Before Lend Lease
Before the Lend Lease Act was enacted in March 1941, Britain had purchased materials on a Cash and Carry basis. Just how much is hard to fathom, but everything was obtained under those terms. If you can pay for it, you can have it.
With the fall of Europe, the American aircraft manufacturers had major problems with inventory. Thousands of aircraft in various stages of production cluttered plants, with the buyers for these aircraft gone. The saving grace here was that Britain effectively agreed to take all the inventory, saving much of the aviation industry.
What types had the Europeans ordered, it is a varied lot. The French had significant orders for the B-24 Liberator and the Curtis 75 or Mohawk, the Belgians had ordered the Brewster Buffalo. The Swedish had ordered the Vultee 72 coming to the RAF as the Vanguard, after the order was redirected.
On the aircraft front, Britain had ordered and paid for some 26,000 aircraft from America. There were many other types rolling off the production lines for the RAF, all paid for with cash and technology. As at December 1940 there were a total of 51 types on order, some like the Mustang designed to a British specification.
The Technology Trade
Often overlooked when the transatlantic trade in armaments is considered, is what went the other way. The British had a number or world leading technologies, these were effectively gifted to America. In September 1940, during the Battle of Britain the British government sent the Tizard Mission to the United States. A sientific mission to ensure that existing research could continue and thus benefit the war effort.
The British shared technology included the cavity magnetron (needed for Radar), the design for the proximity fuse, design details of the jet engine and the memorandum describing the feasibility of an atomic bomb. Though these may be considered the most significant, many other items were also transported, including designs for rockets, superchargers, gyroscopic gunsights, submarine detection devices, self-sealing fuel tanks and plastic explosives.
The value of these technological gifts can’t really be estimated, but it was considerable – the Americans were far behind in many areas in 1940.
The Monetary Value of Cash and Carry
How much did Britain actuallt spend before Lend Lease came into effect? Well the figure that seems to be closest is £5 Billion, that is $20 Billion in dollars. This was in 1940, in 2024 dollars it is around $450 Billion. On December 28th 2006 Britain paid the final installment to the Unites States of America, some 64 years after the end of WWII.