All of this is pickle barrel history, known by most school children.

But not as well documented as it should be. I suggest you undertake a
short monograph on the subject -

As with most such projects on RAM, I suggest we discuss it to death and refuse
to budge an inch in our respective opinions, ultimately relying on name calling
and political skewering. Deal?

Yes, of course they were lend-lease. What a ridiculous thing to say.

No, not all - a point of clarification is required here. It is not
generally known that of the ten percent of conscripts who were diverted
to the coal mines by Earnest Bevin, a full five percent of these were in
turn diverted to the pickle barrel shadow factories. The lend-lease
barrels did of course far outnumber domestic production, the only issues
being the difficulty in cannibalising parts so that the Civilian Repair
Organisation could rebuild damaged ones. (The difference between the US
inch and the English inch made stave interchangeability difficult at
times.) And again, English hand-made vs US machine produced brought the
usual debates about whether the English staves exhibited a proper
hyperbolic profile...

The later, streamlined US versions just never really took off. Sad, that.

G