By the time the Second World War began and up to the German attack on the USSR, the Red Army had only one light armored car - the morally obsolete BA-20 with a 4x2 wheel arrangement. By that time, the Wehrmacht, on the contrary, had traveled almost all of Europe in its wheeled armored vehicles, including the light all-wheel drive Sd. Kfz. 222. With the same ease, the Germans hoped to get them to Moscow and Leningrad, but history put everything in its place. Sd. Kfz.222 was not destined to drive through the streets of the main Soviet cities, but the first Soviet all-wheel drive armored car BA-64 met in May 1945 in Berlin.
It is worth noting that the Soviet leadership set before the engineers and industry the task of developing an all-wheel drive light armored car, a vehicle for conducting reconnaissance and direct support of infantry on the battlefield, which could also be used in the role of a commander, back in 1939-1940. During the battles with the Finnish troops, the light armored vehicles BA-20 available in the Red Army demonstrated their complete "professional unsuitability" when used in the Karelian forests and swamps. The Soviet command could compare the existing armored vehicles with the German ones back in Poland, however, it did not go beyond the creation of prototypes until the beginning of World War II. As a result, the Red Army entered the war with the only light armored car BA-20M, which was outdated and did not meet the requirements of the military in terms of the maneuverability and protection of the crew.
As a result, the first Soviet all-wheel drive armored car had to be designed in an emergency mode already in wartime. The designers of the Gorky Automobile Plant (GAZ) took up the development of a new light armored vehicle for the army. After the outbreak of the war, GAZ assembled numerous simplified versions of GAZ-AAA and GAZ-MM trucks, GAZ-55 ambulance buses, T-60 and T-70 light tanks, as well as GAZ-M1 cars and GAZ-64 command off-road vehicles.
BA-64B in the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin
Work on a new armored car began in the second half of July 1941, and at the beginning of September, the designers of the GAZ plant got acquainted with the captured German all-wheel drive armored car Sd. Kfz.221, which made a good impression on them and had a certain influence on the future Soviet project. At the plant, an all-wheel drive German armored car with machine-gun armament was studied in detail. Grigory Wasserman was appointed the leading designer of the future BA-64 armored car (during the work it was designated as BA-64-125, the last digits are the designation of the armored hull). The work was directly supervised by the chief designer of the enterprise, Andrey Lipgart, and the main specialist in off-road vehicles was designer Vitaly Grachev. It was the light Soviet SUV GAZ-64 created by Grachev that became the donor of components and assemblies for the future armored car, the development of the BA-64 began precisely at the Grachev Design Bureau.
GAZ-64 was used as the base chassis for the future armored car. A welded armored hull was installed on it, the sheets of which were given rational angles of inclination to increase bullet resistance and ensure ricochetting of fragments. The thickness of the armor plates, depending on their location, varied in the range from 4 to 15 mm, the armor was extremely bulletproof. The body of the BA-64 all-wheel drive armored car did not have riveted joints - the joints of its armor plates were even and smooth. To enter and exit the armored vehicle, the crew could use two doors that opened back and down, located in the lower part of the hull sides on the right and left sides of the driver. In the rear end of the armored hull, an armored cover was hung, which was designed to protect the filler neck of the gas tank.
In order to reduce the surface of damage, the designers of the BA-64 armored car made it as compact as possible. For example, the gas tank, which could be attributed to the most vulnerable parts of the combat vehicle, was placed in the aft compartment inside the hull, which forced the driver to sit practically on the gearbox. The second crew member of the light armored car sat slightly behind and higher. The crew consisted of two people: the vehicle commander, who also served as a gunner, and in the presence of a radio station, also a radio operator and a driver. Due to the rather compact body, the driver was practically pressed against the steering wheel, and the gear lever was between his legs. The gas tank was directly behind the commander, and he himself sat in a rather small "motorcycle" seat. At the same time, leaving the armored vehicle through the small-sized side doors was also a non-trivial task.
The driver was located in the front of the hull in the center of the armored car, behind him was a fighting compartment, above which was placed a turret rotating 360 degrees with a 7, 62-mm DT machine gun. The commander of the vehicle was located in the fighting compartment, who turned the turret of the armored car manually, pushing off the floor with his feet. On the left side of it were additional disks for a machine gun, a battery and a first aid kit. To control the armored vehicle, the driver could use a replaceable block of bulletproof glass, two more such blocks were placed on the side walls of the tower.
The tower of the BA-64 armored car was open and featured a recognizable truncated octagonal shape. The armor plates of the tower were connected to each other using electric welding. In front of the tower there was an embrasure designed for firing a machine gun at ground targets. Since the tower did not have a roof on top, this allowed the shooter to observe the air enemy and fire at him from a machine gun. On the body of a light armored car, the tower was installed on a conical column. The octahedral tower was rotated manually by the force of the shooter, who was sitting on a small swivel seat. Having turned away the turret, the commander could fix it in the required direction with the help of the brake. On the side walls of the tower, terrain observation devices were located, they were completely identical to the driver's.
The rate of fire of the 7.62 mm DT machine gun was up to 600 rounds per minute. But the practical rate of fire was 100-120 rounds per minute (taking into account the reloading of the machine gun, the time for aiming and the transfer of fire from one target to another). In case of damage to the armored car, the crew could leave the BA-64, taking with them a DT machine gun, which was easily removed from the mounting bracket, after which it was used in the infantry version. For this, a removable bipod could be attached to the machine gun. The ammunition load of the BA-64 all-wheel drive armored car consisted of 1260 rounds for diesel fuel (20 disk magazines with 63 rounds in each). On vehicles equipped with a radio station, the ammunition load was reduced to 17 disks - 1071 rounds. In addition, the crew of the armored car had personal small arms and 6 F-1 hand grenades.
DT machine gun in the turret of the BA-64 armored car, photo: zr.ru
The heart of the light armored car was a standard gas carburetor four-cylinder liquid-cooled engine GAZ-M, which produced a maximum power of 50 hp. This was enough to accelerate an armored car with a combat weight of 2.4 tons to a speed of 80 km / h when driving on a highway. The maximum cruising range on the highway was 635 km. The body, which had practically no front and rear overhangs, allowed the BA-64 to demonstrate excellent geometric cross-country ability. The all-wheel drive armored car on bullet-resistant 16-inch tires, characterized by the presence of large lugs, can confidently move over rough terrain, overcoming uphill slopes up to 30 degrees, as well as descents from a slope with a slippery surface steepness up to 18 degrees.
The design and manufacturing process of the BA-64 serial sample took less than six months - from July 17, 1941 to January 9, 1942. The light armored car has successfully passed the stage of factory and then military tests. Already on January 10, the novelty was personally examined by Marshal of the Soviet Union Voroshilov, and on March 3, 1942, the all-wheel drive armored car was presented to members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b). Already in the summer of 1942, the first batch of serial BA-64 was transferred to the troops of the Voronezh and Bryansk fronts. Earlier, on April 10, 1942, by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, Vitaly Grachev was awarded the Stalin Prize of the 3rd degree, he was awarded simultaneously for the development of the GAZ-64 SUV and the BA-64 armored car based on it. Taking into account how much time modern Russian automobile designers spend on the launch of new passenger cars into serial production, the pace of work of GAZ specialists in a difficult war for the country deserves only admiration.
Serial production of the light all-wheel drive armored car BA-64 began in Gorky in April 1942. But, like any new product, especially one that was created with a shortage of time, the car required certain improvements. The operation of the armored car showed that the rear axle of the vehicle overloaded with the armored hull, which is the main driving one, in the event of a long-term disconnection of the front axle, was not able to cope with the increased loads, this was the cause of the differential and semi-axle breakdowns. To reduce the loads, the front axle of the armored vehicle was permanently connected, and in the future the axle shafts were reinforced by the designers. In addition to this reinforcement, the BA-64 front suspension also demanded, in which the second shock absorbers were placed in order to cope with the increased loads. But the biggest problem of the new armored vehicle was the narrow track, which was inherited from the GAZ-64 SUV, this, together with the high center of gravity of the armored car, made it not stable enough, the car could fall on its side.
Armored vehicles BA-64B and BA-64, vehicles are clearly distinguishable by the width of the wheelbase
The identified shortcomings were corrected in an improved modification, which received the designation BA-64B, the chassis of the new GAZ-64B army jeep with an extended track of the front and rear wheels was used as a base. The new armored car began to roll off the GAZ assembly line already in 1943. On the basis of the BA-64B model, the designers have developed a large number of modifications. For example, instead of the standard 7, 62-mm machine gun, a large-caliber 12, 7-mm machine gun (modification BA-64D) or even a 14, 5-mm anti-tank rifle could be installed. Also, armored tires BA-64V and G were created, and even the BA-64E armored personnel carrier, which was designed to transport six fighters and was distinguished by the absence of a tower.
In the Soviet Union, serial production of light all-wheel drive armored vehicles BA-64 and BA-64B lasted from April 1942 to 1946. In total, more than 9 thousand of these armored vehicles were produced during this time. During the war, they were used for reconnaissance, battle control and communications, escorting columns and providing their air defense. At the same time, they showed themselves excellently in street battles during the liberation of the cities of Eastern Europe, Austria, and the storming of Berlin. Thanks to the good angle of fire, the shooter could fire from a machine gun even on the upper floors of buildings. Serial armored vehicles BA-64 proved to be unpretentious in operation, simple and reliable combat vehicles. At the same time, on the BA-64, the history of domestic armored vehicles actually came to an end, the new combat vehicles that replaced them were armored personnel carriers.
