Red Army Tank Commander: At War in a T-34 on the Eastern Frount

By Vasiliy Bryukhov

What was it like to command a T-34 tank on the Eastern Front during the Second World War? How were tank operations organized and carried out, what was the actual experience of combat, and what were the qualities that made the difference between success and failure - and what were the chances of survival? Vasiliy Pavlovich Bryukhov’s vivid, detailed and gripping memoir of his wartime service gives a fascinating and authentic insight into these questions. Also it provides an accurate, unsentimental record of the day-to-day life of a tankman whose unit fought in the forefront of the Red Army throughout the conflict across the western Soviet Union and into eastern Europe. His first-hand eyewitness account is a memorable personal story, and it gives a powerful insight into the reality of tank warfare seventy years ago.

Vasiliy Pavlovich Bryukhov was born in 1924 in Osa, In April 1943, after graduation from tank school, he was given command of a T-34 tank, and he took part in the Battle of Kursk. He served continuously until the end of the war, fighting through Ukraine, Moldavia, Romania and Hungary to Austria. In one action his crew destroyed nine German panzers and in another he led the vanguard of his tank brigade through German lines to capture bridges and cut off the German retreat. In 1944 he was promoted to battalion commander. For his actions at the end of 1944 and 1945 he was nominated for the title Hero of the Soviet Union, but this nomination was not fulfilled until 1995 when he was given the title of a Hero of the Russian Federation for the courage and gallantry he displayed in battle during the Great Patriotic War .

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pen and Sword
• Release date: Apr 8, 2013
• ISBN: 9781473822382

Reviews for Red Army Tank Commander

[kunikov_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was somewhat surprised by the candor and openness that the author divulged of his experiences on the front during the Great Patriotic War. The majority of the text takes place from the Battle of Kursk until the war's end. The author was almost always on the frontlines and the amount of engagements he describes can be counted in the dozens. The writing style can be bland and tedious at times, and more than once I found myself having to reread passages numerous times to understand what was happening. This book will not always keep your attention, but nonetheless there are various stories, anecdotes, and events that are worth reading about every so often throughout the entirety of the text. The author mainly served in T-34 tanks and in a command capacity, first a platoon and then a company, throughout the war. Unlike many accounts from 1941 and 1942, the author's tank brigade regularly inflicted major damage to the enemy, be they German, Romanian, or Hungarian units, as Red Army forces found themselves outside Soviet territory and liberating parts of Eastern Europe from the Wehrmacht. While some of the events recounted would look suspicious if superimposed on the initial period of the war, by 1943 the Red Army was no longer mainly launching head-on attacks but regularly looking to the flanks and rear to dislodge the enemy, encircle, and annihilate him. Although there are instances of officers issuing ignorant orders that cost many men their lives, they are nowhere comparable to the scale of destruction and devastation that 1941 and 1942 witnessed. Some of the more interesting events discussed are an attempted rape and the repercussions for the Red Army men involved (a penal battalion for one and an execution for the other), the creation of blocking detachments in 1944 from soldiers of the author's brigade and how they were able to stop unauthorized retreats, how enemy firing positions were flushed out, atrocities committed against Red Army nurses, and the consistent demands made of tank units in the latter part of the war (constant days of advances and combat with units taking casualties that reduce them from hundreds to mere dozens). While the writing style does detract from the readability of these recollections, as with every memoir, there are stories recounted that make the book a worthwhile investment.