Soviet BA-20 Armored Car Mod.1939

The principal use of the BA-20 was as a scout vehicle. The BA-20's tires were designed to be resistant to bullets and shrapnel by the simple expedient of filling them with spongey rubber. A variant, the BA-20ZhD, could travel on railway lines by replacing the normal wheels with flanged metal rail-type wheels. The vehicle was exported to the Spanish Republican side in the Spanish Civil War,[3] although the vast majority of BA-20s built served with the Soviet Red Army. They first saw combat in the conflict with Japan in 1939 on the Khalkin Gol river in Mongolia (see Battle of Khalkin Gol). The BA-20 was used by the Red Army in the Soviet invasion of Poland later in 1939 and the Winter War against Finland between 1939 and 1940 in which Finland captured 18 designating them as BAB B, as well as the early stages of Operation Barbarossa in 1941. Production was ended that same year, with some 2066 BA-20s having been constructed by that time.