As they saw us coming in our canoe, they rushed down the river bank through the tall, wet grass and began yelling greetings. They helped us drag the canoe up on the bank, and then they all stood rigidly at attention for a moment. One by one, they stepped forward, saluted, shook hands, and stepped back into line.

Then, Lt. Grigori Otenchuku, a veteran of Stalingrad, stepped forward to make a formal speech on behalf of the Soviets.

“A few months ago, German soldiers were nearly in Stalingrad,” he said. “Now, Soviet soldiers are in Berlin and Soviet soldiers are here—all the way across Germany—with the American Allies.”

___ ITALIAN PARTISANS EXECUTE MUSSOLINI

April 30, 1945

ROME—Benito Mussolini, who gambled the destiny of Italy on fascism, has been tried by a People’s Tribunal, executed by a firing squad, and his body is now displayed in a Milan public square…

Put to death with Mussolini on Saturday were 45 of his Fascist henchmen—big shots and small—who had been captured while trying to flee Northern Italy…

A bank clerk, one of the thousands who gathered near the Palazzo Venezia where Mussolini used to strut, said that “it was about time because he was already a corpse and stinking too much.” A shopkeeper said “he deserved what he got,” and a housewife was “sure that the north would not let him escape.”

___ REICHSTAG FALLS, SAYS MAY DAY ORDER

May 1, 1945

MOSCOW—Premier Joseph Stalin announced in a May Day order yesterday that the main part of Berlin had been liberated and that Red Army troops hoisted the red flag over the historic Reichstag in the city’s heart.

Asserting that Germany now stands alone in the world “except for Japan,” and that the war is nearly ended, Stalin announced that in the last four months of battles, the Red Army has killed nearly one million Germans.