GR translation: shearing alongside for miles

[Mike Jing]

V549.28-36, P559.5-13   . . . Sudetens and East Prussians shuttling between
Berlin and the DP camps in Mecklenburg, Czechs and Slovaks, Croats and
Serbs, Tosks and Ghegs, Macedonians, Magyars, Vlachs, Circassians,
Spaniols, Bulgars stirred and streaming over the surface of the Imperial
cauldron, colliding, shearing alongside for miles, sliding away, numb,
indifferent to all momenta but the deepest, the instability too far below
their itchy feet to give a shape to, white wrists and ankles incredibly
wasted poking from their striped prison-camp pajamas, footsteps light as
waterfowl’s in this inland dust . . .

What does "shearing" mean here?
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