When was lend lease

In November , for example, Franklin Roosevelt worried that the Lend-Lease program was sending abroad machine tools that U. The Lend-Lease program also had to deal with political challenges both at home and abroad. At home the program remained controversial for months after the passage of the Lend-Lease Act. In August and September , for instance, U. The Roosevelt administration eventually silenced the accusations by denouncing them as malicious propaganda designed to undermine the U.

Even so, until the Pearl Harbor attack formally brought the U. Nearly as complicated were dealings with other Allies. For example, in the winter of , the Roosevelt administration confronted Soviet suspicions that the terms under which they received Lend-Lease were less advantageous than those Britain enjoyed. Difficult as these challenges were, the Lend-Lease program overcame them all.

Shipments of food and military supplies grew steadily every month after the passage of the Lend-Lease Act in March By the end of January , the U. Those numbers would continue to rise through the final months of the war, as militaries and civilian populations throughout the world received what they needed when and where they needed it. The Library's mission is to foster research and education on the life and times of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and their continuing impact on contemporary life.

The Lend-Lease Program, Scene showing fire and destruction caused by a German air raid bombing. England, possibly London. Npx Selling Lend-Lease to America The program emerged after considerable effort by Roosevelt to persuade skeptical members of Congress and the general public of its necessity. November, postcard supporting aid to allies through amendments to the Neutrality Act, sent to members of Congress by private interest groups.

But the goods we sent and services we provided were important factors in the success of their armies. No attempt has been made to revise the pamphlet accordingly.

Lend-lease is a continuing and expanding operation. Trying to keep the pamphlet abreast of the very latest figures would mean it could never appear in print at all. What does the dollar volume of lend-lease represent? About 54 percent of all our aid has consisted of fighting equipment, including naval and merchant ships.

Some 21 percent has comprised industrial materials and products, such as aviation gasoline, metals and machine tools for the manufacture of munitions, cloth and leather to make uniforms and shoes in the factories of Great Britain and Soviet Russia, surgical and medical supplies for hospitals and military bases, rolling stock for railroads, lumber for docks, and so forth.

Approximately 13 percent of lend-lease aid has consisted of foods and other agricultural products destined for the workers of allied countries and their soldiers in the front lines. Developing and maintaining the lines of supply has been one of the central factors in the military strategy of the war.

Lend-lease has helped to make it possible quickly to transport equipment where and when it has been most needed.

A motor highway has been built across Iran and the trans-Iranian railway has been made over into a major artery for moving lend-lease supplies from the Persian Gulf to Russia. The port of Massawa, badly wrecked by the retreating Italians in , has been put back in operating condition. A pipeline has been laid from the Iranian oil fields across Iraq to the refinery at Haifa in Palestine.

The British-built refinery at Abadan, Iran, has been enlarged to make more aviation gas for allied planes in the Middle Eastern, the China, and the Burma-India theaters of operation.

In terms of commodities, what does lend-lease represent? From the beginning of the program to June 30, , we exported to our allies under lend-lease about 30, planes, 26, tanks, and , other military vehicles ordnance carriers, jeeps, trucks, etc.

Added thousands in each category were paid for in cash. We have also lend-leased over 1, merchant and auxiliary craft and 1, naval vessels, including escort aircraft carriers, corvettes, landing vessels, PT boats, and other small craft.

Out of every tanks that have come off our assembly lines between March 11, and June , 41 were lend-leased, 3 were sold to our allies for cash, and 56 were delivered to our armed forces.

Of every planes, 15 were lend-leased, 3 sold to our allies, and 82 delivered to our Air Forces. Supplies have been sent where and when they were most needed. In , when the Battle of Britain was raging, lend-lease exports went mainly to the United Kingdom. With the signing of the Russian lend-lease protocol in October , lend-lease goods began to move to the U. Altogether, the amount of lend-lease goods actually exported up to June 30, has been divided as shown in the diagram on the next page.

The figures do not include services provided in the United States or goods bought but not exported. What these figures mean when broken down into specific items may be seen from the following statistics on the Soviet Union. By the end of June the United States had sent to the Soviets under lend-lease more than 11, planes; over 6, tanks and tank destroyers; and , trucks and other military vehicles.

Many of the planes have been flown directly from the United States to the Soviet Union over the northern route via Alaska and Siberia, others were crated and shipped to the Persian Gulf, where they were assembled and flown into Russia. We have also sent to the Soviets about locomotives, 1, flat cars, and close to half a million tons of rails and accessories, axles, and wheels, all for the improvement of the railways feeding the Red armies on the Eastern Front.

For the armies themselves we have sent miles of field telephone wire, thousands of telephones, and many thousands of tons of explosives. And we have also provided machine tools and other equipment to help the Russians manufacture their own planes, guns, shells, and bombs.

We have supplied our allies with large quantities of food. The Soviet Union alone has received some 3,, tons. This, together with a great increase in agricultural production in the British Isles, has helped to feed the British civilians and armed forces.

Bread, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and other common vegetables have been available to the British from their home gardens and farms. The fall of Britain could have resulted in German control of the north Atlantic. The need to rapidly rebuild the British armed forces was imperative, but Britain no longer had the financial resources needed to acquire vital war materiel or the means to get it safely to its destination.

Roosevelt turned over 50 outdated US destroyers to the Royal Navy in an effort to assist British convoys in transferring war materiel acquired in the United States through the north Atlantic Ocean. In return, Britain gave the US a number of long-term leases for naval and air bases in various British colonies in the Caribbean, Newfoundland, Bermuda, and elsewhere.

Churchill to "give us the tools and we shall finish the job," President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed a bill to allow the United States to "manufacture, sell, lend, transfer, lease, or exchange" weapons with any country that "the President deems vital for the defense of the United States.

Despite the strong protests of isolationists, including Father Charles E. Incorporated in these figures was the value of goods such as aircraft, weapons, ammunition, clothing, medical supplies, foodstuffs, and raw materials transferred by land, sea, and air. Lend-lease played a vital role in keeping the Allied war machine operating, especially in the months preceding US entry into the war.

Lend-lease cemented the role of the United States as the arsenal of democracy. Lend-lease was terminated by President Truman in September Thereafter, American aid to friendly countries dovetailed with the economic recovery program popularly known as the Marshall Plan. We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies and the Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia.