How Britain sustained American forces overseas

Examples range from carrying American forces to North Africa during Operation Torch and sharing wartime inventions to building airfields, depots, hospitals, and other facilities. Britain was spending about £150 million on construction for American use, while US Army purchases in Britain totaled no more than £250,000 from June through January. British supply during the last seven months of 1942 replaced cargo that would have needed about 1.2 million tons of shipping and included roughly 1.6 million tons of construction materials. Britain also made about 700,000 deadweight tons of shipping available for American military operations. The speech argues that, on a rough like-for-like comparison, American aid to Britain was no greater than British aid to the Allies without charge, especially given Britain's smaller population, higher mobilization, and longer time at war. Australia, New Zealand, India, and the colonial empire extended the same reciprocal-aid system across the wider Allied war effort.