Question for americans/brits.?

Question

Britain has just made its final payments to USA and Canada for loans made by them to help us fight the germans in WW2.These payments were £43million to USA and £10million to Canada and in total we have paid £3.8 billion to the USA and £880 million to Canada which includes interest.
Why did britain have to pay this and not the rest of europe etc for whom we fought, especially the french who profited most.
What is the USA paying Britain for our help in their war with Iraq and all the other favours that Blair the puppy does for Bush the barbarian?

WE paid capital and interest and thats correct. We also had to give overseas holdings to the USA as payment.They had to come into the war or face fighting on two fronts. As usual we were used to hold up one enemy whilst we helped them and they helped us with the other. We provided a useful base for america's first line of defence against the russians after WW2 or is this all my imagination.

Mark J. You are wrong. The debts acrued during WW2 for things such as food and the crap, old warships we had to buy off the USA as ours were being sunk.

Jon V. Get real there is no money coming from europe to us. We pay more to the EU than we get back and none of the agreed rules work. We allow free trade but they won't allow us to take over any of their utilities etc.

Blondie. Where in space do you live? Many british cities and industries were destroyed by the germans. What damage was done to France? Britain was left owing money whereas most european countries hadn't had to borrow money to fight.

Pad-d Use your own space for questions

Knowitall.
The debt started during the war and was for food and evrything else including the ancient ships which the yanks were pleased to sell us, most of which were sunk when BRITISH seamen tried to get convoys to Russia. These debts were consolidated at the end of WW2. I believe only Norway had the decency to make payments to Britain. The french just gave us the finger.

Answer 1

Much as it pains me to say, the "special relationship" between the USA and us Brits is very one-sided, in favour of the Septics on so many levels. Apparently, despite us gathering loads of intelligence across a vast array of techniques (including GCHQ), we HAVE to share ALL our info with the Septic Tanks, but they can choose what they share with us. In return, up until very recently (and probably still is happening), we had the dubious privilege of having US jets, nukes etc spread all over this sceptered isle. We have the military protection of the US, for what it's worth, although they seem to do a good job of killing off a lot of our guys with "friendly fire".


As far as the rest of Europe - they had enough problems getting their societies and infrastructures rebuilt. Germany probably paid the "highest" price for the actions of Hitler and his cronies in terms of the country being split in 2, massive repayments to the rest of Europe and so on, as well as the ongoing stigma that I'm sure most Germans feel now.

As for the French, well, let's not even bother talking about them.....

Answer 2

The REAL war in France started on the 6th June 1944.
I understand NOT one single bomb fell on Paris at anytime during WW2

The loan repaid to the USA was not for war munitions.
Britain needed to borrow from the USA, AFTER the war.
Britain, as a manufacturing base was in ruins.
The factories in the UK were geared up for war purposes not peaceful purposes.
The time it would take to rebuild was too long...Britain needed cash straight away to survive.
...And the USA was all to ready to take advantage of the situation.

Sometimes I wonder..who REALLY won the war..??

Answer 3

Let's see, nobody answered the first time. So I'll ask again, but this time I'll include the Brits; there's lots of angry Brits out there and I'll be sure to get an answer. Its a rather muddled question but that doesn't matter, because angry people don't care if the question is muddled; they will get the drift.
For my next anti-Yank question how far back should I go? 1945 wasn't far enough. Let's see WW1, why didn't the Yanks get in sooner? No, further back. Hel*, let's go back to 1776 when the Yanks stole our land from us.

Answer 4

I think Britain paid up as most of the European countries were devastated during the war by allied bombs and they also had to cope with the millions of homeless survivors of the bombings and the survivors of the concentration camps who had no where to go when they were rescued by the allies. Whilst British towns were bombed, they were not razed to the ground by German bomb as many places in Europe were, so the European countries didn't have any money to pay anyone. In fact, as well as paying the Americans the British also had to make reparation payments to Germany because of British Bombs - so the UK got it from both sides. As far as I know the USA is not paying anything to Britain for help with Iraq or Afghanistan.

Answer 5

No it was a loan to bail out Britain after the end of the war, and Britian had embarked on the socialist utopia that the post war Labour Goverment embarked on. Fundamentally the cash ran out by September 1945.

The UK also missed out on the Marshall aid programme which enabled the likes of Germany & France rebuiol themselves

There is no doubt that the British economy was near ruin in 1945, and the problems of switching back to civilian produciton would have been difficult. The governemtn flunked the important decisions.. that it couldn't justify its maintianing troops abroad, Britian still had dreams of a foreign empire. Britian didn't want ot withdraw back tot he UK as it would affect its positon on the world stage.. something always dear to the hearts of any politician in power

Sadly it is the queationer who is wrong
The wartime debts were settled a long time ago.. mid eighties I seem to remember. The loans that have just been repaid are post wartime loans used in theory to rebuild the economy.

Answer 6

The UK was Rodgered by the Yanks because they knew we couldn't refuse! I said this the other day that EUROPE chould have shared our debt too you're bang on there! Bobs right too we gave away the plans for the Jet engine to the YANKS for £2m!!!!

Answer 7

Forget the cash, the USA wouldn't lead the way in NUKES or JET travel, basically wouldn't be much of a power at all if were not for all the technological secret the UK had to give up to fund the war.
there was even talks of selling the crown jewels.

Answer 8

because tony blair is a fool
what were america going to do if we didnt pay?
invade us? i think not they cant win a war on their own and with no Britain to help all the other countries would attack america

Answer 9

Yep. The US can't do anything with an altruistic motive. There's always greed in their actions.
What would happen to the US if the Saudi's asked for their money back?

Answer 10

We surely paid enough when we gave up Frank Whittle's gas turbine engine to the USA.