The book contains over 200 photographs, covering the entire period of the existence of the armored forces of the Third Reich: from their creation in the run-up to the coming war to the last bloody and hopeless battles in 1945. Previously unpublished photographic materials were recently obtained from European state archives, as well as from the personal collections of veterans of German tank...

Panzer IV—that was the name under which this combat vehicle was virtually unknown to the soldiers and commanders of the Red Army. Even now, 60 years after the end of the Great Patriotic War, the combination of the German words ‘Panzer Vier’ still baffles many. Then, as now, this tank is better known by its ‘Russified’ name, the T-IV, which is not used anywhere outside of our country.

The book examines the history and contemporary role played on the battlefield by tank/armor units.

The author of the book began the war as a tank commander (KV-1S) and then served as the commander of a series of self-propelled artillery units (SU-122, SU-85) and ended the war commanding a T-34-85. He fought from Stalingrad to Koenigsberg.

In his book, the author, who fought as an infantryman in the battles of the Kursk Salient, the Lviv, Vistula-Oder, and Berlin operations, recounts what he saw as a platoon commander of a tank landing force: the daily life of Red Army soldiers with their simple joys in the form of sleep and hot food, monotonous work, the desire to survive, and the constant feeling of imminent death.

The war diaries and experiences of ISU-152 self-propelled gun driver during the last three years of the war.