Armada #7
E.Prochko. Red Army WW II Jeeps.
The story of the development and operation of Russian 4X4 utility trucks - the GAZ-64, GAZ-67, AR-NATY, as well as armored version - the BA-64 armored car. 64 pages, 120 photographs, 1/35 plans.


The Russian-Finnish war in 1939-1941 revealed the Red Army's need for simple, inexpensive and reliable army light utility truck which could be used for reconnaissance, command car, or as a light artillery systems prime mover. The Army had nothing like this. The specification for the new vehicle was issued in January 1941 and it was sent to V.A.Grachev Ñ GAZ designer who was known for his very successful GAZ-61 army 4X4 car. At the same time this specification was issued to Automobile and Tractor Research Institute (NATI). The GAZ prototype was built after just 51 day since the start of the development and the first test-drive of the new vehicle took place on 25 March 1941. To simplify development and serial production a lot of readily-available components of GAZ-61, GAZ-A, and GAZ M-1 were employed. The test program showed that GAZ-64 was really an all-terrain vehicle - it could override 380 climb, 37-cm high obstacle and move in the mud as deep as 70 cm!

The NATI proposed two prototypes named AR-NATI (AR stands for "Reconnaissance Car"), which were differed in body design. Along with the vehicles a 1-axle trolley for them was proposed. However NATI designers were not very concerned about serial production simplicity (though a number of ZiS, KIM, and GAZ design components were used) and their vehicles lost the competition in spite of the fact that they were clearly superior to GAZ design. In wartime conditions production cost had to be kept as low as possible.

A the end of August 1941 the serial production of the GAZ-64 has begun. Until the early 1943 only 672 vehicles were made including the prototypes. The light utility truck could not be a priority when the Army urgently needed combat vehicles and from 1943 all the GAZ-64 chassis were used for the BA-64 armored cars. At this period the Red Army used mainly American-made Bantam BRC-40, Willis MB and Ford GPW light trucks. They were better designed but in a number of ways the GAZ-64 was superior to them - it had lower fuel consumption at low speed, better hard terrain capabilities and could use low-quality fuels.

The main disadvantage of the GAZ-64 was its narrow track which made the vehicle unstable in turns so the new wide-track GAZ-67 was introduced in August 1943, after its armored wide-track counterpart - the BA-64B. A production of the further improved model Ñ the GAZ-67B began in January 1944 and continued until 1953 when the famous in Russia GAZ-69 replaced it on the production line. 92843 GAZ-67 and GAZ-67B vehicles were built.

The BA-64 armored car was proposed by GAZ without specification and was at first time test-driven on 9 January 1943. It was the first 4X4 armored car in the USSR, and as the GAZ-64 could survive hard terrain. It had 250 km range at hard terrain, and in spite of its poor armament (one 7,62-mm machine gun) and light 6-15 mm armor became very successful reconnaissance and patrol car. The BA-64 became the only armored car in the USSR which was developed during the War and produced up to its end. 3901 BA-64 vehicles were built before the improved BA-64B model was developed on the GAZ-67 chassis. The serial production of the BA-64B begun on 2 March 1943 and 5209 vehicles were made until 1946.

A number of experimental vehicles were based on the BA-64. The BA-64V and BA-64G were railroad cars which were intended to serve with armored trains reconnaissance units, the BA-64D has 12,7-mm DShK as the main armament, and another prototype armed with 7,62-mm SG-43 machine gun was built. The BA-64E and BASh-64 were an armored personal carriers which could accommodate 4 infantrymen, while the BA-64-Z was a half-track snowmobile. The front-line modifications included the installation of 14,5-mm PTRS-41 anti-tank rifle which improved the vehicles firepower. The BA-64 served with Polish, East German, Chinese, Yugoslavian and North Korean armies and took part in the Korean war.

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