The Secret Side of Lend-Lease
Gulls shouted, and in the waves of the court swayed
In a lead haze from earth to earth,
Yesterday, they said goodbye to Reykjavik,
Yesterday they left London.
There was a war and not find more valuable cargo,
What was laid down in the holds
And on the fields of the fronts of the Soviet Union
They learned a new word - “Lend-Lease”.
A.S. Zeller
In a lead haze from earth to earth,
Yesterday, they said goodbye to Reykjavik,
Yesterday they left London.
There was a war and not find more valuable cargo,
What was laid down in the holds
And on the fields of the fronts of the Soviet Union
They learned a new word - “Lend-Lease”.
A.S. Zeller
In life, any values are relative. If the cargo was considered valuable to the sender, this does not mean that it was of great value to the recipient.
Agree, a very unusual look at the role and importance of Lend-Lease in the Great Patriotic War.
The material provides little-known facts about the events of that time.
The signing of the last Ottawa Protocol (April 1945), which regulated the supply of goods to the USSR, was accompanied by several scandals. The American side expressed bewilderment at the way in which the Soviet side disposes of “valuable goods” received from the Allies.
Thus, the Americans through their channels established that of the 50 ship diesels delivered as part of one of the orders, only three were installed on Soviet ships under construction. The rest just rusted in warehouses.
Thousands of tons of previously supplied equipment for the refinery and tire plants were also unpacked.
Representatives of the United States demanded henceforth a more thorough justification of new applications for high-tech equipment. All applications should have been accompanied by documentary evidence of the state of a particular branch of Soviet industry.
But bureaucracy was nothing new to the Union. It was not difficult for our representatives to provide any necessary reports and forms for any selected period of time. And account for any work done. As a result, during the war years the USSR "substantiated" the need to obtain 7784 units. marine engines!
Is it worth explaining that the domestic shipbuilding industry was in stagnation during the war years. The number of warships built (completed from pre-war reserves) of the main classes was only 70 units. And the number of ships and boats built was estimated at only a few hundred.
Why ordered over 7000 engines? Diesels and engines of exactly the class that the Americans themselves needed to equip them with landing ships and self-propelled vehicles for landing from the sea.
In the supply tables there are some incredible numbers. Hundreds of thousands of tons of explosives. Millions of tons of chemicals. 800 thousand tons of non-ferrous metals. 1,6 million kilometers of telegraph cable ...
Huge amounts of help!
As if it was a country that had not produced anything at all before. And in the prewar years, it did not have the largest and one of the most technically equipped armies in the world.
The bulk of these deliveries did not fall on the hardest period of 1941-1942, when the threat of a shortage could really arise from the loss of capacities and enterprises in the western regions of the country. Not! The main Lend-Lease deliveries were 1944-1945, when the evacuated industry was at its peak, and Soviet rear workers set labor records.
How did they fight without Lend-Lease explosives and aluminum at the beginning of the war, breaking the ridge of the Wehrmacht near Stalingrad? And why did the USSR need so much military equipment at the very end?
These questions need clarification.
After half a century, liberal historians will write that "deliveries in certain categories were hundreds of percent higher than Soviet production during the war years." In such circumstances, without Lend-Lease, of course, there was no way to win.
But someone wondered if this help was used directly for the war with Germany.
The American delegation arriving in Arkhangelsk was amazed to see the use of Lend-Lease aluminum "as flooring for moorings and warehouses."
In total, 300 thousand tons of “winged metal”, so necessary, was delivered from abroad. aviation industry! About the same amount was produced in the USSR itself.
Soviet aircraft factories both produced aircraft with wooden cladding, and continued to produce them until the end of the war. It is quite obvious that the domestic aviation industry was physically unable to process and use such volumes of light metals as intended.
For example, the most advanced La-7: the power set of the fuselage is made of pine, the wing trim and the fuselage are made of birch veneer.
In the sources, such treatment of valuable materials is attributed to the wartime mess and the negligent attitude of the Soviet side. Sure, it was. For a country with a strict planned wartime economy. Which in the shortest possible time was able to carry out a unique operation to evacuate thousands of enterprises and deploy them in a new place in the same form.
Can you imagine that under such conditions they could “just forget” about the oil refinery or the mountains of aluminum dumped on the quays?
Or the Soviet Union was simultaneously solving another, unknown task ...
The more aluminum accumulates on our berths, the less you will build Mustangs and Fortresses!
It was the same with thousands of marine diesels and engines "for torpedo boats being built in the Soviet Union." The more rusting engines accumulate in our country, the less airborne assets (LCM, LCU) for the US Navy will be built.
Who in 1945 could guarantee that these funds would not be used by the Allies for landing, for example, in the Crimea?
See a hundred steps forward! The highest leadership of the USSR did not have the slightest doubt about how bad relations with the Allies would develop after the victory over Germany.
Even the victory in its accepted form was in question. The Anglo-Saxons could hastily agree with their poor German relatives and make a separate peace with them. This threat became even more apparent with the death of F. Roosevelt on April 12, 1945.
As already indicated, the bulk of Lend-Lease came at a time when the outcome of the war became apparent. A significant proportion of the supplied equipment and materials simply did not have time to be used in the fight against the Third Reich.
The geniuses of Soviet diplomacy did everything possible (and impossible!) In the interests of their country. In the conditions of rapid deterioration of relations, they continued to “punch” the necessary applications on the most favorable conditions. In an effort to reduce, as far as possible, the supply of military equipment that has already become unnecessary, gradually shifting the focus towards civilian equipment. All this was motivated by the need for the USSR to enter the war with Japan and the continuation of hostilities over the next 18 months.
In the spring of the 45th, our overseas partners nevertheless gradually began to see. The Americans flatly refused to provide technological equipment for the long-term operation in the national economy under the Lend-Lease Act. Food production lines, energy, metallurgical, glass-blowing and chemical equipment since April 1945 were provided only on credit. For real gold.
Not all valuable goods were “forgotten” or “disposed of” in order to prevent their use in the interests of the armed forces and the US economy
Some were of particular value. They were carefully guarded in case of use in the coming war with former allies.
A fairly well-known fact: not one of the 2397 Kingcobra fighters delivered, not one of the 1200 Spitfires of the later IX modification, fell on the Eastern Front. Luftwaffe pilots in isolated cases mentioned meetings with the King Cobras in their reports, but this can be attributed to the confusion and natural tension of the battle. In fact, unverified legends.
While high-altitude Spitfires were nevertheless enlisted in the Moscow air defense system (as of 1944, they were a deep rear), the most powerful Kingcobras were initially supplied with conditions that precluded their use on the Eastern Front. Only to participate in the war with Japan.
But the Soviet side had other considerations in this regard. The fighters were not going to be used either against the Luftwaffe, or in the Far East. They were cherished for a special day. Due to its powerful armament and high-altitude characteristics, the Bell P-63 Kingcobra at that time was the only type of aircraft in the Soviet Air Force that could intercept the B-29.
Take everything from the Anglo-Saxons and don’t give anything in return!
The presented hypothesis about the secret side of Lend-Lease supplies to the USSR needs to be supplemented with facts.
But the points listed are already enough to make a definite conclusion. Estimates of the value of Lend-Lease, made only on the basis of the ratio of the volume of delivered goods to its own Soviet production in one category or another, are incorrect.
A significant proportion of the equipment, equipment and materials that arrived to us was not used for its intended purpose during the Great Patriotic War. In the best case, these supplies were used in the restoration of the USSR in the post-war period.
In some cases (in fact, we can talk about mass cases), the delivered goods were “forgotten in warehouses” or used in a very unusual and interesting way. They questioned their real usefulness for the Soviet Army and national economy.
Finally, the sources mention the trade in Lend-Lease help. This is not about the domestic “black market”, although this moment existed from the first day of the program. The Americans were especially outraged that the USSR secretly resold the materials and equipment supplied to it to third countries of the world.
As for the main thesis (to squeeze everything possible out of allies), the author does not dare to draw conclusions about the priorities of this task. Whether this was a clear-cut concept or just a side effect of the Lend-Lease program remains to be seen by historians.
Interesting topic!
We are not entitled to give any moral marks. Nothing personal. These are questions of the survival of the country and the nations that inhabit it, in the most severe conditions of the struggle for their place in the world.
The logic of the state differs from the concepts of nobility at the household level. Therefore, take it easy.
Nothing prevents us from saying thanks to the Americans who agreed to provide valuable assistance (without the slightest sarcasm!) On conditions acceptable to the Soviet side.
The very importance of Lend-Lease in the fight against fascism was significant, but not decisive. And this should not be the reason for any speculation about the contribution of the Allies to our Victory.
Facts taken from the book “Lend-Lease. The deal of the century. " Posted by Natalya Butenina. Analysis and comments on various events - personal opinion of the author of this article
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