WWI and WWII Foreign Purchases

A lot of attention is aimed at the numbers for Lend-Lease aid received by the USSR in WWII, but what about the aid received by the Russian Empire during WWI? Despite being a much less discussed topic, the numbers are, in some cases, much greater than the LL ones. RGAE-413-12-8605 has the info we need.

Item	Unit	Import to Russia  1914-1917	Import to the USSR  1941-1944
Aircraft (various)	units	11,000	15,641
Aircraft motors	units	17,000	7,159
76 mm cannons Cannons of all calibers	units	5,625 -	- 10,654
Bomb launchers and mortars	units	1,352	283
Machineguns (various) AA machineguns	units mounts	42,398 -	- 2,601
Rifles (various) Submachineguns (various) and AT rifles	units units	2,461,000 -	41,150 126,300
Shells (various)	millions	15.7	49.9
Cartridges (various)	millions	983.0	1,388.1

Lend-Lease Gun Supplies

While flipping through a report on Soviet SPG design, I came across a table of Lend-Lease weapons, including some small arms.

CAMD RF 38-11369-1

The first column is the item name. The following 4 columns are the amounts to be shipped along with vehicles (numerator) and the amounts to be received (denominator). The 6th column is the total sum. The 7th column is the missing number. The items themselves are as follows:

76 mm howitzer

76 mm gun

75 mm gun

57 mm gun

40 mm gun

37 mm AA gun

105 mm mortar

50.8 mm mortar

25.4 mm flare gun

13.97 mm Boys ATR

12.7 mm Browning MG

11.43 mm Thompson SMG
7.92 mm BESA MG
7.7 mm Bren MG
7.62 mm Browning MG

Interestingly enough, the amount of weapons shipped as spares for the vehicles is on a different spreadsheet, and in a different order. In this table, the numerator is how much was received, denominator is how much was distributed, and last column is how many extras they have.

105 mm mortar
50.8 mm mortar
13.97 mm Boys ATR
12.7 mm Browning MG
7.62 mm Browning MG
11.43 mm Thompson SMG
7.92 mm BESA MG
7.7 Bren MG

"The table shows that the spare weapons arrived unevenly. For example, BESA MGs and Thompson SMGs arrived in such amounts as to completely satisfy the need for them, and some remained in warehouses: 419 BESAs and 2872 Thompsons.

12.7 Browning MGs came in insufficient numbers. We only received two spares in this period, and many M4A2 tanks that came back for repairs had to be shipped out without them."

And here is another spreadsheet, for spare barrels. This table also lists delivered and used numbers, with leftovers in the last column.

76 mm howitzer
76 mm gun
75 mm gun
57 mm gun
40 mm gun
37 mm gun
12.7 mm MG
7.62 mm MG
7.92 mm MG
7.7 mm MG
11.43 mm SMG

Soviet Supplies

When I posted the article about museum quality rifles in stock in Moscow, people were surprised at the variety of available equipment. They shouldn't be, Soviet stock-keeping was exemplary!

"When my grandfather fell out of favour, he was thrown out of Moscow and appointed as a chief of some engineering warehouse somewhere at the end of the Earth, but, thanks to his past achievements and wartime service, still in the European USSR.

The unit was "castrated", there was nothing for entertainment except hunting and vodka, and most importantly, nothing for even a Supply Commander to steal (rock bottom, as I understand it), even though the warehouses were colossal, left over from the Tsarist army. Everything was already arranged, and my grandfather just kept order.

For example, there is some perfectly fine hemp rope. Look at the tag (issued by the Tsar's General Staff!), and it says "keep for 50 (fifty) years". It was 1966, so they got rid of it all. The officers carried it home almost in tears, a perfectly good thing, wonderful condition, but there is nothing to use it for at home. Something could be used, we had an excellent axe produced in 1917 and, naturally, written off in 1967. I suspect that it is still lying there somewhere.

However, the accursed Tsarists did not establish a tag for the cannonballs - there was no tag, and that's it! My father says that my grandfather had a pair of soldiers whose main duty was to dust, oil, and paint them. There were many of them, they were very heavy, and took up a lot of space. This went on until my grandfather managed to write them off above quota. It is a scary thing to think what would have happened if the Tsarist intendants wrote down "keep forever".

PS: I talked to the communications officers in the Russian army a few weeks ago, and asked if the TA-57 (Telephone Apparatus model 1957) was still in service. The people confirmed that it was."

Original here.

Armoury of the Moscow People's Militia

In September of 1941, things weren't looking so good for the Red Army. The possibility of the German army reaching, and even taking, Moscow was on the horizon. A People's Militia was formed to defend the city if necessary. At the same time, an inventory of obsolete weapons was taken, to see what they could be equipped with if the regular army consumes all of the currently produced guns. Numbers of functional guns and those in need of repairs are given, the latter in brackets.

Any modern collector would be envious of the result:

"7.7 mm English rifles and carbines: 8992 (11911)

7.92 mm rifles and carbines: 24897 (13188)

8 mm Lebel rifles and carbines, model 86/93 16380 (2890)

8 mm Lebel rifles and carbines, model 907-15-16 21630 (5100)

7.62 mm Finnish rifles and carbines 2406 (8190)

6.5 mm Japanese rifles and carbines 3260 (5554)

6.5 mm Italian rifles and carbines 1777 (1455)

8 mm Mannlicher rifles and carbines 15096 (1481)

8 mm Steyr rifles 1194 (928)

11 mm Gras rifles 3906 (1303)

10.4 mm Vetterli-Vitali rifles 1080 (296)

6.5 mm Fedorov submachineguns 882 (67)

7.62 mm Finnish Suomi hand-held machineguns 38 (261)

7.7 mm Hotchkiss hand-held machineguns 71 (0)

7.7 mm Lewis hand-held machineguns 0 (514)

7.92 mm Lewis hand-held machineguns 64 (0)

7.92 mm German Bergmann machineguns 86 (115)

7.92 mm German Maxim hand-held machineguns with no bipods, unsuitable for use 800 (0)

7.92 mm Polish Browning machineguns 40 (97)

7.92 mm German hand-held Maxim machineguns 37 (424)

8 mm Chauchat hand-held machineguns 673 (983)

7.62 mm Colt mounted machinegun 1796 (0)

7.62 mm Vickers machinegun on a tripod 172 (0)

7.62 mm Finnish Maxim machinegun (no mount) 25 (339)

7.62 mm Colt machinegun (no tripod) 0 (603)

7.7 mm Vickers machinegun (with tripod) 280 (0)

7.92 mm Vickers mounted machinegun 112 (0)

7.62 mm Browning mounted machinegun 503 (0)

7.92 mm Polish Hotchkiss mounted machinegun 209 (42)

7.92 mm Maxim mounted machinegun 62 (0)

8 mm Schwartzlose mounted machinegun 133 (14)

8 mm St. Etienne mounted machinegun 815 (0)

8 mm Hotchkiss mounted machinegun 964 (141)

7.92 mm Polish Browning aircraft machinegun 70 (0)

7.92 mm Polish aircraft machinegun 82 (0)

7.92 mm Polish Vickers synchronized aircraft machinegun 0 (132)

7.92 mm German Vickers turret aircraft machinegun 33 (0)

7.92 mm Hotchkiss aircraft machinegun 42 (0)

76 mm model 1902/30 regimental gun 279 (45)

76 mm model 1900 gun 0 (48)

76 mm French model 1897 gun 12 (208)

76 mm model 1933 gun 89 (112)

76 mm mountain gun model 1909 1 (51)"

Thankfully, the militia received proper modern firearms, and didn't have to go into battle with this museum. Andrei Ulanov provides the following excerpt:

"3. People's Militia divisions were re-armed and are equipped with domestically produced weapons:

• With small arms, 50 mm mortars, and 76 mm divisional guns: completely
• 82 mm mortars: 39%, 120 mm mortars: 15%, 45 mm guns: 15%, 76 mm regimental guns: 32%, 122 mm howitzers: 100%
• Communications equipment: 20-45%

4. To fully equip the People's Militia divisions, the following must be issued:

• 396 82 mm mortars, 122 120 mm mortars, 98 76 mm regimental guns
• 30% of regularly issued pioneer tools
• Main communications equipment (radios, telephones, cable).

September 3rd, 1941 (signed: Schadenko, Artemyev, Yakovlev)."

Via Andrei Ulanov