Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to re: Defeating the Nazis alone

No way. Without Lend Lease, the Soviets wouldn't have lasted past early 1943.

"American Lend Lease played a significant role in supplying critical raw materials to the Soviets, but the Russians preferred to use their own weapons, and for good reason. Soviet armor and artillery in WWII were probably the best in the world, and by the Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943, the Red Air Force was beginning to gain air superiority over the Luftwaffe."


Lend Lease played THE critical role in the Soviet Union's defeat over Germany. The red army didn't march into Berlin on foot, they drove in on American supplied trucks. By the end of the war 427,000 out of 665,000 motor vehicles (trucks and jeeps) were of Western origin. The Soviets put all of their resources into the war effort, everything they had went to produce weapons. Had it not been for the raw materials and equipment we supplied them, they would've starved and died from exposure for lack of manufacturing the basic items needed to live. I can dig out the exact contribution by America, these numbers are from memory, but are still very close. These are the percentages of the total available to the Soviet military and industry that were supplied by America:

80% of all canned meat.
92% of all railroad locomotives, rolling stock and rails.
57% of all aviation fuel.
53% of all explosives.
74% of all truck transport.
88% of all radio equipment.
53% of all copper.
56% of all aluminum.
60+% of all automotive fuel.
74% of all vehicle tires.
12% of all armored vehicles.
14% of all combat aircraft.

The list includes a high percentage of the high grade steel, communications cable, canned foods of all types, medical supplies, and virtually every modern machine tool used by Soviet industry. Not to mention the "know-how required to use and maintain this equipment.

American supplied aircraft also helped turn the tide of the air war in the East. The Bell P-39 is just one example. So too did the 8th Air Force, which tied down the majority of the Luftwaffe in the West. How would the Soviets have faired had the entire Luftwaffe been brought down on their heads?

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (63 posts)