Konstantin Rokossovsky - Polish Soviet Tanker 1945

When Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941 Rokossovsky was serving as the commander of the 9th Mechanised Corps, where his command participated in the Battle of Dubno -- an early Soviet counter-attack that ended in the destruction of most of the participating Soviet forces against Von Rundstedt's Army Group South in the Ukraine. As the counter-attack progressed German resistance stiffened; Kirponos, the commander of the Southwestern Front, initially issued instructions to cease offensive operations and then argued with Chief of General Staff G.K. Zhukov, when Zhukov insisted that the counter-attack continue. As a result Rokossovsky's command was bombarded with conflicting orders, and according to Lieutenant-General D.I. Rjabyshev, Rokossovsky "expressed no ambivalence about the proposed counteroffensive" and resolved the dispute by refusing a direct order, saying: "We had once again received an order to counterattack. However, the enemy outnumbered us to such a degree, that I took on the personal responsibility of ordering to halt the counteroffensive and to meet the enemy in prepared defences."
After a successful recovery during WW2, Rokossovsky's forces stood stalled on the Vistula, the Warsaw Uprising (August - October, 1944) broke out in the city, led by the Polish Home Army (AK) on the orders of the Polish government in exile in London. Rokossovsky did not order reinforcement to the insurgents. Soviet assistance was limited to airdrops. There has been much speculation about Rokossovsky's personal views on this decision. He would always maintain that, with his communications badly stretched and enemy pressure against his northern flank mounting, committing forces to Warsaw would have been disastrous. In November 1944, Rokossovsky was transferred to the 2nd Belorussian Front, which advanced into East Prussia and then across northern Poland to the mouth of the Oder at Stettin (now Szczecin). At the end of April he linked up with British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's forces in northern Germany while the forces of Zhukov and Ivan Koniev captured Berlin. It has been speculated that he was not allowed to capture Berlin because he was Polish; this is according to Anthony Beevor, author of the book Berlin: The Downfall 1945. The photo shows him with Monty and Zhukov.