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Posts Tagged ‘Lend Lease’

World War II History for March 17

17 Mar

Today in WWII History

World War II History for March 17

*St. Patricks Day*

Audio Clip: CBS World News Today (03.14.1943)

 WWII History - 03.14.1943 CBS World News Today [24:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

17 Mar 1940 - Dr. Fritz Todt was appointed Germany’s Minister for Weapons and Munitions.

17 Mar 1941 – The US Senate begins debating the Lend-Lease bill.

17 Mar 1942 – United States assumes strategic defense of the Pacific Ocean.

17 Mar 1942 – MacArthur arrives Australia by B-17 during Japanese attack and became the Supreme Commander of the United Nations forces in the Southwestern Pacific.

17 Mar 1943 – British forces capture Medenine in Tunisia, but US and British forces in other North African fronts begin falling back in the face of heavy German armor attacks. The Mark IV tanks prove effective for the Germans since their introduction.

17 Mar 1944 – US forces bomb Vienna.

 
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Posted in African Theater, Europe Theater, North America, Pacific Theater, Podcast, Today

 

World War II History for October 30

30 Oct

Today in WW II History

World War II History for October 30

1941 - FDR approves Lend-Lease aid to the USSR

On this day in 1941, President Roosevelt, determined to keep the United States out of the war while helping those allies already mired in it, approves $1 billion in Lend-Lease loans to the Soviet Union. The terms: no interest and repayment did not have to start until five years after the war was over.

The Lend-Lease program was devised by President Roosevelt and passed by Congress on March 11, 1941. Originally, it was meant to aid Great Britain in its war effort against the Germans by giving the chief executive the power to “sell, transfer title to, exchange, lease, lend, or otherwise dispose of” any military resources the president deemed ultimately in the interest of the defense of the United States. The reasoning was: If a neighbor was successful in defending his home, the security of your home was enhanced.

Although the Soviet Union had already been the recipient of American military weapons, and now had been promised $1 billion in financial aid, formal approval to extend the Lend-Lease program to the USSR had to be given by Congress. Anticommunist feeling meant much heated debate, but Congress finally gave its approval to the extension on November 7.

By the end of the war, more than $50 billion in funds, weapons, aircraft, and ships had been distributed to 44 countries. After the war, the Lend-Lease program morphed into the Marshall Plan, which allocated funds for the revitalization of “friendly” democratic nations–even if they were former enemies.

1945 - The U.S. government announced the end of shoe rationing.

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Posted in Country - USA

 

World War II History for August 21

21 Aug

Today in WW II History

World War II History for August 21

1943 - Japan evacuated the Aleutian island of Kiaska. Kiaska had been the last North American foothold held by the Japanese.

1944 - The seeds of the United Nations are planted

On this day in 1944, representatives from the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and China meet in the Dumbarton Oaks estate at Georgetown, Washington, D.C., to formulate the formal principles of an organization that will provide collective security on a worldwide basis-an organization that will become the United Nations.

Following up on a promise made at the Moscow Conferences of 1943 to create an international organization to succeed the League of Nations, the Dumbarton Oaks Conference began planning its creation. Step one was the outline for a Security Council, which would be composed of the member states (basically, the largest of the Allied nations)–the United States, the USSR, China, France, and Great Britain-with each member having veto power over any proposal brought before the Council.

Many political questions would remain to be hammered out, such as a specific voting system and the membership status of republics within the Soviet Union. A more detailed blueprint for the United Nations would be drawn up at both the Yalta Conference in February 1945, and the San Francisco Conference, which would produce the U.N. charter, also in 1945.

1945 - U.S. President Truman ended the Lend-Lease program that had shipped about $50 billion in aid to America’s Allies during World War II.

 
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Posted in Atlantic Theater, Country - USA, Europe Theater, Today

 

World War II History for June 11

11 Jun

Today in WW II History

World War II History for June 11

1934 - The Disarmament Conference in Geneva ended in failure.

1940 - The Italian Air Force bombed the British fortress at Malta in the Mediterranean.

1940 - Britain strikes back at Italy

On this day in 1940, Britain demonstrates that it will not remain on the defensive, by bombing Italian targets in response to Mussolini’s declaration of war on England and France.

Having already marked out an offensive strategy in the event of Italian aggression, Britain bombed targets within the cities of Genoa and Turin. Africa was also another theater of conflict, as Italy and Britain were imperial neighbors. Italy had just bombed targets in the British-controlled Suez Canal territory, as well as the British-controlled island of Malta, in the Mediterranean. Britain retaliated with a raid on the Italian military installation in Eritrea. Even the Pacific would see fallout from this new conflict, with an Australian merchant cruiser giving chase to an Italian vessel, which ended up scuttling itself rather than surrendering.

1942 - The U.S. and the Soviet Union signed a lend lease agreement to aid the Soviets in their effort in World War II.

1943 - Operation Corkscrew is launched by Britain

On this day in 1943, after 10 days of bombing runs, Britain lands troops on the Italian island of Pantelleria, off the southern coast of Sicily, in Operation Corkscrew. The Italian garrisons surrenders upon orders from Mussolini, who would later deny the order when the Germans express outrage. This defeat shakes the confidence of many in Mussolini’s cabinet, since they had been assured that Pantelleria was impregnable.

Britain would continue its collection of Italian islands over the next two days, with the occupation of Lampedusa and Linosa–all in preparation for the Allied invasion of Sicily itself in July.

1947 - The U.S. government announced an end sugar rationing.

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