During the early days of Operation Barbarossa, when the Red Army was losing a hundred or more of its obsolete battle tanks and inadequately armed and armored "tankettes" each day to the advancing Germans, Stalin approached the Allies with urgent requests for all manner of military and humanitarian aid. At the time, only Britain was able to respond (and it had its own problems in the Western Desert) and deliveries of aircraft, vehicles, and strategic materials were underway by September, 1941.

By June 30, 1942, the expiry date of the first Aid Protocol hammered out between the new Allies, over 3,000 aircraft, 2,000 tanks, 30,000 other vehicles, and hundreds of thousands of tons of fuel, oil, and other necessities had made their way to Russia.

By the end of the war, the Allies had sent over 14,000 aircraft and 12,000 battle tanks. This represented about 10% of the total Russian production during the war in either category. The Allies also sent at least 425,000 trucks, halftracks, and other assorted motor vehicles - more than the Germans produced during the war and far more than the Soviets were able to produce for themselves. Certainly one of the most important ingredients in the eventual Soviet victory was the 6x6 Studebaker truck.

Historically, the Russians were glad to get these tanks, any tanks in fact, when they needed them most. However, you will see that much of what the Allies sent was simply inadequate to deal with later-war German designs like the Panzer IVh and Panther. Many Western tanks also suffered from having narrow tracks that did not allow them to maneuver well in snow, or had gasoline engines that ignited readily when hit (details that would undoubtedly be important to the poor crews who got stuck with such pigs of machines, but are too small to allow for in a relatively simple game such as ST).

In this article I have set out enough information on the major types and numbers of British and American tanks that were sent to fight on the Eastern Front for you to use in any Stalin's Tanks scenarios you might want to design on your own (using the counters I have also included). During the darkest hours of the winter of 1941-42, Stalin is alleged to have announced to Harry Hopkins, Roosevelt's emissary to Moscow, that he would accept American troops under an American commander, so you could even play out the imaginary adventures of an American Expeditionary Force in Russia (stranger things have happened).

Going further, you could extrapolate and create a Western Front version of the game, or retrofit Rommel's Panzers to the standard of Roger Damon's later design (go ahead, I'm finished nailing chrome onto this game). Finally, just for fun, I have added some counters for the T-26, T-60, and T-70 light tanks - between 6,000 and 8,000 of each of these little fellas were built before and during the war, so you can play out some early-war scenarios as well.

More Stalin's Yanks

Introduction
British Tanks
American Vehicles
Early War Soviet Tanks