Drive thru...

...not as in Anytown, 2013, but more as in the Mir Kolhoz, southern USSR, early summer 1942:

Comrade Colonel Raskolnikov (back to the camera) confers with his 2 i/c regarding the extempore defence of the collective farm. Fortunately for Raskolnikov, the Commissar has got lost somewhere, and, nearly as good a stroke of luck:

 Some of the new T70 tanks have suddenly pitched up to aid the defence.

 Which is busy digging itself in throughout the collective farm.

 From high ground to the south-west, the whole situation is clearer. What has made the 'Peace Collective Farm' (who said the Bolsheviks had no sense of humour? Or perhaps it is a pious reference to the earlier, now late, inhabitants, otherwise known as 'wreckers', 'Trotskyist-fascists', or, more old school - 'Kulaks') important now, is:

 The new road, built only the summer before, which drives southwards through the countryside to the oil fields.

 Which has made it of interest to the Romanian 'Fast Division', whose local commander is:

Prince Ion Pescaratu Simla Mota, seen here indulging in a bit of frankly childish pistol play.

Before I close this evening, I must mention the generosity of His Grace, The Duke of Tradgardland, who has most kindly sent reinforcements for the continuing tale of Brnad. Below you see the gift:

Not Victorian Canadians in the snow, but newly based and undercoated fellows, having taken their first steps to duty and glory.