NEW front-line action movie from the author of the best-selling books “St. John’s Worts” versus “Tigers” and “Commander of a Penal Company.” The first novel is about one of the most dangerous military professions - tank destroyers. “The barrel is long - life is short” - this is what they said at the front about the crews of anti-tank guns. And armor-piercing soldiers had even less life expectancy. Anti-tank rifles of the Degtyarev and Simonov system appeared en masse on the front line during the most difficult period of the war, at the end of 1941, when catastrophic artillery losses forced them to rely on these simple, cheap weapons. But for every victory, for every destroyed tank, the PTR crews paid with great blood. In order to knock out a German panzer at least on its side, armor-piercers had to get it within 100–200 meters, while tank crews could shoot anti-tank guns from afar, from long distances, with impunity. The chances of tank destroyers decreased even more in the second year of the war, when the Nazis sharply strengthened the protection of their armored vehicles - now anti-tank guns did not take German armor even at point-blank range, they had to shoot at the tracks, gas tanks, viewing devices and even at the barrels of tank guns, and then finish off the damaged ones panzers with grenades and Molotov cocktails... This book is a tribute to the memory of the suicide bombers of the Great Patriotic War, who, at the cost of their own lives, carried out the merciless order: “The main thing is to knock out the tanks from the Germans!”