Re: Operation Bagration
On 11 May, Rokossovskii submitted a second plan for 1st. Belorussian Front operations proposing this time the elimination of German troops at Zhlobin, followed by an offensive in the direction of Bobruisk-Osipovichi-Minsk. The striking feature of this revised plan included the double attack on Bobruisk. One along the Northern bank of Berezina, the second along the southern bank, with a supporting attack in the direction of Parichi-Slutsk-Baranovichi.
Stalin himself objected to the double attack on Bobruisk, seeking instead a single 'main blow'. Rokossovskii refused to consider only one attack. During the argument, Stalin twice sent Rokossovskii into a neighbouring room 'to think it over', and on the second occasion Molotov and Malenkov followed Rokossovskii into into his immediate exile. Both urged Rokossovskii to fall in with Stalin's suggestion- "Do you know who you are arguing with?" they asked. Rokossovskii stuck to his guns, stating that "if Stavka insisted on a single attack, he would ask to be relieved of his Front command.
After the 3rd presentation of his 'report' he convinced Stalin, who announced that he liked generals who knew their job and their own mind- There would be a double attack on Bobruisk.
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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler
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