Operation Barbarossa
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| Our Other Military Sites |
| World War II |
| Operation Barbarossa 1941 German Invasion of Russia |
| Operation Citadel 1943 The Battle of Kursk |
| Operation Dragoon 1944 Invasion of southern France |
| Operation Varsity 1945 Crossing the Rhine |
| Invasions That Never Were |
| Operation Sealion 1940 German invasion of England |
| Operation Olympic 1945 US invasion of southern Japan |
| Operation Coronet 1946 US invasion of northern Japan |
| Special Forces |
| Operation Entebbe 1976 Entebbe Airport Rescue |
| Operation Nimrod 1980 Iranian Embassy Siege |
| British Cold War Operations |
| Operation Musketeer 1956 Suez Crisis |
| Operation Corporate 1982 Falklands War |
| Operation Black Buck 1982 Vulcan raids on Port Stanley |
| Operation Granby 1990-91 Persian Gulf |
| British Post Cold War |
| Operation Herrick 2002- Afghanistan |
| Operation Barbarossa > Lend Lease |
Lend Lease in Operation Barbarossa
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British leader, Winston Churchill however, despite his previous anti-communism, was glad of a continental ally, famously saying "If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons", and soon resolved to send aid to help his new ally. The first British aid convoy set off within weeks, and contained Hawker Hurricane aircraft as well as pilots and mechanics.
Meanwhile the United States, although it had not yet entered the war, had been supplying military and economic aid to Britain and other neutral and allied countries aid under the lend-lease program legislation since March 1941. The legislation had however been carefully drafted, so as to allow the possibility of supplying aid to the Soviet Union, and after after an initial period paid for gold, lend-lease aid to the Soviet Union began on October 1st 1941.
Aid was supplied to the USSR via three principle routes:
- Arctic convoys from Britain travelled around Norway to the Russian
ports of
Murmansk,
Archangel.
While this was the quickest route, it was also the most perilous, as the convoys came under regular attack from
German U-boats, aircraft, and surface ships.
- The Pacific route:
Convoys to the Russian port of Vladivostok delivered huge amounts of aid (about 50% of the total tonnage of US aid travelled this way). However, this route was affected by the outbreak of hostilities between Japan and the Western Allies in December 1941, and after that date only non-military supplies could be shipped this way, and only on Soviet ships.
From 1942 onwards, as well as the shipborne aid, aircraft were flown via the "Northwest Staging Route" (also known as "ALSIB", the "ALaska-SIBerian air road") directly from Alaska to Siberia. The main types of aircraft supplied using this method were Bell P-39 Airacobra and Bell P-63 Kingcobra fighters, Douglas A-20 Havoc light attack bombers, North American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers, and Douglas C-47 Skytrain transports.
- From 1942 a supply corridor across Iran was opened up. This was the slowest route, but also the most secure.
British supplies to the USSR during the war amounted to more than 4 million tons. They included more than 7,000 aircraft (including 3,000 Hurricanes), 5,000 tanks, 5000 anti-tank guns, and more than 15 million boots.
It should however be noted that while these supplies were massive, most of them arrived after 1941, and initially this material support was mainly symbolic. The effects of the West Allied supplies only began to be felt at the end of 1941, and they only become truly important in the later years of the war.
