A new study on the tank warfare used in the Soviet offensive of Operation Bagration, which destroyed Army Group Center. Operation Bagration, the summer campaign of 1944 on the Eastern Front, has been dubbed as "Hitler's greatest defeat." The operation involved significant tank and armored vehicle forces from both sides, but the German forces faced severe problems due to the transfer of dozens of Panzer divisions to France to counter an expected Allied assault. Forced to make tough decisions, the German forces in central Belarus were weak compared to the great concentration of Panthers in northern Ukraine. The Red Army exploited this vulnerability, crushing Army Group Center and advancing beyond the Soviet borders into Poland and East Prussia. With this critical victory secured, the Red Army conducted successive attacks across the Carpathian Mountains, reaching the Vistula River in Poland and forcing Romania to switch sides. The Red Army had initiated a significant modernization of its tanks following the Battles of Kursk in 1943 and as a result, Operation Bagration saw the first widespread use of the T-34-85 and IS-2 tanks as well as self-propelled guns. The German Panther tank reached technical maturity in the summer of 1944, but the small quantities made it less effective on the battlefield, while other innovations like the heavy Tiger II tank failed to leave a mark. Using new photographs and an intriguing selection of color illustrations explaining the variations and markings of these tanks, this book describes how the tanks and armored forces from both sides contributed to the ultimate defeat of Army Group Center.