Between the Covers

Hardcover. Two albums. First album, measuring 10" x 7.5, has stamped cream wrappers with "Headquarters & Service Company 547th Engr. BN. (Combat) Kelley Barracks Darmstadt, Germany 1953" printed on the front wrapper. Contains five black and white silver gelatin photographs measuring 9" x 7" with captions in the negative. The second album is a commercially produced brad-bound album with tan paper boards measuring 9" x 9" with "Seventh Army NCO-Academy Stetten Kaserne Munich, Germany" stamped on the front board. Contains 55 black and white silver gelatin photographs measuring between 2.5" x 2.5" and 4.25" x 6.5" with captions. Both albums near fine with near fine photographs.

The engineer battalion photographs show members of its headquarters company in posed section photos. The unit was first formed in 1944 as the 1328th Engineer Construction Battalion, an all African-American battalion that built and repaired hospitals, railroads, and roads in France and Germany during the later months of World War II where it was recognized as the best bridge-building unit in the Army. The 1328th was redesignated as the 547th in 1947, and by 1951 it was located at Kelley Barracks in Darmstadt although it spent much of its time deployed, building roads, tank trails, and gunnery training facilities at the Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels training areas. The 547th was one of the last Army units to desegregate, receiving its orders in November 1953.

Robertson used the commercially printed NCO-Academy book as a place to deposit academy photographs. Many of the pages here discuss the goings on at the academy in a manual style and leave space for the cadet to illustrate the book with his own photographs. These images show Robertson in formation, in classrooms, relaxing, marching, and studying at the Munich facility. This academy had only recently been established in old German Army facilities that had previously been used to train the U.S. Army Constabulary, a military gendarmerie force that provided security within the U.S. Occupation Zones in Germany and Austria. The academy was fully-integrated, however many of the photographs focus on Robertson and his African-American friends. Robertson enlisted in the Army as a cavalryman assigned to Tenth Cavalry Regiment, one of the famous Buffalo Soldier units. After he retired from the army as a Master Sergeant, Robertson lived in Teaneck, New Jersey until he passed away in 2012.

Item #422972