He’s The Only Soldier Who Fought For The Soviet Union And The US During World War II
One of the most incredible stories to come out of World War II is the sole veteran to emerge from the war with medals from both the American and Soviet sides.
But how is it possible that a soldier could have served in two armies? The story of Joseph Beyrle is heroic and unique. It’ll stick in your memory for a while.
Joseph Beyrle was born in 1923 in Muskegon, Michigan. He grew up during the Great Depression and was the third of seven children. During this time, he often waited in government food lines with his father to help feed the family.
Beyrle was a skilled athlete and earned a scholarship to play baseball at Notre Dame. But after the Pearl Harbor attack, he turned it down and joined the United States Army. He then volunteered for the U.S. Army Airborne and started training at Camp Toccoa in Georgia.
A year later, he was assigned to the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, one of the most elite fighting units in the Allied forces.
As the Allies prepared for D-Day, part of their preparations included Beyrle’s involvement in a covert mission. He conducted two parachute drops into France to deliver gold to the French Resistance.
When D-Day arrived on June 6, 1944, his C-47 transport plane was struck by heavy fire, forcing him to jump much earlier than planned.
He landed alone on German-occupied territory and immediately used his demolition expertise to sabotage enemy resources, such as blowing up a power station.
Unfortunately, he ran into a German machine gun nest and was taken prisoner. At one point, Allied planes attacked his captors, giving him a chance to escape, even though he was injured during the attack. He was captured again a few hours later.
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Beyrle was transferred between seven different German POW camps across Eastern Germany. He endured brutal conditions, but his motivation to escape never wavered.
He made an escape attempt with two fellow prisoners by boarding a train. They hoped the train was headed east, but it looped back around to Berlin, where they were discovered.
They faced intense interrogation and torture. Eventually, the German military stepped in and reclaimed the prisoners.
In January 1945, he got another opportunity to escape. He took off through the forest and made it to a stream, where he ran into Soviet T-34 tanks. His two comrades were killed during the escape attempt.
Beyrle presented them with a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes and shouted “American friend” in Russian. The Soviet forces welcomed him but were reluctant to let him fight alongside them. Ultimately, it was a female tank commander who agreed to let Beyrle tag along.
The female commander was thought to be Alexandra Samusenko, the only known female Soviet tank commander. She joined the military to avenge her family’s death.
Beyrle was given a Soviet uniform and a submachine gun. He witnessed many atrocious events. For instance, the Soviets killed a German couple and fed their bodies to pigs. Later, they consumed the pigs.
When Beyrle was injured in a German dive bomber attack, he was taken to a Soviet hospital in Poland. There, he was visited by the famed Soviet Marshal Georgi Zhukov. Through an interpreter, Beyrle told Zhukov all about how he ended up fighting for the Soviets as an American.
Zhukov helped him return home, giving him a passport back to American forces. Once he arrived at the American embassy, the staff was suspicious. He had been officially reported as killed in action, and his family had even held a funeral service for him.
He was placed under house arrest while his fingerprints were taken to prove his identity. Finally, he returned to the United States just as the war was coming to a close.
In 1964, he got married and had three children. He died of heart failure in 2004 while visiting Camp Toccoa and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. To date, Beyrle is the only American to have received both U.S. and Soviet medals.
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