32. The Myth of Soviet Reliance on Lend-Lease During WWII
An oft-repeated WWII myth has it that the USSR could not have survived or won without massive American Lend-Lease. Lend-Lease clearly helped, and Soviet successes in the second half of the war would not have been as dramatic without the hundreds of thousands of American jeeps and trucks that improved logistics and allowed for deep advances. And American airplanes were greatly appreciated – the Soviets’ second-highest scoring fighter ace of the war downed most of his kills while flying an American P-39 Airacobra.
However, the bulk of Lend-Lease did not arrive until 1944-1945, by which point the Soviets were already nearing victory. Indeed, meaningful amounts of Lend-Lease did not begin arriving until late 1943. By then, the Soviets had already halted the German advance and gone on the counteroffensive, rolling back the enemy’s gains and beginning the relentless march westward that ended in Berlin and Central Europe.