83rd Infantry
            Division Shoulder PatchChronology Of Contacts Between Units of the 83rd Infantry Division (Thunderbolts), XIX Corps, Ninth Army, 12th Army GroupSoviet
            flag

and Units of the Soviet 24th Rifle and 27th Rifle Corps, 13th Army and 33rd Army, 1st Ukrainian Front

on the Elbe River, Apollensdorf, Germany, April and May, 1945


April 30

3rd Platoon, C Troop, 125th Cavalry Squadron, 113th Cavalry Group makes contact with Soviet 121st Division, 24th Corps or a unit of the Soviet 27th Corps 13th Army.



May 1


Officers of the 83rd Infantry Division and Soviet 6th Guards Rifle Division, 27th Rifle Corps meet.

Grigory Aronovich Braverman of the 372nd Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment, 102nd Rifle Corps, 13th Army served as translator for the Soviets at one or more of the meetings between units of the U.S. 83rd Division and units of the Soviet 13th Army.

May 5

Liaison is established between the 83rd Division and the Soviet 33rd Army.

Soviet 33rd Army relieves the U.S. 83rd Division and the Soviet 13th Army of occupation duty on the east bank of the Elbe River.

U.S. 83rd Division begins withdrawal to the west bank of the Elbe River.Grigory Aronovich Braverman, 372nd Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment, 13th Army, 1st Ukrainian Front served as translator for the Soviets.

What follows is the Chrome Translation of Grigory Aronovich Braverman's orginal Russian oral history of that meeting and his service as translator.

Some of the details of his oral history do not exactly the date and place from  match the details from Captain Joseph B. Mittleman.in "Eight stars to victory; a history of the veteran Ninth U.S. Infantry Division".
That is very common with oral histories.

Oral histories are to be reconciled with historical research.

Our reconciliation is that the meeting at which Grigory Aronovich Braverman served as a translator was the April 30th meeting at Prattau, Germany.



"On May 1, the orderly of the regimental commander, Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Ivanovich Astashkin came to our basement and ordered us to come to headquarters, we must go to the Americans for negotiations.

"I said that all this is in vain, I do not know English, but he answered - this is an order from the commander, who does not discuss, but executes.

"In the 20th of April, our unit broke up the warehouses of the German army, we all changed our clothes in leather, leaving only the tank helmets. So no one saw what your epaulets under leather clothes.


"We arrived at the headquarters of the American military unit south of Dessau, on the left bank of the Elbe.

"I said in German that I did not know English, but maybe there is someone among them who knows some of the Slavic languages.

"They brought me a huge red-haired American who said that his ancestors were from Poland, and he knows a little Polish. Since my Polish was also insufficient, we could not converse with him. And then I asked for a translator from German. A small dark-haired soldier came and the negotiations began. The first 45 minutes were very difficult. The triple translation and the fear of being mistaken made work difficult.


"During the break, the Americans staged a Russian buffet where there was a lot of booze. There were three of us: the general, Ivan Ivanovich and I, from the American side some important bigwig, I did not understand their signs (of rank), the brigadier general was a tankman, and this Yankee was a translator. I really wanted to know who this translator is, because there are many immigrants in America.

"I asked him, he replied that he was Jewish in English. But I did not know this word. If he had said that he was “in German” in German, then I would have understood who he is.

"During the second 45-minute conversation, I noticed that some words of this translator did not correspond to the German articulation, and during the second break I cursed in a purely Hebrew (Yiddish) way "yunh in dam tutoksteto" In response, I heard - 'Oh, look, out of the world.'

"Well, here we have a translation that is necessary. It turns out his parents come from Ukraine and we have with him the same dialect of the Hebrew (Yiddish). The authorities agreed on everything.
"

Our WWII Thunderbirds 45th Infantry Division Family Helps Everyone.

Grigory Aronovich Braverman's son Alexander contacted the 45th Infantry Division Group because he recalls his father's oral history as stating the soldiers were from "Thunderbirds".

The division with which Grigory Aronovich Braverman was in contact was the 83rd nicknamed the "Thunderbolts".

We are proud to have been able to assist the Braverman family in identifying the unit with which his father was in contact.

More Information:

Veterans among us: Grigory Aronovich Braverman Part 1 (in Russian)

Veterans among us: Grigory Aronovich Braverman Part 1 (English translation from Google)

From Veterans among us: Grigory Aronovich Braverman Part 2 (in Russian)

Veterans among us: Grigory Aronovich Braverman Part 2 (English translation from Google)

Footnotes and Sources:

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),

Photos Grigory Aronovich Braverman from the collection of Gregory Braverman

Acknowledgements:

Soviet Unit Identification:

Andre Us Drm of the World War 2 Eastern Front Facebook Group assisted in confirming that the 372nd Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment, 13th Army, 1st Ukrainian Front is the full and accurate name of Grigory Aronovich Braverman's unit.
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Permission and acknowledgements:

While almost all items on this site are in the public domain, please contact the administrators for instructions on how to acknowledge the source. Many volunteer researchers at their own expense obtained many of these public domain items from sources such as the National Archives.
Photos from the collection of Grigory Aronovich Braverman  Copyright Alexander Braverman

Minor Revision:Jaunuary 15, 2021
Major Update: September 16, 2020

Last Reviewed:
Posted: January 14, 2019

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The 45th Infantry Division in World War II: An Unofficial Guide to Resources

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