December 1942. With the Stalingrad inferno at its height, the Germans resupply their besieged forces by planes from their airbase at Tatsinskaya, deep in German-occupied territory. Desperate to stop this air bridge, the Red Army sends a raiding force of T34 tanks far behind enemy lines to destroy the airfield itself - a mission from which only one in ten men will return alive.
Told by a young Soviet tank commander, this book recounts his fight across the frozen battleground of Russia in winter, with tanks and crews pushed beyond breaking point. As the troops discover a series of German atrocities en route, we witness the explosive vengeance they ultimately deliver at the Luftwaffe airbase. But their final challenge is the most lethal of all: fighting their way back to their own lines while pursued by the enraged Germans - and now abandoned to their fate by the tyrannical Soviet regime they serve.
Packed with combat and the tactics of WW2 tank warfare, this is also a story for our own troubled times: how raw youths are turned into cynical killers, and how the machinery of total war destroys enemies and comrades alike. Above all, this book gives an insight into the psychology of a Russian soldier which still lives on today: loyal but cynical, arrogant but racked by self-doubt - and merciless to anyone seen as an enemy.