Gnechko and Ponomarev assessed the challenging schedule, concluding that the movement of a force over the 170 nautical miles from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Shumshu in the world's foggiest waters would itself take 24 hours, leaving them only 24 hours to assemble an assault force if they were to meet the requirement to land on Shumshu by the evening of 17 August 1945 as ordered.