Муниципальное бюджетное общеобразовательное учреждение
лицей № 4 г.Данков Липецкой
области
Лицейское научное общество « Синяя птица»
Конкурс исследовательских работ « Первые шаги в науку»
Секция: Языкознание
“Cooperation between
Allies and USSR during WWII”
Выполнил
Михеев Даниил
9 б
класс
Руководитель
Черных Н.И.,
учитель английского языка.
Данков
2014г.
Contents.
Introduction………………………………………..2
Chapter
I. The history of the cooperation between Allies and the USSR
during the WWII..................................................................3-5
Chapter II. Results of Lend-Lease…………….6-9
Chapter
III. Did the Lend-Lease help us?...........9
Conclusion……………………………………..10
The list of sources……………………………...11
Introduction.
The Great Patriotic War startedon June 22, 1941.
And the Soviet Union was receiving support from the USA and Britain
since the war had begun. The first English convoy went to Arkhangelsk during
the Operation «Dervish». It was August 12, 1941. The convoy included six dry
cargo ships (“Alchiba”, “Lancastrian”, ”Lanstephan Castle”, “New Westminster City”,
“Trehata”, “Eshen”) and one auxiliary tanker (”Aldersdale”). Those ships
transported strategic goods and was named the PQ-0. So the program of the
Lend-Lease (Cooperation between USSR and Allies) was opened.
In our project we will examine a history of the Lend-Lease and show results of
this program. Also, we will to ask the question “did the Lend-Lease really help
us?”.
The hypothesis of our project is: “We could win
the War without Lend-Lease”. The object of study is interaction between the USSR
and Allies in 1941-1945. The thing of study is information about Arctic Convoys,
another ways to transfer military equipment and the price the USSR
paid for the Lend-Lease. The research methods are analysis of the sources and
generalization of research results.
Chapter I.
The history of the
cooperation between Allies and USSR during WWII.
An Act to Promote the Defense of the United
States
was passed on March 11, 1941. It was the first step towards cooperation with
countries that have already entered into the War against Germany.
This was nine months before the U.S.
entered the war in December 1941. Formally titled An Act to Further Promote the
Defense of the United States, the Act effectively ended the United
States' pretense of neutrality.
A total of $50.1 billion (equivalent to $650
billion today) worth of supplies were shipped. That represented 17% of the
total war expenditures of the U.S. In all, $31.4 billion went to Britain,
$11.3 billion to the Soviet Union, $3.2 billion to France, $1.6 billion to China,
and smaller sums to other Allies. Reverse Lend-Lease comprised services such as
rent on air bases that went to the U.S., and totaled $7.8 billion; of this,
$6.8 billion came from the British and the Commonwealth. The terms of the
agreement provided that the material was to be used until time for their return
or destruction. In practice very little equipment was returned. Supplies that
arrived after the termination date were sold to Britain at a large discount for
£1.075 billion using long-term loans from the United States. Canada
operated a similar program called Mutual Aid that sent a loan of $1 billion and
$3.4 billion in supplies and services to Britain and other Allies. The United States did not charge for aid supplied under this legislation.
Lend-Lease provided supply food, equipment,
planes, tanks and other military systems. Most of them were transported by sea.
Special sea convoys, named “Arctic convoys” were coming in north Soviet ports
in 1941-1945. Those convoys usually had war ships and sometimes had air
support. It was an escort of the convoys. Their path run across Arctic
Sea. There were a lot of Soviet, American and English sailors on those
ships.
Arctic convoys often take fight against
German submarines, ships and Air Force in the Ocean. 85 merchant ships and 16
warships only of the Navy of Great Britain (2 cruisers, 6 destroyers and other
escort vessels 8) were lost in battles. Thousands people were killed. One of
the famous episodes of actions in Arctic Sea was the situation with the German
destroyer “Tirpitz”, which was in Norway and controlled all sea ways of North.
In November 1944 “Tirpitz” was sunk. So the most famous convoy was the PQ-17,
which was sunk by German Navy in 1942.
The Arctic route was the shortest and most direct route for
lend-lease aid to the USSR, though it was also the most dangerous. Some
3,964,000 tons of goods were shipped by the Arctic
route; 7% was lost, while 93% arrived safely. This
constituted some 23% of the total aid to the USSR during the war.
The Persian Corridor was the longest route, and was not fully
operational until mid-1942. Also, a lot of U.S.-planes were forwarded trough Alaska. Our pilots ferried aircraft
to the USSR in poor weather conditions and lost 114 people since 1942. It was
one of the air way of the Lend-Lease.
US deliveries to USSR
American deliveries to the Soviet Union can be divided into the
following phases:
·
"pre
Lend-lease" 22 June 1941 to 30 September 1941 (paid for in gold and
other minerals)
·
first protocol period
from 1 October 1941 to 30 June 1942 (signed 1 October 1941), these supplies
were to be manufactured and delivered by the UK with US credit financing.
·
second protocol period
from 1 July 1942 to 30 June 1943 (signed 6 October 1942)
·
third protocol period
from 1 July 1943 to 30 June 1944 (signed 19 October 1943)
·
fourth protocol period
from 1 July 1944, (signed 17 April 1945), formally ended 12 May 1945 but
deliveries continued for the duration of the war with Japan
(which the Soviet Union entered on the 8 August 1945) under the
"Milepost" agreement until 2 September 1945 when Japan capitulated. On 20 September 1945 all Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union was terminated.
British deliveries to the USSR
In June 1941 within weeks of the German invasion of the USSR
the first British aid convoy set off along the dangerous Arctic sea routes to Murmansk arriving in September. It was
carrying 40 Hawker Hurricanes along with 550 mechanics and pilots of No. 151 Wing to provide immediate air defence of
the port and train Soviet pilots. After escorting Soviet bombers and scoring 14
kills for one loss, and completing the training of pilots and mechanics, No 151
Wing left in November their mission complete. The
convoy was the first of many convoys to Murmansk and Archangelsk in what became known as the Arctic convoys. Between June 1941 and
May 1945 3,000 Hurricanes were delivered to the USSR along with 4,000 other
aircraft, 5,000 tanks, 5,000 anti-tank guns and 15 million boots in total 4
million tons of war materials including food and medical supplies were
delivered. The returning ships carried the gold that the USSR
was using to pay the US.
Significant numbers of British Churchill and Matilda
tanks along with US M3 Lee were shipped to the USSR after
becoming obsolete on the African Front. The Churchills, supplied by the arctic
convoys, saw action around Leningrad while tanks shipped by the Persian route
supplied the Caucasian Front. With the USSR giving priority to the defence of Moscow
for domestically produced tanks this resulted in 40% of tanks in service on the
Caucasian Front being Lend-Lease models.
Сhapter II.
Results of Lend-Lease.
Of course, Len-Lease had very well results.
It was the biggest economic program of the WWII. Let's look at the information
about total number of the sent cargoes. Also, it is necessary to say that the
USSR established independently range of supplies.
Immediately after the war, the
U.S. sent to countries that have received assistance under the lend-lease, a
proposal to return to the surviving military equipment and pay the debt for
obtaining new loans. Since the law of the land-lease provided for the write-off
used in military equipment and materials, the Americans insisted on paying for
only civil supplies: railway transport, power plants, ships, trucks and other
equipment, which was in the recipient countries as of September 2, 1945. For
the military equipment, which was destroyed by the fascists during the
fighting, the United States did not ask a penny.
This is perhaps the main topic for
speculation of people trying to somehow discredit the Lend-Lease program. Most
of them consider it their indispensable duty to declare that the USSR
was supposedly paid for all supplies under the Lend-Lease cargo. Of course,
this is nothing more than a delusion (or a conscious lie.) Neither the Soviet Union nor any other country receiving assistance under the Lend-Lease, in accordance
with the law the Lend-Lease during the war for this assistance did not pay, so
to speak, not a cent. Moreover, as already stated in the beginning, they did
not have to pay, and after the War of the materials, equipment, arms and
ammunition, which were spent in the war. You had to pay only for what remained
after the war intact and could be used by recipient country. Thus, any payments
of lend-lease during the war was not. Another thing is that the Soviet Union
did send a variety of goods in the United States (including 320 tons of chrome
ore, 32 million tons of manganese ore as well as gold, platinum, wood). This
was done within the framework of reverse lend-lease. In addition, the same
program was part of a free repair of American vessels in Russian ports and
other services. Unfortunately, I could not find, on which the total amount of
the Allies was provided goods and services under reverse lend-lease. The only
one I have found a source claims that this is the sum of 2.2 million dollars.
But personally, I'm not sure of the authenticity of the data. Nevertheless,
they can be considered as a lower limit. The upper limit in this case will be
the sum of several hundred million dollars. Be that as it may, the proportion
of reverse Lend-Lease in total lend-lease trade between the USSR
and the Allies will not exceed 3-4%. For comparison, the amount of reverse
lend-lease from the UK to the United States equals $ 6.8 billion, representing
18.3% of total trade in goods and services between the two countries.
So, no payment of lend-lease during the war did
not happen. Americans account provided by recipient country only after the war.
Outstanding debt of Great Britain to the United States totaled $ 4.33 billion,
to Canada - $ 1.19 billion last payment of $ 83.25 million (for the U.S.)
and $ 22.7 million (Canadian) was held December 29, 2006. The volume of debt in
China was identified $ 180 million, and this debt has not yet been repaid.
The French paid the United States May 28, 1946, giving the U.S.
a number of trade preferences.
Debt of the USSR was defined in 1947
in the amount of $ 2.6 billion, but in 1948 this figure was reduced to 1.3
billion, however, the Soviet Union refused to pay. The ban was in response to
new concessions to the U.S.: in 1951, the amount of debt has been revised again
and this time amounted to 800 million agreement on the procedure for repayment
of debt to pay for the Lend-Lease between the USSR and the USA was signed on 18
October 1972 (the amount of debt was again reduced, this time to 722 million
dollars, maturity - 2001), the Soviet Union went to this agreement only if a
loan him the Export-Import Bank. In 1973, the Soviet Union has made two
payments totaling $ 48 million, but then stopped payments in connection with
the enactment of the 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendment to the Soviet-American Trade
Agreement of 1972. In June 1990, during the negotiations between U.S.
and USSR, the parties returned to the discussion of the debt. Set a new
calculation of the final repayment of debt - in 2030, and the sum - 674 million
dollars.
To conclude, I’d like to say that during the
Great Patriotic War the USSR was sending ships with cargo of gold to the USA.
And this fact is the occasion for discussion nowadays.
Chapter III.
Did the Lend-Lease help
us?
Lend-Lease would help the British and Allied forces win the
battles of future years; the help it gave in the battles of 1941 was trivial. In 1943–1944, about a quarter of all
British munitions came through Lend-Lease. Aircraft (in particular transport
aircraft) comprised about a quarter of the shipments to Britain,
followed by food, land vehicles and ships.
Even after the United States forces in Europe and the Pacific
began to reach full strength in 1943–1944, Lend-Lease continued. Most remaining
allies were largely self-sufficient in front line equipment (such as tanks and
fighter aircraft) by this stage, but Lend-Lease provided a useful supplement in
this category even so, and Lend-Lease logistical supplies (including motor
vehicles and railroad equipment) were of enormous assistance.
Much of the aid can be better understood when considering the
economic distortions caused by the war. Most belligerent powers cut back
severely on production of non-essentials, concentrating on producing weapons.
This inevitably produced shortages of related products needed by the military
or as part of the military-industrial complex.
The USSR was highly dependent on rail transportation, but the war
practically shut down rail equipment production: only about 92 locomotives were
produced. 2,000 locomotives and 11,000 railcars were supplied under Lend-Lease.
Likewise, the Soviet air force received 18,700 aircraft, which amounted to
about 14% of Soviet aircraft production (19% for military aircraft).
Although most Red
Army tank units were equipped
with Soviet-built tanks, their logistical support was provided by hundreds of
thousands of U.S.-made trucks. Indeed by 1945 nearly two-thirds of the truck
strength of the Red Army was U.S.-built. Trucks such as the Dodge 3/4 ton and Studebaker 2½ ton, were easily the best trucks
available in their class on either side on the Eastern Front. American shipments of
telephone cable, aluminium, canned rations, and clothing were also critical.
I think, we could win the Great Patriotic War without Lend-Lease. So a lot of
people say that we could win this war without the Second Front. But at what
cost?
There's no doubt, using Lend-Lease we managed
to save many lives of our soldiers. However, we cannot
think that we won only thanks to Lend-Lease.
Conclusion.
So, we are convinced that lend-lease was
the biggest program of interaction between the USSR and the Allies during the
Second World War. Implementation of this program has cost many lives, allies
and our soldiers and officers. Although the consequences of the lend-lease can
be considered very ambiguous, it is the lend-lease was an example of fraternal
aid and military cooperation between the countries-Allies. In addition, this
historical phenomenon cannot be forgotten. Too high price paid for it.
In our project we managed to consider the
main aspects of the lend-lease program, and analyze data on the supply of the
lend-lease program during the Second World war and confirm the hypothesis that
we could win a war without lend-lease, although he helped us.
Literature
1.
http://www.lend-lease.ru/
2.
http://statehistory.ru/35/Lend-liz--Mify-i-realnost/
3.
http://nvo.ng.ru/history/2001-10-12/5_land_lize.html
4.
Бутенина Н. В. Ленд-лиз:
сделка века. — М.: ГУ ВШЭ, 2004.
5.
Стеттиниус Э. Загадки ленд-лиза. Ленд-лиз — оружие
победы, Издательство «Вече», 2000.
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