Supplying the Soviets during WWII

How was the USSR supplied with war material and other stuff? Through convoys to Murmansk I know.

But were there other means of access? Vladivostock seems unlikely due to its proximity to Japan. The Mediterranean-Black Sea route also seems unlikely owing to the proximity of war theaters.

Were any supplies shipped through harbors in the Persian Gulf, Iran or even India? Then transshipped by road to the Southern USSR?

Thanks.

LDM

e-mail address utterly fanciful.

No, actually nearly half all materiel sent to the USSR went that way. It was shipped on Soviet-flagged ships (many of which were built in the US and Lend-Leased/given to the USSR).

I think some materiel may have found its way there late in the war after Turkey joined the Allies, but I haven't looked deeply into this subject yet.

Through Iran, yes. It was called the Persian Corridor. I don't recall anything going through India as that would have been an even longer and more difficult journey, but some minor shipments (in terms of volume) may have gone that way by air.

All of the above is correct, except that the North Russia Run (UK-Murmask/Archangel) and the East Africa Run (S.Africa-Arabia) were logistically terrible. I think something close to half of the supplied routed on the North Russia Run never left port, and less than half (I recall a third, but I can't place it) of the remainder actually got there. Look at some of the convoys to see just how bad it was (PX-117? Something -117, IIRC, I don't have my resources with me right now). Ultimately, Churchill stoped the convoys for a bit because of lossed. Also realize that for the first piece of the war, the Russian Convoys were the responsibility of the UK not the US.

Yes, my (step) grandfather was a gunner on the Murmansk convoys, amongst other things.

Huge amounts of war material were shipped into Vladivostock on allied shipping operating under Russian flags. Japan very wisely chosed not to attack Russia and turned a blind eye to the US ships sailing right past.... Obviously it then had to be transported by rail across Siberia, but aircraft could travel under their own power if the facilities to assemble them were present.

Very little material (ie none) was shipped by this route, however...

One of the reasons for invading Persia in WW2 was to open a southern land supply to route to Russia. Eventually this eclipsed the tonnage shipped via Murmansk, and and it was not under threat of interdiction from the Luftwaffe and the Tirpitz.

Cheers

You can check out Roads to Russia by Robert Jones, for US aid, Comrades in Arms by Joan Beaumont for Commonwealth aid to the USSR. The US Army has a history The Persian Corridor and aid to Russia by T.H. Vail Motter.

The table in Roads to Russia for US cargo shipped to the USSR in gross long tons (which would ignore aircraft flown in),

North Russia 3,964,000 (7% lost), Persian Gulf 4,160,000 (4% lost), Black Sea 681,000 (1% lost), Soviet Far East 8,224,000 (1% lost), Soviet Arctic 452,000 (0% loss).

In addition to the US tonnages sent from North America a further 166,359 long tons of petroleum products was sent from Adaban in the time period 1 July 1943 to 30 June 1944 and a further 388,843 long tons from Adaban in the time period 1 July 1944 to 31 May 1945. This compares to the total shipment from North America of 2,113,449 long tons of petroleum products.

The Turks allowed allied lend lease shipments to use the Black Sea in 1945, as far as I know after their 1st March 1945 declaration of war on Germany and Japan.

Geoffrey Sinclair Remove the nb for email.

Aircraft, particularly P-39s, were ferried across Canada to Alaska where they were picked up by Soviet pilots.

Sure. There were no good routes until 1945; the Vladivostok route dropped the cargo many thousands of miles from where it was actually needed.

I think something close to half of the supplied

I think a majority got there, off the top of my head.

Look at some of the convoys to see just how bad it was (PX-117?

PQ-17 was the worst. The Admiralty got information that indicated that Tirpitz was coming out, and ordered the convoy to scatter. That caused a great many ships to be lost, for no reason. One possible complication was that the warships escorting the convoy had essentially no information except the order to scatter, and tried to find German surface forces in the hope of slowing them down.

If I had to pick a single WWII decision least in the RN tradition, it would be that one.

I thought the Murmansk convoys remained a British responsibility for the duration of the war.

{snip}

Umm, based on the other posts looks like I was wrong about this. It was however a minor route and only available after Turkey joined the Allies in 1945.

Cheers

There is a wonderful novel about this. _HMS Ulysses_ by C.S. Forester.

In the novel, the cruiser Ulysses is escorting convoy PQ17 to Murmansk and serving as bait to lure the German battleship Tirpitz out of its fjord in Norway. The convoy is ripped to shreds and the Tirpitz escapes.

The Russians, always suspicious of British motives, believed that the British were treating their supplies as bait to attract ships that the British believed threatened the Royal Navy. The British denied this. Admiral Arseni G. Golovko, commander of the Soviet Arctic fleet, cites Forester's book in his own memoirs (_With the Red Fleet_) as evidence that the British were lying.

Alan

{snip}

Oh dear. I'll have to put my mr picky hat on as HMS Ulysses is one of my favourite war novels. It was written by Alistair Maclean, probably his best book (although Guns of Navrone & Where Eagles Dare are good for a laugh).

Ulysses commanded the escort group for a convoy whose eventual fate bears a distinct resemblance to that of PQ-17. In the book it is a nameless Hipper class cruiser which inflicts the final blows, although after days of U-Boat and air atacks their isn't much left to sink - losing all the escort carriers and runningout of depth charges didn't help much. IRL no German heavy surface units engaged PQ-17.

{snip}

This seems a rather roundabout and expensive way of sinking German ships. Dropping bombs on them in port worked much better.

Cheers

With great humility and abject apologies, I stand corrected.

It's been many years since I read the book. I should have checked my facts before I posted them. I was led astray by my fond memories of Forester's sea stories ranging from his incomparable Horatio Hornblower saga to his World War II stories - _The Ship_ and _The Good Shepherd_ (I checked. He really did write _those_ novels.)

Thank you for the correction.