Description
While in hiding, Mr. Robertson tells how he was given clocks to repair, which helped to ease his boredom!
William “Bill” Robertson
Mr. William “Bill” Robertson was born June 13, 1921 in Toronto, Ontario. He was raised in a family of five with three brothers and one sister. Growing up in the province of Ontario, Mr. Robertson received his grade 12 education and with the awareness of war, had a keen desire to join the Air Force. In 1942, he attended observer training and in April of that year received his wings. He held the rank of navigator with the RAF 158 Squadron. On May 13, 1944 during a routine flight towards Belgium, his aircraft was shot down and he and the surviving members of the crew spent many months in hiding from the Germans in the hopes of one day being free. As freedom became a reality, Mr. Robertson returned home to Canada with his wife Violet. He and his family reside in Belleville, Ontario.
Transcript
Nothing was more boring than just sitting in this kitchen all day with nothing to do or that. I couldn’t go outside, they don’t want me standing near the window because they can’t trust one another, the neighbors or anything like that. The only time I got out, was at night time, when it was real dark, I’d go out and stay at the back house but I had to sit up close to the wall so the neighbors on either side wouldn’t see me because they would be questioning, “Who is that? ” And that could get him into trouble. Anyway, I was saying to ease my boredom what they used to do, they’d bring me watches and clocks and I used to repair them. Not that I ever done it before but I’d take them apart and put them together. Some I could fix, some I couldn’t. One morning, we woke up and looked out and there was an American tank sitting on our street. And then, we looked out and it was gone, so, they said haah, we should be liberated soon so we were busy making little flags, Belgium flags. What is it, black, gold and, anyway, we were making little flags with, you know, crayons and that. And, we had a whole bunch of them, we put them out see, and then suddenly the enemy would show up and we’d take them all back in. And, then another day, two tanks maybe show up and then a few days after, quite a few start coming in. I think that would be about the 7th or 8th of September, somewhere in there and we found out we were liberated. So when I walked out in the street, the neighbors were just sort of aghast. They always thought, Pierre, the policeman was a collaborator with the enemy and they were just amazed that here he was hiding an allied airman in his home. Anyway, the time came and I had to leave so they gave me a couple hundred francs and they arranged for me to meet this American boy who had been shot down. I think he was a fighter pilot who had been shot down and they had hid him or somebody else had hid him and we were to hitchhike. He said, “Do you want to go to Paris or do you want to go to Brussels? ” I said, “I don’t know, let’s try Brussels, I haven’t been either,” and I said, “I think it was a little closer.”