Western Allied Soldiers serving on the Eastern Front

[Pauls1970]

Hi Guys,
I wonder if there are any cases of British/US soldiers serving on the Eastern Front, alongside the army of the USSR between December 1941 & May 1945 ?
Regards Paul

[Gunny Hartmann]

I think the only Western allied personnel on the Eastern front were the US Army air corp, they were using Soviet air bases. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Frantic

[Wagriff]

Even when liberated from POW camps, Allied personnel quite often vanished into the USSR never to be seen again...

[Pauls1970]

Thanks Gunny & William, my wife's Uncle was in the Royal Navy, on the Convoys to Archangel, perilous to say the least. I wasn't aware of the US Army Air Corp, using USSR bases, I had come across once before, that western POWs liberated by the Red Army were not all repatriated, terrible to think.
It just crossed my mind, in the oddity of war, if any Western infantry soldier had fought alongside the Red Army, on the Eastern Front ?

[Wagriff]

I believe, if I am recalling correctly, that something like 1 out of 3 liberated prisoners vanished into the Gulag system. The rumors at the time said that the Soviets demanded payment for them and that it was refused. At this late date, who knows anymore? I do know that a handful of them were found to have integrated into the Soviet populations and had taken Russian wives etc, but if this was the fates of the entire lot, I have no clue.
As far as side by side fighting, I have never heard of such an occurrence. In fact, when the 2 armies eventually did meet, there were always considerable tensions bristling and some talk of actual small hostilities breaking out on occasion as well. It was always an uneasy "alliance".

[Gunny Hartmann]

My grandfather was on the arctic convoys, he was in the Royal artillery but as a gunner on merchant ships (DEMS), I remember him telling me that when docked in Murmansk or Archangel he never went ashore. The Soviets were deeply suspicious of the Western allies, the airbases used by the yanks in operation frantic were heavily guarded by soviet troops to stop the Americans from straying and spying!..

[Pauls1970]

Terrible to think the fate of those poor POWS, after their torment & then to endure more suffering due to 'the politics of the time'. A testament to the human spirit.
Paul

[duska]

The No 151 Wing RAF flew missions with the Russians on the Eastern Front in 1941/42.
RAF Hurricanes in Russia




NO 151 WING ROYAL AIR FORCE OPERATIONS IN RUSSIA SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER 1941 (CR 60)

[kc1]

Take a look at the link dont be put off by the title, there are some good photos on this site
Anti-Worlds: Prison identification photograph of U.S. Army POW...

[Pauls1970]

Thank you Duska for the fascinating photographs & link, hard to imagine how these young airmen must have felt, bearing in mind the success of the Wehrmacht, at that point, quite overwhelming.
Thank you for the link kc1, amazing read, to think this guy, a US paratrooper, made it through D-Day, endured a POW camp, escaped eastwards, was allowed to join a Soviet tank unit & fight alongside them, wounded then repatriated to the US, an incredible story !
Regards
Paul