Editing Great Patriotic War (section)

=== The Impact of Lend-Lease: Helpful, But In No Way Decisive ===
Stalingrad was the decisive point of the Great Patriotic War. 85% of Lend-Lease supplies arrived when the victory of Stalingrad was already secured.<ref name=":4">Charters Wynn, Not Even Past. https://notevenpast.org/lend-lease/</ref><blockquote>Lend-Lease aid was slow to arrive.  During the most crucial period of the war on the Eastern Front it remained little more than a trickle.  Only following the Battle of Stalingrad (August 19, 1942-February 2, 1943), when the Soviet Union’s eventual victory seemed assured, did American aid began to arrive on a significant scale – 85% of the supplies arrived after the beginning of 1943.  Although the vast majority of the Red Army’s best aircraft, tanks, guns and ammunition continued to be manufactured in the Soviet Union, its mobility and communications, in particular, came to rely on Lend-Lease.<ref name=":4" /></blockquote>American military historian David Glantz says that without Lend-Lease, the USSR still would have won, it just would've taken more time, lives and materials.<blockquote>Lend-Lease aid did not arrive in sufficient quantities to make the difference between defeat and victory in 1941–1942; that achievement must be attributed solely to the Soviet people and to the iron nerve of Stalin, Zhukov, Shaposhnikov, Vasilevsky, and their subordinates. As the war continued, however, the United States and Great Britain provided many of the implements of war and strategic raw materials necessary for Soviet victory. Without Lend-Lease food, clothing, and raw materials (especially metals), the Soviet economy would have been even more heavily burdened by the war effort. Perhaps most directly, without Lend-Lease trucks, rail engines, and railroad cars, every Soviet offensive would have stalled at an earlier stage, outrunning its logistical tail in a matter of days. In turn, this would have allowed the German commanders to escape at least some encirclements, while forcing the Red Army to prepare and conduct many more deliberate penetration attacks in order to advance the same distance. Left to their own devices, Stalin and his commanders might have taken 12 to 18 months longer to finish off the Wehrmacht; the ultimate result would probably have been the same, except that Soviet soldiers could have waded at France's Atlantic beaches.<ref>Glantz, David M. (1995). ''When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler''. House, Jonathan M. (Jonathan Mallory). Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. p. 285. ISBN <bdi>978-0700607174</bdi>. OCLC 32859811.</ref></blockquote>Stalin likewise told FDR that without Lend-Lease, Soviet victory would have been delayed. <ref name=":4" />