTH: What portion of these supplies served military needs directly, and can we talk about a fully-fledged civil partnership?

O.B.: In the first protocol of Lend-Lease (there were four of them), only 20 percent of deliveries were in military equipment, while 80 percent were related to industrial and food production. The Allies supplied 1900 locomotives to the USSR, while only 446 locomotives were produced in the country itself during the same period, as well as 11,000 carriages, while only a few more than 1,000 were made in the USSR. It is impossible to imagine how the Soviet economy would have functioned without these supplies. For example, the telephone cable provided by the Allies could wrap the Earth at the equator. The Allies’ aid was also critical in the reconstruction of production in the liberated regions of the country, including the role of seeds for the resumption of agriculture. Specific products were also supplied; the Allies delivered 610,000 tons of sugar to the USSR, whereas the USSR itself produced little more than 1.46 million tons.

RBTH: How serious was the decline in cooperation after the war?

O.B.: The fall was quite sharp, in the first place because Lend-Lease had ended. The equipment destroyed during the fighting was written off, but what was left was to be returned. Before ending the war, the USSR and the U.S. were negotiating loans for the restoration of the national economy. In particular, the U.S. offered to the Soviet leadership a large-scale loan for 35 years at 2 percent per annum. There were counter-pleas from the Soviet government, specifically Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov tried to negotiate a loan for $6 billion for 30 years, but economic ties failed to develop. The USSR was afraid to get into economic dependence on the West, since the Soviet leadership did not believe in the sincerity of help from the Allies.

https://www.rbth.com/business/2015/0...ase_45879.html

[Linebacker]

Yes it did.I laugh when Americans say otherwise.

If it wasnt for the war with the Soviet Union,and the massive casualties it caused to Germany on the Eastern Front,Hitler was going to be playing golf on the lawn of the White House using Churchill's skull as the ball and Roosevelt's corpse as the stick.

[Loki]

Jesus some peope are stupid. Only those with zero grounding in history can fall for such lies. Come on Etain.

[Profileid]

Yes it did.I laugh when Americans say otherwise.

If it wasnt for the war with the Soviet Union,and the massive casualties it caused to Germany on the Eastern Front,Hitler was going to be playing golf on the lawn of the White House using Churchill's skull as the ball and Roosevelt's corpse as the stick.

the Allies supplied more than 400,000 vehicles,

The Allies supplied 15,000 state-of-the-art machines

[Linebacker]

Jesus some peope are stupid. Only those with zero grounding in history can fall for such lies. Come on Etain.

Germany lost almost its entire armed forces exclusively on the Eastern Front.

The Eastern Front was used as a punishment for troops out of line then.They knew once you get sent on the Eastern Front you are a dead man.

[Loki]

Compare this with the absolute paranoia currently gripping the US about Russia, and you have a match.

[Profileid]

Jesus some peope are stupid. Only those with zero grounding in history can fall for such lies. Come on Etain.

Why did the USSR need all these supplies if they could do it alone?They couldn't produce the right kind of fuel,enough tanks, and so forth. Everything I stated is documented historical fact.

The OP is from a Russian historian.

[Loki]

Why did the USSR need all these supplies if they could do it alone?They couldn't produce th right kind of fuel,enough tanks, and so forth. Everything I stated is documented historical fact.

Etain, WHO THE HELL has suddenly made you a scholar in WW2 history? You're too full of it, you know less than nothing. Stop following the anti-Russian propaganda like a lapdoggie. It makes you look silly.

[Laberia]

Yes it did.I laugh when Americans say otherwise.

If it wasnt for the war with the Soviet Union,and the massive casualties it caused to Germany on the Eastern Front,Hitler was going to be playing golf on the lawn of the White House using Churchill's skull as the ball and Roosevelt's corpse as the stick.

Such a vulgar post.
Why Hitler didn't invaded Great Britain?

[Profileid]

Etain, WHO THE HELL has suddenly made you a scholar in WW2 history? You're too full of it, you know less than nothing. Stop following the anti-Russian propaganda like a lapdoggie. It makes you look silly.

Allied shipments to the USSR actually happened. It's not propaganda. Everyone acknowledges it.

Delivery was via the Arctic Convoys, the Persian Corridor, and the Pacific Route.

The Arctic route was the shortest and most direct route for lend-lease aid to the USSR, though it was also the most dangerous as it involved sailing past German-occupied Norway. Some 3,964,000 tons of goods were shipped by the Arctic route; 7% was lost, while 93% arrived safely.[37] This constituted some 23% of the total aid to the USSR during the war.

The Persian Corridor was the longest route, and was not fully operational until mid-1942. Thereafter it saw the passage of 4,160,000 tons of goods, 27% of the total.[37]

The Pacific Route opened in August 1941, but was affected by the start of hostilities between Japan and the US; 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.[38] Nevertheless, some 8,244,000 tons of goods went by this route, 50% of the total.[37]

In total, the U.S. deliveries 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[39] of which were M3 Lees and 4,102 M4 Shermans);[40] 11,400 aircraft (4,719 of which were Bell P-39 Airacobras)[41] and 1.75 million tons of food.[42]

Roughly 17.5 million tons of military equipment, vehicles, industrial supplies, and food were shipped from the Western Hemisphere to the USSR, 94% coming from the US. For comparison, a total of 22 million tons landed in Europe to supply American forces from January 1942 to May 1945. 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.[43][44]

The United States sold to the Soviet Union from October 1, 1941 to May 31, 1945 the following: 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 High-octane aviation fuel,[24] 4,478,116 tons of foodstuffs (canned meats, sugar, flour, salt, etc.), 1,911 steam locomotives, 66 Diesel locomotives, 9,920 flat cars, 1,000 dump cars, 120 tank cars, and 35 heavy machinery cars. Provided ordnance goods (ammunition, artillery shells, mines, assorted explosives) amounted to 53 percent of total domestic production.[24] 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 1947 money value of the supplies and services amounted to about eleven billion dollars.[45]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lend-L...e_Soviet_Union