F35232 RUSSIAN WOMAN DRIVER

The Red Army in the 1930s experienced a very intensive development, marked, inter alia, by the automotive industry and the mechanization of many tactical compounds. Many new brigades were created, and later also armored corps, and the artillery traction - field or anti-aircraft - was also motorized. All this meant that drivers responsible for driving and the simplest repairs of all these motor vehicles began to play a significant role. With the start of the German-Soviet war on June 22, 1941 and in connection with the enormous losses suffered in the first months of that war, the Red Army clearly began to suffer from considerable shortages in the field of trucks and off-road vehicles (equivalents of the American Willys Jeep). These shortcomings were still visible during the Battle of Kursk (July 1943), when the Central Front had only about 29,300 trucks of all types, both in field and logistic formations. Let us add - we are talking about a military group of over 700,000 people! These deficiencies were associated with considerable problems when it comes to efficient logistics, delivery of supplies via wheel traction or quick transfer of forces. Undoubtedly, the Red Army was much less motorized at that time than the American or British armies. It is also worth adding that a large part of the Red Army trucks were Studebaker cars obtained under the Lend-and-Lease program. A lot of Ford GPA and Willys Jeep vehicles were also sold to the Soviet state.