Lend Lease routes

There were three Lend Lease routes into the USSR:
- Murmansk-Arkangelsk
- Persia
- across the Bering strait on Soviet flagged ships, non-belligerent to Japan.

Can anyone point me to traffic statistics showing the relatine importance of the three?

I have read somewhere (where?) that the M.-A. route was maintained for political motives only, as the loss rate was very high, and the other routes were more than good enough.

Cheers,

 

Here's some info from:

http://www.ww2pacific.com/lendlease.html

Lend Lease to the Soviet Union.
From Aug 1941, 40 convoys went across the North Atlantic to Russia containing 720 ships, of which 90 were lost, which provided 23% of the aid to the Soviet Union. Over twice as much went by way of the Far East. The rest by way of the Persian Gulf, Black Sea or Artic.
UK aid entailed 811 shiploads by all routes.

Here's some info concerning aircraft deliveries to the USSR:

http://airforce.users.ru/lend-lease/english/articles/geust/aircraft_deliveries.htm

Hope this helps

 

Sorry, Za, I can't answer your question.

But the 'Arctic Convoys' remain a controversial subject in this country to this day and are forever associated with the disaster of PQ17. As so often, the story is not told in the loss figures; the convoys are remembered mainly for the appalling conditions endured by the Merchant Seamen.

As an introduction, see ; -

http://www.naval-history.net/WW2CampaignsRussianConvoys.htm

 

Do you know when Amercian Lend Lease for Russia did start?

 

I remember reading a novel by C.S.Forester, of Hornblower fame, about a ficticious Light AA Cruiser on a North Atlantic convoy, and at the time could not read it a second time, so impressive it was. "The Ship", I think, a triple-A worth read.

 

November 1941

 

Sorta to cut along story short...

Of all the lend-lease aid, approximately 50% was delivered via the Pacific, 25% via Persia and 25% via the northern route to Archangel and Murmansk.

http://www.feldgrau.com/articles.php?ID=16

 

US figures up until end of December 1941 are as follows.
Persian Gulf: 8 ships (13000 tons)
Soviet far east: 37 ships (193000 tons)
Arctic: 37 ships (154000 tons)

 

Thank you, Kai-Petri and Heartland.

Cheers,

 

So with the Allies and Soviets in Cold War after Germany's surrender,was Lend-Lease forgotten?

 

This was the main supply route of British aid to the Soviet Union.
It is often forgotten but the British supplied aid to the Soviet Union along with American Lend-lease

 

Were the Hurricanes to Murmansk area the first of the Lend-Lease by the British?

 

No it wasn't, the USSR kept paying its instalments into the early 70s, IIRC. I'll try and locate you a source if you want.

 

I'd appreciate that ZA!!I'll do a little digging myself. Hard to believe they still made payments.

 

A fine can of worms, framert! I have time only for a limited search, but here goes, FWIW.

This is a complicated matter, and payments are still being made *today*! The Lend Lease debt is being taken as a component within a larger debt context. Bear with me, please!

First of all, here's the second agreement text. The first agreement was made before Pearl Harbor, so it was very restrictive and not so significant. See especially Articles V through VII.

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/wwii/amsov42.htm

Then from Encarta here's another inkling at http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761564262/lend-lease.html . The last paragraph reads: "Except for the Soviet debt, of which less than one-third was repaid, repayment was virtually complete by the late 1960s. The U.S., in 1972, accepted an offer by the Soviet Union to pay $722 million in installments through 2001 to settle the indebtedness."

Then in the Pacific Northwest Center for Global Security is more data on Russian current debt, see http://pnwcgs.pnl.gov/Initiatives/DebtFigs.htm

"Currently, Russia's total external debt (below) is estimated at $130.1 bn. Approximately 50% of this debt dates from the Soviet era. About $2.7 bn of this Soviet era debt is owed the U.S., with $480.5 mn in the form of Lend-Lease debt dating from WWII."

In any case, this is a fraught process, subject to the vagaries of Cold War policies. See http://www.security-policy.org/papers/1991/91-D101.html
"one of the side letters accompanying the Trade Agreement states that upon the extension of MFN to the Soviet Union, the USSR will begin to repay the $674 million owed to the United States through the Lend Lease program - payments which were suspended in 1974."

In any case, a la Kai's Interesting Fact series here are some Lend Lease figures through April 1944, from Alexander Werth, "Russia at War 1941-45". I'm sure we have seen this list somewhere.

America

6,430 planes
17,000 motorcycles
3,734 tanks
991 million cartridges
10 minesweepers
82 smaller craft
22 million shells
88,000 tons of gunpowder
130,000 tons of TNT
210,000 automobiles
1.2 million km. of telephone wire
245,000 field telephones
2.3 million yards of army cloth
2 million tyres
5.5 million pairs Army boots
476,000 tons of high octane petrol
99,000 tons of aluminum and duraluminium
184,000 tons of copper and copper products
42,000 tons of zinc
6,500 tons nickel
1.2 million tons of steel and products
20,000 machine tools

Britain

5,800 planes
4,292 tanks
12 minesweepers
33,000 tons of copper
29,000 tons of tin
48,000 tons of lead
103,000 tons of rubber
93,000 tons of jute
35,000 tons of aluminum

Cheers,
M!

PS - Incidentally, take a look at this delicious thing I stumbled upon
http://www.historians.org/Projects/GIroundtable/index.html
God Bless America, indeed!

PPS - I just got my second medal

 

Thanks for the "limited"search ZA! Looks like I'll be here fo awhile. Congrats on your medal!

 

What surprised me is not that the debt is still taking this long to pay, bu that the Russian state is still respecting its responsibility for this.

 

Exactly! Considering USSR went bankrupt by her "arms-race" with NATO.