US Army

Joseph Beyrle fought in Normandy and with Russia

Following more than a year of rigorous training as a member of the elite, newly-formed American parachute infantry, Sergeant Joseph Beyrle, 20 years old, jumped into Normandy before sunrise on D-Day, June 6, 1944, but was captured by German troops before he could make contact with other members of the Allied invasion force. He spent the next seven months in German prisoner of war camps. Two attempts to escape ended in recapture, including a brutal interlude of torture at the hands of the Gestapo. His third try, from a camp near the Oder River, was luckier: running to the east, he encountered a Soviet armored battalion of the Second Byelorussian Front. Refusing offers to be evacuated to the rear, Joe convinced the commanders to let him stay and fight with the unit for what he hoped would be a short advance to Berlin – only 70 kilometers away – where he hoped to reunite with American forces approaching from the west. But that short advance saw some the deadliest fighting of the war for the Red Army, and Joe was seriously wounded and evacuated to a Russian field hospital. During his recuperation, Marshal Georgiy Zhukov inspected the facility, and made a point to meet the escaped American prisoner who had chosen to join the Soviet forces. Wounded beyond hope of seeing further action, my father asked for help in traveling to the nearest US Embassy to secure safe passage back home. Marshal Zhukov obliged this request, producing a letter of transit that Joe (who knew almost no Russian) could not read -- but which succeeded in facilitating a journey across Poland and Byelorussia that ended at the gates of the American Embassy in Moscow in early March, 1945. Here this improbable odyssey took its most unimaginable turn: Embassy officials attempting to confirm Joe’s identity with Washington were informed that he had been reported killed in France, one month after the Normandy landings! His family had received the dreaded “killed in action” telegram, and held his funeral service in the Catholic Church that they faithfully attended every Sunday. Joe was held briefly under house arrest in the Metropol Hotel in Moscow until the erroneous report was corrected. He was repatriated to the United States, enjoyed an emotional reunion with his family, and celebrated V-E day in Chicago. Source:http://www.1victory.org/joseph-beyrle-%E2%80%93-my-father-ambassador-john-beyrle