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Armored Cars Inter-War Developments

The Bolsheviks used armored cars continuously in all their street campaigns. The creation of a light cannon armored car, which could successfully be used as an infantry support vehicle and as an armored reconnaissance vehicle, in the USSR began almost immediately after the Civil War.

By the end of the devastating Civil War, the Soviet Red Army was armed with over 300 units of armored wheeled vehicles, built mainly on the chassis of foreign trucks. It was from the turret of the Austin armored car, created by the Putilov factory, that Vladimir Ilyich Lenin made a speech calling on the workers and sailors for the beginning of the revolution in Petrograd. However, after the end of the fighting, most of the armored vehicles, damaged in the fighting, demanded at least a major overhaul, and as a maximum - were sent to be cut up for scrap.

In October 1922, the armored forces of the Red Army recited more than 312 armored vehicles of 22 different brands, manufactured in 1914-1920 in domestic factories or purchased in England. Most of these machines are worn out, and the lack of spare parts made it very difficult to repair them. Therefore, in the next two years, the number of armored vehicles in the Red Army decreased - some of them were booked, others were dismantled for parts. The Directorate of the armored forces of the Red Army that existed during the Civil War was disbanded in 1922, and its functions were transferred to the mechanical thrust section of the artillery control.

In 1925, according to the design of the engineers of the Red Army Artillery Directorate, a technical task was made for the creation of an armored car for the needs of the Red Army on a domestic chassis. With the start of production in Moscow of domestic AMO-F-15 1.5-ton trucks, the design bureau of the Main Directorate of Military Industry (GUVP) receives from the Red Army Artillery Directorate the task of developing a combat vehicle on the AMO chassis. The design of the new armored vehicle on the AMO chassis was assigned to A. Rozhkov, a permanent member of the artillery committee (artcom) of the Red Army AU. At the very beginning of the work, it became clear that when installing the armored hull on the chassis, a number of changes must be made to the design of the latter.

To build an armored car, the frame and spring suspension of the Moscow truck had to be seriously increased, for the total weight of the car with a riveted body of armor plates 4-7 mm thick was 4.5 tons, which was almost one and a half times the AMO payload. Therefore, the chassis AMO F15 SP (special) was designed. In the summer of the same year, it was manufactured and tested in the vicinity of Moscow. The JV differed from the usual chassis by a large angle of inclination of the steering column, reworked front pedals, modified gearshift and brake levers and rear control post.

After Rozhkov completed the detailed design of the drawings of the armored car, they were transferred to the main design bureau of the arms association. Here, a group of engineers under the direction of V. Zaslavsky finalized the project, after which the drawings of the machine, which in the documents was already listed as B-27, were sent to Izhora Plant for the manufacture of armored hulls. At the Izhora plant, an armored car was armed with a 37-mm gun of the Hotchkiss design and a Degtyarev machine gun of 7.62 mm caliber, which were installed in a rotating turret.

The thirties in the USSR were the heyday of armored vehicles. Almost every year a new model was produced; The assortment of the use of armored vehicles, both cannon and machine-gun, was very extensive. It is not surprising that in this stream something did not go further than the experimental sample.

The base for the domestic armored vehicles was the Soviet chassis designs produced in Gorky. For example, the BA-20, which eventually became the most common Soviet armored car. The production of Soviet armored cars, except for Izhevsk, was engaged in the Vyksa crushing and grinding equipment plant.

In the course of the Great Patriotic War, the insufficient combat effectiveness of armored cars as combat vehicles was revealed, so their production ceased in the postwar years. At the same time, motorized infantry that was part of tank and mechanized formations, as a rule, was transported on vehicles. This did not provide the necessary maneuverability of motorized infantry on the battlefield under the influence of even weak enemy fire, as it forced it to dismount from the vehicles ahead of time. In addition, the vehicles hampered the maneuver when moving outside the impact of enemy fire, tying motorized infantry and artillery on wheels to roads. Therefore, for the transportation of motorized infantry and towing of its escort weapons, it was necessary to have armored personnel carriers.