Winston Churchill Liveblogs World War II: June 11, 1940
Churchill:
[O]n June 3 [General Marshall] approved the lists... half a million .30 caliber rifles... 250 cartridges apiece... 900 "soixante-quinze" field guns... a million rounds, 80,000 machine guns, various other items.... [O]n June 3 all the American Army depots and arsenals started packing the material for shipment... six-hundred heavily-loaded freight cars... rollings towards... Raritan, New Jersey.... By June 11 a dozen British merchant ships moved into the bay and anchored, and loading from lighters began.
By these extraordinary measures the United States left themselves with the equipment.. minimum figure stipulated by the American Army's mobilization plan.... [W]e ferried these precious weapons safely across the Atlantic during July...
