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Just finished the U.S. Army "Green Book" on logistics, part one. On page 715 it states U.S. Lend-Lease played an important role in helping the Soviets win this battle. First "eye" have seen of this. Is it true?

Thank you.

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Yes. I read some where that 70% of all trucks in the Russian army were lendlease from the US. This is the number and I am sure a fair number was employed in Stalingrad

 

  • 400,000 jeeps & trucks
  • 14,000 airplanes
  • 8,000 tractors
  • 13,000 tanks
  • 1.5 million blankets
  • 15 million pairs of army boots
  • 107,000 tons of cotton
  • 2.7 million tons of petrol products
  • 4.5 million tons of food
Edited by On the way
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Well even if not much of the stuff made it from the USA to Stalingrad itself, it meant that the Soviets themselves could sent materiel to Stalingrad knowing that the USA (And Britain and Canada) would send the stuff that was needed to fill in the gaps.

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34 minutes ago, On the way said:

Yes. I read some where that 70% of all trucks in the Russian army were lendlease from the US. This is the number and I am sure a fair number was employed in Stalingrad

It was less. At the start of the War Red Army had 275,000 trucks. During the war 745,000 were received:

- 150,000 from Soviet production
- 221,500 requisitioned from the civil industry
- 60,600 were captured
- 312,600 received via lend-lease

Of course, lend-lease were brand new and generally of better quality than Soviet models.
 

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On 4/20/2022 at 2:31 AM, DougRichards said:

Well even if not much of the stuff made it from the USA to Stalingrad itself, it meant that the Soviets themselves could sent materiel to Stalingrad knowing that the USA (And Britain and Canada) would send the stuff that was needed to fill in the gaps.

I read somewhere that some lend lease P-39s were used by the Red Air Force in Stalingrad.

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On 4/20/2022 at 6:05 AM, alejandro_ said:

Of course, lend-lease were brand new and generally of better quality than Soviet models.
 

Most Soviet trucks were based on American and British trucks. Ford even help build a factory in the USSR.

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On 4/20/2022 at 12:29 PM, Perun said:

I read book from Soviet general Popel and he didnt have high estime of Land- lease equipment

General Popel was commissar.  Therefore, its assessment in this case is doubtful.

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1 minute ago, Stefan Kotsch said:

General Popel was commissar.  Therefore, its assessment in this case is doubtful.

And he was writing in the middle of the Cold War under a regime that rigorously vetted books before publication to ensure they followed the Party line.

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His experience was with Matilda and M3 medium, which were generally not liked - nicknames were "Candle" for Matilda and "Grave for 6 brothers*" for M3. Feeling toward LL armor varied a lot depending on what they used. Loza thought highly about Sherman, but had very poor opinion on Matilda that he served before transferring to Shermans.

General guideline:

Dislike - M3 light, M3 medium, Matilda (with most hate toward Matilda, even more than toward M3 medium)

Mostly ambivalent - Churchill (armor was often prized, gun sometimes, but overall it was considered to be "far from the best tank".

Like - Valentine, Sherman, T48 (57mm on halftrack)

*Not just Lee, Soviet T-60 was also called BM-2 "grave for two brothers".

Edited by bojan
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On 4/22/2022 at 10:31 PM, MiloMorai said:

Most Soviet trucks were based on American and British trucks. Ford even help build a factory in the USSR.

I am not sure if manufacturing quality was the same, but brand new trucks delivered from the US are going to be better than requisitioned/captured ones.

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The Soviet trucks at the time that were based on American designs were based on ones from the twenties and early thirties.  The Lend-Lease trucks were state-of-the-art for the early forties.

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15 hours ago, bojan said:

His experience was with Matilda and M3 medium, which were generally not liked - nicknames were "Candle" for Matilda and "Grave for 6 brothers*" for M3. Feeling toward LL armor varied a lot depending on what they used. Loza thought highly about Sherman, but had very poor opinion on Matilda that he served before transferring to Shermans.

General guideline:

Dislike - M3 light, M3 medium, Matilda (with most hate toward Matilda, even more than toward M3 medium)

Mostly ambivalent - Churchill (armor was often prized, gun sometimes, but overall it was considered to be "far from the best tank".

Like - Valentine, Sherman, T48 (57mm on halftrack)

*Not just Lee, Soviet T-60 was also called BM-2 "grave for two brothers".

Even Chuck Yeager mentioned that when he met the Russian Air Force senior staff at a banquet in his honor, they loved the P-39s send to them under LL. The plane was almost universally loathed by the Americans. But some of the highest scoring Russian aces flew the aircraft. So Russian experience and opinion with LL equipment sometimes bore no resemblance to the Allies.

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P-39 was not really "second rate", but it's abilities and strengths did not really fit with either US nor British doctrine. Soviets did not like P-40, absolutely hated Hurricane (well, in 1942 that one was 2nd rate), were indifferent at best toward Spitfire (those had reputation for being a bit of "hangar queen" and unsuitable for very rough forward airfield conditions).

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