Artillery tractor KITZ-NATI (STZ-3) The hard worker of the Great Patriotic War

The main types of tractors produced in the USSR on the eve of the Great Patriotic War were the wheeled “universal "and" International ", as well as the caterpillar" Stalinets" and STZ-NATI (STZ-3) The first three cars were mainly copies of American prototypes. Cleads-Nati, on the contrary, was created by the forces of Soviet designers as the first domestic construction of a caterpillar tractor for mass production. In addition to agricultural purposes, this tractor had to meet the requirements of the People’s Commissariat of Defense for mobilization use as an artillery tractor. It was in this capacity of STZ-NATI that were used in the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. At the beginning of 1941, they made up almost a fifth of the general fleet of the mechanical thrust of the Red Army artillery. Cleads were used to tow guns weighing up to four tons, mainly in the artillery shelves of rifle divisions. By the number of this tractor made to win on the most severe front -line roads and its off -road