Grafenwoehr, Germany, June 2, 2005: A Russian soldier, flanked by his American counterpart and holding an American weapon, waits for the order to pull back in a defensive simulation at the Grafenwöhr training area, Germany. The joint live-fire training operation, the capstone of Operation Torgau, marked the first time enlisted Russian and American soldiers had fired weapons together in Germany since the end of World War II.

The operation’s name comes from the town of Torgau by the Elbe river in Germany where on April 25, 1945 U.S. troops of the 69th Infantry Division and Soviet troops from the 58th Guards Rifle Division linked up. The linking of the troops meant that the Allied forces had effectively split Nazi Germany in two and came to symbolize the impending defeat of Nazi Germany.

Read the article on the 2005 Operation Torgau and see additional photos here.

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