History Memes

That pact short-circuited the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan and is the first thing every WW2 nerd cites in trying to figure out how Hitler could've won the war. It was also a tactic to placate Britain and France that either resulted in, or proved unnecessary by, the Phoney War. Fall Weiss was already finalized to commence before September 1. Molotov-Ribbentrop was done in August.

Taking that pact out of the context in which it was made just seems odd.

Or maybe not because I know the Hearts of Irons games portray it (or did) with an 'unholy alliance' option. The games tend to give Nazi Germany massive penalties for not doing it, so the vidya brained think it is what enabled Germany to invade the USSR and/or start WW2. They're fun games when you know how they play with historical events, and brain breaking if you try to learn history from them.

Yeah, even Soviet leaders, including the legendary Georgy Zhukov, low key admit (I will get to that later) that if it weren't for Lend Lease, USSR may have been defeated especially during the pivotal moments in the first couple of months of the German invasion. The material deliveries from the Allies filled the gap while the Soviet rushed their industries out of the German advances and restructuring the Soviet supply chain. Since you mentioned the Allied tanks, the British tanks made up around 40% of Soviet armoured forces in the Caucasus, since the Soviets couldn't easily deliver their own tanks to the Caucasus after the land route was cut off by the Germans.

After the war, the Soviet leadership aimed to minimise the importance of the Allied material deliveries in order lionise their own effort and exalt the communist system. But unofficially, many Soviet leaders were thankful of Lend Lease in a hush hush and low key manner.