Soviet troops reach Lorenzkirch on the evening of April 22, 1945. Here congestion builds up for days as German soldiers and refugees mass together to get across a makeshift bridge over the Elbe. At first the German army defends the bridge, but with the arrival of Soviet troops it retreats and blows up the pontoons, sweeping hundreds of refugees to their death. The subsequent Soviet artillery bombardment strikes the Elbe meadows and claims hundreds of additional victims. Soviet shelling continues on the following day, but it is now aimed at the German lines on the other side of the river in Strehla.

By the evening of April 23 the Red Army has the eastern bank of the Elbe fully under control. Mounted reconnaissance scouts cross the river to Strehla. They know that the American army has established its headquarters some 40 kilometers to the west in Wurzen on the Mulde. On April 24 an American patrol under Lieutenant Albert Kotzebue sets out from neighboring Trebsen seeking a first contact with Soviet allies. In the late morning of April 25 to the west of Strehla a Soviet lookout encounters American soldiers near Leckwitz. The five jeeps of the American patrol are led to the bridgehead in Strehla. There they set off the agreed identification signal by rocket flare. Together with six soldiers Kotzebue rows over the Elbe to Lorenzkirch in a fisher’s boat. His motor vehicles and most of his unit wait in Strehla.

In anticipation of the guests, Soviet lieutenant colonel Alexander Gordeyev in Lorenzkirch summons his higher ranking political officer, Colonel Ivan Karpovich. The latter invites the American patrol to the Soviet staff based 15 kilometers away in Burxdorf. Beforehand, Soviet soldiers help bring the American jeeps over the Elbe via cable ferry near Kreinitz three kilometers downstream. Only when Kotzebue is back at the motor vehicles is he able to inform his headquarters about the meeting.

When returning from Burxdorf Kotzebue encounters on the Strehla side of the river an additional American patrol under Major Frederick W. Craig. He learns that at Torgau a third patrol under Lieutenant William Robertson brought Soviet officers over the river to American headquarters. The “Meeting at the Elbe” on April 25 marks for the American and Soviet soldiers their victory in the struggle against Nazi Germany.