No other country claims to invent a snowmobile, leaving priority to Russia. They appeared with us almost simultaneously with the aircraft and, among other things, became stands for fine-tuning and adjusting aircraft engines.
The invention was immediately appreciated by the military, but in the First World War there was, one might say, trial operation of a dozen existing models created in artisanal conditions. But from the end of the 1920s, an era of burning interest in snowmobiles and gliders began in the USSR - maybe not so much for practical purposes, but because fast cars were in the spirit of the times. Serious organizations, primarily aviation organizations - TsAGI, NAMI, Tupolev Design Bureau were engaged in their design and creation.
The snowmobiles were used by postmen, geologists, workers at polar stations … Meanwhile, the military were thinking, but the conflict with Finland forced them to make quick decisions. The frozen Onega and Ladoga turned out to be an ideal battlefield for a snowmobile, and in the Red Army several detachments were hastily formed on machines NKL-6, NKL-12, NKL-16.
Some of them were equipped with machine guns, but most were used as transport or ambulances. The practice of towing a landing force of 10-12 skiers is known. As far as is known, up to 80 snowmobiles were used in the Finnish campaign in the Red Army.
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"Airplanes on skis" earned positive reviews from the military, but the revolution did not happen - the plans of the aviation industry for 1940 included the production of only two dozen NKL-16 - the most successful of the models used.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the command woke up. And already at the beginning of August 1941, the State Defense Committee adopted a decree on the production of four thousand snowmobiles for the Red Army. The production was imputed to four plants, fortunately, there were no problems with the engines - the M-11 engines were used, which had exhausted the flight life on the U-2 (Po-2).
At the same time, the personnel of the units were also preparing, this was in charge of the 7th (Aerosanny) department of the GABTU. Driver-mechanics and crew commanders were trained by two hastily created schools - in Solikamsk and Kotlas, where officers who had experience in using this technique in the war with Finland taught.
The snowmobiles showed themselves perfectly already in the battle of Moscow. Konstantin Rokossovsky recalled: “A German ski detachment - up to two hundred and a half soldiers - penetrated our rear at night and crossed the road that supplied the army's right wing with everything it needed. A critical situation was created for a while. Our chief communications officer, Colonel P. Ya. Maksimenko, was in the aerosled company. On his initiative, it was used to strike the enemy.
The company immediately moved into the area occupied by the German skiers, turned around and attacked on the move, firing from its fourteen machine guns. The Germans were scattered, exterminated. Only those who managed to reach the bushes at the edge of the forest escaped. The prisoners taken in this skirmish said in a voice that this attack had stunned them: they mistook the snowmobiles for tanks and were amazed why the cars seemed to be flying through deep snow.
In the first war winter, 55 aerosled units were formed, numbering from 20 to 40 vehicles, mainly of the NKL-16/37, NKL-16/41 and NKL-26 types. The experience of combat use forced us to undertake a serious modernization of equipment (it was the same with the U-2 aircraft). The snowmobiles were improved throughout the war and were actively involved in organizing combat operations. For obvious reasons, they were especially widely used in the northern sectors of the front.