Forcyzk writes a relatively readable account of the first two years of Eastern Front, bulwarked by extensive documentary research and his own experience as an American tanker. There's a lot of the boring details of the form "Kampfgruppe Raus advanced 10 km towards Plotsk until stopped by blocking detachments from the 15th Tank Corps, which was defeated at 1800 with heavy losses, leaving the path clear for...", but Forcyzk has an eye for the big picture and patterns.

In particular, Nazi Panzer divisions had absolute tactical supremacy due to high levels of training, radios, and well-ordered command structures that enabled decisive attacks against key objectives and flexible retreats. Soviet forces were decimated in the opening days of Barbarossa and never really recovered as a strategic or operational arm, New T-34 and KV-1 tanks were dispatched in penny packets for infantry support. Even though the Soviet medium and heavy tanks were qualitatively superior to early war Panzer IIIs and IVs, Nazi combined arm tactics and the Flak 88 minimized the Soviet advantage. More than anything else, the tyranny of distance and supply problems stopped the blitzkrieg, as mighty Panzer spearheads were reduced to handfuls of exhausted tanks and infantry companies right at the edge of strategic objectives. The Soviets, though they took catastrophic losses, were bettered prepared for the industrial war of annihilation than the Nazis, and attrition evened out the experience gap, as veteran NCOs and officers on the Nazi side died, and a few surviving Soviets became more competent at their jobs.

More than gun size and armor weight, Forcyzk has a feel for the operational qualities of tanks as part of a combined arms team, and the ways in which complicated German engineering hindered the performance of the Panzers, or how the Soviet practice of fighting 'buttoned-up' reduced situational awareness and left. There are some oddities. Forcyzk has an almost personal hatred of a few generals who's (over-inflated) memoirs dictated conventional history (Guderian and Zhukov). He's astute in noting that many tanks were light tanks with minimal combat effectiveness, like the Czech-produced Panzer 38(t) or the pre-war BT-series, but doesn't quite figure out what light tanks were for, or if they had an impact on battle one way or another.

As long as this book is $2 on kindle, it's a vital purchase for anyone interested in WW2 or tanks. I'm not sure how it'd hold up at a higher price point.