Lend-Lease and Us

[Lend-Lease and Us]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

Lend-Lease

and Us

To win this war we have got to hit the enemy hard— knock down his planes and sink his ships and blast his tanks until his strength is gone and he quits.
We cannot do it alone. To clean the sea and free the land of bloody men who mean to rule the world we United Nations have got to drive at Berlin and Tokyo with all our fighting men and all our combined power.
Whoever hits the enemy strikes a blow for all.
We United Nations have pooled our resources in a common strategy to ring the enemy with our total strength and bring him to his knees.
The means by which we help our Allies—put weapons in their hands, feed them, make their strength tell in battle—is called Lend-Lease. When our Allies provide us with goods and services, their aid is called Reverse Lend-Lease.

Two avengers from an Allied bomb-rack are headed for a spot where they will do the most good to us and harm to Hitler

The bomb that wrecks a U-boat base means fewer Nazi submarines in the Atlantic sea lanes—means that more American tankers will get through with lend-lease fuel for Russian planes and Mediterranean invasion barges. There are many fronts, but only one war. A weapon in any United Nations hand strikes for the common cause.

Lend-Lease is a Weapon of War on Many Fronts

Lend-Lease Means Goods Wherever Required

U.S. troops get nourishing meals through Australian Reverse Lend-Lease

Lend-Lease Means Weapons Wherever Needed

American pilots take over some of the hundreds of Spitfires provided by England

Lend-Lease Means Services from One United Nation to Another

Through Lend-Lease a battered British warship is repaired in an American shipyard

The Cost of Victory Can’t Be Measured In Dollars Alone

The Russian nurse and her wounded soldier are giving to the common cause a benefit which cannot be measured in dollars

Fall 1940

The World Looked Like This

On September 3, 1940, first day of the second year of war, the Axis was riding high. Japan was at Indo-China’s throat. Italy was massing her troops in Libya for an attack on Egypt. Europe lay under Hitler’s heel. Only ten weeks before Marshal Petain had cried “Cease fire!’’ into a microphone, and now German invasion barges were gathering on the French coast opposite England. On this September 3, 1940, the Nazis were celebrating their first triumphant year of war by all-out bombing “to erase London’’—the Battle of Britain was on in a terror of fire and death by day and night. Confident Berlin offered London the choice to surrender or be leveled as low as Warsaw. Only the courage of men lighted the darkness of Europe. The Dutch dangerously celebrated their Queen’s birthday. A squadron of Czechs drew their first Nazi blood. The Spitfire pilots stood as England’s last line of defense.

The American people had to talk this out. We saw how the Nazi Stukas made dust of Warsaw and Amsterdam. But was it our fight? If we kept at peace there would be one strong nation left against the day when a ruined world would need help. It took the Nazis themselves to convince us by bomb and submarine and boasting that we were next on their list. We began to reckon up our friends, and with Ben Franklin decided it is common sense to stand together.

"... Hang Together or Hang Separately”

Destroyers over-age but still stout enough for a last fling at Axis U-boats are taken over by hard-pressed Britain

America Posts Some Sentinels To Stand Guard In the Atlantic

America in that perilous September called up 60,000 National Guardsmen to strengthen our small peacetime Army. We had few combat planes. Our main battle fleet was in the Pacific. In the exposed Atlantic seaways lurked Nazi submarines. But on September 2, 1940, we made a deal. President Roosevelt swapped 50 overage destroyers for 99-year leases on bases on British islands and continental possessions reaching from Newfoundland to the South American coast. Here on this great outer line we could plant our airfields,' shelter our ships, and stand sentinel over our convoy lines. Both countries gained. America slept better with Bermuda, Jamaica, and Trinidad on guard. England, thrown a lifeline, held on.

Before Lend-Lease our plant capacity was increased by British, Dutch, and French arms orders totaling 3 billion dollars

The Axis conspirators had been forging their weapons in secrecy for 10 years. When the peoples directly in their path were made to fight for their homes and lives, they turned to us for bullets and guns and planes. France and Holland, before they fell, spent hundreds of millions with us. Englishmen sold the property they owned in the United States to buy from us what Dunkirk made imperative. China moved American tools over the Burma Road to shops carved out of rocky hills. Out of their need we learned how to convert the factories of peace to plants of war. They knew from experience that a pursuit plane must have heavy fire power. We built to their plans, and gained capacity to produce modern arms.

From Our Friends We Borrowed Time In Which to Tool Our Plants for War

We Saw That Our Neighbor’s House Was on Fire...

Germany and Japan were bent on conquering the world. Peaceful China learned how craftily Japan had planned. Europe woke up in Nazi chains. But in the hearts of every threatened people there was a love of land and a will to fight. In March of 1941 the Japs ravaged South China, but could not conquer. Greece, with 150,000 Germans on her border, refused an armistice. Malta still held. London was cleaning up its rubble . . . Then cocky Germany warned the United States that American ships entering the war area did so “at their own risk.’’ We were at peace, and it was 10 months before Pearl Harbor. But we knew we were in danger; so we devised a plan. As the President put it ... if your neighbor’s house is on fire you lend him your garden hose. We decided in our own defense to provide weapons and services to nations resisting the Axis. On March 11, 1941, the President signed the Lend-Lease Act.

London’s courage under air attack gave first warning to the Nazis that democracy's fighting spirit would not take defeat

The Lend-Lease Act promotes our national defense by furnishing material aid to nations fighting the Axis.
Under it we can provide weapons, munitions, aircraft, shipping, services, food, transportation, industrial and raw materials.
Lend-Lease is not a loan of money. Repayment to us can be in property or any other direct or indirect benefit.
Lend-Lease combines our material strength with the manpower of friendly countries and puts both to the most effective possible use.

... So We Lent Him a Hose To Put it Out

DEC. 7,

1 941

At 2:20 p. m. on this “date which will live in infamy,” the Japanese envoys were discussing peace with Secretary Hull, while at Pearl Harbor the first bombs fell.

American merchant marine sailors swam through the scum of a sinking tanker, scrubbed off the oil and went to sea again

The Nazis were puffed with pride. Two months before Pearl Harbor Hitler declared that Russia “is already broken and will never rise again.’’ As the German legions rolled eastward over the Russian steppes, Nazi submarines were sinking merchant ships in Atlantic waters . . . Our world, balanced on a powder keg, exploded at Pearl Harbor. Our enemies made it a global war, and to them we returned a world-wide answer.

We Are Pushed Into Waging War on Two Fronts

Lend-Lease and the German Front

Germany is the fortress to be taken. United Nations’ strategy is to ! move against the enemy in a tightening circle. Lend-Lease makes this possible. It gets supplies to battlefields of our own choosing. A steel plant in Ohio, making shells for Russia, increases Allied firepower. So does an American tommy-gun in the hands of a free Frenchman. In our combined power lies our invincibility.

Lend-Lease was never a one-way affair. The Dutch gave their lives to delay the Japs at Java. Australia sent food to MacArthur’s men at Bataan. The New Zealanders went on short rations so that American soldiers could share their beef and butter. China has stood her watch for six blood-letting years, and still stands. By common strategy, backed by common might, Japan too is encircled.

Lend-Lease and the Japanese Front

Germany and Japan, each an ocean away, count on submarine sinkings to keep our mounting strength away from their shores

The Battle of Global Transport Is the Key to Global War

To strike at the enemy’s heart we have to go after him, 4,000 miles one way, 6,000 miles the other. The world has never before seen such movements of fighting men and their equipment. The sea lanes they follow were never before so deadly with lurking submarines. To meet this challenge the United Nations pooled their maritime strength. A large amount of lend-lease funds is spent for shipyards, ships, and repair services. This is not a one-way affair. Dutch and Norwegian shipping aids us. The British move and convoy many of our troops, as part of their reverse lend-lease service to us. There is reciprocity, too, on the Japanese front, where our ships do the hauling and where, in return, our troops are provided by Australia and New Zealand with wool clothing and blankets, food, barracks, airdromes, and naval bases. On the many roads which lead to Tokyo and Berlin^ Lend-Lease has developed air ferry routes, made camel trails into roads, and conquered jungle, desert, and mountain range. Many paths of war, when peace comes, will be the highways to a new world.

Five merchant ships a day slide down American ways, and many of these ships will carry lend-lease goods to our Allies

The Front Against
the Germans

Lend-Leased amphibious trucks hauled supplies for the British in the Sicilian campaign

“Tanks for Russia Week”—another one starts on its way to the Soviet front as part of England’s lend-lease aid to Russia

A tank built by American workers swings in readiness for Mediterranean adventure

American tanks aided the British 8th Army in its magnificent victory at El Alamein

North Africa proved the value of pooling Allied arms. It set the pattern for final victory. The combined Chiefs of Staff determine the strategy. Young, well-fed, and well-drilled fighting men push the throttles and train the guns. And behind them is Lend-Lease, supplying their needs and not caring what hand does the job so long as the enemy is hit hard. A British tank driven against a Nazi pillbox in the Ukraine is doing the same job that the General Shermans did, when our soldiers and the British used them to blast the Afrika Korps.

The Pattern of Final Victory Is Laid Down

The Front Against
the Germans

The knowing hand of a Detroit machinist helps make the tools which, shipped to England, turn out antiaircraft guns for the use of all United Nations forces

Free Poles get their chance to knock down some of the planes which wrecked Warsaw

To Allied fighters—whether they come empty-handed from occupied countries or backed by nations able to out-produce the Axis—the tools and weapons of offense are equally provided. The boy from Oregon or Tennessee has confidence because he knows the power of the United States will not fail him. The boys who fled Norway in open boats to fight for freedom have faith that the strength of the United Nations will see them through.

The Skills of Many Hands Join In a Single Cause

The Front Against
the Germans

An American copper miner sets his drill against the rock to prepare for blasting

In an English Midlands plant the copper ore assumes finished shape at the end of an intercontinental assembly line

The globe shows lend-lease routes to the front against the Germans— extending as giant pincers whose force the Nazis now know. Over these same routes follow medicines and food for reconquered lands. Already in Africa the liberated people are repaying our friendly support with strategic and critical materials for the United Nations.

Nazi ships in a Mediterranean port feel the final effect of the collaboration between the American and British workers

The Front Against
the Germans

Food can shorten the war by supplying the full driving force to keep workers at top production and soldiers fit for battle

Food is a weapon of war. Good steel rifling in a gun barrel is no more essential than good food for the worker who makes it or the soldier who sights it. About a fifth of all lend-lease shipments have been foodstuffs. In relation to our total supply this amount is small, but it is tremendously important to our Allies. The amount we send Great Britain under Lend-Lease represents 10 percent of her food requirements—but this 10 percent means the difference between Britain’s being able to fight effectively and not having enough to carry on. Soviet Russia, her Ukrainian “breadbasket” gone, needs U. S. food to help sustain the Red Army. . . . Just as we furnish food to our Allies, they furnish food to us. From her limited supply, Great Britain provides our troops with fresh vegetables, cereals, -chocolate, sugar, and other foods. And under Reverse Lend-Lease, Australia and New Zealand supply our troops there with approximately 90 percent of their food requirements.

British farmers harvest a crop with U. S. farm equipment supplied by Lend-Lease

Shipping space from America is saved when U. S. Army bakers make bread for our troops in England out of wheat grown there

The Front Against
the Japanese

Chungking Airport, situated on an island near the Chinese capital, is cobbled to withstand the floods that come each year

China is a land of floods and famines. In normal times China needs the outside world’s products. Today, with her seaports gone and the Burma Road closed, the indomitable Chinese people have fashioned arms out of meager materials and abundant hardihood. The United States has acknowledged its duty and its determination to help China.

Chinese pilots receive their flight training on U. S. Army fields through Lend-Lease

Madame Chiang Kai-shek, with Speaker of the House Rayburn, as she asked the Congress “to help construct a world in which all people may henceforth live in harmony..

Cargo Planes and New Land Routes Will Take Lend-Lease to China

The Front Against
The Japanese

Under Reverse Lend-Lease, Australia has provided this hospital for U. S. troops

Behind the Lines Allied Resources Are Combined in One Common Pool

Australian cowboys drive herds 800 miles to get fresh beef into American mess kits

The Sum Is This— Good Weapons In the Hands of Hard Fighting Men

To do his job a soldier must be well-equipped. He may be in New Guinea, as these troops are, the Solomons, North Africa, or Sicily. Wherever he is, he needs certain things—confidence in the cause he is fighting for, good food and clothing, and weapons he trusts. With these he can march to victory.

What Lend-Lease combines United Nation resources in a common strategy
Lend-Lease Is to defeat the Axis in the shortest possible time. Our allies are
united as one fighting force to which different nations have different
contributions to make. The United States is only one arsenal of
democracy. England has sent many tanks and planes to Russia.
Canada has made large gifts to the United Kingdom. So have
Australia and New Zealand. Each is doing its share.
There are United Nations which have fighting men, not materials,
to contribute. The Czechs, Poles, Dutch, Greeks, Yugoslavs,
Belgians, and Fighting French come to us empty-handed for the
weapons of liberation. Russia and China have killed millions of the
enemy whom otherwise we would have had to meet. These countries
have no goods to spare. Whatever we can supply them helps us,
and there is no way to measure the value of a life exchanged for a
plane.
Lend-Lease has freed strategy from dollar clearances. We keep a
record of the goods and services supplied to our Allies, and our Allies
keep a similar record of the goods and services supplied to us. After
the war, lend-lease accounts will be settled in such a way as to
promote mutually advantageous economic relationships between the
countries concerned.
Most United States production is for our own needs. Lend-Lease
only takes what we can spare. And nearly all lend-lease funds are
spent in the United States.
How Lend-Lease is to be used must be approved by our top military
command, with the agreement of the Government branches concerned.
Reverse Through Reverse Lend-Lease, our Allies are contributing to our
Lend-Lease strength. England in this give-and-take arrangement transports our
soldiers, and feeds and shelters them on her soil, without any dollar
payment. With other Allies, including Russia and China, we have
master agreements pledging the available strength of each to the
others.
The two-way operation of Lend-Lease is proof of our inventiveness
against a common foe. It points the way, after the war, toward
cooperation between nations to create greater well-being for the
American people and for other peoples of the world

“THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR BELIEF IN THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM AND THE DETERMINATION OF FREE PEOPLE TO RETAIN THAT FREEDOM. LEND-LEASE IS NOT ONLY IN THE DEMOCRATIC TRADITION, IT WILL PROVE A VITAL FACTOR IN THE INEVITABLE VICTORY OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE UNITED NATIONS.”

Report of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs
February 26, 1943