Joseph Beyrle
Encyclopedia
Joseph R. Beyrle 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.
, 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.
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.
s. He was evacuated to a Soviet hospital in Landsberg an der Warthe (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 fingerprint
s.
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.
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 was shown in Moscow and three other Russian cities in 2010. The exhibition opened a four-city American tour at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, and will continue with showings in Toccoa, Georgia and Omaha in 2011, and Beyrle's hometown of Muskegon, Michigan in 2012.
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
and the Soviet Army
Soviet Army
The Soviet Army is the name given to the main part of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1992. Previously, it had been known as the Red Army. Informally, Армия referred to all the MOD armed forces, except, in some cases, the Soviet Navy.This article covers the Soviet Ground...
in World War II. Born in Muskegon, Michigan
Muskegon, Michigan
Muskegon is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 38,401. The city is the county seat of Muskegon County...
, Beyrle graduated from high school in 1942 with the promise of a scholarship to the University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
, but enlisted in the army instead.
U.S. Army
Upon his enlistment, Beyrle chose to become a paratrooperParatrooper
Paratroopers are soldiers trained in parachuting and generally operate as part of an airborne force.Paratroopers are used for tactical advantage as they can be inserted into the battlefield from the air, thereby allowing them to be positioned in areas not accessible by land...
, joining the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment
506th Parachute Infantry Regiment
The 506th Infantry Regiment is a unit assigned to the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division. During World War II, the unit was designated the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment ....
of the 101st Airborne
101st Airborne Division
The 101st Airborne Division—the "Screaming Eagles"—is a U.S. Army modular light infantry division trained for air assault operations. During World War II, it was renowned for its role in Operation Overlord, the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944, in Normandy, France, Operation Market Garden, the...
's "Screaming Eagles" division, specializing in radio communications and demolition
Demolition
Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
, and was first stationed in Ramsbury, England
Ramsbury
Ramsbury is a village in Ramsbury and Axford civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire. The village is in the Kennet Valley near the Berkshire boundary. The nearest towns are Hungerford about east and Marlborough about west. The much larger town of Swindon is about to the north.The civil...
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
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
.
On June 6, D-Day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
, Beyrle's C-47
C-47 Skytrain
The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota is a military transport aircraft that was developed from the Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained in front line operations through the 1950s with a few remaining in operation to this day.-Design and...
came under enemy fire over the Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
coast, and he was forced to jump from the exceedingly low altitude of 120 meters. After landing in Saint-Côme-du-Mont
Saint-Côme-du-Mont
Saint-Côme-du-Mont is a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France.-References:*...
, Sergeant Beyrle lost contact with his fellow paratroopers, but succeeded in blowing up a power station
Power station
A power station is an industrial facility for the generation of electric energy....
. He performed other sabotage missions before being captured by German soldiers a few days later.
P.O.W.
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 PolandPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
but boarded a train to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
by mistake), Beyrle was turned over to the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
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
Stalag III-C Alt-Drewitz
Stalag III-C Alt-Drewitz was a German Army World War II prisoner-of-war camp for Allied soldiers. It was located on a plain near the village of Alt-Drewitz, Brandenburg about east of Berlin.Initially the camp served as a place of internment of several thousands of soldiers and NCOs from Poland,...
POW camp in Alt Drewitz
Drzewice
Drzewice is the north-western borough of the town of Kostrzyn nad Odrą in western Poland. Until 1952 it was but a village. During World War II Stalag III-C Alt-Drewitz, a Nazi POW camp, was located there....
, 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
Tovarishch
Tovarishch or tovarisch is a Russian word meaning comrade, friend, colleague, or ally. In pre-revolutionary Russia also any official's assistant...
! ("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
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, thus beginning his month-long stint in a Soviet tank battalion, where his demolitions expertise was appreciated.
Soviet Army
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 bomberDive bomber
A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target reduces the distance the bomb has to fall, which is the primary factor in determining the accuracy of the drop...
s. He was evacuated to a Soviet hospital in Landsberg an der Warthe (now Gorzów Wielkopolski
Gorzów Wielkopolski
Gorzów Wielkopolski is a city in western Poland, on the Warta river. It is the biggest city in the Lubusz Voivodeship with 125,149 inhabitants...
in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
), where he received a visit from Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov
Georgy Zhukov
Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov , was a Russian career officer in the Red Army who, in the course of World War II, played a pivotal role in leading the Red Army through much of Eastern Europe to liberate the Soviet Union and other nations from the Axis Powers' occupation...
, who, intrigued by the only non-Russian in the hospital, learned his story through an interpreter
Interpreting
Language interpretation is the facilitating of oral or sign-language communication, either simultaneously or consecutively, between users of different languages...
, 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
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
in February 1945, only to learn that he had been reported by the War Department as KIA
Killed in action
Killed in action is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their own forces at the hands of hostile forces. The United States Department of Defense, for example, says that those declared KIA need not have fired their weapons but have been killed due to...
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
Good faith
In philosophy, the concept of Good faith—Latin bona fides “good faith”, bona fide “in good faith”—denotes sincere, honest intention or belief, regardless of the outcome of an action; the opposed concepts are bad faith, mala fides and perfidy...
, placed him under Marine guard in the Metropol Hotel until his identity was established through his fingerprint
Fingerprint
A fingerprint in its narrow sense is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. In a wider use of the term, fingerprints are the traces of an impression from the friction ridges of any part of a human hand. A print from the foot can also leave an impression of friction ridges...
s.
Post-military
Beyrle returned home to MichiganMichigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
on April 21, 1945, and celebrated V-E Day two weeks later in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. 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
Brunswick Corporation
The Brunswick Corporation , formerly known as the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, is a United States-based corporation that has been involved in manufacturing a wide variety of products since 1845. Brunswick's global headquarters is in the northern Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, Illinois...
for 28 years, retiring as a shipping supervisor.
His unique service earned him medals from U.S. President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
and President Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...
of Russia at a ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House
White House Rose Garden
The White House Rose Garden is a garden bordering the Oval Office and the West Wing of the White House. The garden is approximately 125 feet long and 60 feet wide...
marking the 50th anniversary of D-Day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
in 1994.
Death
Toccoa, Georgia
Toccoa is a city in Stephens County, Georgia, United States located approximately from Athens and approximately northeast of Atlanta. The population was 9,323 at the 2000 census...
, where he had trained with the paratroops in 1942. He was 81. He was buried with honors in Section 1 of Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great...
in April, 2005.
His son, John Beyrle
John Beyrle
John R. Beyrle , a career Foreign Service Officer and specialist in Russian and Eastern European affairs, is currently Ambassador of the United States to the Russian Federation.- Biography :...
, 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
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
. 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 was shown in Moscow and three other Russian cities in 2010. The exhibition opened a four-city American tour at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, and will continue with showings in Toccoa, Georgia and Omaha in 2011, and Beyrle's hometown of Muskegon, Michigan in 2012.