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Gaudiest feather in his cap was his command of the Stalingrad relief campaign. Rokossovsky's forces—tanks, infantry, artillery, aircraft and cavalry-crossed the Don to form a ring around Field Marshal Friedrich von Paulus' 22 divisions, anticipated the point of a German counterattack, and in savage and protracted battle defeated the powerful Panzer army of Field Marshal Fritz Erich von Manstein. It was Rokossovsky who signed the demand for capitulation sent to Paulus, which was rejected and which led to the final destruction of Hitler's Stalingrad army. It was the greatest single victory yet won by the Red Army. The strategy was the work of the Supreme Command. But the tactical execution was Rokossovsky's.
Miles to the west of Stalingrad's bloody battleground, Rokossovsky and his colleagues fought this week toward the fruition of the great Red Army's war. From Ladoga to the U of the Dnieper, the front was aflame and moving. The Russian maiden's light burned bright. And Rokossovsky knew how to lead the maiden's soldier through Hell and the Wehrmacht.