Famous tank of Soviet Tank Top Ace Dmitry Lavrinenko. 1st Lieutenant of the 4th [1st Guards] tank brigade, 15th Armored Division, Dmitry Lavrinenko was Soviet top tank ace, and perhaps the overall allied tank ace of of ww2. He destroyed 52 tanks in all, and many guns in a few weeks. A descendant of Kuban cossacks, he completed his training in the Ulyanovsk Tank Academy in May 1938, and took part in Soviet campaigns in Poland in 1939 and Bessarabia in 1940. By mid-1941 he commanded the brand new T-34/76, on which he will claim these 52 kills (tanks and self propelled guns). Such was his confidence with the new tank that on October, 6, he destroyed 15 of 34 Panzers in a battle near Mtsensk. He met his death on December 18, 1941 just after freeing the village of Goryuny (Operation Barbarossa). He was awarded postumhously in May 5, 1990 the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.