In 1938, with the start of World War II looming, the Russian Automobile Co., GAZ, started the development and production of 4x4 vehicles for the Russian Army. Their first model was the GAZ 61, designed to fill the same needs as the Bantam BRC40 jeep built in Butler, PA by the Americans.

The next model, the GAZ 64, was directly inspired by the American Bantam BRC-40, Ford GP, and Willys MA prototypes. Design similarities include; headlight mounting, the cut of the doorway openings, fender openings, seat design, steering wheel, and canvas top and top bow supports, and 1/2 doors. The power train more resembles the Ford Model A than the WWII jeeps. Ford Motor Co had actually entered into a contract and built a Ford Automobile and Truck production plant in Russia.

In 1943, the WWII Soviet GAZ 67 4x4 Staff Vehicle came into production with several improvements. Production of the GAZ-67 was begun on September 23, 1943 and ended in the fall of 1953. All told, 92,843 were produced. From the 2nd half of World War II until the Korean War, the GAZ 67 was the Soviet Union's version of the American Willys Jeep.

Pictured here is a 1:43 scale replica of a Soviet GAZ 67B staff vehicle. Now in stock!

Dimensions:
Length: 3-inches
Width: 1-1/2-inches

Release Date: March 2017

Historical Account: "The Red Army" - The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (РККА, or Raboche-krest'yanskaya Krasnaya armiya: RKKA, in English: Red Army also in critical literature and folklore of that epoch - Red Horde, Army of Work) was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and after 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution (Red October or Bolshevik Revolution). The Bolsheviks raised an army to oppose the military confederations (especially the various groups collectively known as the White Army) of their adversaries during the Russian Civil War. Beginning in February 1946, the Red Army, along with the Soviet Navy, embodied the main component of the Soviet Armed Forces; taking the official name of "Soviet Army" ((СА)/Sovetskaya Armiya), until its dissolution in December 1991.

The Red Army is credited as being the decisive land force in the Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II. During operations on the Eastern Front, it fought 75%-80% of the German land forces (Wehrmacht Heer and Waffen-SS) deployed in the war, inflicting the vast majority of all German losses and ultimately capturing the German capital.