Cast-Offs

During the Second World War, the U.S.A. supplied its allies with war materiel through a program called Lend-Lease. The idea was to give our friends the weapons to wage war against the bad guys, and then, once the baddies were vanquished, our friends would return our toys to us. In actuality, relatively little was given back.

Today we bring you a photo which shows two types of aircraft supplied to China... in the foreground is a Republic P-43 Lancer, with a few Vultee P-66 Vanguards in the background. Both types were quite obsolete and rejected for front-line use by the USAAF and RAF. But the U.S.A. was more than happy to unload its rejects onto the Chinese, who were more than glad to get their hands on whatever was available.

NARA via Fold3.com

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