FReeper Canteen ~ Hall of Heroes: Joseph R. Beyrle ~ 23 July 2018

Serving The Best Troops and Veterans In The World !! | StarCMC and The Canteen Crew

[Kathy in Alaska]

 

Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do!

For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.

Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!

---

~ Hall of Heroes ~

Joseph R. Beyrle

Info from here and here.

           

Joseph R. Beyrle (August 25, 1923 - December 12, 2004) is thought to be the only American soldier to have served with both the United States Army and the Soviet Army in World War II. Born in Muskegon, Michigan, Beyrle graduated from high school in 1942 with the promise of a scholarship to the University of Notre Dame, but enlisted in the army instead. Upon his enlistment, Beyrle chose to become a paratrooper, joining the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne's "Screaming Eagles" division, specializing in radio communications and demolition, and was first stationed in Ramsbury, England to prepare for the upcoming Allied invasion from the west. After nine months of training, Beyrle completed two missions in occupied France in April and May 1944, delivering gold to the French Resistance. D-Day, Beyrle's C-47 came under enemy fire over the Normandy coast, and he was forced to jump from the exceedingly low altitude of 120 meters. After landing in Saint-Come-du-Mont, Sergeant Beyrle lost contact with his fellow paratroopers, but succeeded in blowing up a power station. He performed other sabotage missions before being captured by German soldiers a few days later. Over the next seven months, Beyrle was held in seven different German prisons. He escaped twice, only to be recaptured each time. Beyrle and his fellow prisoners had been hoping to find the Soviet army, which was a short distance away. After the second escape (in which he and his companions set out for Poland but boarded a train to Berlin by mistake), Beyrle was turned over to the Gestapo by a German civilian. Beaten and tortured, he was released to the German military after officials stepped in and determined that the Gestapo had no jurisdiction over prisoners of war. The Gestapo were about to shoot Beyrle and his comrades, claiming that he was an American spy who had parachuted into Berlin.

Beyrle was taken to the Stalag III-C POW camp in Alt Drewitz, from which he escaped in early January 1945. He headed east, hoping to meet up with the Soviet army. Encountering a Soviet tank brigade in the middle of January, he raised his hands, holding a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes, and shouted in Russian, 'Amerikansky' tovarishch! ("American comrade!"). Beyrle was eventually able to persuade the battalion's commanders to allow him to fight alongside the unit on its way to Berlin, thus beginning his month-long stint in a Soviet tank battalion, where his demolitions expertise was appreciated.

Beyrle's new battalion was the one that freed his former camp, Stalag III-C, at the end of January, but in the first week of February, he was wounded during an attack by German Stuka dive bombers. He was evacuated to a Soviet hospital in Landsberg (now Gorzow Wielkopolski in Poland), where he received a visit from Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov, who, intrigued by the only non-Russian in the hospital, learned his story through an interpreter, and provided Beyrle with official papers in order to rejoin American forces.

Joining a Soviet military convoy, Beyrle arrived at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in February 1945, only to learn that he had been reported by the War Department as KIA on June 10, 1944 on French soil. A funeral mass had been held in his honor in Muskegon, and his obituary was published in the local newspaper. Embassy officers in Moscow, unsure of his bona fides, placed him under Marine guard in the Metropol Hotel until his identity was established through his fingerprints.

Beyrle returned home to Michigan on April 21, 1945, and celebrated V-E Day two weeks later in Chicago. He was married to JoAnne Hollowell in 1946—coincidentally, in the same church and by the same priest who held his funeral mass two years earlier.  Beyrle worked for Brunswick Corporation for 28 years, retiring as a shipping supervisor.

His unique service earned him medals from U.S. President Bill Clinton and President Boris Yeltsin of Russia at a ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House marking the 50th anniversary of D-Day in 1994.

Beyrle died in his sleep of heart failure on December 12, 2004 during a visit to Toccoa, Georgia, where he had trained with the paratroops in 1942. He was 81. He was buried with honors in Section 1 of Arlington National Cemetery in April, 2005.

His son, John Beyrle, was appointed the United States Ambassador to Russia in July 2008.

On September 17, 2002, a book by Thomas Taylor about Beyrle, The Simple Sounds of Freedom, was published by Random House. A Ballantine paperback version, Behind Hitler's Lines, came out June 1, 2004.

In August 2005, a plaque was unveiled on the wall of the church in St. Côme-du-Mont, France, where Beyrle landed on June 6, 1944.

An exhibition devoted to Joe Beyrle's life and wartime experiences opened at the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg in February, 2010 and at the Museum of Great Patriotic War on Poklonnaya Gora in Moscow on May 6, 2010.

Please remember the Canteen is here to honor, support and entertain our troops and their families.  This is a politics-free zone!  Thanks for helping us in our mission! 

[SkyDancer]

Well still here but the pc isn’t - if it was going any faster it’d be going backwards.

[radu]

Glad the lil feller is mellowing a bit but he’ll probably never outgrow the “top dog syndrome”. LOL

It was a laid back day here. The ol’ back is always a bit unhappy the day after working at the museum. Carting armloads of heavy uniforms upstairs tends to make it cranky.

But it’s been a good day overall. Cooler and we’ve had rain showers come through.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Mayor, and thank you for today’s sustenance for body and soul.

Ready to take on the new week?

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, radu....are you rested up from storm watching and no sleep and working at the museum?

I woke up early...GRRRR...but was able to go out into the chair (much cooler) and sleep off and on til almost 11:30a. Spent the afternoon on homework, but now that is done. Now just laundry to complete and I’m ready, sorta, for Monday.

[radu]

LOL! Yes, all rested up. Went to bed early and slept late.

Wow, even though it was off and on, you slept late today. GOOD! Get that laundry finished and you can relax this evening. :-)

[Kathy in Alaska]

Hey there...busy weekend with errands and homework and I squeezed in some sun time on the deck yesterday.

Are you having nice summer weather? Any Tigermaus presents lately?

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

What a hardcharger. Thanks for posting Ms Kathy.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Kathy: I know you moved but “some sun time”? What part of Alaska do you live in, Hawaii?

Here in the DC area we just had 5 inches of rain the other day and it looks like we had another 2-3 today, with a break that let my wife and I go out for Roy Rogers hot roast beef sandwiches (only one or two places left in the area. They even have mashed potatoes and a good brown gravy if you don’t want fries).

Right now a raccoon has one of my cats trapped on top of a chest of drawers on the porch while it eats her left-over food. He/she has been coming on the porch for years, even sleeping under some boxes when it is cold. Once tried to get into the house for dinner. My wife said, “This ain’t Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” so the raccoon had to eat on the veranda (porch).

My other cat, a Maine Coon, leaves it alone except to once in a while give it a good hiss/swing just to remind it who’s the boss around here. Actually Fluffy is as gentle as can be. He just looks like a “Lion King” with his beautiful mane. In fact, at night, he looks more like a raccoon than the raccoon does. Wonder if he is a cross-dressing cat?

No more possums. I think a beautiful Cooper’s Hawk got the little opossum and the mother hasn’t been around for months.

We do have the fattest chipmunks you’ve ever seen, Alvin on Steroids. One is so fat he waddles across the street with its tail sticking straight up in the air like a striped balloon.

Almost no butterflies this summer. The drought last year hurt them and they have had problems in their migrations, esp. the Monarchs who winter in New Mexico and Mexico.

I grew more Milkweed this year to give them a food supply but my wife has only seen one so far. Hoping more will show up since our Butterfly bush is now in full bloom, along with more Milkweed plants.

Since it has been very hot here for the past two months, can you send us a couple hundred pounds of clean snow, just to freak out the neighbors. Nothing like Winter in July to do that. I’ll teach our libs about “climate change”.

Enjoy the sun while I enjoy the thunder and lighting that is now hitting DC. Probably the only way to clean up the city.

Thanks for the Bronze Medal. One problem. I detected three “Red Stars” in closed Sickles on it. Is this a joke about “Russian collusion”? The closest I’ve gotten to “Russian collusion” has been to use “Russian Dressing” on my salads and rice.

Guess I’ll wait for my subpoena from Schiff for Brains and Swalwell the human mouth sewer.

Dosvidanya, girlchek!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Finished the homework I brought home and I’m happy about that...one less thing I have to worry about. It will free up some time to work on the ever growing paper pile on my desk at work.

The sun didn’t come out today til after I posted the thread, so no deck time today. And I forgot the laundry, so that is next.

Haven’t found everything in the “new” kitchen yet. It took forever yesterday, but I finally found the bread knife and spatula that usually live by the toaster. I still can’t find the empty milk jug I just cleaned and saved. Oh well....I can always save the next one. d:o)

How are you doing for weather? Bad stuff all moved on and missed you? Not so hot?

[MS.BEHAVIN]

WOO HOO~~
I’d like to thank the Academy, and my folks etc.
LOL

[MS.BEHAVIN]

Hey radu!
Sorry to be so long answering you.
I got interested in a foodie article!

[MS.BEHAVIN]

It is very soggy here tonight!
It’s raining it’s guts out right now.
Yesterday was a beautiful day!

Tigermaus has not brought me anything lately!
I think the mice prolly look as him and run for their lives!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Luv...he was definitely not happy and let them know!!

[luvie]

BOO!

[MS.BEHAVIN]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!
Ya done skeered me!
*HUG*

[luvie]

How are you doing, Sis? Hope work isn’t too hard these days!

Is Tigermaus behaving himself?

I have Li’l Bit...the black mama to the kittens...in the bathroom so we can take her to the vet first thing in the morning for surgery. So far things are going smoothly. Just hope the surgery goes well for her. I imagine her kittens are wondering where she is.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Glad you got some heat relief, mountainlion.

The camp disappeared behind Russian lines never to be heard form again.

I've heard this more than once. Glad some were able to get back to American lines.

[E.G.C.]

A very pleasant good Monday morning to everyone at the Canteen and to all our military at home and abroad. Thanks for your service to our country.

((HUGS))Good morning, Ladies. Thanks for this morning's thread, Star. How's it going?

[radu]

It’ll be nice to have a fresh start at work in the morning. Not only will it free up some time for that paper pile but who knows what the boss will come up with?

Bummer the sun hid today. It would have been nice to get a little more sun time on the deck. I reckon it kept things a little cooler, though, and that’s a plus.

It’s to bad she wasn’t there when you got home the other day to explain her method of organizing. It would have made it easier to find everything.
I’d say that milk jug is history. LOL

The storms have moved well to the south now. We had a few brief rain showers today and it was quite a bit cooler. Tomorrow is SUPPOSED to be a repeat but we’ll see.

[beachn4fun]

Good morning, Canteen.

Good morning to our

Military, our Allies, and their families.

Hat tip to Joseph R. Beyrle (August 25, 1923 - December 12, 2004)

Thank you, Star (and Ma) for preparing
the Canteen for today's activities.

Holy Moly! Has it been raining!
We experiencing flooding in some areas;
standing water in places, as well.
Walking the girls this morning will be out of the question.
My only hope is there's a break, later.
As for me, I'm going to have to
get dressed and head to the gym.
I've been walking daily for two weeks
and need to keep up the pace.

I see many in the west are dealing with extreme heat.
Please be careful and remember to hydrate!!!!

Please stay right where you are.
Chat up the military or a family member.
No need to fret...you know I'll be back!

Come in and sit for a while.
There's always plenty of coffee, tea,
pancakes, conversation, silliness,
and plain old BS

REMEMBER THEM ~ DEFENDERS OF FREEDOM

FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT

Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allied military and the family members of the above. Honoring those who have served before.