re: If you could have a dream team of WWII prime minister commanders, admirals, and generals

quote:

---

Because why have a 3 time hero of the Soviet Union when you can have a 4 time hero of the Soviet Union with Zhukov?

---

Because I want a General who will do what he thinks he needs to for victory, even when pressured from above to do otherwise.

quote:

---

A passage from the book "Warsaw 1944: Hitler, Himmler and the Warsaw Uprising" by Alexandra Richie, On 14 May 1944, Stalin summoned his commanders to formulate a plan of attack. It was the most ambitious task he had yet set for the Red Army, and he assembled an extraordinary team with which to achieve it. One of his greatest strategists was the complex and controversial General Konstantin Rokossovsky, who had recently proven himself both at Stalingrad and at Kursk. In his surprisingly high voice for such a bearlike figure, he told Stalin that his 1st Byelorussian Front should attack Bobruisk along both sides of the Berezina River, creating a giant pincer to hit the flanks of 3rd Panzer Army and the 9th Army, and then encircle the 4th Army and destroy it. Stalin, who believed that there should be a single thrust against the German lines, disagreed, and twice sent Rokossovsky out of the room to 'think it over'. Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov and Georgy Malenkov tried to convince him to toe the line, but Rokossovsky stood firm, declaring that he would rather be relieved of his command than attack as Stalin wanted him to. After the third discussion Stalin walked over to him and put his hand on his shoulder. The room froze, with those present convinced that Stalin was about to tear the epaulets from his shoulders. Instead he smiled. Rokossovsky's confidence, he said, 'reflected his sound judgement', and he was to attack as he wished. Stalin also made it very clear, however, that Rokossovsky would be blamed for any failure.

---

I have often wondered how the Soviets would have painted his contribution in the war, had Rokossovsky's father been Russian instead of Polish.