06-05-2025
Russia's VE Day claims ring more hollow than ever
O n April 25, 1945, First Lieutenant Albert Kotzebue and three men from the US 69th Infantry Division got into a boat and crossed the Elbe River. Entering the village of Leckwitz, they noticed a horseman dressed in an unfamiliar uniform. Confident that he was not a German, the Americans approached the rider, who confirmed what they already knew: he was a Soviet soldier serving with the First Ukrainian Front.
Five days after the historic link-up between American and Soviet forces in east Germany, Hitler shot himself in the bunker of the Reich Chancellery. The war in Europe ended on May 8, 1945. Scenes of jubilation erupted across the globe. The struggle to defeat Nazi Germany had taken five years, eight months and eight days.
It
