Aleksandra Samusenko Aleksandra Grigoryevna Samusenko ( , ; 1922 , Chita — March 3 , 1945 ) was a Soviet Ukrainian commander of the T - 34 tank and a liaison officer during World War II . She was the only female tankman in the 1st Guards Tank Army . Samusenko was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War 1st class and the Order of the Red Star , which she received for bravery in the Battle of Kursk . Life . Samusenko began her tour of duty as a private in an infantry platoon . Later she successfully finished the tank academy . Samusenko received her Order of the Red Star , when her tank crew defeated three German Tiger I tanks . Later Samusenko participated in the Lvov – Sandomierz Offensive . World War II veteran and writer Fabian Garin , in his book " Tsvety na tankakh " ( " The Flowers on Tanks " ) , mentions an episode from Samusenko ' s personal life , when a certain Mindlin , who fell in love with her , asked her " not to smoke and drink " . Samusenko parried with " Maybe you have fallen in love ? " , kissed him in the head and stopped smoking thereafter . US Army Sergeant Joseph Beyrle , who had escaped from Stalag III - C POW camp in Alt Drewitz in early January 1945 , encountered Samusenko ' s tank brigade in the middle of January . Beyrle ( who was only American soldier known to have served with both the United States Army and the Soviet Army in World War II ) was eventually able to persuade her to allow him to fight alongside the unit on its way to Berlin , thus beginning a month - long stint in a Soviet tank battalion , where his demolitions expertise was appreciated . Beyrle ' s new battalion was the one that freed his former camp , Stalag III - C , at the end of January , but in the first week of February , he was wounded during an attack by German Stuka dive bomber s . He was evacuated to a Soviet hospital in Landsberg an der Warthe ( now Gorzów Wielkopolski in Poland . ) Samusenko died from wounds in the German village Zülzefirz ( 70 km from Berlin ) , during the East Pomeranian Offensive , and according to World War II veteran Pyotr Demidov , under the caterpillar track s of a tank , which did not notice the accompanying people in the darkness . She was buried in Łobez , Poland , near the monument to William I . Beyrle died in his sleep on December 12 , 2004 , age 81 . His son , John Beyrle , served as the United States Ambassador to Russia 2008 - 2012 . Spanish Civil War . In his 1975 book the Russian author Y . A . Zhukov wrote that Samusenko was a veteran of the Spanish Civil War and the Winter War , though Garin discounted this rumor in " Tsvety na tankakh " . According to Garin , it came from a certain soldier named Balandin , who told battalion commander Zhukov that Samusenko had fought in Spain : My [ Balandin ' s ] submachine gunner Kolka . . . approached her and says : " [ . . . ] I saw you already under Huesca . . . ¡ No pasarán ! " And she replies : " I don ' t remember you " [ . . . ] Zhukov then asked , why does she conceal and Balandin replied that he does not know , " but for some reason many don ' t want to reveal that fought in Spain " . Garin , however , further cites Samusenko ' s boyfriend Mindlin , who lately said that " she has never been there " .