Lend-Lease
![President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease bill to give aid to Britain and China (1941)](/Images/godic/202501/23/President_Franklin_D._Roosevelt-19412452.jpg")
![Food aid from America: British pupils wave for the camera as they receive plates of bacon and eggs.](/Images/godic/202501/23/Aid_From_America-_Lend-lease_Food,_London,_England,_1941_D43242452.jpg")
![Relationship in Gross domestic product between Allied and Axis powers, 1938–1945. See Military production during World War II.](/Images/godic/202501/23/WorldWarII-GDP-Relations-Allies-Axis2453.png")
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The Lend-Lease policy, formally titled "An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States", (Pub.L. 77–11, H.R. 1776, 55 Stat. 31, enacted March 11, 1941) was a program under which the United States supplied Free France, the United Kingdom, the Republic of China, and later the USSR and other Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and August 1945. This included warships and warplanes, along with other weaponry. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941 and ended in September 1945. In general the aid was free, although some hardware (such as ships) were returned after the war. In return, the U.S. was given leases on army and naval bases in Allied territory during the war.