31. The Soviets Were Well on Their Way to Defeating Germany Before the Bulk of Lend-Lease Arrived
Belying the myth that the USSR could not have won without Lend-Lease is the fact that by the time the bulk of Lend-Lease arrived, the Soviets were well on the way to winning the war. In addition to halting the Germans at the Battle of Moscow in 1941, the Soviets had won major victories at Stalingrad and Kursk in 1943, liberated Ukraine and reached Poland in the winter of 1943-1944, and shattered Army Group Center in Operation Bagration in 1944.
The key is when Lend-Lease equipment was delivered. American commitments and promises of Lend-Lease were made early, beginning in 1941. But a variety of factors caused significant time to elapse before the US could make good on those commitments, starting with the time needed for American factories to transition from peacetime production of civilian goods to a war footing. Moreover, America had her own rapidly expanding military – 16 million men were put in uniform during the war – to arm and equip, which was often a higher priority than Lend-Lease.
