Could have the Russians done without lend-lease? and why. I say, no. The biggest contribution from lend lease that gave the Russians an advantage was the duece and a half. Trucks. It made them mobile. The Germans still were committed to horse drawn transportation and the Russians could advance faster. Without the trucks, I don't think they could have defeated the Germans as quick. The Germans would have had breathing room and the large encirclements would not have occurred. They would have still lost but I think the Americans would have reached Berlin before the Russians. Now that's a thought.

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"They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet or fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason."

I agree, although the funny thing is, the Russian infantry always seemed to prefer to ride on "tank-back"... ...Maybe the deep deep mud was just as unfriendly to American trucks as to German...
Nonetheless, I think lend-lease allowed the Russians some breathing room of their own after the massive losses of equipment suffered in the opening months of operation Barbarossa, keeping them in the war until their own efforts to re-arm came to fruition...


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Novus Ordo Seclorum

i defolently think that lend lease had a profound effect on the russo-german war! I think the things that helped most was...clothes,food,MONEY from our government, trucks, ammunition. The huge amounts of material we gave them helped them a great deal i think and the war would have lasted longer had they needed to find that stuff on their own. Things like aircraft and tanks they would have been fine without. Especially Tanks...HA things would have been better if they were giving us tanks!

I totally agree with most of the previously said, the Soviets did owe a lot of their operational capabilities to the equipment with largely American-made trucks and jeeps.
I don't know why they even used any of the Western-made tanks, most of their own material was much better suited for arfare on the Eastern front. However, since the Soviet airforce had so little decent planes they did appreciate the P-39 Airacobras that the USAAF sent over, since if was a better match against a Me-109 than a Yak was.
Luckily, they pulled off the large scale evacuation of industry during the German advance in 1941, otherwise they might have needed MUCH more help.
That and not Lend-Lease or german underestimates of Soviet industrial capabilities were the main factor in the economic struggle. Lend-Lease was a big and welcome addition, but not vital, the evacuation was both a wise decision and vital to the survival of the Red Army in 1941-42.