Figure 1.--President Roosevelt designed Lend Lease to help keep Britain in the War. At the time America was neutral, but itwas a dededly uneutral action. After the fall of France, Britain was hard pressed by the Germans and going bankrupt. It was essentially a blank check for the British war effort. America provided Britain every type of military equipment, supplies, raw material, and food. After the Battle of Britin, Lnd Lease essentially made Britain unassailble. American aid wasa factor in Hitler's turning East before knocking Britain out of the war. Britain focused its industrial strength on building strategic bmbers. Many other aircraft types were purchased in America. The United States built some superb ground suppot aircraft during World War II, incredably 3 years before the U.S. Army Air Corps (USAAC) ad the Brtish RAF had a tactical air doctrine. Here Republic is building P-47s for both the USAAC and the RAF at its Farmingdale, New York factory. This is an early version before the development of the bubble canopy. Republic eventually built over 15,000 P-47s. Notice the numbers here are n the 3700s.

Lead Lease was primarily designed to assist Britain in its fight with NAZI Germany, but Nationalist China also received shipments to assist with its defense against Japan. Eventually 38 different countries (accounts differ slightly on this number) received Lend Lease assistance. While Lend Lease aid went to a large number of countries, the two critical countries were Britain and the Soviet Union. Without these two countries, the United States would have been unable to have effectively engaged the Germans in Europe. Lend Lease was critical to the war-effort of both coutries. The Soviet Union had been essentially a parter with the NAZIs until Hitler ordered an invasion (June 1941). The Soviet Union was subsequently added to the list of Lend Lease recipients (November 1941). Aid to the Soviets was more contencious than to other countries, but had a stron advocate in Hopkins. [McJimsey, pp. 293-294] Eventually almost all the allied nations were declared eligible for lend-lease aid. A series of Lend Lease agreements were signed with the participating countries. Reciprocal aid agreements with Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and the Free French were negotiated (1942). These agreements provided for "reverse Lend Lease" involving goods, services, shipping, and military installations provided American forces stationed overseas. Other Allied nations in which U.S. forces were stationed adhered to the same provisions. Lend Lease assistance totaled about $49 billion (1941-45 collars) by the time the program was ended at the end of the War (August 1945).

Recipients

Lend-Lease was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign contries fighting the Axis powers, esecially Germany. President Roosevelt began supporting Britain and France even before the outbreak of the war. But as the War developed, the Allies were limited by the 'cash and carry' provisons of the Neutrality Acts. This became a major problem after the fall of France and Britain was left to fight the Germans alone. From the beginning, Britain was the major recipient of American aid as part of the greatest alliance in history. The Lend Lease Act authorized President Roosevelt to transfer arms and supplies to 'the government of any country whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States.' President Roosevelt conceived the Act to assist Britain, but the Soviet Union, the Dominions, China, France, Brazil, and many other countries received weapons and material under the law. The Act authorized the transfer of war materiel to a beseiged Britain without payment as required by the Neutrality Acts. This enabled the British to continur proccuting the War when it was essentiallh bankrupt and even before America entered the War. Congress had some soubt about aiding the Soviet Union gtr Hitler invaded, but the Soviet Union was cental in the defeat of NAZI Germany and American aid played a critical role in converting the lumbering Red Army colums into a modern jugernaught. It also acirumvented the contentious issue of unpaid World War I debts which was disrupting aid efforts.

Reverse Lend Lease

There was also so-called "reverse lend-lease." This was primarily material assisance to U.S. troops stationed abroad. It was primarily British support and amounted to about $8 billion.

Denials

American authorities denined several countries Lend Lease aid. The most notable was Ireland. The Royal Navy was able to use Irish poers to fight the German U-boat menace during World War I. This was important because Ireland fronts the North Atlantic to a far greater degree than England. The Irish declared themselves neutral at the outbreak of world War II. This mean that Irush ports ere close to the Royal Navy. And even more importatntly refused to make air bases available to the Brirish. Air cover was indispenable in fighting the U-boats and Irish air bases would have been very helpful. The Irish were very interested in Lend Lease aid. Being a relatively poor country, they had only limited funds to arm their military. President Roosevelt was, however, disturbed not with President De Valera not only iver the use of Irish ports, but an intervention in American politics supporting the Isolationists. This essentially prevented any American aid to Ireland during the war. Anothr notable couuntry denied Lend Lease aid was Argentina. The country at the time of world War I was on the brink of becoming a modern, industial country. Populist politics, however, undemined the capitalist system that might have Argentina a prosperous nation. Col. Juan Peron riding the populist wave seized power in Argentina. He was deeply impressed with Benito Mussolini. Argentina also had an influential German community, especially within the military. Thus the country while neutral, was sympathetic to the Axis throughout the war. Argentina thus did not receive Lend Lease aid unlike many other Latin American countries.

Sources

Alberti, Fedor (Deputy Head of Moscow State Civil Aviation Engineering University). "Lend-Lese Air Ferries", AeroSpace Journal (1997).

Dunn Jr., Walter S. The Soviet Economy and the Red Army, 1930-1945 (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995).

Karpov, Vladimir. Generalissimo.

Kimball, W.F. The Most Unsordid Act (1969).

McJimsey, George. Harry Hopkins: Ally of the Poor and Defender of Liberty (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1987), 474p.

Mastny, V. "Soviet war aims at the Moscow and Teheran conferences," Journal of Modern History (1975).

Created: December 1, 2003
Last updated: 7:17 PM 2/25/2025