My significant other (female of course) is a Russian M.D. and former officer in Russian Army. Both her parents live with us, are also M.D.s and all were former members of Soviet Communist Party. They never learned about American contribution during WW2. I spent a bit of time explaining and showing evidence of Lend Lease materials, from aviation gasoline to trucks, tanks and aircraft to strategic materials for Soviet manufacturing. They were mildly shocked. Same thing with American atomic program. They were taught Soviets developed nuclear weaponry with first test explosion in 1947. They never heard about American Manhattan project. I literally took SO to Santa Fe and showed her the streets and the office Manhattan used in 1944-45.

In return, they educated me on why Germans in WW2 were so anxious to conquer the Caucasus region. We were taught it was for oil. They agree with that but tell me that as much as oil, Germans wanted manganese ore for their steel industry to make better armor plate steel. I am told the reason German tanks had such thick armor is the metal was inferior due to lack of manganese. Ie, German tanks were heavier than would otherwise be necessary requiring more fuel and support materials etc.

Back on topic...

 

A good sidebar! It is well documented that the United States industrial might was instrumental in the defeat of the ****.

No doubt what u say is accurate. However, Hitler's concern was the threat the communist ideology posed to fascism? Hitler believed that war with Russia was inevitable so better sooner (while Russia was perceived weak) than later. Probably, he was correct. However, his war of conquest was incredibly brutal, Hitler saw the Russian's as sub-human, liquidation squads following the German army were kept busy! The Russian's fought like tigers, the battle for Moscow was likely the greatest battle of attrition the World has ever seen.

If not for Pearl, I believe there would have been a negotiated settlement in Europe. That's how Europe had traditionally settled conflicts! (lol) As strong as the British Empire was, I doubt "Overlord' would ever have occurred.

 

The Japan knockoffs were metric.

 

We had several interesting conversations concerning Molotov-Ribbentrop. They were taken aback when I posited that at the beginning of open hostilities in WW2 the Soviet Union was considered an Axis power. (Yes, that includes Zhukov in Manchuria vs. Japan. BTW are you aware that the airport from which Claire Chennault based the Flying Tigers was built by the Soviet Air Force and Chennault's P-40's had to be modified to carry left-behind Soviet ordnance?)

 

re: "They were taken aback when I posited that at the beginning of open hostilities in WW2 the Soviet Union was considered an Axis power"

Obviously they weren't aware of the ****-Soviet pact, August 1939. Kind of proved there is no honor amongst thieves!

re: "Are you aware that the airport from which Claire Chennault based the Flying Tigers was built by the Soviet Air Force and Chennault's P-40's had to be modified to carry left-behind Soviet ordnance"?

No, but it make sense. Chennault's outfit the American Volunteer Group (AVG) was threadbare and ragtag. Supply was a problem.

 

Guys that built the air base the Flying Tigers used were officially the "Soviet Volunteer Group". My guess is that's where Claire Chennault got the official name for his "American Volunteer Group" or AVG.

My father was on General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stillwell's staff based at Ramgarh India. He says Chennault got seduced by a niece of Chiang Kai-shek and "went native" but the US State Department, desperate for an American hero in the early days of the war, kept the positive publicity engine running for Chennault. Chiang leveraged Chennault to get more money and materiel from the US government.

Sometime I can tell about the US Army delegation sent to Mao's camp in China and what happened to them.

The war in Europe and the Pacific was a cakewalk compared to China-Burma-India theater.

ETA: I have photos of Stillwell, Chiang and Lord Louis Mountbatten together.

ETA2: Keeping this topic Harley-related, my father sometimes rode a WLA in India but never told me until one of the guys that liasoned with Mao's Great Northern Army visited our family in Texas and in passing mentioned my father's motorcycle "exploits". Until that time my father was opposed to me having a motorcycle. I was thirteen when I got a WL.

 

WWII was a boon to Harley Davidson, but post-war, GI's exposure to other European makes made HD sales much more of a struggle in the domestic market - the company suffered. The domestic market began to be flooded with international competition that continues to this day.

 

Always heard that part sucked. You don't really hear allot about that though.

It would be interesting to hear about the delegation. I bet I know the ending but....

 

Ran across this one rummaging around on ebay the other day.



https://www.ebay.com/itm/1943-Harley...8Ghi:rk:2:pf:0

rk classic.

 

The story (as related to me by my father and the man from Arkansas known to me as "Mokin") is that the Supreme Allied Commander in the CBI Theater (China-Burma-India) English Lord Louis Mountbatten and US Army General Joseph Stillwell sent a group of seven US Army officers into mainland China on a "training" mission to teach Mao Tse-tung's (Zedong) Chinese officers how to employ the war materials the US was providing the Chinese. Mao's forces were known as The Great Northern Army. (My father was taught by the Army to speak five different dialects of Chinese.) As the Chinese forces operated on the concept of "face", the American officers could not instruct higher-ranking Chinese officers. So my father and at least some of the other six US Army officers wore Chinese general officer uniforms while they were on this trip.

My father says the real reason for the trip was to assess the forces under the command of Mao Tse-tung. On the group's return to Ramgarh India, they wrote a report stating that The Great Northern Army was well organized and commanded. Better than Chinese forces under the command of Nationalist Chinese Generalissimo Chiang and that the United States would be well served if it changed its main support from Chiang to Mao Tse-tung.

This report did not sit well with US State Department or Chiang himself to whom it was leaked.

The result of the incident is that the seven US officers were subsequently assigned to what could be called suicide missions and only two made it through the war alive.

Lots more details, but the main take-away is that the US State Department bears responsibility for the US losing Mao as an ally and China is now Communist.

ETA: Father in fatigues

Those men are stone cold killers