Valley of Death

Dima Ivanovich Dolzikov, a Russian tank driver from the 3rd Guards Tank Army, passes through a valley near Krasnograd about 130 kilometres south of Kharkov in the Ukraine, in February 1943. Dawn is breaking when he comes across the aftermath of a battle, which has eliminated most of their forward Infantry Battalion that had been used for covering the retreat of one of their divisions.
He feels uncomfortable and intrusive in his noisy, clanking, metallic monster, and wishes he could be somewhere else. The dead seem to awaken, and follow him with their eyes watching his every movement. They stare at him with a confused accusing expression, like he had invaded their secret world, and that this intruder came to discover the mystery of their new existence. He wishes he could escape and go back to his collective farm, but he cannot take his eyes off the obscenities confronting him.
Dima knows that he’s gripped by an addictive curiosity that devours him. Just another gawking gaping voyeur offending the modesty of the half naked corpses, stripped by the searing blast of the explosions. He jumps, as he spots a piece of a face with the remaining single eye staring at him with a steely mocking searching expression – another peeping Tom. It sends a shiver down his spine and, as he looks away, he sees a rat crawling into the stomach of the remains of the body.
In the distance a group of soldiers are lying on top of each other face down, with rifles clutched in their hands, like they were kissing the ground before they were killed. The remainder look, as if they’ve been surprised by death, lying on their backs with arms outstretched, like they were going to surrender.
Dima’s resolve to rid the Hitlerites from his Motherland is strengthened further, as he accelerates his steely T 34 V12, 40-litre menacing monster towards the front, in order to trap a few Tigers.