paratrooper Joseph Beyrle did not strive to be a part of history, but history kept visiting him. He
was the first American paratrooper to land in Normandy and the only
soldier to fight for both the United States and the Soviet Union
against Nazi Germany. Twice before the invasion he parachuted into
Normandy, bearing gold for the French resistance. D-Day resulted in
his capture, when he was mistaken for a German line-crosser—a
soldier who had, in fact, died in the attempt. Eventually Joe was held
under guard at the American embassy in Moscow, suspected of
being a Nazi assassin. His fingerprints saved him, confirming that
he'd been wounded five times and that he bore a safe-conduct pass
written by Marshal Zhukov after the Wehrmacht had wrested Joe, at
gunpoint, from execution by the Gestapo. In the ruins of Warsaw, his
life was saved again—this time by Polish nuns.
Behind Hitler's Lines is told, in part, in Joe's own words—a voice that
will be among the last and best we hear firsthand from World War II.
