It was something else that provided the Americans' biggest headache in their swift advance. The German, ingenious in his desperation, had sewn the routes of approach with undetectable 600 pound explosive charges detonated by gyroscopic sea mine igniters. Activated by the magnetic influence of a passing vehicle, the gyroscopic igniters could be timed to detonate with the passage of the first vehicle or the hundredth, depending upon prior adjustment. Despite the fact that many a vehicle and its cargo were blown to the high heavens, the roads continued to flow with advancing traffic, units taking what casualties they must in the interests of speed.

Tanks were attached to the regiment on May 2, and the 504 once more started in pursuit of the fleeing enemy. Racing forward, they contacted the enemy's rear guard and promptly disposed of any opposition that was offered. However, for the most part, the Germans were through with the war and by noon were surrendering by divisions. After moving along the north bank of the Elbe for a distance of 40 miles, the regiment stopped and formed a line from Eldena, running along the Neue Elde Canal to its juncture with the Elbe.

Roads were clogged with German troops and the paratroopers, aside from collecting pistols, cameras, etc., concerned themselves exclusively with directing this overwhelming mass of grey-clad humanity to the PW collecting points in the rear.

The 504 was outnumbered 100 to one, and had the Germans seen fit to carry the fight a little farther, the regiment's existence would in all probability have been terminated at this point. The scene was an unbelievable one - tens of thousands of fully-armed German troops, tanks, and selfpropelled guns passing down the road with American paratroopers standing at 100-yard intervals collecting pistols, cameras, and other souvenirs by the jeep load.

Not even a faint estimate could be made of the number of beaten soldiers who trod that Westbound path during the next few days. All that could be said is that there were thousands and that they streamed in a never-ending column along every road leading through the 504 lines.

At 1000 on May 3, a jeep load of I Company men who tired of waiting for the Russians to come and meet them at an outpost on the south side of the Neue Elde Canal, rode 12 miles to the town of Eldenburg, where the Americans met and were entertained by a company of Cossacks, the numerical designation of whom nary a single 504 man could recall. In fact, upon the patrol's return to regiment, all that they could recall was that they had met the Russians, toasted Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill ; Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt; Stalhill, Churchrose, and Ropeall with gallons of Soviet vodka saved and sweated for the occasion.

During the next several days nothing of tactical importance was noted to have occurred. The Russians visited the 504 and went home "looped"; the Americans visited the Russians and were hauled back to camp by their Eastern allies. In fact, both the Cossacks: and the 504 organized carrying parties to provide transportation for the participants of parties that were being staged on a 24 hour schedule. Paratroopers and Cossacks had their pictures snapped with their arms about one another's shoulders, there were toasts to everything under the sun, and Americans made several more additions, such as "dobra" and "yaksima" to their already internationalized vocabulary.

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