About the book: 2005 / In the late autumn of 1944, on the outskirts of an East Prussian town, military fate brought together two tank crews, a paratrooper and a soldier of a penal battalion. For a week, in the basement of an abandoned house, these people confronted the enemy and underwent the most severe test of fortitude, courage, ability to mutual assistance and self-sacrifice for the sake of a common cause. Not everyone from the “basement garrison” had a chance to survive, but they all emerged victorious after difficult trials on the threshold of such an already close Victory.