Memoirs of a Red Army Tank Commander
Eyewitness account of tank warfare on the Eastern Front
The day after Vasiliy Krysov finished school, on 22 June 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union and provoked a war of unparalleled extent and cruelty. For the next three years, as a tank commander, Krysov fought against the German panzers in some of the most intense and destructive armoured engagements in history including those at Stalingrad, Kursk and Knigsberg. This is the remarkable story of his war. As the commander of a heavy tank, a self-propelled gun - a tank destroyer - and a T-34, he fought his way westward across Russia, the Ukraine and Poland against a skilful and determined enemy which had previously never known defeat. The ruthlessness of this long and bitter campaign is vividly depicted in his narrative, as is the enormous scale and complexity of the fighting. Honestly, and with an extraordinary clarity of recall, he describes confrontations with German Tiger and Panther tanks and deadly anti-tank guns. He was wounded four times, his crewmen and his commanding officers were killed, but he was fated to survive and record his experience of combat. His memoirs give a compelling insight into the reality of tank warfare on the Eastern Front.