HISTORIC LINK-UP

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 99, 28 April 1945, Page 7

HISTORIC LINK-UP

Armies From West & East

GERMANY CUT IN HALF

Rec. 11 a.m.

The historic link-up of the war has taken place. . . An announcement from No. 10 Downing Street, states: "General Eisenhower reports that contact has been established between his ground forces and those of our Soviet allies. The commanders of a United States division and a Russian Guards division met at Torgau, 30 miles east-north-east of Leipzig and 40 miles north-east of Dresden, at 4 p.m. on AprU 26. A mutual exchange of Allied prisoners of war was discussed. The first contact between patrols took place at 4.4U p.m. on April 25, when a first-lieutenant and three men of an intelligence and reconnaissance platoon of a United States division met forward elements of a Russian Guards division."

For some days there had been indications that a link-up was imminent or had already taken place. Troops of the United States Ist Army had been listening on field radio receivers to Soviet officers giving orders to their troops, and Kussian-speaking American troops k had been, standing by in armoured scout cars, while the Russians had sent into the forward lines liaison officers to work with the Americans. . . ■ *

The link-up cuts Germany in half, with the northern ports and the naval bases north of the cut, and Hitler's "southern redoubt" below the line.

The Allied link-up was immediately signalled hy an Order of ' the Day fronr Marshal Stalin to-the accompaniment of Moscow's biggest gun salute. The order, which for the first time omitted the usual concluding words, -Death to the German invader," said, Troops of the First Ukrainian Command and British and American troops, hy blows from east and west, have cut the front of .the German troops and linked up in the centre of Germany in the area of the town of Torgau The German troops in northern Germany have thus been cut off from the German troops in Germany's southern area. To + mark this victory, arid in honour of-the historic event' Moscow, the capital of our native land, will, in the name of the country, salute today the valiant troops of the First Ukrainian Command and ou? Alhed i ßritish and American troops with 24 salvos' from 324 guns Long live the Victory of the freedom-loving peoples over Germany." t' 5 u^ie& H •a *on^^ stents Mr. Churchill Mr. Churchill said: " After long journeys, toils, and victories! across land and oceans and across so many deadly battlefields, thej armies of the great Allies have traversed Germany and joined hands together. Now their task will be the destruction of all remnants of j German military resistance, the rooting out of Nazi power, and the! subjugation of Hitler's Reich. For these purposes ample forces are' | available, and we meet in true and victorious comradeship and with the inflexible resolve to fulfil our purpose and our duty. Let all march forward upon the foe." President Truman Zj President Truman, in a message oh the same occasion, said:'' The j armies under the command of General Eisenhower have met the Soviet forces where they'intended to mcct —in the heart 'of Nazi Germany. The enemy has been cut in two. This is not the hour of final victory i»i Europe, but the hour draws hear—the hour for which all the American people, all the British peoples, and all the Soviet people have toiled and prayed for so long. The union of :our arms in the heart of Germany has a y meaning- for the world ' which the world will not miss. It means, first, that the last faint, desperate hope of Hitler and his gangster Government has been extinguished. The common front and the common cause 1 of the Powers allied in this war against tyranny and inhumanity have been demonstrated in fact as they have long been demonstrated in determination. Nothing can divide or weaken the common purpose of our veteran armies to pursue their victorious purpose to its final Allied triumphs in Germany. junction of our forces signalises that collaboration of our nations in the cause of peace and' freedom is an effective collaboration which^can surmount the greatest difficulties of the most extensive' campaign in military history and succeed. Nations which can plan and fight shoulder to shoulder in the face of such obstacles of distance, language, and communications as we have overcome can - live and work together in the common labour of the organisation of \ the world for peace.

Finally, this great triumph of "Allied arms and Allied strategy is such a tribute to the courage and determination of Franklin Roosevelt as no words could even speak, and that could be accomplished only by the persistence and the courage of the fightin"soldiers and sailors of the Allied nations. But until our enemies are finally subdued in Europe and in the Pacific there must be no relaxation of effort on the home front in support-of our heroic soldiers and sailors, as we all know there will be no pause on the battle fronts." Marshal Stalin lira' special message, Marshal Stalin said: "In the name of the Soviet Government, I address you, commanders and- men of the Red Army and of the armies of our Alles. The victorious armies of the Allied Powers -waging the war of liberation in Europe have routed the German troops and linked up on the territory of Germany. Our task and our duty are to complete the destruction of the enemy and force him to lay down his arms and surrender unconditionally. The Red Army will fulfil to 8 the end this task and this duty to our people and all freedom-loving, peoples. I greet the valorous troops of our Allies % who areviiow standing on the territory of Germany shoulder to shoulder with Soviet troops and who are full of determination to carry out their duty to the end."—B.O.W.