9th Infantry Division PatchChronology Of Contacts Between Units of the 9th Infantry Divsion Units of the Soviet 1st Ukrainian FrontSoviet
          flag

on the Elbe River at Dessau and Pratau, Germany, April, 1945


April 25: 9th Infantry Division relieved the 3rd Armored Division in the Dessau area and made contact with Soviet units on April 26.

April 26: Artillery observation plane of the 60th Field Artillery, 9th Infantry Division landed in the area of the Soviet 118th Guards Tank Regiment, 6th Guards Mechanized Corps, 4th Guards Tank Army,
1st Ukrainian Front

April 27: Patrol of the 3rd Battalion, 60th Infantry, 9th Division contacts an unidentified Soviet unit.

April 28: Colonel Van Houten, commander of the 60th Infantry Regiment establish contact with the commander of the 337th Rifle Regiment, 121st Russian Infantry Division, 24th Rifle Corps, 13th Army, 1st Ukrainian Front?)

Col Van Houten arranges for a future meeting of the commanders of the American 9th and Soviet 121st Guards Division, 24th Rifle Corps, 13th Army, 1st Ukrainian Front.

Undated: The 47th Infantry Regiment (nickname: Raiders) made contact with Soviet 337th Rifle Regiment which was to the 47th's front.

April 30: Formal meeting inthe commanders of the Soviet 121st Guards and the American 9th Infantry Divisions met at Pratau, Germany Pratau, Germany on the west bank of the Elbe River east of Dessau.


More Information:

Undated photo of U.S. and Soviet soldiers from unidentified units in Dessau-Rosslau Germany.

Footnotes and Sources:

9th Infantry Division: "Eight stars to victory; a history of the veteran Ninth U.S. Infantry Division" by Captain Joseph B. Mittleman (Washington. Ninth Infantry Division Assn.,1948)
Author used citations at this link to obtain inter-library loan.

Soviet Unit Names:
Slaughter at Halbe: The Destruction of Hitler's 9th Army April 1945 by Tony Le Tissier (The History Press, Mar 22, 2007),

Acknowledgements:

Photo identifications:

Maj. General Sohonov and Major General Louis Craig were identified from the captions on Signal Corps photos provided by Yuri Becker.

Lt. Joe Yorourski was identified by his daughter Susan Y. Russell.

Researcher: Yuri Beckers, 9th Infantry Division in WW II Facebook Group.

Soviet Unit Identification:

Andre Us Drm of the World War 2 Eastern Front Facebook Group assisted in Soviet unit identification.
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