BA-20

The BA-20 was a light Soviet armoured car developed in 1934 for headquarters staffs, reconnaissance and communications units, intended to replace the FAI. It was derived from the civilian GAZ-M1 car, using its chassis, which was itself a modified Ford design built at the Nizhny Novgorod works of GAZ. The chassis was built at Nizhny Novgorod, while the body was made and the final assembly done at the Vyksa plant, and full production began in 1935. About 2066 were built by 1941 in the basic BA-20, the improved BA-20M with 9 mm armour and upgraded suspension, and the BA-20ZhD railway scout version with flanged wheels. Its tyres were filled with spongy rubber to resist bullets and shrapnel. Having no all-wheel drive, it stayed largely road-bound, and its thin armour stopped little more than fragments and small-arms fire. It served in Spain, at Khalkhin Gol, in Poland, in the Winter War and in the early stages of Operation Barbarossa, and the BA-64 replaced it.