The peculiar historical event, which was later called Elbe Day, took place on April 25, 1945, when US Army Pvt. Albert Kotzebue and three men from an American reconnaissance platoon crossed the river by boat near the German town of Strehla. On the east bank, they met members of the Red Army Guards Rifle Regiment of the First Ukrainian Front, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Gordeev.
On the same day, another American patrol under the command of Second Lieutenant William Robertson met their Soviet brethren under the command of Lieutenant Alexander Silvashko at a destroyed bridge over the Elbe River on the outskirts of the German town of Torgau, southwest of Berlin.
Elbe Day was never an official holiday in any country, but in the years after 1945, the memory of this friendly encounter took on new significance in the context of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Monuments in Germany's Torgau, Lorenzkirche, and Bad Liebenwerde commemorate the first Elbe Day meetings between American and Soviet troops. In the US, the Spirit of Elbe plaque is placed at Arlington National Cemetery to commemorate the day.
During the Cold War, the meeting of the two armies that brought victory over the Third Reich was often remembered as a symbol of peace and friendship between the peoples of the two opposing superpowers.
Take a look at Sputnik Africa gallery of the fateful meeting that foreshadowed the near defeat of Nazi Germany.
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