Episode 30: Red-Blooded American in the Red Army: The True Story of Joseph Beyrle - The Only Soldier to Fight for Both American and the Soviet Union in World War II, Part IV

This week we wrap up the series on Staff Sergeant Joseph Beyrle who, after several attempts, finally escaped from a German POW camp in Poland, and after walking more than thirty miles east on foot, finally linking up with the Red Army. Initially, the Russians wanted to Joe farther east to be evacuated along with several other American POWs they had just liberated, but he insisted that the was not a liberated POW, but an escaped POW, and as such, he wanted to be allowed to join their ranks and fight the Germans. The unit's commander welcomed him into their ranks, handed him a PPSH-41 (seen above) and he continued fighting for several more weeks.

The commander of the tank battalion Joe joined with a female major with a  long Russian name that he was never able to remember so he simply called her major. A few online sources believe it was Aleksandra Samusenko, a famous Soviet armor commander who was eventually killed after crossing into Germany on the final push to capture Berlin. However, Samusenko was a captain, not a major, and from what I read online and in Joe's biography The Simple Sounds of Freedom, I do not believe Beyrle's major and Samusenko were the same person - and, unlike some of the online claims, there was more than one female armor battlaion commander in the Red Army.

Joe fought alongside Major's infantry force until he was injured by a German dive bomb attack, but not before he was able to help liberate Stalag III-C, the same POW camp he had escaped from nearly a month earlier. The US POW's were shocked when Joe revealed who he was and Joe was shocked to learn that Brewer and Quinn, the two men who attempted to escape with him, were now buried under wooden crosses near the exercise yard. He was unable to learn if they had been killed during the escape attempt of if they had been executed after being recaptured before he was called away by the Russians to blow open the same in the camp commandants office, which he did. Inside were German records of the POWs (Joe's is seen above) as well as money from several different countries. Joe helped himself to a handful of American greenbacks before helping to stuff the rest into duffel bags for the major.

Beyrle continued fighting with the Russians for a few days after liberating Stalag III-C, until he was wounded in a German dive bomber attack and evacuated to a makeshift Russian hospital. One of his greatest regrets was not knowing Major's name and not being able to find out if she had survived the war.

While in the "hospital" he was able to have the shrapnel from the dive bomber removed from his leg but there was no anesthetic to help him during the surgery and nothing to clean his wound with so it eventually became reinfected. His Soviet medical records (above) eventually made their way back into American hands much like his POW record did.

While he was recovering, the hospital was visited by Marshall Gregory Zhukov, the most famous military leader in the Soviet Union who was interested in the American patient at the hospital and who provided him with a personally-written letter, that acted like a passport, to help Beyrle navigate the Soviet Union's bureaucracy and get back to American forces.

Joe used the letter to finally make it to Moscow and found an English-speaking Russian lieutenant colonel who delivered him to the US embassy. The Americans took care of his reinfected wounds, but the were initially suspicious about Joe's story. He had German POW ID tag but his American dog tags had been stolen back in Normandy and it took some time to verify that he was who he said he was (especially since part of the War Department was still operating under the bad information that he had been killed in action in France. Until his identity was confirmed, there was some concern that he was a German agent sent to kill the US ambassador to Russia.

After Beyrle's identity was verify, he was returned home to a joyous reunion with his family. Joe continued to receive medical treatment for his injuries and the Army tried to talk him into staying in the service, becoming an officer, and handling Russian counterintelligence in German after the war. In the end, he decided he was ready to return to civilian life and was discharged from the Army in 1946.

After the war, he married, had three children, and settled into civilian life. 

In 1994, Joe was invited to the White House by President Bill Clinton, where Russian President Boris Yeltson would also be present, for the commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of D-Day. While at the White House, Joe was recognized as the only Allied soldier to fight on both the western and eastern fronts during the war, and Yeltson presented him with four decorations: The Order of the Red Star, the Order of Great Patriotic War, the Medal for Valor, and the Russian equivalent of the Purple Heart.

Those were added to his already impressive medal case which included the Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts, the POW Medal, and Croix de Guerre from France, the Combat Infantry Badge, and Jump Wings with one combat jump star, among others.

Staff Sergeant Joseph Beyrle died in his sleep on December 12, 2004 while in Toccoa, Georgia, where he had trained as a paratrooper. He was 81 years old. The following year a plaque was placed at the church in St. Côme-du-Mont to commemorate his landing on the church roof during D-Day.

From 2008-2012, Joe's son John served as US Ambassador to Russian where he never missed a chance to honor the veterans of the Red Army - including his father - who sacrificed so much to end the Nazi threat to the world.