PLAYED SAFE

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

PLAYED SAFE

Why Link-up Was Delayed

LONDON, April 27. It is explained that the Allied link-up did not take place sooner because General Bradley; played safe by holding his forces on a river line so that there would be no tragedy of mistaken identity, and also so that the Germans would have no opportunity of disguising themselves in Allied uniforms and spreading discord.

A correspondent says that further link-ups between Americans and Russians in the area will take place very soon.

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wards the Russians and thrust out his ( hand. One Russian grasped it warmly, b The correspondent says: "History ■ may record the official link-up at ! Torgau, but the men of this patrol have : their own ideas about that. They immediately flashed the news of the meeting^ back to the division, after : which the lieutenant-colonel, accom- ! panied by an interpreter, flew to the : Russian lines, where he arranged the formal meeting on April 26." Swarms of fleeing German civilians ' jand soldiers wanting to surrender con- ' jtinually impeded the patrol's advance. ; I One German soldier said he had been ; ordered not to. shoot at Americans, but to reserve his ammunition for Russians. '. An unshaven Amex*ican lieutenant , from California and a Russian private j met on the sloping girders of a blownout railway bridge spanning the Elbe '■ River near Torgau at 4.40 p.m. on April 25 as a prelude to the formal meeting between the commanders, says Reuters correspondent. Lieutenant W. Robertson, of Los Angeles, commented:< "I did not know what to say to him, but I pounded him on the back and shook hands a couple of times and said •Hullo' in English." The lieutenant's ; first conversation with a Russian officer • was conducted in German through an American naval officer who had been a German prisoner and was making > his way to the American lines when he encountered the patrol. The American patrol, consisting of the lieutenant and three privates, passed through 20 miles of uncleared German territory. At first they had difficulty in convincing the Russians that they were allies, because on the previous day Germans had waved American flags to the Russians, and they fired on them. Lieutenant Robertson broke into a chemist's shop in order to get red, white, and blue colouring matter, with which he made a ragged Stars and Stripes on a piece of white cloth. This improvised flag he waved from a tower on the bank of the river in Torgau. THE PARTIES"MEET. The Russians sent up coloured flares, and the two parties moved to the bridge, where Lieutenant Robertson found himself surrounded by -Russian infantry. One man offered him a bottle of wine and a can of sardines. The leader of the Russian patrol was Lieutenant Sylvashko, who, with a Russian major and a captain, accompanied the Americans back to the American lines, where they met the divisional commander and his staff and more than 50 war correspondents. A party to. celebrate the link-up went on till midnight, and afterwards Lieutenant Sylvashko and Lieutenant Robertson posed for the photographers, while, shaking hands, with the flags of the two countries behind them. The British United Press correspondent, describing the scenes at Torgau on April 26, says: "It looked something like a country fair, with Russian soldiers singing and playing balalaikas and vodka being passed around. Nobody understood what the other fellow was saying, but everyone was having a good time. Some of the Russians were showing the Americans how their guns worked by firing them into the Elbe. Never during the war have such scenes ■ been enacted as at Torgau. Russians •?, Americans slapped one another on i the back, gave one another bearlike . hugs, and sat in the warm sunshine , drinking champagne from beer mugs." j THE PARTY GROWS. ! Once" the first contacts had been , made, hundreds of more Russians and Americans swarmed towards one j another on either side of the river, . says the "Daily Mail's" correspondent. ; Every skiff and rowing-boat for miles was used to ferry the troops back and forth. Some capsized and others collided, throwing the troops into the watei', but nobody cared. The usual greeting was a bearlike hug, accompanied by the words "Rusky" and "Americansky." Almost every Russian soldier wore either an SS sword or a 1 German pistol. 1 A great army of British, Czech, ■ French, Belgian, Dutch, and other Al- ■ lied prisoners streamed across the Elbe > as the link-up began. They joined I wholeheartedly in the proceedings and l linked arms, singing songs in a dozen 1 languages and doing national dances. ! One Russian soldier stepped up to a ', correspondent and said reverently "Roosevelt," took off his cap, and 5 looked grave. Prisoners who participated in the I celebrations came from all parts of ) Britain and the Empire. An Irish sergeant of the British Army was "capItured" at Torgau before the Russians]

and the Americans linked up. There he was one of the inmates of the nearby Fotzinna camp, which was the largest military prison in Germany. The guards fled a few days ago, leaving the administration in the hands of the prisoners. On April 25 the Irishman got hold of some cognac somewhere and, decided to go into Torgau to buy his wife a present. He wag swaying down the street, when German civilians, seeing a British uniform, decided that the. Allied forces had arrived, and put out white flags. The Amercan patrol which subsequently made contact with the Russians across the river, arrived soon afterwards.

Describing the 'first meeting of the commanders, the correspondent says that- the American Major-General Reinhardt crossed the river in a German rowing boat. An army of bßussian and American photographers and newsreel men besieged him when he reached the east bank. Then, down the hillside towards the river, marched a large group of Russian officers. A Russian general leading them wore a green uniform with several rows of medal ribbons. The whole party then walked-up the hill to barracks where Red Army girls served champagne.