Panzer Destroyer: Memoirs of a Red Army Tank Commander

Vasiliy Krysov's military memoir recounts his service as a tank commander in the Soviet Red Army during World War II on the Eastern Front. Beginning the day after his school graduation on June 22, 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Krysov spent the next three years commanding various armored vehicles—a heavy tank, a self-propelled gun tank destroyer, and a T-34—in some of history's most intense armored engagements. Krysov fought westward across Russia, Ukraine, and Poland against German forces, including encounters with elite SS panzer divisions such as the SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler Panzer Division in the Bruilov-Fastov area in 1943 and the SS Das Wiking Panzer Division in Poland in 1944. He participated in major battles at Stalingrad, Kursk, and Königsberg, including a counterattack at Ponyri. His account describes confrontations with German Tiger and Panther tanks and anti-tank guns. Wounded four times during the war, Krysov survived despite losses among his crew and commanding officers. His memoirs document the scale, complexity, and brutality of tank warfare on the Eastern Front.