They joked about this tank that it was put into service only “thanks to the hammer and such and such a mother.” Despite the phenomenal firepower and armor penetration of the world's first smooth-bore tank gun, the U-5TS "Molot", installed on the T-62, the military did its best to put a spoke in the wheels of the new Ural tank, giving preference to the Kharkov T-64, which was already Huge amounts of money were spent, and only the direct intervention of Marshal Chuikov, who imposed a multi-story Stalingrad mat on his subordinates, made it possible to launch the T-62 into mass production. The new tanks received a baptism of fire on Damansky Island (where one vehicle, hit by an RPG-7, fell through the ice and was subsequently raised by the Chinese), fought in Afghanistan and Chechnya (it was A. Budanov’s regiment that was armed with the “sixty-second”), in Dagestan and South Ossetia, Syria and Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq, Angola and Chad, burned Israeli “Centurions” in Bekaa Valley, Iranian "Chieftains" and M60s near Susengerd, South African "Oliphants" near Quito Canavale... A new book by a leading historian of armored vehicles traces the entire combat path of the famous T-62, which crowned the first post-war generation of Soviet tanks. A colorful collector's edition on premium quality coated paper, illustrated with hundreds of exclusive drawings, sidebars and photographs.