Japanese view on Soviet lend lease

[Peter H]

I've read conflicting opinions that the Japanese were meticulous in respecting Soviet neutrality as regards the lend lease convoys to Vladivostok or that some hindering was done.

Were specific routes designated?Did the Japanese monitor the sea traffic?

US ships were chartered under the Soviet flag:

http://vn.vladnews.ru/Arch/2005/ISS462/News/upd13_1.HTM

American aid to the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1945 amounted to 18 million tons of materiel at an overall cost of $10 billion ($120 billion modern) and 49 percent of it went through Vladivostok, the major Pacific port of Far Eastern Russia, Tuyll reported.

Vladivostok was a valuable port for this program because Russia’s northern ports of Arkhangelsk and Murmansk were attacked by Nazi Germany and many of the lend-lease shipments were lost.

In 1942-1944 the Soviet Union chartered about 120 American ships and 50 U.S. tankers, and to protect these vessels from attack by Japan in the wake of its December 1941 strafing of Pearl Harbor, American crews sailed under the Soviet hammer and sickle flag. When lend-lease shipments arrived at Vladivostok they were stored both in port terminals and in warehouses on Portovaya and Verkhne-Portovaya streets, then they were conveyed by train along the Trans-Siberian Railroad to points west. During the war the port of Vladivostok handled four times more cargo than Murmansk and Far Eastern railroad traffic was four times greater than the rest of nation.

Members of the Soviet Purchasing Commission were also sent to Alaska to pick up aircraft destined for the USSR.These were then flown to Siberia.

[Simon Gunson]

The 1950s book "Major Jordan's Dairies," corroborates this Russian source from the point of view of a US lend lease officer. Interestingly the claims by Major Jordan have always been dismissed in the west. Major Jordan's diaries can be read in a shortened extract if you Google for Nexus magazine and go to their online library of past articles.

Major Jordan also spoke of an air bridge to Russia via Fairbanks, Alaska.

Major Jordan was a US officer involved with lend lease who was incredulous at the amount of hi tech weaponry including nuclear technology being given to Russia and determined to keep a diary. It's also worth noting that similar special convoys sailed from Philladelphia in early July 1944 with uranium, beryllium, zirconium and cobalt (under lend lease). The two convoys which I am aware of which sailed via the Atlantic to Persia with cargo for Russia were designated special group 300 and 301. One convoy includes the SS John Barry torpedoed by U-859. A strange feature was the post war recovery from extreme depths of it's cargo after the war.

An irony of these uranium shipments was that the uranium came from Canada and was being re-supplied to Stalin against Churchill's wishes and concealed from the British. It is mere personal speculation but I tend to believe Churchill knew of this and tipped off the Germans to attack these special convoys in the Arabian Sea. The US consul in Aden made such allegations after the John Barry was sunk.

It may well be that the Rosenbergs were hung after the war as patsies by the US Government to conceal the fact that USA actually gave away nuclear technology to Stalin for free during the war. There was an agreement between Roosevelt and Stalin at the 1943 Tehran conference to denude Britain and France of their colonial power after the war. the agreement was for USA ad USSR to carve up control of the post war world and this is in fact what came about.

[Carl Schwamberger]

Unfortunatly this veteran is long dead, so we cant confirm directly his statement. His name was Montgomery, served as a quartermaster on a US submarine through 1945. I met him in 1976 when he was a semi retired teacher.

Anyway while telling us about his service he remarked off ahnd about sinking Russian cargo ships. I clearly recall he spoke in the plural here. Of course he was asked about this & he explained the USSR regularly ran cargo ships into Japan, and his boat attacked them. I cant recall any other usefull details from his remarks, tho he said several other things about it.

[Brady]

WoW

Is their another source that can confirm that the 170 some odd ships that the Soviets charted from the US were crewed by US merchant marine?

I cant help but wounder if US subs did not send some them to the bottom.

[hisashi]

I suggest the following two articles to resolve confusion.

'Feeding the Bear: American Aid to the Soviet Union, 1941-1945'
Hubert P. van Tuyll
Greenwood
ISBN 0-313-26688-3

'The Alaska-Siberia Connection: The World War II Air Route'
Otis Hays, Jr.
Texas A&M Univ. Press
ISBN 0-89096-711-3

The Neutrality Pact said Soviet and Japan tread their belongings as neutral. If Soviet ship carried non-combat items, it was okay. According to van Tuyll 47.1% weight of the U.S. -> Soviet lend lease was on this sea route. It included many dual-use items such as foods, clothes and machines. Perhaps it was okay to carry uranium because before 1945 uranium had not been used as ewapon material. I guess the U.S. avoided disputes on whether truck was a civilian goods because Soviet army seemed to use American trucks after 1943, namely after Persia route worked well.

Alsib route was somewhat different. The route often carried purely military-use goods, above all, warplanes. Soviet pilots came to Alaska and took the planes with cargo into Siberia. Soviet refused that any American pilots to fly over Siberia. If IJN found them they would attack them, but it was out of IJN's reach.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2% ... ality_Pact

[Brady]

What I am trying to find is a list of those ships, their Names, but I am drawing a blank on my searches.

Les blank but more questions-

1) I have found some lists , for example you can look at every merchant ship built, and some were Loaned to Russia, and Given Russian names.

2) Problem their is that the original post by Peter sugests that those ships were leased from their owners and crewed by Americans and simply flew the red Star.

[USS ALASKA]

There were several Soviet ships sunk by US submarines but it was by accident - mainly issues with identity of the target. One sub rescued the Soviet survivors who stated they would claim they were attacked by the Japanese and were gallantly saved by the Americans. Source Clay Blair, Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan.

Cheers

[TISO]

A good article on SS John Barry and salvage of cargo
http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/1 ... r.ship.htm