The author, who fought with the 46th Guard Tank Brigade, (th Guard Tank Corps, describes fighting the war driving tanks supplied by the USSR's Western Allies. Beginning his combat driving a Matilda and finally a US supplied Sherman.

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

‘Attention, Tigers!’ - these words, pronounced in various languages by soldiers of the armies of the anti-Hitler coalition, made hearts beat faster, if not from horror, then from the awareness of a mortal threat. At these moments, the soldiers' minds were not filled with the image of a ferocious striped cat, but with the idea of an invulnerable steel giant machine, spewing fire and death....

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.