The Fordson WOT-6 is a British military truck from World War II. Serial production was carried out in the years 194-1945. Approximately 30,000 trucks of this type of all varieties were created in its course. The total weight of the cart was 5.4 tons, its length was 6.1 meters and the width was 2.3 meters. The operating range was 450 kilometers. The Fordson WOT-6 was developed during World War II as a member of a family of trucks intended for the British Army. Interestingly, the WOT vehicles were designed from the beginning as cars intended for the armed forces, and their production took place at the Ford plant in Dagenham, hence the term Fordson. The WOT-6 truck was an evolutionary development of the WOT-8 car, with a longer wheelbase and its load capacity increased to 3 tons. As the WOT-6 trucks were often located near the front line, a machine gun was sometimes mounted on them, on the roof of the driver's cab. The WOT-6 trucks turned out to be a successful design - the British Army used them shortly after World War II, and the Danish armed forces until 1974!
In the 1920s and 1930s, the Red Army underwent intensive development, both in terms of increasing its number of jobs and saturation with technical weapons. One of the most dynamically developed types of weapons was artillery (both barrel and missile), which was considered to be one of the basic, if not crucial, types of weapons on the battlefield. At that time (i.e. in the 1930s) several successful types of guns were introduced into the service of the Red Army, and the 76.2 mm F-22 division cannon, the 122 mm M1931 / 37 corpse cannon or the 122 mm cannon deserve special attention. -haubica M1937 (MŁ-20) cal. 152 mm. They were weapons that were developed and modernized during World War II and which did not differ significantly from their counterparts in the German army. It is also worth mentioning that the Red Army was also developing very heavy artillery, as exemplified by the introduction to the armament of the 203 mm Br-4 howitzer, the production of which started in 1932. It is worth adding that in 1941, the Soviet rifle division had a total of 144 guns of various calibers and various purposes, and the division included an artillery regiment consisting of five cannon and howitzer squadrons. On the other hand, in 1945, 130 guns of various calibers and various purposes, as well as 12 self-propelled guns (very often SU-76), were in the reduced position compared to 1941 in the infantry division. In addition, Soviet infantry divisions were often supported in battle with separate artillery regiments.
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.