Battle Brother Simurgh
“...It is better to sit alone than with an evil one.
But it is better to sit with a good man than alone.
And it is better to impart knowledge to the seeker than to remain silent.
But it is better to be silent than to have an empty conversation ...
Be more silent and always be in good
mood - what else could be better than this?
(Attributed to the Prophet Muhammad).
But it is better to sit with a good man than alone.
And it is better to impart knowledge to the seeker than to remain silent.
But it is better to be silent than to have an empty conversation ...
Be more silent and always be in good
mood - what else could be better than this?
(Attributed to the Prophet Muhammad).
Unexpected find
One day I was looking at old photographs and accidentally stumbled upon a unique photograph taken in Afghanistan.
My attention was drawn to a car of an unknown brand with a radiator lining, like the GAZ-24 Volga.
I was wondering: what is this strange pickup truck?
Dealing with the riddle, I stumbled upon another forgotten historical layer associated with the little-known history of the migration of cars of the famous automaker.
At first I thought that the pickup truck shown in the picture was a purebred American, whom a difficult fate brought to this wild, God-forsaken country.
But another picture showed the back of a pickup truck, where a large inscription in Latin letters Symorgh, duplicated in Farsi, was distinguished on the tailgate.
Next to it, in the center, some kind of emblem unknown to me was stamped, which has nothing to do with the symbols of US automakers.
I thought that, most likely, the tailgate is not original and was made in some local body shop.
But to clear my conscience, I decided to skip the word Simorgh through Internet search engines.
Imagine my surprise when Google gave me a link to an article where I first saw exactly the same pickup truck as in my photo, only blue.
Slowly, I read the entire text and realized that the author tells the story of a little-known Iranian automobile company that produced cars in the mid-70s of the last century based on the Honcho model, manufactured by Kaiser-Jeep, which was part of the American Motors Corporation concern. And he gives a photo of the pages of some catalog and others, it is not clear how the photographs got to him.
But the text itself was composed somewhat peculiarly, it was immediately clear that it was written by an American.
In the text of the author, there was uncertainty, some doubts and obvious understatement.
And some of his sayings pretty amused me, for example:
“I don’t understand why in Iran, where there is such a terrible heat, a cabin heater should be installed in the car?”
And then another author, following the good old tradition established in ancient times by foreigners who study the history of a country unknown to them from photographs, distorted everything and incorrectly indicated the name of the company. And this is no longer good.
In a word, the theme of the unknown pickup truck was not sufficiently disclosed.
Nevertheless, it must be recognized that the information presented by the author is simply unique and is not found anywhere else.
And then I realized that I had found a diamond, but I still had to work hard to make a diamond out of it.
In short, the work had to be completed, simultaneously correcting other people's mistakes.
And here's what happened in the end.
What does Sherkat Sahami mean?
The author writes that the Iranian firm was called Sherkat-Sahami.
What does this name mean?
The word Sherkat means "company" in Farsi, and Sahami is similar to a family name. Hence, the name can be translated as "Sahami Company".
Apparently, I thought, there lived a certain Sakhami who opened a car manufacturing company and set up the production of these pickups.
But I soon discovered that in Iran there are many companies that have these two words in their names, and the companies were very diverse, including those not related to technology.
I had already decided to abandon the whole thing, but suddenly I came across a certain document in English, and after studying it, I came to the conclusion that the name Sherkat-Sahami is not a proper name and, according to Iranian law, denotes the form of a legal entity, literally: “joint stock company".
For example, a company that now manufactures cars in Iran has the full name of Pars Khodro Company Pjsc (Sherkat Sahami Khas Khodro).
Thus, the author, whose material I studied, somewhere "lost" his own name of the company that produces cars, and gave only its legal form.
Speaking in Russian, he stated something like this:These machines were produced by an Iranian company called "Joint Stock Company".
It's a shame, but there's nothing to be done - an American, well, what demand can there be from him?
I immediately remembered how foreign historians in the XNUMXth century wrote:
"There are three breeds of horses in Russia: a horse, a mare and a nag."
So what was the name of the company producing these machines?
Once again, I carefully reviewed the materials and drew attention to this page:
Apparently, this is the main page of the catalog, where the model range of manufactured cars is presented. It has the company logo (a stylized wind rose) and its name is clearly written: Sherkat-Sahami Jeep.
In other words, the company was called Jeep and was registered in Iran in accordance with the requirements of local law.
At the bottom is an address in Tehran and a phone number, apparently, of the company's office.
In favor of the version that this is an Iranian company, the original emblem of the manufacturer and the original names of the models can also testify. In my photo, this emblem is clearly visible, attached to the “grill” near the left (in the direction of travel) headlight, and also stamped on the back of the pickup truck.
There is information that the auto production was founded by the Iranian Jafar Ahavan in 1956, who established the licensed production of various models of the American concern Kaiser Jeep.
And the Simurg pickup has been produced since 1967.
After that, I decided to try to guess what the name of the pickup truck means?
Symorgh
According to ancient Persian legends, Simurg (simur, simurg, senmurv), the king of all birds, is a huge bird with a dog's head, lion's claws and fish scales (which symbolized its dominance on earth, in water and in the air), capable of peering into the past with one eye and others to look to the future.
She lived for many millennia and saw how the world on our planet collapsed three times. The bird has colossal knowledge collected over the millennia and extraordinary wisdom. She is also credited with the ability to heal people from severe ailments. Lives high in the mountains, near springs, where mountain rivers originate. After the accession of the Safavid dynasty, the image of Simurgh became the emblem of Iran along with its state emblem.
In my opinion, the chosen name is the best for the car.
A large square cab, with a good-natured grin of the “grill” and cut-off ears-mirrors - like the head of a Central Asian shepherd dog, and massive wheels with protruding lugs-claws are so similar to the paws of a lion! At the same time, the overall silhouette of the pickup truck looks as light as a bird.
The Simurghs were used in the Iranian army, then this strong vehicle entered Pakistan and Afghanistan, where it became an indispensable participant in numerous local wars that do not stop in this corner of the Middle East.
In Afghanistan, "Simurgi" often took part in hostilities, fighting "on two fronts." Spirits adapted them for the transportation of fighters, weapons and ammunition, sometimes heavy machine guns were mounted on them.
Soldiers of the SA against the background of the "Simurg" - the carrier of weapons
"Simurgi", following as part of the "duhovsky" caravan,
destroyed by scouts 173 ooSpN
Scouts of the ooSpN group at the “downtrodden” Simurg
In turn, the special forces of the GRU also used the captured Simurgs as vehicles or made combat vehicles based on them, installing a machine gun above the cockpit.
Sometimes SA servicemen in Afghanistan called Simurghs Toyotas (or vice versa), but this is wrong - this Iranian car had nothing to do with the products of the well-known Japanese concern, and it was larger in size than the largest Toyota (its carrying capacity was about 1,5, XNUMX t).
The convenience of using captured pickups by the detachments of the Special Forces of the GRU General Staff was that in the event of a serious breakdown during a combat exit, they could be immediately abandoned without being particularly upset. But "regular" cars in such cases had to be delivered to the PPD, which disrupted the combat mission, and even entailed the risk of losses during the evacuation.
Pickup "Toyota" used by the 370 detachment of Special Forces,
armed with a machine gun NSVS-12,7 "Cliff"
In addition, the use of spiritual vehicles was an additional element in ensuring the secrecy of the actions of the detachments (when the scouts dressed in Afghan clothes), since pickups usually did not arouse suspicion among Mujahideen observers.
In America, the brother of "Simurg" was produced.
It was also a warrior - an army pickup Kaiser Jeep M715 Military Truck 1967-1969.
There was also a civilian version of this car, which bore the name "Honcho" or "Macho".
This pickup truck turned out to be so good in terms of consumer qualities that the M-715 model served in the US Army right up to 1985. And the licenses for the production of the base model, in addition to the Iranian company Jeep, were acquired by the South Korean KIA (where it was also produced for the army under the symbol KM450) and the Indian TATA.
In conclusion, it should be noted that during the conduct of hostilities, pickup trucks are a very convenient and multifunctional vehicle, therefore, today they are widely used both by special forces of state armies and militants in the Middle East and Africa.
And they are not expected to be replaced in the near future.
Использованная литература:
Kozlov S. and others. GRU-2 special forces. M, Russian panorama, 2002.
Sukholesskiy A. GRU Spetsnaz in Afghanistan 1979–1989. M., Russian panorama, 2009.
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