Feldgrau.net

I have heard that only one country ever repaid any of its war debts to the USA. War debts meaning money and materiale given out by the US under the Lend-Lease Act, not funds for reconstruction through the World Bank or Marshall Plan.

Just thinking about it, I would guess either Canada or Great Britain. The Soviet Union seems less likely since they were not exactly on great terms even as the war was coming to an end. It might also be one of the much smaller Allied nations which declared war in the closing months of the war. Or, I might be completely off-base here.

Is there a reputable website with further details which someone might be gracious enough to link to?

Hello Lateralus:
I believe the Brits paid-off their debt in the last year or two. Best wishes.

I'd heard that Finland was the only country to do so, but that was many years ago.

John W. Howard wrote:Hello Lateralus:
I believe the Brits paid-off their debt in the last year or two. Best wishes.

Do you know of any websites that detail this? I have looked but have found nothing.

Patrick wrote:I'd heard that Finland was the only country to do so, but that was many years ago.

Why would an Axis nation do such a thing? They did not recieve Lend-Lease goods.

Hello Lateralus:
I think Patrick is right when he says that Finland paid its debt back to the US; the US provided support to Finland during the Russo-Finnish War. I do not have a web-site for the Brit repayment, but I believe someone posted about it right here on this site, and I am sure I read about it in newspapers and magazines. It seems to me that it happened in 2004, but maybe 2003. Best wishes.

Hi Guys,

Purely anecdotally, I think that the UK may be due to finish payments about now. (2006 sticks in my mind for some reason).

I also seem to remember that Finland was first to pay off its war reparations, not debts. (The 1950s sticks in my mind for some equally inexplicable reason).

Not exactly definitive, but my impressions generally agree with the above posts.

Cheers,

Sid.

Hi Guys,

Yup. Try "Second World War Debt Politics UK" on Google. We still owe $142 million due in December this year and $83 million due in December 2006. Then we are in the clear.

Cheers,

Sid.

Hi Guys,

It seems that the Finnish War Debt paid off in the 1950s was one acquired at the end of WWI, not WWII.

Cheers,

Sid.

Hi Guys,

Apparently Finland paid off its WWII war reparations to the USSR in minerals. The last train crossed the border on 30 August 1952.

Cheers,

Sid.

I think that not only minerals, but also Porkkala marine base (west from Helsinki) was kind of reparation to USSR. Porkkala was taken for 50 years (1944 - 1994) . If im not wrong Russins left Porkkala in 1956.

Thanks for the help everyone. The House of Commons site was just what I was looking for.

Hello guys!!!

We Finns paid our war reparations also in wehicles " boats, locomotives etc." and we paid all that our big neighbour wanted.

This place called Porkkala was one part of our peace treaty. Russians wanted it because it was near of our Capital city Helsinki and it was important for their coastal defence before the time of missiles.

Hi

Belgium was the only country which entirely refunded its debts, thanks to the richnesses of Katanga (Congo). This country gave even more than it received from USA.

Sort of an update...

I have learned that the country repaid these debts before 1948, when the US officially relieved countries of its Lend-Lease debts.

Does Belgium fulfill this requirement? Website detailing this?

Hi Igor,

I wouldn't have thought that Belgium had much time to accumulate many war debts before it was over run and, as you say, the products of the Belgian Congo would presumably have funded much of its little residual war effort.

Cheers,

Sid.