We Fought Against the Tigers: 'The Main Thing Is to Knock Out Their Tanks!'

"The barrel is long, life is short", "A double pay—triple death", "Farewell, Motherland!"—these were artillerymen’s front-line nicknames for guns of caliber 45, 57, and 76 mm, assigned with a deadly dangerous task: to burn German tanks. Every battle, every knocked-out tank cost a lot of blood, and winning a duel against Hitler’s tank aces demanded enormous endurance, courage, and skill. And until the very end of the war, the Panzerwaffe—including the terrifying “Tigers”—suffered their heaviest losses not in duels with Soviet tankers, but from the fire of our artillery. “THE MAIN THING IS TO KNOCK OUT THEIR TANKS!”—this winged phrase from “Hot Snow” became a universal formula of Victory.