Why is it important to remember this? Because today the Russian propaganda tells the myth of Russia being the sole victor of the Second World War – denying the historic truth.
The Stalin-Hitler Alliance
In 1939 the two dictators Stalin and Hitler agreed to share Eastern European countries between their respective countries. Stalin and Hitler both attacked the countries between Germany and Russia from opposite sides. Stalin attacked Poland despite the non-aggression pact he had signed with Poland. The Soviets killed the entire Polish elite in the infamous massacre of Katyn.
At the same time the UK was fiercely fighting _alone_ against Hitler Germany on the Western front since 1939, giving everything. No help from the USSR and Stalin for the UK in the year 1939 or ever after – how would Stalin do such a thing? It was the ideological enemy. Would Hitler Germany have broken the UK resistanceof the British, Stalin would have just not cared at all.
Operation Barbarossa – Threatening Survival of the USSR
In 1941 Hitler Germany broke the pact with Stalin and started operation Barbarossa – the full-scale attack on the USSR.
The points on the map represent places where the infamous killing squads “Einsatzgruppen” committed large-scale massacres. The largest massacre of WW2 happened at Babyn Yar. I have not much doubt that such massacres would have continued throughout the further territories of the USSR, if the USA had not come to the help of the USSR in 1941.
Saving the USSR – Land-Lease Act – $720 Billion in Aid
The USSR was saved from losing the war against the Germans by timely huge support from the USA and the UK.
The Lend-Lease Act was signed into law on March 11, 1941, and ended on September 20, 1945. A total of $50.1 billion (equivalent to $719 billion in 2021) worth of supplies was shipped, or 17% of the total war expenditures of the U.S.
In total, the U.S. deliveries to the USSR through Lend-Lease amounted to $11 billion in materials (equivalent to $148 billion in 2023):[55] over 400,000 jeeps and trucks; 12,000 armored vehicles (including 7,000 tanks, about 1,386[56] of which were M3 Lees and 4,102 M4 Shermans);[57] 11,400 aircraft (of which 4,719 were Bell P-39 Airacobras, 3,414 were Douglas A-20 Havocs and 2,397 were Bell P-63 Kingcobras)[58] and 1.75 million tons of food.[59]
From October 1, 1941, to May 31, 1945, the United States delivered to the Soviet Union 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 aviation fuel including nearly 90 percent of high-octane fuel used, 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. Ordnance goods (ammunition, artillery shells, mines, assorted explosives) provided amounted to 53 percent of total domestic consumption. 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.
Between June 1941 and May 1945, Britain delivered to the USSR:
- 7,411 aircraft (>3,000 Hurricanes and >4,000 other aircraft)
- 28 naval vessels:
- 1 Battleship. (HMS Royal Sovereign)
- 9 Destroyers.
- 4 Submarines.
- 5 Motor mine-sweepers.
- 9 Mine-sweeping trawlers.
- 5,218 tanks (including 1,388 Valentines from Canada)
- >5,000 anti-tank guns
- 1,000 P.I.A.T’s
- 636 2-Pdr’s
- 96 6-Pdr’s
- 3,200 Boys anti-tank rifles
- 4,020 ambulances and trucks
- 323 machinery trucks (mobile vehicle workshops equipped with generators and all the welding and power tools required to perform heavy servicing)
- 1,212 Universal Carriers and Loyd Carriers (with another 1,348 from Canada)
- 1,721 motorcycles
- £1.15bn ($1.55bn) worth of aircraft engines
- 1,474 radar sets
- 4,338 radio sets
- 600 naval radar and sonar sets
- Hundreds of naval guns
- 15 million pairs of boots
In total 4 million tonnes of war material including food and medical supplies were delivered. The munitions totaled £308m (not including naval munitions supplied), the food and raw materials totaled £120m in 1946 index. In accordance with the Anglo-Soviet Military Supplies Agreement of June 27, 1942, military aid sent from Britain to the Soviet Union during the war was entirely free of charge.
Ukraine finds British WW2 Hurricane planes outside Kyiv
Comparing with Ukraine – USSR Received 9x More
By comparison – Ukraine by the end of July 2023 has received 80 billion in US aid – so only a bit more than 10% of what the UDSSR received between 1941 and 1945 from the USA.
Ukraine Aid by Country – 2022-2023
Summary of Channel 5 Clip from Above
See the details of this historic salvage operation of the UDSSR in the clip from channel 5 above.
The USA did not receive one cent for the billions of help they provided at first. It took until 2006 until the last back payment was made and then this only was a portion of the original value provided.
Such actions have actually saved millions of lives of people living in the former areas of the Soviet Union. It is very sad to see the lost opportunity in Russians today ignoring this historic deed of humanity that the US decided on. It would have been easy for them to turn a cold shoulder.
Roosevelt did not. He cared.
And it is true also, that Roosevelt saw the danger of the USSR losing to Germany and the consequences that might have followed from that. So it was also a move that served his own interest. But he also could have decided to go in a different direction. It would serve Russians well to remember that, instead of getting stuck in the enemy image and hatred of the USA.
And even current dictator Putin – in another life it seems – in 2005 recognized the contribution to this victory through the US help for the USSR on his commemoration speech in front of the leaders of the world. You see this historage footage in the film above.