"Combat buses". The first Soviet armored personnel carrier, which was put into mass production, appeared in the country after the end of the Great Patriotic War. The designers of the GAZ automobile plant began to develop the car, who already in 1948 were able to present the BTR-40 light armored personnel carrier to the military. The new combat vehicle was created using the components and assemblies of the GAZ-63 all-wheel drive truck.
On the way to the first armored personnel carrier
Before the start of World War II, the Soviet Union did not have its own armored personnel carrier, but there was a huge number of armored vehicles with both cannon and machine-gun armament. The experience of hostilities quickly demonstrated that the troops are in dire need of a specialized vehicle that could be used as part of mechanized and tank units to transport infantry. During the war years, they tried to somehow solve this problem by using armored artillery tractors "Komsomolets" for unusual purposes, the number of which in the troops melted like ice on a sunny spring day, captured equipment, as well as lend-lease supplies. In particular, the Soviet Union received more than three thousand American light armored personnel carriers M3A1 Scout under Lend-Lease, but this number was clearly not enough.
At the same time, attempts were made in the country to create its own armored personnel carrier. For example, based on the BA-64 all-wheel drive armored car. A variant of the BA-64E armored personnel carrier was produced in a small series. The turret was dismantled from the machines, the roof was also absent, and a door was located in the rear of the hull. Such an armored car could carry up to 6 people, of which only 4 paratroopers. But it was simply impossible to create a full-fledged armored personnel carrier based on the chassis of a light SUV, so the car was rated very low and it was not massively built. In addition, in 1944, the USSR tried to create its own analogue of the German half-track armored personnel carrier "Hanomag" and the American M3. An experienced B-3 half-track armored personnel carrier based on parts of the T-70 tank and the ZIS-5 truck was developed by the designers of the ZIS plant in 1944, but the tests of this vehicle did not impress the military, who noted the insufficient thrust-to-weight ratio and the associated low speed and reliability of the new vehicle.
A big problem that prevented the creation of your own armored personnel carrier during the war years was the workload of the Soviet industry with the release of tanks and self-propelled artillery guns of various types, there was simply no free capacity for deployment in difficult conditions for the production of armored personnel carriers. Ultimately, until the end of the war, one could observe a picture when the Soviet motorized infantry moved on the armor of tanks. Placing soldiers on the armor was a necessary measure and was only suitable for transporting troops without active opposition from the enemy. The soldiers, who were stationed on tanks without any protection, were easily vulnerable to small arms fire and fragments of shells and mines bursting nearby.
The birth of the BTR-40
The task of creating its own armored personnel carrier became a priority for the industry after the end of the war. Work on a new car at the plant in Gorky began in 1947. At the same time, the Soviet designers started from the American light multipurpose armored personnel carrier M3A1 Scout, which was taken as a model. This armored personnel carrier also suited the military, who were well acquainted with it. The tactical and technical requirements for the new vehicle directly indicated that the armored personnel carrier should be designed “on the model of the American M3A1”. At the same time, according to a number of requirements of the terms of reference, the car was supposed to surpass the performance of the American armored personnel carrier. The booking had to be seriously strengthened, the military demanded that the armored car be reliably protected from the front from 12.7-mm bullets, and along the sides and stern - from 7.62-mm bullets, the M3A1 did not provide such protection.
We should pay tribute to the designers of the Gorky Automobile Plant, who did not blindly copy the M3A1. While retaining the general concept and layout model, the outwardly Soviet armored personnel carrier was seriously different from the American Scout. To enhance the armor protection, the designers placed the front and upper armor plates of the combat vehicle at a large angle of inclination. Also in Gorky, they abandoned the buffer roller in the front of the car, replacing it with a winch. The fundamental difference from the American light armored personnel carrier of the frame structure was the use of a load-bearing armored corps.
The designers of the GAZ plant decided to build the first specialized armored personnel carrier based on the chassis of the GAZ-63 all-wheel drive truck. When creating a combat vehicle, the designers tried to make the armored personnel carrier as unified as possible with conventional vehicles that were mass-produced at the enterprise. In addition to chassis elements and other units, the new armored personnel carrier received from the truck and in-line "six". At the same time, despite the high level of unification with the truck, the designers refused to use the frame in the design of the BTR-40.
Active work on the creation of a light armored personnel carrier was carried out from 1947 to 1949. At the same time, field tests were completed already on September 9, 1948, after which the commission recommended that a new model of armored vehicles be adopted. However, the serial production of the new armored personnel carrier dragged on for more than a year. All this time, the process of fine-tuning the experimental vehicles was carried out, as well as the satisfaction of new requirements from the GBTU, changing the composition of the weapons and armoring of the armored personnel carrier body. As a result, the light armored personnel carrier went into production in 1950. And ordinary citizens were able to get acquainted with the novelty only in 1951 during the traditional November parade on Red Square.
It is worth noting that in parallel at the ZIS plant in Moscow, work was underway to fine-tune the BTR-152 armored personnel carrier, which was created on the basis of the ZIS-151 truck chassis. Both armored personnel carriers entered service in the 1950 year and complemented each other. The BTR-40 created in Gorky was a light armored personnel carrier capable of carrying up to 8 paratroopers, and the BTR-152 developed by Moscow designers was a heavier vehicle capable of carrying up to 17 infantrymen in the troop compartment. At the same time, the military already then relied on wheeled armored personnel carriers, this state of affairs remains in the Russian army today. The choice in favor of wheeled armored personnel carriers was made due to their lower cost in production and operation, as well as the possibility of mass production at existing automobile factories.
Design features of the BTR-40
The new Soviet armored personnel carrier was a two-axle combat vehicle with a 4x4 wheel arrangement. The light armored personnel carrier had a bonnet configuration and a design traditional for the technology of its age. In front of the hull there was an engine-transmission compartment, followed by a control compartment for two people: a driver-mechanic and an armored personnel carrier commander, who had a walkie-talkie at his disposal. Behind the control compartment in the stern was the troop compartment, designed to carry 8 infantrymen.
The armored personnel carrier received a box-shaped armored hull, which was open on top. The hull was welded and made of armor plates with a thickness of 8 mm (sides) and 6 mm (stern). The strongest armor was in the front of the vehicle - from 11 to 15 mm. For embarkation and disembarkation of the crew, the landing force used a double door in the rear wall of the hull, and the paratroopers could always leave the armored personnel carrier by simply rolling over the sides. For embarkation and disembarkation of the crew, small hinged doors were made on the sides of the control compartment in the hull. To protect against the weather, a tarpaulin awning could be pulled on top of the hull.
The new armored personnel carrier inherited from the GAZ-63 truck bridges that were suspended on semi-elliptical leaf springs and were additionally equipped with double-acting shock absorbers. Also, the armored personnel carrier received the same transfer case, combined with a demultiplier with direct and low gears. The driver had the ability to turn off the front axle. At the same time, the designers abandoned the frame structure, as noted above. This made it possible to reduce the length of the vehicle body to 5,000 mm, and the wheelbase of the BTR-40 was reduced to 2,700 mm. For the GAZ-63 all-wheel drive truck, these indicators were 5525 and 3300 mm, respectively.
The heart of the armored personnel carrier was the GAZ-40 inline six-cylinder engine, which was a variant of the forced GAZ-11 engine installed on the GAZ-63 truck. The engine received a new carburetor, and its power increased to 78 hp. This power was enough to disperse an armored personnel carrier with a combat weight of 5.3 tons to 78 km / h when driving on a highway, over rough terrain the car could move at speeds up to 35 km / h. Despite the fact that the thrust-to-weight ratio of the vehicle was quite low (approximately 14.7 hp per ton versus 20 for the M3A1 equipped with a more powerful engine), the armored personnel carrier could also carry a two-ton trailer, which made the light armored personnel carrier very versatile. Also, the BTR-40 could easily overcome climbs with a steepness of up to 30 degrees, ditches up to 0.75 meters wide and fords up to 0.9 meters deep.
The standard armament of the light armored personnel carrier BTR-40 was the 7.62-mm Goryunov SG-43 heavy machine gun with an ammunition capacity of 1250 rounds. In addition, the paratroopers could use their personal small arms for shooting: AK assault rifles and SKS carbines. It was possible to fire at the enemy through 4 embrasures in the sides of the corps, as well as over the side of the combat vehicle.
Serial production of the new armored personnel carrier lasted from 1950 to 1960, during which time about 8, 5 thousand BTR-40 in various versions were assembled in the USSR. On the basis of the armored vehicle, tractors were created for transporting anti-tank guns, self-propelled anti-aircraft installations armed with 14.5-mm KPV machine guns, staff and command vehicles. In 1956, a version of the armored personnel carrier with protection against the damaging factors of nuclear weapons was created, the new model received a closed sealed body, while the number of paratroopers was reduced to six people. In addition, this option also took into account the combat experience of using armored personnel carriers in Hungary in 1956, when the landing party suffered from enemy fire from the upper floors of buildings.
