Tank Rider: Into the Reich With the Red Army

by Evgenii I. Bessonov, Bair Irincheev, Evgeni Bessonov

Release Date: October, 2003

Edition: Hardcover

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Just an OK book

This book's strength is that it is entirely credible. When the author says something, he has been there, done that, and you believe him.

This book's weakness is just what the author says that it is: He is not a very good writer. In the early chapters he admits that writing has never been his forte. Nevertheless, this is head and shoulders above those ghost written books whose style reads like the authors served their time in the journalism brigade. I recently read With the Old Breed by Sledge which has all of the authenticity but the writing itself is far better. This book does not favorably compare.

I have been waiting, incidentally, for the definitive Russian history of WWII now that the USSR has fallen and we could get something besides Soviet propaganda. This is a step in that direction. Time is running out in that the veterans are aging rapidly. One hopes that some qualified person is out there digging, interviewing and recording before the heroism of the soldiers of the Red Army is lost to history.

A Great Read

I just finished reading this book and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it. The author gives a fresh perspective of the fighting on the Eastern Front during WWII. The author was an infantry officer who "specialized' in riding on tanks into battle. He provides very detailed accounts of tank/infantry cooperation during urban battles (relevant if you are a soldier on the way to Iraq) and dispels the myth that the Soviet Army was a faceless mass that just steamrolled over the German Army. He changes the "face-less mass" belief. He shows the human side of the Soviet soldier and his many tales of life with his comrades shows they were not communist robots, but humans who loved, mourned and lost. Overall this book is worth every penny and worth reading. I highly recommend it.