Joe Beyrle Caricature
2020
Done in honor of the 75th anniversary of VE Day, this caricature depicts Staff Sergeant Joseph Beyrle, a US Airborne trooper who, through a series of unexpected circumstances, wound up fighting the Third Reich alongside a Soviet tank company. He is considered to be the only man in history to serve in both the US Army and Red Army, and is a rare example of American and Soviet cooperation in a century defined by conflict between the two powers.
Below are the photos of Joseph Beyrle I used as reference. The left is his photograph upon completing paratrooper school, the right is his mugshot taken during his time in a German POW camp.
My concepts for this illustration were mostly centered around how to best position Beyrle alongside the T-34 tank that belonged to Aleksandra Samusenko, a Soviet tank commander he befriended during his journeys. I selected the final image due to how close Beyrle's American Flag and the tank's Soviet star were to each other; highlighting the unique nature of Beyrle's wartime experience.
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The rightmost concept sketch is in reference to Beyrle's D-Day parachute jump where he wound up stuck on the roof of a French church.
