Text 14085, 46 rader
Skriven 2005-09-29 16:43:49 av Ward Dossche
     Kommentar till en text av Dan Ceppa
Ärende: Re: Morality & Otherwise
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> PS> Were those ships supplying Hitlers enemies ?
 
> Where would Europe have been without Lend/Lease?
 
That is a good question which often gets regurgitated but never answered.
 
Let me offer the following thoughts which undoubtedly will fire-up the debate:
 
1) At the time of the "Lend/Lease"-deal beginning to be executed the Battle
   of Britain had already been fought and won by the Brits ... this was way
   before Pearl Harbor. All the Nazi capital ships excluding the Scharnhorst,
   Tirpitz and Prinz Eugen had been annihilated or permanently immobilised.
   The Gneisenau was still afloat but with mine-damage in a German port where
   the RAF would permanently put her out of action. Nazi-Germany's offensive
   capacities had been reduced by whatever damage the U-boats could inflict
   and the "Lend/Lease"-deal hardly affected this other than providing U-boat
   fodder. The old 4-stack coal-fired destroyers which the Royal Navy got
   could barely keep-up with slow moving convoys and at times were slower
   that a submerged U-boat.
 
2) The "Lend/Lease"-deal provided comfort and help to the Russians. It
   enabled them to go a lot faster after German units at the eastern front
   than they otherwise could've. "Great" one might think, but it also created
   the Communist hemisphere in eastern Europe which for over 40 years would
   cast a gloomy blanket over these countries. Had Patton been allowed to do
   what he undoubtedly wanted to do, he would have reached Berlin, ended the
   war in Europe there and then without "perhaps" Poland, Czechia, Slovakia,
   Hungary, Austria, etc... being overrun by the Communist army.
 
3) All goods part of the "Lend/Lease"-deal intended for Russia had to be
   paid in gold by the Russians. When at one time a British cruiser with such
   a payment on board was torpedoed in the icy northern seas it was
   considered more of a financial disaster than of a human disaster.
 
4) To counter the unplanned advance of Cummunism in Europe the
   "Marshall-plan" was put in action ... the intention was not to help the
   Europeans economically, but to prevent western Europe from becoming a
   communist stronghold. To nullify some of the negative impacts of said
   "Lend/Lease"-deal.
 
Take care,
 
 \%/@rd

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