FROM FRIENDS TO ENEMIES

It was the mother of all PR opportunities. A photo call from the heavens. On 26 April 1945, an American 2nd lieutenant called William Robertson shook hands with a Soviet counterpart, Alexander Sylvashko, on the banks of the River Elbe in front of assembled cameramen.

A day earlier, near the very spot where Robertson and Sylvashko embraced, an American patrol had made contact with Soviet soldiers for the very first time during the campaign to wrestle back Europe from the Nazis. Now, to mark this momentous occasion, Robertson and Sylvashko exchanged pleasantries to the click of cameras and the hum of news reports being relayed back to Washington and Moscow.

The convergence of American and Soviet troops south of Berlin was a moment of huge military significance. With German armies now cut in two, the final defeat of Adolf Hitler’s forces