Meeting on the Elbe-45 Bashny.Net

65th anniversary of the historic meeting at the Elbe US Embassy in Moscow devoted Soviet war veterans meeting with elected representatives of the Russian public

April 25, 1945 near the Saxon town of Torgau to the river Elbe from different sides came division different armies. Troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front Red Army met with the troops of the 1st US Army. The Allies came to this meeting with the 1941 and then finally!

The first meeting took place when an American patrol under the command of First Lieutenant Albert Kotzebue crossed the Elbe. On the east coast, they met Soviet soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Gardieva.

10 ph via AIF





On the same day another American patrol under the command of the US Army Second Lieutenant William Robertson met with Soviet soldiers Lieutenant Alexander Silvashko on the destroyed bridge over the Elbe River near Torgau. 65 years later, we decided to celebrate this date reception at the residence of the American ambassador in Moscow.



At the entrance visitors, many of whom were veterans of the Soviet, met Brass Quintet of the United States Army, who alternately annealed the "Caravan" by Duke Ellington, the "Katyusha" Matthew Blanter. In the photo - trombonist Sergeant Matt Niss.



Invited personally welcomed Ambassador John Beyrle. In Russia, this man is known not only as a diplomat but as a son of Joseph Beyrle, the only American soldier who, during World War II and had to do some fighting in the American and Soviet armies. He was a paratrooper, shortly after the landing in Normandy was captured by the Germans. On the third attempt, he escaped. Wandering through the territory of Poland (it was in the winter of 1945) came to a certain part of the Soviet tank was accepted, understood, fed porridge and filled with vodka. These two words of Joseph Beyrle remember for a lifetime. Then there was the injury, the Soviet hospital, acquaintance with Marshal Zhukov, the return home, where he was already buried ...



Present and the US military. In the photo - defense attache of the US Embassy in Russia Brigadier General Dan Needles. What: Eagle - Eagle in Russian - the most suitable for the name of Air Force General.



The meeting of two generations. Veteran Vladimir Kuts still strong - though now in a fight. And Sergeant 1st Class Stanley had just returned from Iraq.



Unfortunately, not a single veteran who attended the historic meeting at Torgau on the Elbe River in the audience could not be found. Most met with the Americans in other areas of Germany or Austria for a day or two, a week later ... I was surprised, born much later than the end of the war, he found himself the only one who has ever been in this small town. In 1981, he served there in "Lad Camp" osnaz Land Forces. As old-timers say, Torgau those years, almost no different from the place where the 45th Army met the victorious.

Castle, who remembers Peter I and the bridge, where there was a meeting of Soviet and American patrol. A few years ago it was demolished ...



At the gates of the castle.



A monument at the site of the meeting on the Elbe, and dedicated to her. In contrast to the bridge, the cabinet survives to this day.



And another attraction Torgau - a military town where since the beginning of the twentieth century lodged first German Imperial Army, then Reichswehr, then the Wehrmacht, then 82 separate brigade osnaz GRU of the General Staff of the Soviet Army



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