PVT. Peter R. Robertson, WWII: Lost to shadows of time over Pacific, answers never found
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| George Connors, holding an American flag, rides the American Paint Horse Buttercup at Irvington's May 30, 1958 Memorial Day parade. Village of Irvington officials are seen about a block behind Connors as they enter Main Street from today's Main Street School — Irvington High School at the time — parking area where the parade traditionally began. The parade would proceed east up Main to Broadway, then south on Broadway to Dows Lane and Memorial Park. Note the shade cast by the many trees along Main Street at the time, the largest of them elm trees which were decimated in the 1940s-60s and removed after falling victim to Dutch Elm disease. The shorter trees were Norwegian maples, planed by the Irvington Garden Club in the 1940s, '50s and '60s to replace the elms. The photographer taking this photo was facing west down Main towards the Hudson River. At left, behind the horse and rider, is the block of buildings known as the Behrens flats between Croton Place and Grinnell Street. Note the huge crowd, typical of Memorial Day parades in the village at the time. (Photo courtesy Irvington Public Library, Local History Collection) |
Private Peter Robertson of the U.S. Army Air Corps has been overlooked by his adopted home of Irvington. For reasons unknown, he is listed on the village’s Veterans Memorial Monument at Main Street and Aqueduct Lane as having served in World War II, but is not listed as having given his life for his country.
In fact, he did.
Pvt. Robertson, a son of Scottish immigrants, enlisted in the service in January 1945, some eight months before war’s end, and after spending the remainder of the war months training as a technician to repair and service American B-17 and B-29 bombers, lost his life in early 1946 when the bomber in which he was flying from the Philippines to U.S.-occupied Japan went down and was never found. The date of the crash was said to be in February, but there are doubts even about that. The reported date of the disappearance came from a newspaper, not the government.
Robertson was listed as missing in action for months, but his family, father Robert, mom Jessie and younger brother George of 31 North Eckar Street, were encouraged to keep their hopes up since many crew members from “lost” aircraft survived for weeks on the open sea before being rescued by passing ships or aircraft.
In Robertson’s case, his parents were informed in mid-July 1946 that the military had given up the search for the crew of his missing bomber. All hands were presumed dead.
In Robertson’s case, his parents were informed in mid-July 1946 that the military had given up the search for the crew of his missing bomber. All hands were presumed dead.
This prompts the question of why Pvt. Robertson is not among the 16 Irvington residents listed with a star before their names on the Main Street memorial that indicates “Killed in Action.” Before a guess is offered that it’s because he died after war’s end, that’s not the case. The star actually does not mean the soldier was killed in action. It means he served during World War II and died for any reason while still in the service. Irvington resident James Peter Kelley died in 1958 of a fall in his barracks, 13 years after World War II ended, but he has a star next to his name because he served in the Marines in WWII (and Korea as well) and was still serving in the Marines deployed to Okinawa, Japan when he died.
Another Irvington resident, Lt. Col. George Washington Beavers, enlisted on Aug. 2, 1940 almost a year after Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich attacked Poland to begin World War II, but more than 16 months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Beavers died of a heart attack while on a training mission in North Carolina two weeks before Pearl Harbor and is listed on the monument with a star.
So Pvt. Robertson, by all rights, should have a star next to his name on the monument.
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| U.S. Army veterans march east on Main Street towards Broadway past Aqueduct Lane, near the location of today's Veterans Memorial Monument, during Irvington's annual Memorial Day Parade on May 30, 1958. (Photo courtesy Irvington Public Library, Local History Collection) |
The only seemingly logical explanation for the absence of a star next to Pvt. Robertson’s name that comes to mind is that his family did not answer calls for corrections and additions to the Irvington memorial veterans list when that list was published, many times over, by the memorial committee in the local Irvington Gazette newspaper.
Robertson, a football player at Irvington High School and graduate in the IHS Class of 1944, is not the only member of that class to lose his life in the military. Classmate Griswold Mills Hill Jr. served in the Marine Corps in World War II and survived the amphibious landing and subsequent hell of the April 1-June 22, 1945 Battle of Okinawa. “M,” as Griswold apparently preferred to be called, was discharged from the Marines in 1946 but recalled in 1950 to fight in Korea. He would die on March 1, 1951, cut down by North Korean and Chinese communist forces at the height of the U.S.-led counter-offensive code-named Operation Killer.
Interestingly, James Peter Kelley is listed on Irvington’s memorial monument as a World War II participant, but not as a Korean Conflict participant (which he was). Hill, meanwhile, is not listed on the WWII monument, which he should be, but is listed on the Korean Conflict monument as killed in action in that war.
At least one other Irvington veteran, Peter A. Gorey, fought in both World War I and World War II and thankfully survived. He is listed under both World War I and World War II on the Irvington monument which is dedicated to the 188 World War I Irvington veterans, 465 (plus Hill, we now know) World War II vets from Irvington and the 41 Korean Conflict veterans from the village.
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| Irvington's Gold Star mothers, American mothers who lost children in wartime service, are driven in the May 30, 1958 Memorial Day Parade. Riding in the first car, faces obscured, were Mrs. Mary (McGovern) Costello, mother of late WWII soldier Joseph T. Costello of East Clinton Avenue, and Mrs. Elicia Isabelle "Belle" (Kipp) Sinkking, mother of late WWII soldier Cuthbert Powell Sinkking, formerly of North Broadway. Army Pfc. Sinkking died fighting the Nazis in the Rhineland in February 1945 and Army Pvt. Costello died fighting the Japanese on the island of Mindanao, the Philippines, in March 1945. Mrs. Josephine (Herlihy) Kelley, stepmother of Marine MSgt. James Peter Kelley of Main Street, was riding in the next car. Her stepson, who survived combat in both WWII and the Korean Conflict, died in a fall at his Marine Corps barracks on Okinawa about six weeks prior to this parade. (Photo courtesy Irvington Public Library, Local History Collection) |
Interestingly, Gorey and fellow World War I veteran Frank P. Murphy of Irvington were the men chosen by Irvington's mayor to put together the list of Irvington veterans who appear on the Main Street monument which was dedicated in time for Veterans Day, 1963. Gorey and Murphy were each past commanders of Irvington Post 2911 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, which met at the so-called Pastime Club of Irvington at 31 North Eckar Street — yes the same address as Private Peter Robertson. The club changed its name to Irvington Veterans Memorial Association Inc., in 1952, six years after Peter Robertson's death.
Private Robertson’s parents, Robert Thomson Robertson and Jessie Leggett (Morrison) Robertson, both emigrated from Scotland to the U.S. in 1923. Robert was 23 at the time and Jessie 26. The couple married in 1925 and settled in Yonkers where Robert found work as a machinist in the world’s largest carpet mill of the time, the Alexander Smith & Sons Carpet Co. mills in Yonkers which date to 1871.
The family would have lived in company housing provided by the mill owners near today’s Getty Square in Yonkers.
The mill employed many immigrants, mainly Scottish, Irish and Ukrainian.
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| This is the original Irvington war monument on Main Street near Aqueduct Lane c. 1955. It was replaced with a bronze plaque on granite monument in advance of Veterans Day in 1963. |
Young Peter had come along on Nov. 27, 1926 and George Morrison Robertson, the Robertsons’ second and final child, would be born in 1931.
No later than 1934, the Robertsons had moved to Irvington, dad Robert Robertson finding work at the General Motors auto factory in North Tarrytown (Sleepy Hollow today, site of today’s Edge-on-Hudson condominiums). Robert would soon enter Irvington High School, in autumn 1940. At IHS he played football, both offense and defense as was customary at the time. He played fullback on offense and most likely linebacker or perhaps line on defense.
After graduating Irvington High in June 1944, but before he turned 18, Peter joined the Westchester Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol as a cadet and visited the U.S. Army’s Mitchel Field on Long Island in July 1944. The decommissioned site is now the home of Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, about 7 miles east of Queens. A story in the local Irvington Gazette newspaper about the trip said the cadets were getting a taste of army life that they’d fully encounter whenever called to active duty after their 18th birthdays. Robertson would have turned 18 on July 20, 1944.
Pvt. Robertson appears to have reported for active duty for the first time in January 1945 and was stationed at Amarillo (Texas) Army Air Field where he likely trained as a technician for repairs and servicing of B-17 Flying Fortress and B-29 Superfortress bombers.
After completing his training in Amarillo, young Robertson, still 18, took leave from the end of September through the first two weeks of October 1945 in Irvington before departing for a new assignment at Ogden (Utah) Air Depot’s Hill Field about 30 miles from Salt Lake City, a center for aircraft repair and refurbishment.
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| Irvington Boy Scout and Cub Scout troops march in the May 30, 1958 Memorial Day Parade on Main Street heading to Broadway. (Photo courtesy Irvington Public Library, Local History Collection) |
It’s still not clear when, why or how Pvt. Robertson wound up in the Philippines or even if that was only a stopover on a flight from Hill Field to Japan. His final days and his end are shrouded in mystery. He was 19 when he died.
EPILOGUE: Records are kept by date, location and number of fatalities of B-17G Flying Fortresses and B-29 Superfortresses of the type on which Pvt. Robertson would’ve flown his final fateful mission, but none appear to coincide with his ill-fated flight.
Newspaper reports in 1946 said the Department of Defense told Robertson's family he had been flying in a bomber between the Philippines and Japan when it was lost. Since he would’ve been trained on either/both B-17s and B-29s, we can surmise he was flying on one of those warplanes.
The Irvington Gazette said in July 1946 when it announced his death that he’d been missing since February 1945. But there were no fatal accidents reported anywhere near a flight path from the Philippines to Japan during that month involving B-17s or B-29s.
I located one crash with very murky details that could fit the bill, but the date is later than the newspaper cited. A B-17G Flying Fortress crashed in the sea off northern Taiwan on March 19, 1946 which killed all 10 service members aboard. Among the dead was Major General James E. Parker. No departure site or arrival destination were listed for the flight and there was no word on whether the warplane was ever located. …
… Peter Robertson’s parents both lived out their days in Irvington, each reportedly dying in 1973. His brother George died in Orange, California, at the relatively young age of 51 in 1983. …
AUTHOR’S NOTE: It was only through the personal recollection of a reader of this blog, Kathy (Gallagan) Mahoney, that Peter Robertson’s inclusion has come about. Kathy, an Irvington native with long roots in the village (her maternal grandmother, Elizabeth McGovern was born in Irvington in about 1869), lived on south and later north Dutcher streets before her 1965 marriage. She is retired and lives in Tappan, N.Y. She said she visits Piermont, directly across the river from Irvington where the pre-Tappan Zee Bridge ferry once coursed from Irvington, where she can look directly at Main Street. Kathy said she never knew Peter Robertson, but did know his five-year-younger brother George in high school and heard stories about the fallen war hero …
... It was also Kathy’s inquiry about Irvington residents who died in the Korean War -- or conflict or police action, your choice — that led me to discover yet another Irvington World War II veteran who died in service, albeit 1951 in southern Korea, Pfc. Griswold Mills “M” Hill Jr. … His profile is being researched and will be included in this blog, joining Peter Robertson’s, bringing to a total of 18, not the previous 16, who came from Irvington, served in the World War II era and died while still in service to their country. ... Hill left the military in 1946 but remained on active reserve duty with the Marines before his 1950 recall. ...
Links to similar personal stories about Irvington heroes who gave their lives for their country*
◼ Pfc. Cuthbert Powell Sinkking: Class of '42 gave 3 of its own to the ages
◼ Pfc. John Joseph (Joe) Gilchrist: Died after capture of Saint-Lo
◼ Lt. (j.g.) George Eddison Haines: Lost at sea, awarded Silver Star
◼ Pfc. Joseph Thomas Costello: Teen lost life in Battle of Mindanao
◼ MSgt. James Peter Kelley: Survived WW II and Korea; died in fall
◼ S1 Archibald Ronald: Lost on next-to-last Navy ship sunk by U-boat
◼ TSgt. Raffaele R. (Ralph) Reale: A hero's life ended on East Sunnyside Lane
◼ Sgt. Robert F. Morrison: Took fight to the enemy, fell in Alsace
◼ Lt. Col. George W. Beavers Jr.: Re-upped as private; died on war's eve
◼ F2 Claude L. Bronnes: Went down with the Atlanta at Guadalcanal
◼ MMLC William James Downey: Died aboard ship off West Coast
◼ Pvt. Alick Main Ian: Died taking Aachen, first German city to fall in WWII
◼ Pfc. George Mills Hill Jr.: Survived Okinawa, only to fall in South Korea
◼ Pvt. Peter R. Robinson: Lost to shadows of time over Pacific, answers never found
WORLD WAR I
* World War II deaths include soldiers who enlisted during the World War II era and died while still in uniform, either killed in combat, or died of accidental or other causes. Two of the World War II fallen served in both World War II and the Korean Conflict and are listed under World War II. One of those died in an accidental fall after surviving both wars, the other was killed in action in Korea after surviving World War II.World War I deaths also include battlefield deaths and accidental or illness-related deaths by service members still in uniform at the time of their passing.
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