Benjamin W. Robertson: WWII AAF Gunner and German POW
By Matthew M. Peek, Military Collection Archivist, State Archives of North Carolina
Benjamin Wilson Robertson (who went by “Ben”) was born on January 21, 1923, in the city of Plymouth in Washington County, N.C., to Wilson Ward and Fannie Bell Mobley Robertson. By 1930, the Robertson family was living in Plymouth, and Wilson Robertson was working as a farmer. Benjamin Robertson attended and graduated from Plymouth High School in May 1942, where he played bass drum in the high school band. After graduation and by the time of his federal draft registration for World War II in 1942, Robertson was working at the North Carolina Pulp Company in Plymouth for a short time. He also worked at the Norfolk Navy Yard in Norfolk, Virginia, for about a month before his military enlistment.
Benjamin Robertson enlisted for military service in WWII in the U.S. Army Air Corps (later the U.S. Army Air Forces) on August 8, 1942, either in Norfolk or Richmond, Virginia. He entered active service on August 12, 1942, at Camp Lee, Virginia, outside of Petersburg. He went for his basic training in Miami, Florida [believed to be the Miami Beach Technical Training Center; though his official record lists the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics at the Orlando Army Air Base in Orlando, Florida], in the fall of 1942.
Robertson would end up attending training in the following places: Army Air Forces Technical Training School for aircraft and engine mechanics at Amarillo Army Air Field, Texas; Harlingen Aerial Gunnery School at the Harlingen Army Airfield, Texas; Salt Lake City, Utah; and in Boise, Idaho [believed to be at Gowen Field]. Robertson would also be stationed at the Walla Walla Army Air Base in Walla Walla, Washington; and in Pendleton, Oregon.
Benjamin Robertson was involved in the early years of the formation of the 452nd Bombardment Group in 1943. He would end up stationed at the Rapid City Army Air Base in Rapid City, South Dakota, which was a training location for Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber units. The 452nd conducting much of their training at Rapid City. He was assigned to the 730th Bombardment Squadron, 452nd Bombardment Group (Heavy), 8th Air Force.
Robertson flew overseas to the European Theater with his unit after January 5, 1944, leaving from the Walla Walla Army Air Base. The unit arrived at their permanent base of Royal Air Force Deopham Green in county Norfolk, England, around January 20, 1944. From the end of January through the first week of March 1944, his unit flew four bombing missions over Germany. By this time, Robertson had reached the rank of Technical Sergeant, and was serving as a gunnery on a B-17 bomber crew.
On March 8, 1944, now Staff Sergeant Benjamin Robertson was filling in for a sick bomber crew member, serving as a flight engineer and radio operator on his fifth bombing mission. His bomber unit was participating in one of the Allies regular, large bombing raids over Germany — which were specifically attacking the oil refineries in various parts of the country. Various period newspaper reports listed that Robertson was serving on this plane as a top turret gunner. The plane he was serving — nicknamed the “Invictus” — on was shot down by the Germans over Berlin, Germany, before reaching their bombing target at Erkner, Berlin.
Robertson was one of the last two men — along with the co-pilot 2nd Lt. William H. Mary Jr. — to jump out of the plane. As he was landing by parachute, the local German citizens were pointing pitchforks at him before Robertson even hit the ground. The people pushed, shoved, kicked, and verbally abused Robertson. The civilians held him until the German military arrived and took him into custody. Robertson was the eleventh man from Washington County, N.C., to be reported missing or killed in action to that point in WWII.
Robertson was taken to Frankfort, Germany, for interrogation as a prisoner of war. For three days, he was interrogated by a high-ranking German officer, as the Germans were confused as to who Robertson was — his filling in on the bomber crew did not match their records of whom he should be. The interrogator shared complete details with Robertson about his background, including the names of his home town, his high school, Army technical courses he took, etc., all of which were correct. When these techniques did not work, they put a German prisoner in Robertson’s cell. The man tried being friendly and getting Robertson to share why he was doing on the bomber plane. After these techniques failed, the Germans shipped him with other prisoners in cattle train cars from Frankfort through Eastern Germany, Poland, and Lithuania in the area referred to as East Prussia.
They ended up in the town of Heydekrug (present-day Silute, Lithuania), in the part of Lithuania annexed to Germany in 1939. Robertson was imprisoned in Stalag Luft VI, which served as the Germans’ Allied aircrew POW camp. The Germans placed Allied airmen in air force prisoner of war camps run by the Luftwaffe, that they called Stalag Luft (which was short for Stammlager Luft, or Permanent Camps for Airmen). The camp is identified as the northernmost POW camp in the boundaries of the German Reich’s territory. Robertson was listed as U.S. prisoner of war number 2719. He met and became friends with in the camp fellow Washington County POWs Bennie Jackson and Woodrow Collins.
Robertson was held there until July 14, 1944, when the Germans moved the prisoners from Stalag Luft VI as the Russian Army was advancing on the camp’s location. The prisoners — around 7000 American and English prisoners — traveled by coal barge or steamer ship under awful conditions down the Baltic Sea to the port of Stettin, Poland (present-day Szczecin, Poland). The prisoners were abused all the way on their remaining travel to Stalag Luft IV in Gross Tychow, Pomerania, Poland (present-day Tychowo, Poland). While he was still in captivity, the U.S. War Department issued to Benjamin Robertson on January 6, 1945. The medal was awarded to his family at a special ceremony at Seymour Johnson Field in Goldsboro, N.C., on March 10, 1945, with North Carolina Governor R. Gregg Cherry having been invited to present the award to the family.
Little is known about Robertson’s physical condition during this period. His correspondence was heavily censored by the Germans, and he never wrote a detailed account of his incarceration. On February 6, 1945, the Germans made all of the remaining American prisoners at Stalag Luft IV march in what is referred to as the “Black March.” Robertson and his fellow prisoners were marched around 500 miles in the dead of winter west, often in blizzard conditions. The men suffered from severe conditions like severe frostbite, dysentery, pneumonia, malnutrition, and other maladies.
The March lasted over two months, during which time the men were given two blankets, Red Cross packages with some supplies or food, and maybe an overcoat, for the period of the march. Along the march, Robertson fell extremely ill with strep throat and was unable to continue walking. His friend and fellow prisoner Bennie Jackson helped get him up on one of the German wagons for prisoners unable to walk, riding on the wagon for three days until he started getting over the illness.
Benjamin Robertson and his fellow prisoners were rescued by the U.S. Army on April 26, 1945, in Bitterfeld, Germany, as they were marching. Robertson and Jackson had been separated by this point. When he was shot down by the Germans, Robertson weighed 215 pounds; when he was rescued, he weighed 150 pounds. On May 26, 1945, Robertson had a telegram cabled through a wartime organization to his mother in Washington County, letter her know he was free.
In June 1945, Robertson returned to the United States at the Reception Center No. 4 at Fort Bragg, N.C. On June 14, 1945, he was ordered to report for recuperation and rehabilitation to the Army Air Forces Redistribution Center No. 2 at Miami Beach, Florida, by which time he was holding the rank of Technical Sergeant.
After his time in Miami, Robertson was transferred to the San Antonio District (SAD) of the Army Air Forces Personnel Distribution Command in San Antonio, Texas. He was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army Air Forces there on October 13, 1945. After his Army career, Benjamin Robertson would enlist in the U.S. Naval Reserve (Inactive) for four years of service on June 19, 1947. He was stationed at Headquarters, Fifth Naval District at the U.S. Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, as a Seaman First Class. On December 23, 1947, Robertson was honorably discharged from the Naval Reserve, after having written a letter to request his discharge for an unspecified reason.
Benjamin Robertson would marry former U.S. Marine Corps Women’s Reserve member Mary Cotten Davenport of Mackeys, N.C., on November 28, 1946. He had met Davenport while she was working at the Plymouth Hardware store in Plymouth, N.C. The couple lived in Mackeys, N.C., for the rest of their lives. Robertson would study for his Civilian Aeronautics Administration civilian pilot’s license at the Embry-Riddle School of Aviation in Miami, Florida, from 1948 through the summer of 1949.
Benjamin Robertson worked for thirty-five years for the Weyerhaeuser Timber and Paper Company, retiring from there later in life. He would give talks about his time as a POW, and later in life participate in ex-POW reunions in the U.S. Benjamin W. Robertson died on December 16, 1997, and was buried in the Davenport Family Cemetery in Mackeys, N.C.
Resources
Benjamin W. Robertson Papers, WWII 152, WWII Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C.
