SPONTANEOUS FRATERNISING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 99, 28 April 1945, Page 5

SPONTANEOUS FRATERNISING

Once the first contacts were made, hundreds more Russian and Americans swarmed toward one another on either side of the river, says the Daily Mail correspondent. Every skiff and rowing boat for miles was used to ferry troops back and forth. Some capsized and others collided, throwing the troops into the water, but nobody cared. The usual greeting was a bearlike hug accompanied by the words "Rusky" and "Americsinsky." Almost every Russian soldier wore either an S.S. sword or a German pistol. A great, army of British, Czech, French, Belgian. Dutch and other Allied prisoners streamed across the Elbe as the link-up began. They joined wholeheartedly in the proceedings and linked arms, singing the songs of a dozen languages and doing national dances. One Russian soldier stepped up to a correspondent and said reverently, "Roosevelt,". took off his cap and looked grave. Prisoners who participated in the celebrations came from all parts of Britain and the Empire. ' An Irish sergeant of the British Army "captured" Torgau before the Russians and Americans linked up there. He was one of the inmates of the . nearby Fotzinna prison, which is the largest military prison in Germany. The guards fled a r 2W days ago, leaving the administration m the hands of the prisoners. The Irishman on Wednesday got hold of some cognac somewhere and decided to go into Torgau and buy his wife a present. He was swaying down the street when the German civilians, seeing a British uniform, decided the Allied forces had arrived and put out white flags. The American patrol which subsequently contacted the Russians across the river arrived supn .afterwards.