Behind Hitler's Lines (28 page)

Currahees, faces blackened with charcoal, about to take off on D Night. Draped over his reserve chute, the trooper on the right has a coiled rope to help him descend if he lands in a tree. (U.S. Army)

The church in St. Come-du-Mont where Joe landed on D Night. He slid down the long pitch
(center left)
into the small cemetery. The top of the steeple, used by Germans for observation and antiaircraft fire, was subsequently destroyed by American shelling. (Joe Beyrle)

Highway 13 in St. Come-du-Mont, where Joe flung grenades at a group of Germans on D Day. (Joe Beyrle)

Paratroopers advancing in Normandy. (U.S. Army)

Exhausted Screaming Eagles take a break by a hedgerow on D+2. (Jack Schaffer)

Joe with JoAnne, his wife, at the monument in Normandy where he was “buried” in 1944. (Joe Beyrle)

The obituary photo of Joe that appeared in the
Muskegon Chronicle,
September 1944.
(Muskegon Chronicle)

A Nazi propaganda photo that humiliated American POWs in Paris, July 1944. Joe is second from the right.

The Germans' mug shot of Joe, with his kriege number, when he was first registered at Stalag XII-A.

Typical items in an American Red Cross parcel for POWs. (American Red Cross)

A kriege barters with a German guard. This remarkable picture was taken by Angelo Spinelli, a captured combat photographer who was able to smuggle a camera into Stalag III-B. (Angelo Spinelli)

Ed Albers in 1943. (Ed Albers)

In England, apprehensive Screaming Eagles listen to a briefing for Operation Market-Garden. (U.S. Army)