Review of The Simple Sounds of Freedom : The True Story of the Only Soldier to Fight for Both America and the Soviet Union in World War II (Hardcover)

Several years ago I read parts of Joe Beyrle's memoir, translated into Russian for the gazette Sovietskaya Zhizn'."The Simple Sounds of Freedom" contains Joe's entire memoir and his exciting biography by Thomas Taylor.Mr. Taylor, a veteran and historian of the 101st Airborne "Screaming Eagles", is the perfect choice to tell Joe's story.Joe Beyrle was a small-town boy in 1942, gung-ho to prove the patriotism of his German-American family.He joined the Screaming Eagle "Currahees", and made a couple of harrowing jumps into occupied France to aid the Resistance.That was in preparation for the big day, D Day.Alas, Joe was captured almost as he touched ground in Normandy and missed his chance to fight.He survived beatings upon arrival at a POW camp, only to experience a most painful sight:the bullet-riddled body of his beloved CO, Robert Wolverton, hanging from a tree.Laughing guards were using the slain Currahee for bayonet practice.Later escaping, Joe was caught, tortured, and interned in a notorious concentration camp, Stalag 111-C.There he saw miserable Soviet prisoners, segregated, starved, freezing, worked to death.There was little the American krieges could do for them, except throw some bread over their fence on occasion.Again, Joe plotted escape, and finally succeeded, although two of his buddies perished in the attempt.In his emaciated condition, trapped behind enemy lines, Joe hoped to be rescued by the advancing Red Army.Meanwhile, at home in Muskegon, his family had received word of their son's "death in action" and were grieving his supposed loss.These events are interwoven in the book with the overall campaign of the 101st Airborne.Several chapters do not deal with Joe's story at all, but with his Currahee comrades' accomplishments during this crucial period of the War.I found this did not distract in the least from the biography; in fact, made it all the more interesting.And Thomas' macho style of prose quite enhances his patriotic pride in his Division!It is not until the last third of the book that Joe meets the Soviet column.Commanding the Sherman tank battalion was a Russian woman whose "five-syllable name was unpronouncable."Joe called her by her rank, "Major", and joined the infantry attached to her own tank.His new comrades called him "Yo", and came to appreciate his skill in demolitions.Major led from the front, which meant Joe got plenty of combat action.He accompanied her all the way to the banks of the Oder, prepared to go through the meatgrinder at her side, into Berlin.But then he was wounded, and had to be evacuated to Moscow.Fifty years later, he would be decorated by Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin as the only American soldier to fight for both the USA and the USSR.And he would think about Major and wonder how many of her battalion survived."Proshchai tovarisch!" he writes."If she is still alive, I'd go to Russia just to see her -- my major, my CO, my second Wolverton -- who was a woman."I enjoy books about World War ll, but this one touched me in a special way.Today Joe is retired, a veteran of the fast-dwindling Greatest Generation, my parents' generation, who fought Hitler.Ironically, the new generation of 101st Airborne Screaming Eagles fight on against another foe which faced the Soviet army... in Afghanistan.



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