Favorite of Marshal Zhukov
Despite the fact that the "emka" turned out to be much better than its American prototype, adapted for operation in Russian conditions, its off-road qualities left much to be desired. Simply put, the cross-country ability of the M-1 was not up to the mark: the front-line drivers remember well how much effort they had to put in during the spring and autumn mudslide to pull out the “emka” stuck in an impassable ridge. And with what sincere envy they saw off exactly the same outwardly cars that jokingly coped with the muddy road - the M-61-73 all-terrain vehicles!..
The M-61-40 all-terrain vehicle is being tested. Photo from the site snob.ru
The fact that the army vehicle lacks cross-country ability, the military began to talk almost immediately. The classic "emka" coped well with the tasks of the command vehicle, when it was not necessary to climb into serious off-road conditions. But professional military men differ from everyone else in that they are obliged to think first of all about how and with what they will have to fight. And from this point of view, it was clear: an ordinary M-1 cannot be considered an all-terrain vehicle, even with a very big stretch.
Proceeding from this, the command of the Red Army by the summer of 1938 formulated a request for an all-terrain car based on the "emka". Why this particular car was chosen as the base is understandable: by this time the troops had accumulated sufficient experience in the operation and maintenance of M-1 machines, the techs had a sufficient supply of spare parts, which means that it made no sense to fence a garden, creating an all-terrain vehicle on a new base and creating unnecessary difficulties for the military. At the end of July 1938, the technical assignment for the design of a comfortable all-wheel drive all-terrain vehicle entered the plant, and a group of developers led by Vitaly Grachev (the future designer of the legendary GAZ-64 and GAZ-67B) began work.
The most widespread version of the "emka" all-terrain vehicle is the M-61-73 car. Photo from the site
First of all, we chose a modification of the "emka", which could be taken as a basis. It was impossible to use the M-1 model of 1936, which was well known to designers and worked out on the conveyor, it was impossible to use as a base: its engine was too weak for an all-terrain vehicle. But by that time, work on a new engine had already begun at GAZ - a reincarnation (since the total amount of innovations and improvements was quite large) of the six-cylinder Dodge D5 engine, which received the domestic GAZ-11 index. It was he who became the heart of the future SUV based on the "emka".
Since the work on fulfilling the order of the military went in parallel with the modernization of the main model M-1, it was decided to unify the novelty with the modernized "emka" for the body and many other details, but with a completely different suspension and all-wheel drive. It was this that became the most difficult task for the designers: they had to develop the leading front axle for the car and the transfer case as soon as possible, that is, to do what no one had done before in our country on an industrial, not experimental scale.
M-61-40 with a phaeton-type body overcomes the ford. Photo from the site www.autowp.ru
Nevertheless, the experimental design bureau of Vitaly Grachev coped with this successfully. Moreover, during the development, the designer had to solve an almost detective problem: to unravel the secret of creating pivot joints for the swivel wheels of the front drive axle: until then, no one had developed or produced such units in our country. It was not possible to buy a license for their production: the manufacturers refused to the Soviet automobile plant. I had to go for a trick: to purchase the LD2 model, redesigned by Marmon Herrington, which tuned ordinary cars to SUVs, created on the basis of a Ford car with a V8 engine, which is well known to GAZ. Having received the pivots of this car, Grachev eventually figured out the principles and geometry of the hinge grooves - and developed his own kingpin for the first domestic SUV.
By January 1939, working drawings were ready, and on June 10 of the same year, the first car - still an experimental one, not a serial one - was assembled and presented for testing. The exam for the first gas SUV was to be severe. It had to be tested for strength and cross-country ability in the most difficult conditions to make sure that the car was really capable of going where everyone else saved. But Grachev's novelty coped with it!
Tests have shown that the all-terrain vehicle, which received the GAZ-61 index, has off-road qualities outstanding for its time and class. He could take a rise on solid ground up to 28 degrees, on sand - up to 15 degrees from a place and up to 30 degrees from a run, with the fan belt removed, he overcame a ford 82 centimeters deep, took 90-centimeter ditches and confidently walked on a 40-centimeter snow cover (this it became clear a little later, when the weather conditions allowed). With a full half-ton load, the car accelerated on the highway to 108 kilometers per hour, and on sand - up to 40 kilometers per hour. It is noteworthy that during the tests, the all-terrain vehicle was forced to climb the famous "Chkalov stairs" leading from the Volga embankment to the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin. The car confidently climbed upward, overcoming 273 stone steps, and not in a straight line, but with turns - and proved its excellent off-road capabilities. This is how the world's first closed, comfortable SUV was born.
Modification M-61-416 in the courtyard of the Gorky Automobile Plant. Photo from the site
By the end of 1940, by order of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry, GAZ-61, in the version of a sedan with a closed metal body received the index 73, and in the version of "phaeton" with an open body - GAZ-61-40, was launched into production. Since it was a much more complex machine on the assembly line than the non-four-wheel drive M-11 (the same "emka", but with the same new GAZ-11 engine), it was decided to produce the all-terrain vehicle in a small batch for the senior command personnel. That is why GAZ-61-73 and -40 received the nickname "all-terrain vehicle for marshals": its most famous passengers were Georgy Zhukov (who, according to his driver Alexander Buchil, preferred this to all other cars), Ivan Konev, Semyon Budyonny, Konstantin Rokossovsky and Semyon Timoshenko. In total, it was planned to produce 500 all-terrain vehicles of both modifications, but the war corrected these plans, and only 200 such vehicles left the assembly line: 194 in the "73" version and six in the "40" version.
"Emka" - anti-tank officer
Having appreciated the high off-road qualities of the new car, the designers of GAZ, feeling perfectly well that the air smells more and more distinctly of war, thought about creating a light artillery tractor on its basis. Until then, horses were the main driving force in artillery, especially small-bore and anti-tank artillery - but it was clear that they needed to be replaced with a car as soon as possible.
The idea of the Gazans was simple and logical: to combine the ability of the GAZ-61 with the appearance of the recently developed GAZ-M-415 pickup truck, produced on the basis of the classic M-1 and well-developed. The result was a sane car that had only one property that was unsuccessful for an army car: with a closed cabin inherited from the "four hundred and fifteenth" and a complex-shaped body, it was unsuitable for quick and cheap production in wartime.
Prototype M-61-416 is being tested. A slug front is attached at the back, which was abandoned in the series. Photo from the site
It was necessary to find a way to simplify and reduce the cost of the design - and it was found. The GAZ designers abandoned the closed cockpit, and then the doors. As a result, the car received the appearance of a classic army off-road vehicle of the Second World War, which is well-known from front-line photographs: an open cabin with a tarpaulin awning, instead of doors there were openings tightened with a tarpaulin, at the back there was a rectangular body with longitudinal benches, which were a shell box in which 15 shells were packed into three pencil cases. In a word, nothing complicated and superfluous, absolute practicality and ease.
It was in this maximally simplified form that the first GAZ-61-416 pickup truck was assembled on the fourth day of the war - June 25, 1941. The second copy was assembled by August 5, and in October 1941 the serial production of these machines began. The simplified body was immediately adapted for artillery needs: shell boxes and other ammunition were placed under the longitudinal benches, and a hitch was placed at the back, to which the gun was hooked (it was possible to abandon the front end by combining the benches and the shell box). Spare wheels were installed in the front fenders: they not only provided quick replacement if necessary, but also served as additional bulletproof protection for the engine.
Reference sample of the car M-61-416. The shell box is clearly visible, at the same time serving as a seat for the calculation of the ZiS-2 gun. Photo from the site
Since at the Gorky plant number 92 located not far from GAZ, by that time they had already launched the production of one of the most successful anti-tank guns of the Second World War - the 57-mm ZiS-2 gun designed by the famous Vasily Grabin, there were no questions about what the GAZ-61 would be the tractor for. -416. The first 36 (according to other sources - 37) vehicles assembled by the Gorky residents during 1941, immediately at the exit from the factory received regular guns - and went towards Moscow, where they almost immediately entered the battle. Alas, the first machines were also the last: by the beginning of 1942, due to the loss of a significant part of metallurgical plants in the western part of the USSR, there was a shortage of automobile steel sheets, and the production of an all-terrain tractor was stopped. Later, in June 1942, the command of the Red Army, which assessed the capabilities of the light anti-tank complex as part of the ZiS-2-GAZ-61-416, issued an order to resume production of a successful car, but this was no longer technically possible. By that time, all the GAZ-11 engines that were in stock went into the production of light T-60 and T-70 tanks: for this they were even removed from the M-11 modifications confiscated for military needs from civilian users.
From cars to armored cars
After the outbreak of World War II, the overwhelming majority of M-1 vehicles of all modifications were in the army. The vehicles, which were in civilian use, literally "called up" for military service, making up for the catastrophic losses of the first months of hostilities. All options were used: pickups, phaetons, and, of course, the most common closed models of "emki". But there was another car, which, with some stretch, can also be considered a modification of the GAZ-M-1 - the light armored car BA-20. Here it can be called the most military of all the options in which the "emka" was produced!
Designing a new armored car, which was supposed to replace the FAI armored car, which had been in service since 1933. The reason was simple: the base for the FAI was a GAZ-A passenger car, the production of which was curtailed for the sake of the release of "emoks". Accordingly, it was necessary to create an armored car on a new base - and it is quite logical that the GAZ-M-1 became this base.
Armored vehicles BA-20 on maneuvers. Photo from the site
The design of an armored car based on it proceeded almost in parallel with the preparation of the M-1 for production on the conveyor. As a result, it turned out that the BA-20 almost overtook the mother platform in serial production. The standardized version of the new armored car was prepared and submitted for testing in February 1936, and in July, when the emki had already begun to roll off the assembly line at full speed, the technical documentation for the new armored vehicle was transferred to the Vyksa plant of crushing and grinding equipment. Despite the strange name, it was this enterprise, located near Gorky, that was to organize the production of BA-20.
In 1937, the BA-20 received a new conical turret, which became the main one for it, and a year later a modernized model BA-20M appeared, featuring not only reinforced springs and a rear axle, but also thicker forehead and turret armor, as well as a new radio station, which received a whip antenna instead of a handrail, which was equipped with machines of early releases. Together with the new walkie-talkie, a third soldier appeared in the crew - a radio operator who served it. The armament of the armored vehicle was also strengthened: in addition to the main DT machine gun installed in the tower, there was now another one in the fighting compartment, the same, a spare one. True, they did not increase the ammunition load: it, as it was, still amounted to 1386 rounds - 22 disk magazines.
The new armored car in the same 1936 year received another modification, rather unusual - BA-20zh / d. The additional letter index was traditionally deciphered - "railway". Such an armored vehicle had, in addition to the usual wheels, four more replaceable metal wheels, equipped with a flange - a side, the same as that of the carriage wheels, and could move on them along the railway track. For half an hour, by the forces of the crew, the armored car turned into an armored rubber, capable of traveling from 430 to 540 km by rail. At the same time, if necessary, in the same half hour, the armored tires were converted back into an armored car: the removed car wheels were attached to the sides.
Armored vehicle BA-20 in the railway version, mounted on rails. Photo from the site
The BA-20 was so successful and easy to manufacture and maintain that it became the most massive armored vehicle in the Red Army. In total, 2013 was produced from 1936 to 1942 (according to other sources - 2108), of which 1557 were collected before the start of the Great Patriotic War. This vehicle took part in all armed conflicts, wars and campaigns since 1936: it went through Khalkhin Gol and the Winter War with Finland, entered Western Ukraine and Bessarabia during the Liberation Campaign, and fought from the first to the last day of the Great Patriotic War., having even managed to be noted in the war with Japan in the late summer and early autumn of 1945.
The crown of the officer's career
A taxi, a pickup truck, a staff car, a journalistic car, an "all-terrain vehicle for marshals", an artillery off-road tractor, an armored car - in what guises the legendary "emka" did not appear! It rightfully became the first mass-produced passenger car in the Soviet Union: the total volume of production of all modifications of this car was almost 80,000 copies. And the overwhelming majority of them took part in the Great Patriotic War in one way or another - and many did not return from it.
“We have a reason to drink: for a military wire, for a U-2, for an emka, for success!.." the war and after it. This legendary car served, as they say, "from bell to bell", having entered the history of the domestic automotive industry not only as the first Soviet mass-produced passenger car, but also as a warrior car. If the lorry produced by the same GAZ - the GAZ-AA truck - was called a soldier car, then the "emka" can rightfully be called an officer car. An officer who went from lieutenant to marshal - and passed it more than worthily.
War correspondent Konstantin Simonov (second from left, profile) at the Kursk Bulge near a GAZ-M-1 car that has moved into a ditch. Photo from the site
