Contents
List of Illustrations and Maps
Editor’s Preface
1. My Journey to the Front
2. Stalingrad
In the Bend of the Don River
Hoth’s Panzer Army is Stopped!
From a Tanker to a Self-propelled Gunner
3. Kursk 1943
We Prepare a Defence
Day One
The Redeployment
The Fight for Ponyri
4. Operation Kutuzov
The Battle for Glazunovka
Between Battles
5. To the Dnieper River, August-September 1943
The Death of Battery Commander Shevchenko
A Flank Attack
The Capture of Glukhov
In the Vanguard: The Liberation of Konotop
On Night Watch
The Night Massacre in Golenki
6. Reorganization near Moscow, September-October 1943
7. The Liberation of Kiev, November 1943
Crossing the Dnieper
The Offensive Begins
On the Approaches to Kiev!
The Battle for Svyatoshino
8. The Pursuit to Fastov
On My Own in the Village of Khotovo
The Death of the Regiment Commander
The Night March
Destruction of the Motor Vehicle Column
Breaking Through to Our Lines
9. Von Manstein Attempts Another ‘Backhand Blow’
Brusilov: ‘Thank You, Brothers, for Such a Battle!’
In Ambush near Yastreben’ka
The First Enemy Attack
The Second Attack
The Germans Take Yastreben’ka
The Night Counter-attack
10. Rest and Refitting
11. The December Zhitomir-Berdichev Offensive
12. From the Front to a Hospital and Back Again
On Defence near Kovel
13. The July 1944 Offensive on the Kovel Axis
The Fateful Hill 197.2: Day One
‘Hill 197.2 Must be Taken!’: Day Two
Through Enemy Lines
We Go Over on the Defence
‘With all Due Military Honours’
14. From the Western Bug to Siedlce, Poland
We Prepare for a River Crossing
Crossing the Western Bug
The Battle for the Village of Stulno
Massacre in a Polish Forest
From Line to Line
At Regiment Headquarters
The Vlasovites
The Recklessness of the Battalion Commander
The Tank Attack near Siedlce
15. In East Prussia
New Appointment
From Endkunden to Stalluponen
The Final Offensive
Back to Tanks from the Self-propelled Guns
Königsberg
The Days of Peace
Notes
Index