In 2013, a snapshot of a previously unknown model of a car from the Great Patriotic War was discovered. We are talking about the very famous army car "Dodge" three quarters "(WC-51), or rather about its Soviet version with a special body. Previously, it was believed that only an experimental sample was assembled at the ZIS plant - but later it turned out that this particular car could rightfully be considered the first army passenger car of a heavy class in the USSR. Unique archival finds, discovered in the spring of 2016, made it possible to delve deeper into the history of this car.
Overseas guest
According to the US Army classification, the Dodge WC-51 model belonged to the all-wheel drive vehicles of the "weapon carrier" class (hence the WC in the name, from the English Weapons Carrier) with a carrying capacity of 750 kg (¾ tons). In terms of its tactical and technical characteristics, the chassis was universal. WC could be either a heavy passenger car, or an artillery tractor, a vehicle to cover columns, or a pickup truck. The universal base allowed the manufacturer to form a whole family of machines:
passenger / staff (both with open and closed bodies);
vans (cargo, ambulance, repair);
three-axle trucks.
From all this diversity, the Soviet Union ordered the WC-51 pickup with an open cockpit and its WC-52 version with a winch located in the front, as part of the Lend-Lease. The choice of the Soviet side is easy to explain - during the war years, the Red Army needed light towing vehicles. And if a light Jeep Willys MB coped with the transportation of a 45-mm artillery gun, then a heavier car was required to tow 76-mm guns. The realities of the front service were later added to the traction functions of the Dodge, and transport ones, since the model of this class was continuously supplied to the USSR in huge quantities.
The Americans report about the dispatch of almost 25,000 WC-51/52 cars to the USSR in 1942-1945. Almost all of them came in the form of assembly kits in boxes and were assembled mainly at the Moscow Automobile Plant named after. Stalin (ZIS, since 1956 - ZIL). In total, in the USSR, it was possible to assemble about 19,600 complete copies, of which about 19,000 were delivered to the army (the rest of the vehicles were distributed between the structures of the Navy, the NKVD and the NKGB). In addition, in 1944-1945, a little more than two hundred Dodge WC-53 cars got into the Union. The rest of the WC series cars were not ordered by the Soviet Union. After the war, the mass of the surviving "Dodge" will settle on the allied motor depots, on many copies will be installed new, closed bodies of vans, buses, etc. etc. By the way, the largest auto body plant in the country - the Moscow "Aremkuz" - in 1946-1947 serially produced the same type of cargo-passenger bodies for the "Dodge".
Unexpected find
In 2013, in one of the military archives, researchers accidentally discovered a small army photo album of 1943 without any departmental affiliation. It contained photographs and a brief technical description of the WC-51 model assembled at the ZIS, as well as photographs of the same "Dodge", but with an unusual open body, signed as "produced by the plant. Stalin ". This option was unknown even to specialists - it turned out that we are talking about the first Soviet army passenger car of a heavy class. Prior to that, it was believed that the USSR had never had its own cars of this type, not counting a dozen eight-seat staff vehicles on the AMO F-15 chassis assembled in the 1920s.
A cursory analysis of the photographs immediately made it clear that outwardly this "Dodge" did not look like overseas counterparts, which means that the body was developed in the USSR. Compared to the closest analogue (Dodge WC-56), this phaeton had a larger body, there were full-fledged doors. The find claimed to be a small sensation. All the products of the Moscow Automobile Plant have long been known up to the experimental samples, besides, there was no data on the release of this "Dodge" in the annual production reports of the plant. There was not the slightest hint either in the documentation of that time or in reference books that in 1943, at least in small-scale production, staff cars were produced at the plant. All this pointed to some kind of experimental work carried out at the plant - so to speak, "a test of the pen."
After some time, amateur photographs of the war period appeared on the Internet, in which all the same staff vehicles could be disassembled. It became clear that the story with the Soviet "Dodge" was clearly not limited to the creation of a prototype - probably, a small batch was made (two to three dozen units), otherwise there would have been at least some mention of these machines (if not in the automotive industry, then in the affairs of the military archives). On the other hand, the design work of the GAZ and ZIS automobile plants in 1941-1945 has not been sufficiently studied by historians. Every now and then, new data emerge about various small-scale special vehicles on truck chassis, about which almost nothing is known to this day. But trucks are one thing, and cars are quite another.
In 2014, the "Automotive Archive Fund" miraculously discovered a factory set of drawings for this ZIS (documents dated 1943). Now the design features of the phaeton have become known. The find indirectly confirmed the serial production of these cars, because a full set of drawings was never made for prototypes of cars. Finally, in the spring of 2016, many years of painstaking search for an answer were crowned with success. In the archives of the city of Moscow, the author of this article found reports on the activities of each ZIS workshop for 1942-1944. It was there that the body shop's report summarized the history of this car. In the same archive, in the orders of the plant director, it was possible to find several more important documents on this topic. It's time to write in detail about this car.
"General" car
Fast forward to early 1942. By that time, the re-evacuation of the equipment back to the automobile plant named after V. I. Stalin, and the Soviet government announced the resumption of automobile production. However, the automobile industry at ZIS was restored only by the middle of summer. First of all, Studebaker heavy trucks, as well as the already mentioned Dodge WC-51/52, began to arrive at the plant for assembly. The basis of its own production was a simplified three-ton truck ZIS-5V. As for new developments, the Muscovites in a short time were able to launch the production of the ZIS-42 half-track vehicle based on the same ZIS-5V. The body shop was also actively working - there began the serial production of ZIS-44 sanitary bodies on the ZIS-5 and Studebaker chassis.
In 1943, the bodybuilders increased their work - in June the plant received a special order from the Main Automobile Directorate of the Red Army (GAUK) for the manufacture of twenty open bodies for the Dodge 3/4 chassis. These cars were intended for the top commanding staff of the Red Army. Despite the acute shortage of resources, the director of the plant Likhachev immediately takes on this very honorable, albeit private, order. By urgent order of the director, the designers began to develop and create a full-fledged staff car on an all-wheel drive American chassis, assembled here, at the ZIS. Already on June 30, a large-scale layout was approved, and the first bodies began to be tapped on it.
Why did the army need such a car at all? Do not forget that the Soviet auto industry stopped producing the much-needed staff vehicle, barely starting, in 1941. We are talking about 4 × 4 sedans GAZ-61 based on the famous "Emka", the number of which has not exceeded two hundred. By 1943, the niche of this class of cars was empty, while the war mercilessly killed Soviet technology.
Instead of GAZ-61, Gorky began to produce another model, GAZ-64 - a car with the same purpose as the WC-51, but in a completely different weight category. The Soviet jeep, and with it the American Willys, were designed to tow small 45 mm anti-tank guns, but were more often used as command vehicles. The car could carry 3-4 people or a load of 250 kg, but there was no need to talk about any comfort or roominess in such cars. Generals, on the other hand, had something to drive around the cities - there were enough ZIS-101 limousines at army motor depots, and there were also many luxury European cars. At the same time, vehicles with four-wheel drive and high ground clearance were required to transport "high ranks" on front roads and off-road.
Staff variants of the Dodge were well suited for these purposes, but in 1943 they were not supplied to the USSR. By the way, since the beginning of the war, the German auto industry has provided its army with heavy cars in abundance. Staff cars were also produced by British, French, Italian automakers. But in the USSR, such a model was not put on development, obviously, believing that it was not up to it. Since there were never any cars with such bodies in the ZIS plan of work, the researchers did not know anything about them for seventy years. The reason for this was that they did not appear in the orders of the State Defense Committee and, accordingly, did not get into the 1943 product release.
We say "Dodge", we mean ZIS
The body of the ZIS was developed from scratch, without regard to any foreign analogues. The place of the usual cargo platform was taken by a massive passenger seat, on the sides of which there were wide (17 cm) armrests. The light seats in the front row remained native, "Dodge" ones. It would seem that the car had to be five-seater - this is indirectly confirmed by the photographs, and in the drawings of a not-so-large interior there is a "hint" of only one passenger seat. In reality, everything was more complicated, and the car could be seven or even eight seats. Most likely, many copies had as many as three rows of seats - the presence of the middle row is directly indicated by the preserved technical task of 1944, which is given at the end of the article.
As for the passenger capacity, it has yet to be clarified. At first, the phaeton had three entrance doors, in place of the fourth (driver's) there was a spare wheel. To close the car in bad weather, it was required to manually raise the awning, while two of the three racks were a non-removable part of the awning accordion. The side openings were covered with tarpaulin hinges with transparent plastic windows. There was also a small window in the back of the awning. Of the equipment traditional for a staff vehicle, the vehicle had only a shelf for placing a portable radio. The rear of the car was fitted with a small trunk, in fact - a 13 cm wide pencil case for placing briefcases and documents. The car did not receive its own designation and was called "a Dodge staff car with a ZIS body".
In August 1943, the first prototype was assembled, in the same month, the first batch of twenty vehicles was manufactured. The Soviet-American hybrid turned out to be very successful, and in September GAUKA ordered 55 more bodies to the car factory, but with some changes. The need to simplify the assembly of the frame was identified, the replacement of hard wood with a soft one, the details of the awning were changed. Fundamental changes in the body of the "Dodge" were the transfer of the spare wheel from the left side to the rear and, accordingly, the appearance on the left side of the door (at the location of the spare wheel). On some cars, the spare wheel was stored right in the back case.
The second, September batch, was made in the amount of 70 units, ten of which were assembled according to a special assignment. They differed from the standard ones in improved interior and exterior trim, the interior was upholstered in leather instead of leatherette, including pasting the side panels and doors; decorative parts were chrome-plated, the bodies themselves were painted instead of the usual green enamel with a higher-quality nitro paint. The third and final order followed in October. As a result, 145 command vehicles were assembled by the end of the year, with 200 body parts backed up. In the new 1944, the ZIS body shop switched to other work.
Perhaps, only one important question remains unsolved - for whom exactly were these cars ordered? Unfortunately, documentary answers to it have not yet been found, but by indirect indications it can be confidently assumed that ten cars, made with especially careful finishing, were intended for front commanders - that is, Soviet marshals (as of June 1943, there were about ten of them) … Judging by the distribution of cars (according to the lists of the GABTU), about 10% of cars were always left in reserve, one car was supposed to get into the garage of the Chief of the General Staff, several - to the NKVD. Thus, about a hundred of the remaining copies could be distributed among all the commanders of the armies.
The story with the staff "Dodge" was continued a year later, when in August 1944 10 cars were returned to the plant for repair and alteration. Most likely, these were the same "marshal" machines. Here are the technical conditions of the alteration - they are interesting in that after the restructuring, the last army signs "disappeared" from the machines:
1. Keep the position of the driver's seat and the front folding seat in the old place. Divide the middle seat, placing two single seats on the sides with a passage in the middle. Leave the rear three-seater seat in place (on cars with a spare wheel installed in the trunk, the seat can be moved forward). Make cushions and backrests of all seats softer by installing new frames and upholstery in leather. Wrap the walls and ceiling. Cover the lower door panels with leather, paint the rest of the surfaces in the color of the upholstery. Cover the body floor with a plush mat. Five bodies should be painted black, the other five - gray. Fill and grind all irregularities of the facing. The reinforcement panel, layouts, and other internal parts of the sides (not chrome-plated) should be painted to match the color of the upholstery. Move the interior courtesy lamp to the rear by positioning it between the center seat. Remove the outer antenna mounting bracket.
2. Chromium: side, door and wind window glass frames; buffers front and back; all external and internal handles; protective grilles for radiator and headlights; rims of headlights and sidelights; side signal rims; radiator cap; heads of screws and bolts of interior decoration.
3. The spare wheel holder is made in two versions. One holder is located inside the trunk behind the back of the rear seat, the second outside in the rear part of the body like open-type command vehicles."
More plant named after Stalin to the topic of staff cars on the chassis "Dodge" did not return. The need for new cars disappeared, since in 1944, 127 Dodge WC-53 command vehicles with a fully enclosed eight-seater body arrived in the USSR through the Lend-Lease line, approximately the same number of them came to the disposal of the Red Army in 1945.
