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Untrue Historic “Facts” It’s Time to Erase

Khalid Elhassan September 8, 2020 35 min

Siege of Budapest - World War II — Red Army soldiers marching into a captured Budapest in 1945. Radio Free Europe

30. When We Held Back Lend-Lease Out of Fear That It Would End Up in German Hands

Lend-Lease to the USSR. US Department of State

Lend-Lease deliveries, especially during the war’s first year, were sometimes delayed by a perception that the USSR might collapse at any moment. So there was a fear that our Lend-Lease equipment might simply end up as German war booty. Because of such fears, on more than one occasion during the Soviets’ darkest hours in 1941-1942, ships that were already loaded with Lend-Lease destined for the USSR were offloaded.

The equipment was then redistributed to the US military, or if the ships were already underway, they were diverted to Britain and the equipment was given to the British instead. Even when the goods were ready and fears of Soviet collapse had receded, it took years to establish reliable routes.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.