Photo Gallery

2nd Lt Archibald Robertson, CP on Lt Charles Duncan Crew. Evaded. Photo courtesy of Daughter Mary Krystine Robertson Baum.

Cadet Archibald Robertson, future CP on Lt Charles Duncan Crew. Evaded. Photo courtesy of Daughter Mary Krystine Robertson Baum.

Cadet Archibald Robertson and proud Mother, Evelyn Lawson Robertson future CP on Lt Charles Duncan Crew. Evaded. Photo courtesy of Daughter Mary Krystine Robertson Baum.

Photo courtesy of Daughter Mary Krystine Robertson Baum.

2nd Lt Archibald Robertson - 4th from Left, front row. CP on Lt Charles Duncan Crew. Evaded. Photo courtesy of Daughter Mary Krystine Robertson Baum. gDid you get the photos of him and the group shot in front of the B-17? He is kneeling, 4th from the left. He was sent home after he was returned to Thorpe Abbott, spent a month of leave with his mom around Christmas, some training at Ft. Worth, and then Flight Instructor at Tuskegee. He was only child and only son and not sent back in to combat as I understand it.

Front of Post Card from Family that hid Lt Archibald in France after Bailing Out! Photo courtesy of Daughter Mary Krystine Robertson Baum

Back side of post card sent from French family that hid Lt Archibald after he bailed out. Photo courtesy of Daughter Mary Krystine Robertson Baum

Archibald Robertson at a reunion in early 1950’s he is dead center with the rifle. Photo courtesy of Daughter Mary Krystine Robertson Baum

Party Tonight, LN-H 297924

PASSED BY COMET VIA THE PYRENEES Archibald Lawson ROBERTSON / O-798030 328 West Mag. Auburn, Alabama, USA. Born in Alabama on September 12, 1923 / † July 31, 1972 2nd Lt, 100 Bomber Group 350 Bomber Squadron, Co-pilot. landing place: Between Dieppe and Fécamp. Boeing B-17 F Flying Fortress, 42-30050, "Judy-E", shot down on July 10, 1943 during a mission on Le Bourget. Forced landing near Sainte-Colombe / Saint-Valery-en-Caux. Duration: two months ½ Passage of the Pyrenees: September 22, 1943. MACR crew loss report 268. E & E escape report 116. The aircraft departed Thorpes-Abbot around 17 hours and landed in emergency around Le Havre on the return, without being able to bomb because of the cloud cover. They are then attacked by FW "Yellow Nose" as they move to the second target. After a dive to the clouds, Robertson gives the order to jump to 15,000 feet (5,000 meters). The mechanic jumps after dropping the bombs. Only pilot Charles L. Duncan remains on board when Robertson jumps to 3,000 feet. All the other members of his crew are taken prisoner. He lands in a wheat field around 10 pm and hides immediately in thickets. After 15 minutes, Germans arrive to search. The next day, he is captured by a German sentinel which he gets rid of by crossing a railway. He receives a farmer's evening meal and is hidden for two days in a sort of prison camp working in the fields. On July 12, they go to Paris by train, they miss. They spend the night on the floor of a house that serves as a mess to the guards. He buys the tickets with the money from his escape kit. In Rouen, they take a correspondence. His guide disappears on the train and Robertson arrives alone at the station Saint-Lazare around 11 am. He goes to an "American bar" but no one can help him. He leaves Paris for Orleans, being only questioned about his identity by an old policeman who lets him pass. He is fed and sleeps on a farm before continuing. He receives food, but must go every time. Finally, a farmer heals her bells and puts him in contact with two men who drive him in a truck to a village. He stays there from July 15th to September 4th. The rest of his escape is organized. With a woman, he meets in a park Roy Hodge . At 22 hours on September 18, they take the train to Bordeaux. There, Jean-François NOTHOMB takes them on a train to Dax with Roy Hodge, Edward Kinsella and a Belgian ( Philippe de Liedekerke ). When they arrive at Dax, they meet William Maher . NOTHOMB and another man (Marcel "Max" ROGER) guide them by bike to Bayonne. They live in Sutar at Jeanne MENDIARA's Larre inn, except for the Belgian (who will actually live with the HOUGETs in Biarritz). This is the 57th crossing of Comet by the Bidassoa. Because of the rain, the crossing takes ten hours. They stop at a farm on the Spanish side around 06:00 on 22 September. The Belgian and Kinsella, being the two most fit, leave this farm around 11 am and go to San Sebastian by tram. He arrived in Gibraltar on October 1, 1943, was debriefed by Major Lewis on the 2nd, departed by plane on the 5th and landed at Bristol on October 5, 1943, probably with Kinsella and Hodge. Died in 1972, Archibald Robertson rests at the Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, USA.