WWII experts, can you help me here?

[Dry]

Re: WWII experts, can you help me here?

Originally posted by BeBro
Was Free France part of the lend-lease thingy after Vichy got established? And if so, does someone know a nice webpage or so that tells us what kind of stuff exactly they received?

A very strict answer to this would be no. But it needs some explainations.

The text of law specified that the LL had to be granted to STATES (government in exile is also OK). It was the US president decision which states would benefit from it.
When Vichy France got established, the US recognized her as THE official France - Vichy even got an ambassador in the US.
Free France - consisting at that time only of deGaule and those French who fled to the UK - was in US views therefore NOT an official STATE and could NOT - according to the law - benefit from any LL at that time.

While the US could only grant LL to states, UK had some freedom in how to dispatch the material she got between herself and her minions/colonies/whoever.
So, in order to strictly respect the LL law, and still help the FF it was decided that the FF part would be taken from the UK part.

Situation between US and Vichy France soon deteriorated and in April 42, the Vichy ambassador was sent back.
But Free France was still not an state.

When the western allies landed in N.Africa in Oct 42, some Vichy troops, decided to defect. But these people were NOT strictly spoken Free French. A few of them had even fought against Free French.
The allies immediately pushed General Giraud forward as official civilian and military leader of those liberated french colonies.
So, for a few month, the french found themselves split in 3: Vichy(Petain), Free French (deGaule) and ex-Vichy-pro-allies-freed-colonies (Giraud).

When finally in June 43, the FF and liberated colonies merged into a 'Comité Français de Libération Nationale'(*), the US, more happy with Giraud than with deGaule, agreed to recognize the legitimacy of this Comity and agreed to grant LL directly to those 'local authorities' as they called them then.

The US were very reluctant to deal with deGaule and they always kept him out of the discussions about the requested material. They did not recognize him as representative of the French people (in US views deGaule was a rogue, a self proclaimed leader, with no democratic or official legitimacy). The arming of the Free French army was therefore always discussed and agreed with General Giraud.

(*) Nodody will use that name and the 'Free France' name will remain and include the original FF + the pro-allies colonial troops.

[Slaughtermeyer]

The USSR and Nationalist China also received fairly massive amounts of lend-lease aid. When I was in the USSR in 1979 I took a picture of a street scene, and someone in the USA identified a truck in that photo as a WW2-era Dodge.

[Dauphin]

The concept of Britain only just paying off lend-lease is technically accurate, but also a misleading statement. The UK government is still paying off 18th century war loans. War loans that in theory exist in perpetuity.

[VetLegion]

How do you mean perpetuity? Did government sell the right to tax to someone just to get money for war?

[Saras]

The government issued consols, which are bonds without a maturity date.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by VetLegion
How do you mean perpetuity? Did government sell the right to tax to someone just to get money for war?

As Saras says.

They are basically interest only loans. The government will pay interest on the loan forever as the capital amount will never be redeemed (though its real value will diminish with time).