"New Dawn" 1949-1953/55
Part 3
Since the first 2CV and H cars started arriving at the Citroen Polska plant located between Warsaw and Łódź, the automotive industry in Poland began to revive. In Warsaw itself, in the Urusus plant, in addition to reactivating tractors, post-war trucks were repaired and modified.
The LWR plant in Lublin, whose brand became Cherolet, started the production of American trucks, the production of Star vehicles was located in Starochowice, and the Swedish Vovo located its production in the border town of Jelcz.
Fiat, fearing that it would lose its pre-war monopoly, started building its own factory in Silesia.
The progressive motorization of society itself allowed horses to be completely withdrawn from the transport function in the army by 1952.
Therefore, in the late 1950s, people began to look for a successor to the M2/M3/M5 halftrack. It was decided to use an eastern solution, such as the Btr-152. Initially, the plan was to purchase these vehicles, but the Kremlin did not consent. Therefore, taking advantage of good relations with the brotherly nation of Hungary, by a strange coincidence, 5 vehicles from this army found themselves at the training ground in Biedrusko.
After a deeper examination, it was decided that the Swedish Volvo Titan would be a good basis for the future truck. Throughout 1953, hard attempts were made to build an APC, which was called "TO Puma".
It was a fairly exact copy of the BTR-152a, even better in terms of engine and simply better workmanship than the Soviet counterpart.
When it was first publicly shown during winter maneuvers at the training ground in Żagań in 1954, it aroused the interest of the Turkish and South Korean delegations.
By the time the Korean War broke out in the summer of 1955, over 300 of these vehicles had been exported, and production was tripled thanks to American loans. Despite the appearance of its successor in the 1960s, the vehicle was produced until the 1980s, and in Turkey until the 1990s.