The Wacko Story of Jumpin’ Joe Beyrle: Hero of Two Nations

War sometimes creates strange circumstances. The following story is about a soldier who became a hero of two nations.

Joseph Robert Beyrle was born on August 25, 1923, in Muskegon, Michigan. In 1942, he graduated from high school with a scholarship to the University of Notre Dame. Instead, Beyrle enlisted as a paratrooper with the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101stAirborne’s “Screaming Eagles” division.

There he earned him the nickname, “Jumpin’ Joe as he would often take the place of his fellow paratroopers and do their jump for them.

Beyrle specialized in radio communications and demolition. Prior to the invasion of France, he was stationed in Ramsbury, England where he undertook further training. Having completed two covert jumps into Nazi-occupied France to deliver gold to the French Resistance, he then participated in the D-Day Landings on June 6, 1944.


Sergeant Joseph Robert Beyrle in Ramsbury, England, 1943.
Beyrle’s airplane came under heavy enemy fire over the Normandy coast, and they were forced to bail out. Landing in Saint-Côme-du-Mont, he became separated from his regiment but nevertheless succeeded in blowing up his target, a power station. He continued his sabotage operations until he was captured by German soldiers several days later.

Meanwhile, as Beyrle’s dog tags had been found his family was informed he had been killed in action. Back in Muskegon, the papers listed the date of his death as June 10, 1944, and a funeral mass was held in his honor.

Sent to a POW camp, Beyrle was eventually allowed in October to send his parents a postcard to let them know he was alive and well, albeit in a German prison. Beyrle was sent to seven different prisons over the following months. He escaped twice but was recaptured each time.

On his second escape attempt, he and several others accidentally boarded a train headed for Berlin. They were caught and handed over to the Gestapo – the German Secret State Police.

The Gestapo decided the best way to deal with Beyrle was to shoot him as a spy. Surprisingly, German officers intervened claiming the Gestapo had no jurisdiction over POWs. He was then sent to Stalag III-C POW camp in Alt Drewitz (now) in Poland.

Again escaping in early January 1945 he headed east to where, according to prison rumor, the Soviets were advancing deeper into Poland. Fortunately, the rumors were correct.

Beyrle came upon a tank brigade under the command of Captain Aleksandra Grigoryevna Samusenko of the 1st Guards Tank Army. She was the first female Soviet tank commander and a decorated veteran of the Battle of Kursk (July 1943) and the Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive (July – August 1944).


Soviet troops in Polotsk, Poland on July 4, 1944.
Beryle raised his hands waving a packet of Lucky Strike cigarettes and shouted, “Amerikansky tovarishch” American comrade. Thankfully, the political commissar spoke English, and Beyrle asked if he could join them in the fight to defeat Hitler. Beyrle spent the next three weeks with a Soviet tank battalion where his demolition expertise made him valuable and appreciated.

In the last week of January, the 1st Guards liberated Beyrle’s former prison – the Stalag III-C camp. In combat in February Beyrle was injured during a raid by German Stuka dive bombers and he was sent to a Soviet hospital for treatment.

There Beyrle came to the attention of Soviet Chief of General Staff Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov who provided him with papers enabling him to travel to Moscow and present himself to the American embassy. It took the officials a while to believe him, but once his fingerprints confirmed his identity, he returned home to Michigan in April 1945. Two years later, he was married in the same church and by the priest who had performed his funeral mass.

His son, John Ross Beyrle was born on February 11, 1954, and became the US ambassador to the Russian Federation from 2008 until 2012. In 2010, he attended an exhibit in Moscow’s Stroganov Palace called “A Hero for Two Nations” which honored his father.



Source: The Wacko Story of Jumpin' Joe Beyrle - The US Paratrooper who Served in a Soviet Tank Battalion a Hero of Two Nations

 

Those pictures don't do him justice. To know how crazy this guy was, you need to see the German mug shot.

 

OH yeah..................that is a pic of one crazy dude

 

Nice story Pzjgr.............

 

Read the unbelievable book. It would make a great HBO 10 part mini-series.

Not to give too much more away about Joe Beyerle and his exploits, but in addition to meeting Marshal Zhukov, he also met Rommel in a hospital in Normandy as well.

 

Look at that face. This guy always got extra peach cobbler in the chow line, even when they didn't have any peach cobbler. On the march, tanks drove onto the sidewalk to go around him. A German sniper once shot himself after seeing his face in the scope. He didn't escape from that Stalag, they made him leave. His Garand was afraid to go "ping" when the clip was ejected. Chuck Norris is his illegitimate son.

 

He does not look like a happy camper one iota. He also did not make a good POW. I'm telling y'all, read the book. It's one of those books you hate to have to put down, and look forward to picking it back up once you do. Mine is on loan to a Marine Corps buddy of mine right now. I told him about it during one of our choir practices, and he said for me to bring it along the next time. So I did. It's available on Amazon, so go get one.

 

I just downloaded it. Will read over the weekend

 

The sad thing is that he never acknowledged Chuck Norris' paternity, said he was too girly to carry the name of Joe or Beyrle. He just called him "Rhonda" when he addressed him at all, which was rare.

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Interesting dit. I wonder how much is true?

How did someone in a regular airborne formation, which had its own key tasks take part in two covert jumps on behalf of OSS or SOE? How did they recover him? Someone who came back to the UK via some covert route was probably the last person to be deployed in airborne operations where there is a capture risk?

Where was the German power station targeted by the 101st in Normandy? What had that got to do with the formation;s mission?

Sorry, but feeling a little sceptical

 

Read the book and find out. It's all explained within, why made two pre-D-Day jumps, how he was recovered, and how he came to the attention of the OSS, and how his missions were explained to those in his unit, commanders, etc. Nothing terribly bizarre. And the missions were not like the assault on the French chateau in the "Dirty Dozen" movie. In and out, make contact, drop off the goods, no blazing firefights. And the power station that was hit was just a target of opportunity for the marauding paratroopers who were separated from their units. Not a major installation. I've read many accounts of such activity on D-Day and days following. I had the honor of knowing a man that was one of the 82nd Airborne Division's pathfinder platoon. He said that they were dropped about 20 miles inland and had no direct part in fighting for about a week. So to make things interesting, he and several of his buddies dug holes in the road to damage vehicles, downed power lines, took pot shots at German patrols, booby-trapping anything they thought would be a good enough thing to booby-trap, stuff like that.

So why all the skepticism? Anything to base it on? Nothing really odd in the book. Just not the normal combat narrative of D-Day deeds. Read the book.