American and Soviet pilots pose in front of a Bell P-39 Airacobra, supplied to the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease program. Photo: Museum of the U.S. Air Force (Courtesy Photo)
Robert Coalson, RFE: 'We Would Have Lost': Did U.S. Lend-Lease Aid Tip The Balance In Soviet Fight Against Nazi Germany?
On February 24, 1943, a Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft with serial number 42-32892 rolled out of a factory in Long Beach, California, and was handed over to the U.S. Air Force.
On March 12, 1943, the plane was given to the Soviet Air Force in Fairbanks, Alaska, and given the registration USSR-N238. From there, it flew 5,650 kilometers to the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, one of some 14,000 aircraft sent by the United States to the Soviet Union during World War II under the massive Lend-Lease program.
This particular C-47 was sent to the Far North and spent the war conducting reconnaissance and weather-monitoring missions over the Kara Sea. After the war, it was transferred to civilian aviation, carrying passengers over the frozen tundra above the Arctic Circle. On April 23, 1947, it was forced to make an emergency landing with 36 people on board near the village of Volochanka on the Taimyr Peninsula.
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WNU Editor: This is a debate that I have had more than once with my father and his World War II comrades. They told me that they never saw or use any US equipment or supplies during the war. I know that my father did ride a US jeep after the war, and he accidentally crashed it a day later. Considering how lousy and careless my father was as a driver, I do believe that story. But during the war my father and his buddies were very adamant. They never saw US aid. They may not have seen any aid, but IMHO US aid did help. The records on what the U.S. shipped to the Soviet Union are a manner of public record, in both the U.S. and in Russia. It may not have been enough to tip the war, but it did contribute to the eventual victory.
