The Moscow Times has a terrific article about Joseph Beyrle, who fought for both the U.S. and Soviet armies in World War II. Here's an excerpt from his fascinating story:
Beyrle's new battalion freed his former camp, Stalag 3-C, toward the end of January, and in the first week of February, he was blown off a tank and wounded after an attack by German Stuka dive bombers. He was evacuated to a Soviet hospital in Landsberg, now in Poland, where he received a visit from one of the Soviet Union's most famous generals, Zhukov.
"While I was there Marshal Zhukov came to the hospital to talk to the wounded, and I was the only non-Russian in the hospital," Beyrle said. "He came to my bed with an interpreter and wanted to know where I was from and how I got there.
"I told him about jumping at Normandy, and the last thing he asked me was if there was anything he could do."
Beyrle told Zhukov that he had no ID papers proving he was an American.
"He didn't say anything, but the next morning the interpreter came back with an envelope with a letter in it, all in Russian, five stars up on top," Beyrle said. "I asked, 'What does it say?' He said: 'You don't have to know what it says, it will be like a passport. It will get you anyplace you'd like to go.'"
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