In the evening of the same day, Rokossovsky asked Malinin to inform the commanders of the army groups that they should immediately rush to the headquarters of the front for a meeting as quickly as possible. This was the first meeting of the commanders of the army group since the attack on Warsaw.

The fastest to come was the commander of the 65th Army, Batov, who, as soon as he saw Rokossovsky's face, asked curiously: "Comrade commander, did you have any important combat missions for you to convene us for a meeting today?" ”

"Combat missions, there must be." Rokossovsky replied with a blank face: "But what is the specific task, I will introduce it to you after the rest of the commanders have arrived." ”

As soon as Chuikov received the notice, he handed over the command to his chief of staff, Belyavsky, and he hurried to the headquarters of the Front with the military commissar Pronin and the commander of the artillery of the army group Pozharsky. As soon as he entered the door, he saw that the room was already full of people, and he said apologetically to everyone: "I'm sorry, comrades commanders, I'm late, and I've kept everyone waiting." ”

"Comrade Chuikov, you're not too late." Terekin smiled at him, "There's still someone who hasn't arrived, so please sit down first." As he spoke, he stretched out his hand and pointed to an empty row not far away, "You can just sit there." ”

After Chuikov sat down, he found that the person sitting next to him was the commander of the 47th Army, Gusev, and asked in a low voice: "Gusev, do you know what Comrade Marshal summoned us here for?" ”

Gusev heard Chuikov's question, shrugged his shoulders, and said helplessly: "It is only said that there is a combat mission, but the specific situation, so far, no one knows." ”

After waiting for another ten minutes, the commander of the 70th Army, Popov, and his two deputies hurried to the headquarters. Seeing that Popov had arrived, Rokossovsky turned his head and nodded at Malinin, who was sitting on the side, indicating that the meeting could begin.

Malinin, who had received instructions from Rokossovsky, hurriedly stood up and said to the heads of the armies present: "Hello, chiefs of armies! The purpose of convening everyone today is to announce the next operational deployment of the Front Command. Malinin walked up to the map hanging on the wall, pointed to the location of Warsaw with his stick, and continued, "Everyone knows that our army has finally succeeded in liberating Warsaw after a hard and remarkable battle. ”

Hearing Malinen mention the liberation of Warsaw, whether it was Chuikov, who had sent the main force to capture Warsaw, or Batov, who was now holding on to Warsaw, their faces showed a knowing smile.

“…… The Germans were not happy about our occupation of Warsaw, so they carried out a frantic counter-assault, as they had done in Kiev. Malinin pointed on the map with his baton, "The German attacks from the west and southwest of the city of Warsaw were repulsed by our troops. In order to relieve the German threat to Warsaw, we at one point made the fortress of Modlin in the north the main direction of attack, and ordered the troops of the 47th, 48th and 70th armies to attack the fortress. ”

Speaking of this, Malinin put down his baton, walked back in front of the commanders of the army group, and said to everyone: "But as soon as the shelling began, we were frantically countered by the artillery fire of the German fortress. In order to avoid unnecessary losses, Comrade Marshal decisively gave the order to stop the offensive. ……”

Popov, who was sitting below, after listening to Malinin's introduction, finally understood why his superiors still ordered the attack to stop after breaking through the outer walls of the German fortress, and quickly retreated and disengaged from the German army. It turned out that the German artillery fire in the fortress was too fierce, and attacking such a stronghold was an attack that outweighed the losses. Even if they had barely won and captured the fortress from the Germans, it would have been a crushing victory, and the troops would have completely lost the ability to continue fighting for a considerable period of time after the battle.

Rokossovsky waited for Malinin to finish, then stood up and continued: "In order to consolidate the positions of our troops on the right bank of the Vistula and eliminate the threat of German troops to Warsaw. The defensive disposition of the armies will be adjusted as follows: the 70th Army will continue to hold the occupied territory on the right bank of the Narev River; The 48th Army continued to remain in what is now the valley of the two rivers and was ready to attack at any time in order to attract the attention of the Germans; Batov's 65th Army, ensuring the security of Warsaw, is still your next main task, and in any case, the Germans cannot be allowed to enter Warsaw again......"

Pronin, who was sitting down and listening, heard that several army groups had assigned tasks, but did not mention the Eighth Guards Army, so he leaned close to Chuikov's ear and asked in a low voice: "Comrade commander, what is the task of our group army?" ”

Chuikov glanced quickly at Rokossovsky, who was speaking, and replied in a low voice: "Don't worry, Comrade Military Commissar, with what I know about Comrade Marshal, he will definitely put the important task at the end." ”

It has to be said that Chuikov still knows Rokossovsky very well. After assigning tasks to several army commanders one after another, he finally mentioned Chuikov: "At present, General Chuikov's Eighth Guards Army is engaged in a stubborn battle with the Germans at the Magnushev landing ground on the right bank of the Vistula River. Due to the large amount of troops invested by the German army in this area, although we transferred General Behringer's Polish First Army to the right flank of General Chuikov, the overall situation was still very unfavorable for our army. Therefore, I decided to transfer General Gusev's 47th Army to Warsaw and use it as a starting point for an offensive to strike at the flanks of the German troops attacking the landing site. ”

"Comrade Marshal, allow me to ask a question." When Gusev heard this, he suddenly raised his hand, then stood up and asked loudly: "I want to know from which position in Warsaw our army group should carry out a surprise attack on the German army." ”

Rokossovsky turned his head to look at Malinin, who had just sat down, and said to him softly: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I think it is up to you to assign tasks to General Gusev." ”

Malinin nodded, stood up and said to Gusev: "General Gusev, we have chosen two routes for your group army. He walked briskly to the map, picked up the baton again, pointed to it, and said, "One is to go south along the Vistula River and join the Polish First Army in order to expand the existing Magnushew landing ground; The other is to attack from the southwest, crush the enemy stationed here, go around behind the enemy attacking the landing field, and deal him a severe blow. ”

Hearing that his superiors had chosen two sortie routes, Gusev hurriedly asked: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I don't know which route we should take to attack the enemy?" ”

"The route along the Vistula southward route, which would take a day at most to join General Behringer's Polish First Army, was undoubtedly the safest. Regrettably, however, at this position of your division, the front of the attack is too narrow to allow too many troops, and if it is attacked by German artillery fire, it is bound to inflict huge casualties on the attacking troops. Malinin continued: "A surprise attack from the southwest, although it would be necessary to break through a German line of defense, would have no decent fortifications for the enemy in this direction, and it would be beneficial for our mechanized troops to deploy. After the study of the Front Army Command, it is absolutely possible to achieve the greatest results by going out of this area. ”