70 years ago, the famous all-terrain vehicle appeared in the army
During the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army widely used passenger four-wheel drive open cars of various brands.
The main part of such command and staff vehicles was made up of the same type of American jeeps Willys MB and Ford-GPW received under lend-lease: about 36,800 units were delivered in 1942-1945.
Jeeps of the same domestic design GAZ-64 and GAZ-67 in the troops were much smaller. Their output from 1941 to 1945 was 672 and 3137 copies, respectively.
A HARD WORKER ON ALL WHEELS
Production of the GAZ-67 in an improved modification of the GAZ-67B model of 1944 continued after the Victory. These nimble "all-round" cars entered both the army and the "citizen", mainly in agriculture. In total, the industry gave the country about 93 thousand GAZ-67B before the cessation of production in 1953. Which, by the way, made it possible to carry out import substitution in connection with the termination of supplies of overseas "Willis".
At the same time, GAZ-67 had to fight more than once. Transferred to the allies of the USSR, these machines, christened "goats" at home, took part in the Civil War in China (1946-1949), in the Korean War (1950-1953), in the wars in Vietnam and other military conflicts.
The experience of creating and mastering the production of four-wheel drive army passenger cars of the GAZ–67 family allowed the appearance of an even more advanced model - the GAZ-69, adopted for the supply of the Soviet Army in 1952 together with the single-axle trailer GAZ-704. The development of the new Soviet jeep was led by the leading designer of GAZ Grigory Wasserman. The execution of the order for the creation of a light artillery tractor (this is how it appeared in the secret documents of the military department) was camouflaged under the thematic name "Worker". It was implied that a completely peaceful car was being designed for the village.
The car went into production in 1952. And its mass production as a dual-use technology began in 1953. The Gazik quickly became a cult car, quite comparable in popularity – taking into account deliveries abroad – with the American army jeeps M38 and M151 and British Land Rovers.
In total, GAZ in 1952-1955 and the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant (under the designation UAZ-69) in 1956-1972 produced more than 630 thousand "gaziks".
Gazik was created in two main versions. This is actually the GAZ-69 – a cargo and passenger car with a body designed for 500 kg of cargo or for 8 people, as well as a purely passenger five-seater GAZ-69A. At the same time, according to the records of the Central Automotive Department of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR, the GAZ-69 "without a letter" was listed in the category of trucks.
"Gazik" was the successor of the "goat" GAZ-67 only functionally, but structurally it was a new car. Its body, frame and transfer axles were created "from scratch", and not based on its predecessor.
The 55-horsepower carburetor engine was borrowed from Pobeda (GAZ M-20), a number of other units from the GAZ-51 truck. The GAZ-51 truck resembled the "gazik" and the design of the hood and tail. Something reflected the advanced American solutions implemented in jeeps.
In general, the GAZ-69 had a very aesthetic "Russian" layout, among post-war jeeps inherent only to him.
THE BEST IS NOT THE ENEMY OF THE GOOD
However, there were very interesting moments here, about which (as well as about the use of overseas technologies) the Soviet press preferred to keep quiet.
Once in the second half of the 1980s, I had a chance to talk with a strong veteran, a front-line driver, who was invited to our military unit to celebrate Victory Day. We also talked about what kind of cars behind the steering wheel he had made his combat journey.
– I drove a truck and a half, and a ZiS-5, and a Studebaker ... and at the end of the war I drove a GAZ-69, – said the veteran.
– Maybe on GAZ-67?
– Don't confuse me, Starley. We also had GAZ-67 in our division. But I drove a captured GAZ-69, German. The Hans in Poland abandoned, and we took advantage. A good car, no worse than a goat or a Willis... Why do I say GAZ-69? After the war, I worked at the state farm just for GAZ-69, I drove the bosses. So he, the Gazik, had a body like that of the German, and doors, and a folding awning...
– What was that car really called?
– I don't know, honestly. We called him the "German goat", and he was not registered anywhere in our country, because he was a trophy.
That's the kind of conversation that happened. I then asked the chief of the motor service of our regiment if he had heard, for example, at school about the relationship of the GAZ–69 and German cars. He assured that no, but you never know – everything could be.
At that time, very little information about the equipment of the Wehrmacht was available to fans of historical equipment in the USSR. Our open press, for example, popular magazines like Technika – Molodezh, told us something about Hitler's planes and tanks. But the automotive theme in relation to Nazi Germany was somehow bypassed with their attention.
Today is another matter. In order not to seem unfounded, in confirmation of the words of the venerable veteran, I will quote such an excerpt from the capital work of automotive expert Mikhail Sokolov "Auto Invasion of the USSR. Captured and lendliz cars".
"The new GAZ-69 goat, which was created at the turn of the 1940s and 1950s, was externally influenced by German command vehicles of increased cross-country capability, such as the "light unified" developments of the firm "Shtever" – "R180/R200/Type 40", "medium" firms "Horch" and even similar variants of the Austrian "Steyr-1500A," writes Sokolov. – Despite the typically overseas stuffing in the form of a classic frame, solid beams of continuous bridges with a dependent spring suspension, Split-type crankcases and Bendix Weiss joints, the 69th looked most like not a Willis or a standard army M38 that replaced it, but a Stever and other "kubelwagens" (the generalized name of a diverse family of light army vehicles of the Wehrmacht). The same box-shaped angular body, the same semicircular separate wings, a canvas awning stretched over the windshield, a rectangular stern, etc.".
And indeed, the Gazik, especially in the four-door modification of the GAZ-69A, is similar to the Shtever-40 as brother to brother. But they are not twins. And adapting foreign approaches to the capabilities of the domestic automotive industry, and at a higher level from the point of view of tactical and technical requirements, is a reasonable approach.
Such techniques in the creation of new designs (not only cars) are also characteristic of foreign countries. So there's nothing wrong with that. On the contrary, honor and praise to our engineers, who managed not only to repeat the German achievements, but also to surpass them.
FROM WALKIE-TALKIES TO ROCKETS
The passenger GAZ-69A found use in the army mainly as a traveling commander's car. For the most part, such "gaziki" were sent to the national economy, where they served as personal transport for the party and economic nomenclature of the lower level: construction managers, chairmen of collective farms, secretaries of district committees.
But the basic cargo-passenger GAZ–69 (in an improved version - GAZ–69-68) served as a chassis for a variety of military equipment. Including mobile radio and radio relay stations ("radiki", as they were called in the troops), topo-binders, airfield launch units and control and verification stands for checking the onboard systems of aircraft and aircraft missiles, radiation and chemical reconnaissance vehicles (UAZ-69rx), self-propelled road mine detectors (DIM), etc.
All of them continued to be in service for a long time after the cessation of serial production of GAZ / UAZ-69 (it was replaced on the assembly line by a new army jeep UAZ-469). For example, removed from storage on the occasion of the UAZ-69 large exercises, the author of these lines had the opportunity to observe among other equipment of the chemical protection battalion of the Red Banner Caspian Flotilla in 1985.
"Gaziki" were supplied to many countries of the world, where they found application both in military service and in a peaceful role. Under the Soviet license, the production of GAZ (UAZ)-69 was established in Romania and the DPRK.
The Romanians carried out a series of successive upgrades of the GAZ-69, bringing this car to the ARO M-461C model with its own 77 hp engine. The M-461C developed speeds up to 100 km/h and transported 650 kg of cargo against 90 km/h and half a ton of the Soviet original.
The North Koreans produced GAZ-69 models "Seungri-4.15" ("Seungri" means "Victory", and 4.15 is April 15, Kim Il Sung's birthday), as well as GAZ–69A - in their version "Gyeongsen-68" ("Gyeongsen" means "Independence"). In addition, they have mastered a simplified "budget" part-wheel drive model (with a 4X2 wheel formula) "Kensen-68NA" with a lifting capacity of about a ton.
In the glorious Gazikov family, a special place is also occupied by the first domestic self-propelled launcher 2P26 3M6 anti-tank guided missiles of the 2K15 Bumblebee complex, developed on the GAZ-69 chassis, which was adopted by our Airborne Troops in 1960. In the future, 2P26 machines appeared in some motorized rifle regiments.
Each such "rocket gazik" had four guides for ATGM with a manual control system by wires, capable of hitting enemy armored vehicles at a range of 600-2000 m (the armor penetration of the cumulative warhead of ATGM is normally up to 300 mm).
Complexes 2K15 "Bumblebee" on "gaziki", which in NATO were nicknamed Baby Carriage ("baby carriage": it meant an awning folding in the manner of baby strollers, hiding guides with ATGM), were also supplied to other states – both allies under the Warsaw Pact and the countries of the "third world". Among them were Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Cuba, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, GDR, Egypt, Hungary, Mongolia, North Korea, Poland, Romania, Syria and Yugoslavia.
The combat use of "rocket gas" was noted in the Arab-Israeli wars (and some of these complexes were captured by Israel, adopted by its army and demonstrated there at military parades) and in the conflict over Northern Cyprus.
In the anti-tank capacity, GAZ-69 was also used directly. But abroad – for example, in the Arab armies – "gaziki" were equipped with Soviet 107-mm recoilless guns B-11. It turned out to be a light highly mobile anti-tank vehicle. Moreover, it is almost more effective than self-propelled launchers 2P26 with ATGM "Bumblebee", the management of which required the presence of well-prepared calculations.
Konstantin Chuprin
Konstantin Vladimirovich Chuprin is a journalist.