Despite the United States Army's intense opposition to aiding British imports at military deployments' expense (exemplified by Gross' judgment in March 1943 that Britain could and must survive with 16 million tons of dry-cargo imports), British efforts to induce American recognition of responsibility for a larger share of Allied merchant shipping requirements and to achieve primacy for British civilian needs had succeeded. Franklin Roosevelt had finally decided in March 1943 to honor his November 1942 pledge. Defeat of the U-boat from May 1943 and the rapid cumulative expansion of American merchant shipbuilding were significant milestones that portended easy fulfillment of this pledge.