In 1942, Lend Lease became a key part of the Australian Second World War economy. For the previous three years, supporting Australians overseas and the empire as a whole had been our key economic goals. Lend Lease would restructure this, focusing the economy toward new supply chains from the Americas, and supplying American forces in the Pacific in return.

Yet at the time, Reciprocal Aid, or Reverse Lend Lease as it was known, gained little traction in the Australian consciousness of the war. Nor, to the consternation of the Australian government, was there a widespread understanding of it among our allies, particularly the United States.

More than 75 years later, while histories of Lend Lease feature heavily in the American and British historiography of the war, the story of Reverse Lend Lease, or Reciprocal Aid, is largely absent. Even in the context of Australian history it is lost in the wider stories of conflict and commemoration.

This paper proposes reasons why this is the case, for both Australian and her allies during the conflict, and in the histories written since. It will also discuss the reasons why this important piece of the economic puzzle deserves redress.