The Germans first order the Soviet prisoners to clear out the rotting and burned bodies from inside the tank, but as they remove the bodies, they unexpectedly find a small number of remaining live shells and hand grenades. At first, the other tankers refuse to take part, but Nikolay says he has a plan to escape. Nikolay picks out three other tankers from the POWs - driver Vasilyonok, loader Serafim Ionov (Yuriy Borisov), and gunner Demyan Volchok (Anton Bogdanov) - to crew a T-34/85 that the Germans just captured. At first Nikolay refuses but agrees after Jäger threatens to kill Anya. Jäger proposes the idea to Nikolay through the camp's interpreter, bilingual Russian prisoner Anya (Irina Starshenbaum). Nikolay has been a prisoner for three years, and has refused to give his name, but Jäger recognizes his photograph from the camp records. The Russians are at the German border and urgent steps need to be taken to train the Germans who will repel them. Three years later, in 1944, Jäger, now a Standartenführer, gains permission from Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (Robinson Reichel) and General Heinz Guderian (Mike Davies) to recruit an experienced tank crew from Soviet POWs in a concentration camp to act as opponents for training the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend. Through a combination of guile (They use a fake anti-tank gun to bring the Germans out in the open and break formation) and bravery, their T-34 destroys six Panzers, but in a final duel with Jäger's command Panzer, both tanks are disabled, and half the Russian tank crew is killed, and Nikolay and driver Stepan Vasilyonok (Viktor Dobronravov) captured. Nikolay and his crew lay an ambush for a platoon of German Panzers commanded by Klaus Jäger (Vinzenz Kiefer). He pushes the crew to be ship-shape and ready for battle, even though morale is low. Nikolay is a new recruit to the tank division but knows his tanks very well. Nikolay is assigned to command a damaged T-34 tank whose commander was killed, with orders to delay the Germans' advance with only the single tank and a small number of supporting infantry. Nikolay, who has been trained as an amour officer, maneuvers skilfully and they escape unscathed. A German Panzer III tank appears over a hill and opens fire on them. In December 1941, just outside Moscow, Red Army Junior Lieutenant Nikolay Ivushkin (Alexander Petrov) is driving a ramshackle truck and trailer with a young private beside him.

Battle of tanks t-34 film