How fast could the US have aided the USSR during Barbarossa if Japan was actively hostile to both?

[Porkman]

My question is arose out of the thread, "so if Japan opted for USSR instead of US"

During that thread, one of the questions was how fast could the US have aided Russia without access to neutral Russian shipping and with a Japan that is actively at war with the US and the USSR starting from the beginning of Barbarossa on June 22nd, 1941 .

Here are the parameters for aid...

Aid objective A) Ship significant amount of non war material akin to what was shipped through Vladivostock OTL.

Aid objective B) Send planes/tanks and other war material to the USSR via the Pacific

Aid objective C) Send actual US troops to the USSR via the Pacific

The question is how fast do you think the US could accomplish that if Barbarossa starts on the historical date of

Weeks?

Months?

Years?

Assume that Japan has not built any major capital ships post 1936 in order to focus on Russia.

Assume no Pearl Harbor or prior attack on the US so the US still has the Philippines, Guam etc. as well as some extra battleships than in OTL.

Also, assume that Japan is not at war with China when Barbarossa starts (Though if your scenario for US aid to the USSR involves bringing in China against Japan, that's fair game.)

 

[Axe99]

It's an interesting question . I think it would be very difficult, and probably counter-productive, to supply the USSR through Vladivostok - as long as Russia still has the line from Arkhangelsk to Moscow (I'm pretty sure there was one, but not totally, so lampoon me as appropriate if I've had a brain fade), the US are likely to lose far less convoys sending it over Norway. A lot would depend on the capacity of Arkhangelsk to take the extra shipping, but even if the Japanese built no major capital ships after 1936, they've still got a formidable collection of submarines and lighter craft (not to mention a decent air force) that would be perfect for convoy raiding, and any Pacific supply route to the USSR pretty much has to go to Vladivostok unless they extend the Trans-Siberian railway to somewhere opening onto the Bering Strait.

My best guess (which is just some punter's speculation, so don't take it too seriously) is that the US Navy isn't strong enough to be able to protect convoys to Vladivostok even if it had knocked out all the Japanese surface units (which would hopefully stay close to Japan if they had any sense, although I wouldn't put it past the IJN trying to get their decisive battle) they could still cause all sorts of trouble to the convoys even if they weren't really focussing on it (which, given Japanese doctrine in the actual WW2, wouldn't be a crazy place to start from).

In the case of troops, it would make a lot more sense for the US to push at Japan from their side, rather than send them all the way to the USSR. I'd expect the Japanese army would be spread pretty thin if it had to take on China, the USSR and the US all at once, particularly if it didn't get the advantage of surprise when attacking the US.

I'd say the biggest problem for Japan (and Germany, if it's "all in") is if the US is gearing up for war six months earlier than previously. If this is the case, maybe the Allies can land in France in 1943, and maybe the Russians will get US tanks sooner (I think most of their early allied lend lease tanks were British, although am a bit rubbery on this).

 

[Loke]

Spontaneous answer.
Weeks - Air crafts might be flown to Russia quite fast I guess(althou I have no clue what route to use, Alaska?).

Other than that its more of months/year(s) for tanks/soldiers.