iannima

Very nice video indeed:-)! Thank you for sharing it. I think these guys are Czech as there are a couple of Prahas and I believe also some early Tatras, together with a Zil131, and a Gaz69. Much as I love the snow, I don't think I would have joined them in camping overnight and the early morning sport... :shocked: Re-enactment can be carried too far...

That's what he told me too and it does not include VAT. :shocked: Because I have a DDR distributor which requires a new design. But using the Russian distributor it would be £100 cheaper although I would have first to buy one which would cost me roughly that. It seems to me a lot of money, so I have passed for the time being... :-D

just make sure it is NOT one of them :laugh:...

Very interesting photographs... But I seem to remember quite a few stories of what the Bundeswehr found lying around in abandoned Soviet barracks in 1994... :shocked: Somehow a Soviet-era abandoned base does not strike me as a good place to go treasure-hunting... I mean I know I would have tempted to follow them, but in the end I would probably have declined and my unease would not have been due purely to the obviously unlawful/unathorised entry.... :undecided:

The idea of fitting glass in canvas was not the brightest... The back window of my new canvas was obviously shattered and I had flexible plastic stitched on instead. When I will manage to get the frame for the side windows I shall do the same there :-D

This is a bit of an oddity in service with the Polish army and presumably prepared for a parade given the white painted tyres. I cannot imagine a 4 doors vehicle being ideal for this kind of conversion... It just makes things more cramped... and I can imagine the bodywork and seats getting in the way of the gunner at every beck and call. Perhaps it was only done for the parade.

Unlike the wartime Jeep or its post-war British equivalent, the Land Rover, the Gaz 69 does not seem to have been utilised that extensively as a weapons platform. The one obvious exception to this is the 2P26 of which I only know of examples in museum but none in private hands... but then who would particularly want one? ... as it is even LESS practical than a standard Gaz It was intended as an anti-tank missile launcher as used by motorised rifles regiments. (The same missile system would be carried by a BTR40 in a Tank regiment). I think it was used by the Soviets too but somehow most of the photographs that have survived, show it in NVA service during the 1960s. I think the idea wa abandoned pretty quickly. (the soldier is wearing the early pattern NVA camouflage that was gradually replaced during the late 1960s and 1970s by the raindrop pattern which flooded the surplus market 15 years ago or so)

Again I believe Czechoslovak: he probably is a vicious attack dog :shock: but he looks sweet here :roll: the three jerry cans on the tailgate is a typical Czechslovack arrangement

Where I found these, I understand that the vehicles were in service with the Czechoslovak army...

A Roumanian parade:

Soviet paratroopers:

This is certainly Soviet, apparently dated 1965 as it is consistent with the soldiers wearing the older uniforms of the 1943 regulations which were only superseded in 1969. the vehicle looks pretty much as it would have left the factory with a rather shiny paint finish (through the mud) and even a suspicion of Chrome :lol: on the light fittings

This I guess is Soviet... but have no idea where... Afghanistan is one possibility but the Paratroopers (VDV) were the ones chiefly involved in the protracted Soviet engagement in Afghanistan and the VDV tended to have all the latest equipment which in this case would mean UAZ 469s rather than Gaz.

This really should not count as being in East German service any more, although the officer IS East German. It comes from some photographs acquired by a fellow collector of uniforms from the family of the officer. He probably was observing a Soviet exercise. It is of interest that he is wearing the much rarer 1960s field uniform for officers with subdued insignia. These uniforms are VERY rare and fetch some money on Ebay... :shock: The German heritage (Reichswehr and Wehrmacht) of the uniform is obvious. The vehicles I think are Soviet. A white stripe is visible on the canvas of the 2 door one. It was used as a recognition device during exercises where all vehicles of one particular side would be marked with a white stripe across. I have seen footage of the Soviets convoys sent to suppress the Prague Spring in 1968 sporting such markings.

It obviously is an engine change in the field, but it is important to me as it is practically the ONLY other photograph (aside from the manuals' one at the top) of a Gaz69 A in NVA service. It can only be identified as a 4 door one by the bolt with which the canvas is attached to the top of the windscreen. The truck is obviously a URAL with a crane

The Gaz was also used by the paratroopers but these are very special ones... ...as they belong to one branch of the Stasi guards regiment. Notice the NOTEK blackout light on the fender. Very much a feature carried over from Wehrmacht vehicles. The later headlight covers that clip open, which we probably all know, are part of the Nachtmarschanlage 74 (=night convoy arrangement) introduced in 1974 and implemented over a number of years.

Fitted for Radio:

This one I have scanned from one of the many coffee table books of photographs that the DDR produced to celebrate its armed forces and their fraternal comrades: It probably shows a parade after(or before) one of the joint exercises which the Warsaw Pact routinely did for propaganda purposes more than for anything else. The Soviets are in the vehicle first on the left. The Poles at the extreme right. The second vehicle from the left I presume to be the Czechoslovak but I have doubts as neither the uniforms nor the flag are that clearly identifiable. The East Germans are obviously to the left of the "Czechs". Notice how they are actually riding in a 2 door Gaz unlike all the others. The NVA had very few Gaz 69A like mine. The records show only 95 held in 1991 as opposed to over 700 2 doors. So presumably on this occasion they found themselves short of one of the 95 like mine, and they had to match the others...

This is rather old. It has surfaced in a batch of old photographs dating back to the first Berlin Wall in 1961. Probably taken somewhere in Berlin. The VP on the numberplate stands for Volkspolizei (=People's Police) as the border guards at the time were still technically a police force (Deutsche Grenzpolizei)

Some kind of radio/direction support for that nasty looking thingy in the background

This a radio one in service with the Grenztruppen (=Border Guards) as testified by the green border on the roundels. The truck behind is a DDR produced Robur

Leading a convoy: The armoured vehicle behind is a BTR40 and behind that a P3 DDR Jeep. The motorcycle is an MZ ES250 (Thanks Michael :-D).

I have published these photographs before on another forum, but there the interest is not so much historical. I have noticed a couple of people who obviously are also members there, so I do apologise to them for the repetition. Perhaps others on this forum will find these of interest :cheesy: besides having obtained a new section of the forum dedicated to Warsaw Pact vehicles, it is only appropriate to beef it up with new posts, and what better way to start than with the beloved Gaz 69? :-D In East German service the two basic photographs reproduced in all manuals are these: 2 door (obviously intended for radio too given the aerials): 4 doors (one of only two photographs available... :cry: )

My canvas is indeed a new old stock one, but I don't think it is of the same make as yours, as probably the shade of green is distorted on the photograph. As many other details tell (and indeed my uniform :-D) my vehicle is in East German finish and the canvas is a DDR product. I think there were different cloths used in the DDR for these canvases, and some have a laminated shiny finish, which I strongly suspect to be the "self'destructing-material" we DDR collectors dread, but I have never seen one up close. Mine is different. I have noticed that in Germany, the Gaz69s retain the DDR canvases even when the entire vehicle is converted/restored to Soviet colours. Occasionally DDR canvases appear on Ebay.de and they fetch SERIOUS money. I once had a chat with the guys of Trapper Industries and they say that an original Russian canvas has a life span of a couple of years at most, regardless of treatment, but that DDR ones were better. This is not to say that it is all hunky-dory :cry: as the canvas of a four door vehicle is really difficult beast to fit... it is SOOOO tight that every single time that the frame is put up or taken down the entire back must be loose. That means that I cannot do as it was originally intended and nail the canvas to the sides, but I need instead a way of undoing and re-doing it fast. I used turn-buckle fittings. I also added an extra strip of material to gain precious centimetres and strengthen the fabric. Four turn-buckle on the side and one round the corner at the back. This way I can take the canvas up or down on my own. Before it could only be done with four men with three hands each... as the front would never fit properly on the windscreen frame, given how tight the canvas is.

Glad to see a thread dedicated to these beauties :-D... This is mine: more recently with me by the side: