FReeper Canteen ~ Hall of Heroes: Joseph R. Beyrle ~ January 17, 2011

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[Kathy in Alaska]

 

Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do!

For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.

Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!

---

~ Hall of Heroes ~

Joseph R. Beyrle

Info from here and here.

           

Joseph R. Beyrle (August 25, 1923 - December 12, 2004) is thought to be the only American soldier to have served with both the United States Army and the Soviet Army in World War II. Born in Muskegon, Michigan, Beyrle graduated from high school in 1942 with the promise of a scholarship to the University of Notre Dame, but enlisted in the army instead.

Upon his enlistment, Beyrle chose to become a paratrooper, joining the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne's "Screaming Eagles" division, specializing in radio communications and demolition, and was first stationed in Ramsbury, England to prepare for the upcoming Allied invasion from the west. After nine months of training, Beyrle completed two missions in occupied France in April and May 1944, delivering gold to the French Resistance.

On June 6, D-Day, Beyrle's C-47 came under enemy fire over the Normandy coast, and he was forced to jump from the exceedingly low altitude of 120 meters. After landing in Saint-Côme-du-Mont, Sergeant Beyrle lost contact with his fellow paratroopers, but succeeded in blowing up a power station. He performed other sabotage missions before being captured by German soldiers a few days later.

Over the next seven months, Beyrle was held in seven different German prisons. He escaped twice, only to be recaptured each time. Beyrle and his fellow prisoners had been hoping to find the Soviet army, which was a short distance away. After the second escape (in which he and his companions set out for Poland but boarded a train to Berlin by mistake), Beyrle was turned over to the Gestapo by a German civilian. Beaten and tortured, he was released to the German military after officials stepped in and determined that the Gestapo had no jurisdiction over prisoners of war. The Gestapo were about to shoot Beyrle and his comrades, claiming that he was an American spy who had parachuted into Berlin.

Beyrle was taken to the Stalag III-C POW camp in Alt Drewitz, from which he escaped in early January 1945. He headed east, hoping to meet up with the Soviet army. Encountering a Soviet tank brigade in the middle of January, he raised his hands, holding a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes, and shouted in Russian, 'Amerikansky tovarishch! ("American comrade!"). Beyrle was eventually able to persuade the battalion's commanders to allow him to fight alongside the unit on its way to Berlin, thus beginning his month-long stint in a Soviet tank battalion, where his demolitions expertise was appreciated.

Beyrle's new battalion was the one that freed his former camp, Stalag III-C, at the end of January, but in the first week of February, he was wounded during an attack by German Stuka dive bombers. He was evacuated to a Soviet hospital in Landsberg (now Gorzów Wielkopolski in Poland), where he received a visit from Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov, who, intrigued by the only non-Russian in the hospital, learned his story through an interpreter, and provided Beyrle with official papers in order to rejoin American forces.

Joining a Soviet military convoy, Beyrle arrived at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in February 1945, only to learn that he had been reported by the War Department as KIA on June 10, 1944 on French soil. A funeral mass had been held in his honor in Muskegon, and his obituary was published in the local newspaper. Embassy officers in Moscow, unsure of his bona fides, placed him under Marine guard in the Metropol Hotel until his identity was established through his fingerprints.

Beyrle returned home to Michigan on April 21, 1945, and celebrated V-E Day two weeks later in Chicago. He was married to JoAnne Hollowell in 1946—coincidentally, in the same church and by the same priest who held his funeral mass two years earlier.  Beyrle worked for Brunswick Corporation for 28 years, retiring as a shipping supervisor.

His unique service earned him medals from U.S. President Bill Clinton and President Boris Yeltsin of Russia at a ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House marking the 50th anniversary of D-Day in 1994.

Joseph Beyrle gives a detailed, dispassionate account of his experiences here:

http://www.506infantry.org/stories/beyrle_his.htm

Beyrle died in his sleep of heart failure on December 12, 2004 during a visit to Toccoa, Georgia, where he had trained with the paratroops in 1942. He was 81. He was buried with honors in Section 1 of Arlington National Cemetery in April, 2005.

His son, John Beyrle, was appointed the United States Ambassador to Russia in July 2008.

On September 17, 2002, a book by Thomas Taylor about Beyrle, The Simple Sounds of Freedom, was published by Random House. A Ballantine paperback version, Behind Hitler's Lines, came out June 1, 2004.

In August 2005, a plaque was unveiled on the wall of the church in St. Côme-du-Mont, France, where Beyrle landed on June 6, 1944.

An exhibition devoted to Joe Beyrle's life and wartime experiences opened at the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg in February, 2010 and at the Museum of Great Patriotic War on Poklonnaya Gora in Moscow on May 6, 2010.

Please remember the Canteen is here to honor, support and entertain our troops and their families.  This is a politics-free zone!  Thanks for helping us in our mission! 

[oldteen]

~~Kathy~~

And may you have many, many more!

[Kathy in Alaska]

A snitch....LOL! Thanks.

[BIGLOOK]

Army???

I think the Army had better fare than we did.

You know what they say about airplane food on commercial airlines (or at least they once did)? Divide that rating by three.....sometimes four, and that would approximate the delectible fares that were served us on a typical mission.

At least there was good coffee...or the aviator would have jettisoned the plane captain somewhere over the gulf.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Luv....what a great story. He was bound and determined to escape...he did.

[mylife]

The folks on The RJs are well fed, Pizza, and the works.

[NYTexan]

(and I won't even ask ya ta cook fer me tonight!)

[mylife]

The army sucks, I just washed my coffee percolator from those days today.

There is precious little out there for those guys to march on.
A smart soldier packs his own kit.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Never too late....hope it was because you were mugged. LOL!

Good evening, Sand...((HUGS))

[Kathy in Alaska]

So glad to hear that the allergies were mild.

Thank goodness I don’t work outside, altho they make clothes for those who do.

[amom]

Happy Birthday Kathy in Alaska!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, JJ...((HUGS))...and thank you.

Hope you had a nice, relaxing weekend.

[BIGLOOK]

We actually had had a pizza booth in our revetment in DaNang...but the pizza was tomato sauce with pepperoni and some sort of parmesean cheese on a cracker crust. Didn't last long.

On the other side of the runways, at Gunfighter Village, the AF had a regular pizza joint that while not the best, worked.

Now that we're on subject of pizza, I'm fond of NY pizza, had Chicago pizza (ok) , tried California pizza (?) and in forty years can't find a real pizzaria in Hawaii. We just have to settle for the franchises .

A couple of guys from our group went down south to the PBRs, tdy, and came back with tales about the chow that they managed to rustle up by trading with the locals, and cooked up in a pot strapped atop the engine while on patrol. Said it beat C-Rats everytime.

[mylife]

I'm fond of NY pizza

The secret is in the crust

[mylife]

The old percolator is a bit bulky but it doubles as a stock pot and a strainer

[BIGLOOK]

True, but it's the sauce too. A good bread maker can make a good crust, a good Italian cook can make a superb sauce and you can put anything together on top to make a great pizza.

I happen to be fond of homemade, since I can make an anchovy pizza that I can have all to myself ......unless my son drops by.

[mylife]

Before I push of let me say this about pizza.

Good Crust makes the pie , but a good garlicky sauce hit with red pepper flake is surely a well laid plan.

A good mozzarella is a nice cheese.
And I cant stress this enough... veggies go under the cheese to develop flavor and pepperone goes on the top to brown

[Kathy in Alaska]

Thanks, Luv...a working day for me. MLK gets a holiday. LOL!

[mylife]

We see eye to eye

[TASMANIANRED]

Evening Kathy, Happy Birthday.

Big Hug.

Worked short the entire weekend and it shows..

[BIGLOOK]

Roger that.....

The next secret pizza recipe is artichokes and olives with pepperonccini on the side.