Office of the Historian

861.248/222: Telegram

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Standley) to the Secretary of State

Moscow, July 5, 1942—9 p.m.
[Received July 5—8:30 p.m.]

243. For the President. One of the items on the list submitted to the Harriman Mission in September [1941] by the Soviet Naval authorities was a request for PBY Navy planes. These planes could not be spared at that time. The Navy Commissar9 now informs me that he has again requested 60 PBY planes for use in the Vladivostok and Murmansk–Archangel areas, and I am convinced that if these [Page 712] planes could be spared they would be of great value in protecting convoys in those areas and thus prevent sinkings of many cargo ships. It would be of great help in my work here if your answer were delivered through me.10

Standley
  1. Adm. Nikolay Gerasimovich Kuznetsov.↩
  2. No reply to this communication has been found in Department files.↩