"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message ...
"robert arndt" wrote in message
om...
"Gord Beaman" ) wrote in message
. ..
(robert arndt) wrote:


No, don't talk about US morality in WW2. We didn't even "give" the
British anything under "give us the tools we'll do the job". The US
Govt confiscated all British assets in the US and even sent a warship
to South Africa to collect British gold in payment for the old Liberty
ships.

This is utter ********.

Its true that prior to lend lease the neutrality act required all
purchases to be paid for in gold or US dollars but there
was no 'confiscation' of assets

Roosevelt stripped Britain of all her assets in the US after two years
of war. The British-owned Viscose Company worth 125 mil pounds was
liquidated for 87 mil pounds to pay for war debt while Britain's 1,924
mil pound investments in Canada were sold off to further pay off war
debt. To make sure Roosevelt got the money he dispatched the cruiser
"Loisville" to the South African naval base Simonstown to take
Britain's last gold assets- 42 mil pounds worth.
Not content with stripping Britain of its assets and gold, for 50 old
destroyers, Roosevelt made Britain transfer all her scientific and
technological secrets to the US. He also demanded leases on the
islands of Newfoundland, Jamaica,Trinidad, and Bermuda for the setting
up of US military and naval bases.

The Liberty ships were new build ships delivered AFTER
lend lease and were NOT paid for in Gold

You are correct, it was for the 50 old destroyers instead. My mistake.

The 'old' ships supplied were the 40 Town class destroyers
and they werent paid for in gold either , they were part of the
ships for bases deal.

Refer to above.

British companies in the US taken and we even demanded that
Britain share all of its secrets- radar, jet aircraft technology,
computer tech, and its A-bomb project "Tube Alloys" which Britain in
desperation agreed to.

More rubbish

Refer to above.

The decision to pass the cavity magnetron data to the USA
was taken in 1940 because it was realised that Britain didnt have
the spare manufacturing or research capacity to put it into
production. The Tizard mission benefitted both nations, the
USA got a leg up in research and the UK got centimetric radar
in quantity before it could have otherwise done.

As for jet engine technology that was shared equally with
the Amricans and Soviets, or had you forgotten that the
Mig-15 flew with a british designed engine ?

The US got it first by demand. The Soviets bought theirs.

The computer tech was NOT shared. Colossus remained
a top secret until

As for tube alloys once again it was recognised in britain that
we simply didnt have the resources to develop an atomic
weapon in time to affect the war. The recommendations
of the Maud committee set up in Britain to advise the government
was that the US and British programs should be pooled.

Britain again had no choice but to give in, contributing 44 of their
scientists to the Manhatten Project.

Quote
8. Conclusions and Recommendations
(i) The committee considers that the scheme for a uranium bomb is
practicable and likely to lead to decisive results in the war.

(ii) It recommends that this work be continued on the highest priority and
on the increasing scale necessary to obtain the weapon in the shortest
possible time.

(iii) That the present collaboration with America should be continued and
extended especially in the region of experimental work.

/Quote

What did they get for helping with the US
Manhatten Project- nothing. Britain had to build their own bomb years
later.

They got a LOT of knowledge from the British phyicists who returned
from Los Alamos and Oak Ridge.

We should have gave them the bomb considering that the US could not
have had a D-Day invasion without launching it from that little
island. And no D-Day, no captured German technolgy, material or
documentation- that put the US far ahead of anyone else postwar.
Russia would have taken the continent and got it instead.

So get off your high horse and address the America of the '40s without
the rose colored glasses on.
We were racist, anti-semetic, and greedy. But patriotism covers a
multitude of sins, right?


The US did not however murder 95% of the Japanese in North America

There are once more thriving Japanese communities in California.
How many jews live in Cracow, Warsaw or Berlin in comparison to
the communities of 1933 ?

The father of my best friend was briefly interned by the British
authorities in 1939. This was disgraceful however he would be the
first to point out that only one other member of his family
survived the war, they had the misfortune to be jewish and
even his father, an officer in the German Army in WW1 and
a winner of the Iron Cross was sent to the gas chambers.

No the US was not perfect and neither were Britain or Canada
but they were not genocidal maniacs either.

That doesn't excuse the illegality nor immorality of Allied actions
during the war.

Keith

Rob