Exhibition about the American who fought for Soviet Red Army in World War II

An exhibition about the only man known to have fought for both the U.S. and Soviet armies during World War II will open on Feb 18 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Joe Beyrle was captured by Nazi forces after parachuting into Normandy in June 1944. He attempted to escape two times, but only his third effort was a success and he made contact with a Russian tank division. In spite of only knowing only two words of Russian ("Amerikanskii tovarishch" -"American comrade"), he became a member of the unit, participating in a number of battles. After being wounded in a battle, he met Marshal Georgy Zhukov, who gave him a letter of transit to the American embassy in Moscow.

American who fought for Soviet army to be remembered in Russia | Top Russian news and analysis online | 'RIA Novosti' newswire

 

I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Beyrle about 10 years ago in Ste Mere Eglise during the week of June 6th. There were many people around but as SME is known as an "82nd town" not a lot of folks were paying attention to the gentleman standing alone wearing the Screaming Eagle cap (this was before Band of Brothers aired). I ended up speaking with him for quite a while, we spoke about his experiences, including his capture at St. Come Du Mont, the harsh beatings he endured, and fighting under a very um..unfeminine female Russian tank commander. Later he co-wrote a book about it (Simple Sounds of Freedom) with Tom Taylor, son of WW2 101st commander Maxwell Taylor.

In late 2004 while on a trip with his son to Toccoa, Georgia, site of where he trained as a young paratrooper (candidate), he passed away.

I'm curious if any other US soldier ever fought along side the Russians during the war? (my thought is that the answer is probably "yes" in some capacity but I'm guessing that info would be hard to find).

 

that sounds like a good thing to do