Hans,
Hans, Im sorry but i dont believe your story. For one thing my grandfater who was a KV gunner, did not believe it either after i showed it to him. Im not saying that you lieing but that he may have been telling you stretches. For one thing how could a tank driver be in many battles, a penetrated tank,crawling to avoid MG fire, bail out of a tank and throughout the war never see a Axis soldier or tank, instead only hearing artillery and airstrikes. Secondly, If he used the term "Brewed up", well im sorry but my grandfather never used that term. That was strictly American slang. The word my grandfather used, which i have no idea how to spell when translated into English was something along the lines of "cracked" or the typical "knocked out".
Your friends story sounds great but also like what i see on the History channel every weekend.