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Throughout the Second World War, the United States provided a large amount of aid to its allies through the Lend-Lease Act. The act was introduced in as a defensive policy that protected the United States' official stance of military neutrality while supporting the Allies in their respective conflicts against the Axis powers. When the United States militarily joined the war in ***, it continued to use Lend-Lease programs to support its allies, and the volume of material it sent increased significantly. Over the course of the war, over ** billion U.S. dollars (roughly *** billion in 2020) was sent from the U.S. to its allies, and around half of this was sent by the War Department in the form of military vehicles, weapons, ammunition, medical supplies, and other equipment. War Department shipments peaked in value from mid-1943 to mid-1944, during which time the U.S. counteroffensive was pushing the Japanese through Southeast Asia, the Soviet Union was beginning to push the Germans back through Eastern Europe, and the U.S. and UK were preparing for the invasion of Normandy in ****. The British Empire was the largest recipient of all lend-lease aid from the U.S., followed by the Soviet Union, with these powers receiving around ** and **** of all aid respectively, and having similar shares of War Department aid.