The Red Army suffered such catastrophic losses of armour in the summer of 1941 that they begged Britain and the United States to send tanks. The first batches arrived in late 1941, just in time to take part in the defence of Moscow. The supplies of British tanks encompassed a very wide range of types including the Matilda, Churchill, and Valentine and even a few Tetrarch airborne tanks. American tanks included the M3 (Stuart) light tank and M3 (Lee) medium tank and the M4 Sherman tank, which became so common in 1944–45 that entire Soviet tank corps were equipped with the type. With these Western tanks, the Soviets were finally able to beat back the German tide in the East. This study examines the different types of tanks shipped to the Soviet Union during the war, Soviet assessments of their merits and problems, and combat accounts of their use in Soviet service using full colour artwork, contemporary photographs and detailed cut-away illustrations.

'The United States is a country of machines. Without the use of these machines through Lend-Lease, we would lose this war.' —Josef Stalin (1943), quoted in W. Averell Harriman and Elie Abel, Special Envoy to Churchill and Stalin, 1941-1946, Random House, N.Y., 1975, p. 277 The United States shipped more than $12 billion in Lend-Lease aid to Stalin's Russia during World War II. Materials lent, beginning in late 1941 before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, included airplanes and tanks, locomotives and rails, construction materials, entire military production assembly lines, food and clothing, aviation fuel, and much else. Lend-Lease is now recognized by post-Soviet Russian historians as essential to the Soviet war effort. Wielding many facts and statistics never before published in the U.S., author Albert L. Weeks keenly analyzes the diplomatic rationale for and results of this assistance. Russia's Life-Saver is a brilliant contribution to the study of U.S.-Soviet relations and its role in World War II.

"The United States is a country of machines. Without the use of these machines through Lend-Lease, we would lose this war." --Josef Stalin (1943), quoted in W. Averell Harriman and Elie Abel, Special Envoy to Churchill and Stalin, 1941-1946, Random House, N.Y., 1975, p. 277 The United States shipped more than $12 billion in Lend-Lease aid to Stalin's Russia during World War II. Materials lent, beginning in late 1941 before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, included airplanes and tanks, locomotives and rails, construction materials, entire military production assembly lines, food and clothing, aviation fuel, and much else. Lend-Lease is now recognized by post-Soviet Russian historians as essential to the Soviet war effort. Wielding many facts and statistics never before published in the U.S., author Albert L. Weeks keenly analyzes the diplomatic rationale for and results of this assistance. Russia's Life-Saver is a brilliant contribution to the study of U.S.-Soviet relations and its role in World War II.

"Organized chronologically by type, Russian Tanks of World War II offers a highly illustrated guide to the main armored fighting vehicles used by the Red Army during World War II. The book offers a comprehensive survey of Soviet AFVs, from the prewar T-18 light tank and BT fast tank series to the heavy Joseph Stalin tanks and self-propelled guns of the final months of the war. All the major and many minor tanks are featured, including every significant variation of the T-26 light tank, KV series and T-34 to see action on the Eastern Front. There are also chapters on the many types of self-propelled guns developed by Soviet industry, as well as Allied Lend-Lease AFVs, such as the British Churchill and Valentine tanks and American Sherman and Stuart tanks. Each featured profile includes authentic markings and color schemes, while every separate model is accompanied by exhaustive specifications. Packed with 120 newly commissioned, full-color artworks with exhaustive specifications, Russian Tanks of World War II is a key reference guide for military modelers and World War II enthusiasts."--Publisher's description.

At the start of the campaign on the Eastern Front, in the earliest days of Operation Barbarossa, it was the German armour that swept all in front of it as the Wehrmacht drove eastwards in an unrelenting advance on Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad. The ill-prepared and under-resourced Russian forces were forced to retreat. Gradually, the balance of the war swung in favour of the Russian forces, whose strength both in numbers and equipment proved decisive in the ultimate defeat of the German forces in the east. Critical in the Soviet victory was its armour; tanks such as the T-34 proving the equal, if not better than, some of the tanks available to the Germans. This authoritative history of the Soviet forces before and during World War 2, reveals the development of their tactics in the early post-revolutionary era right through to the ultimate victory in Berlin in May 1945. The dramatic struggle of the tank crews against the German advance is told through some 200 contemporary photographs, many of which have never been seen before.The photographs include images of tank training in the 1920s and 1930s, on active service, and many compelling pictures from some of the major tank battles of the day. Over the past five years, aided by the opening up of archives in Russia previously closed to western experts, there has been a massive growth in interest in the events that occurred on the Eastern Front. Russian Tanks is an important addition to the literature currently available, exploring as it does, the vitally important Soviet armour of the period.

Hero of the Soviet Union Dmitriy Loza has carefully crafted his World War II experiences with U.S.-provided Sherman tanks into a highly readable memoir. Between the fall of 1943 and August 1945, Loza fought in the Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Austria. He commanded a tank battalion during much of this period and had three Shermans shot out from under him. Loza's unit participated in such well-known combat actions as the Korsun-Shevchenkovskiy Operation, the Jassy-Kishenev Operation, and the battles for Budapest, Vienna, and Prague. Following the German surrender, Loza's unit was sent to Mongolia, where it participated in the arduous trek across the Gobi Desert to attack the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria. This is the first available detailed examination of the Red Army's exploitation of U.S. war matiriel during World War II and one of the first genuine memoirs available from the Russian front. Loza also provides firsthand testimony on tactical command decisions, group objectives and how they were accomplished, and Soviet use of combat equipment and intelligence. Only after the collapse of the USSR and concomitant relaxing of prohibitions against publication of materials related to the Lend-Lease Program there could this account be made available Dmitriy Loza served as an instructor at the Frunze Academy after the war, retiring in 1967 with the rank of colonel. He resides in Moscow. James F. Gebhardt, now a defense contractor at Fort Leavenworth, is a Vietnam veteran. He is the author of Blood on the Shores: Soviet Naval Commandos in World War II.

Indhold: Soviet Armour of the Great Patriotic War 1941 to 1945: bl.a. med kapitler om: Soviet tank design on the eve of war; Organization of the Soviet Armoured Force; The summer catastrophe; The T-34 medium tank; Light tanks; Tank unit organization; The KV heavy tank; Mechanized artilleru development; Katyusha rocket launchers; The SU-76 light mechanized gun; The SU-122 medium mechanized gun; The KV-7 mechanized gun; Mechanized artillery units; The German response; Tank destroyers; The Battle of Kursk; Orel; The T-34-85 medium tank; The IS-2 heavy tank; Heavy assault gun; Light mechanized guns; Tank destroyers of 1944; The T-44 medium tank; The K-90 amphibious tank; Light fighting vehicles; Airborne fighting vehicles; Engineer tanks; Flame-thrower tanks; Armoured recovery vehicles; Bridging tanks; Anti-aircraft vehicles; Artillery transporters; Armoured trains; Lend-lease tanks; Lend-lease armoured vehicles supplied to the Soviet Army; Soviet tanks in retrospect. Desuden er der oversigt over produktionen af sovjetiske kampvogne under krigen, og: Soviet Armoured Corps Order of Battle, 1942-1945.