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.

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.

‘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.