Robert Bennett Byerly (March 20, 1916 – May 8, 1945) was an American-born Canadian soldier, who was an agent for the British

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...

(SOE) during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Background

Byerly was a graduate of the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

, and before the outbreak of the Second World War worked as a journalist and schoolteacher. He was in Paris when Germany invaded France in 1940, but was permitted to leave to the United Kingdom as he was an American citizen. In April 1941, Byerly enlisted in the

Canadian Army The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also res ...

Royal Canadian Corps of Signals The Royal Canadian Corps of Signals (RCCS or RC Sigs; french: links=no, Corps des transmissions royal du Canada, CTRC) is a component within the Canadian Armed Forces' Communications and Electronics Branch, consisting of all members of that perso ...

. A skilled radio operator and linguist, Byerly received advanced wireless training in England in 1943, whereupon he was commissioned in the Canadian Army and recruited to the United Kingdom's Special Operations Executive on July 3, 1943, and given a new identity as "Robert Antoine Breuil". On February 7, 1944, Byerly was one of four SOE agents parachuted into Chartres, France to carry out a mission. However, the Germans had managed to intercept the SOE's radio transmissions and captured the agents just after they landed. Byerly and the other agents were interrogated at Chartres, and then transferred to a Gestapo prison at 3 bis

Place des États-Unis The Place des États-Unis (; "United States Square") is a public space in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France, about 500 m south of the Place de l'Étoile and the Arc de Triomphe. It consists of a plaza, approximately long and wide, tre ...

in Paris, but having been captured immediately upon their arrival, they had little knowledge of local underground resistance activity.

Disappearance

In July 1944, Byerly was transported from

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, most likely to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp in Poland. He was not seen or heard from again, and was reported as missing and presumed executed. In the absence of any further information regarding his whereabouts, his date of death was recorded in his SOE personnel record as May 8, 1946 (a year after hostilities ceased in Europe). Byerly is listed on memorials at Gross-Rosen, the

Valençay SOE Memorial The Valençay SOE Memorial is a monument in France to the members of the Special Operations Executive F Section who lost their lives working to liberate the country during World War II. The memorial was unveiled in the town of Valençay, in the ...

in France, and at

Brookwood Memorial Brookwood Cemetery, also known as the London Necropolis, is a burial ground in Brookwood, Surrey, England. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe. The cemetery is listed a Grade I site in the Regist ...

in England.

Notes

* As stated above, Byerly's SOE personnel record lists his death as May 8, 1946 but the Canadian Virtual War Memorial lists his date of death as May 8, 1945. * Byerly is listed on the SOE memorial at Gross-Rosen, where he is presumed to have been executed, however SOE expert Nigel Perrin cites a possibly contradictory deposition from the commandant of the ''

Sicherheitsdienst ' (, ''Security Service''), full title ' (Security Service of the '' Reichsführer-SS''), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence organization ...

'' in Paris,

Josef Kieffer Hans Josef Kieffer (4 December 1900 – 26 June 1947) was a Sturmbannführer (Major) and the head in Paris of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the intelligence agency of the SS during the German occupation of France during the Second World War. Kieffer' ...

, which stated that Byerly was transported to

Rawicz Rawicz (; german: Rawitsch) is a town in west-central Poland with 21,398 inhabitants as of 2004. It is situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship (since 1999); previously it was in Leszno Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is the capital of Rawicz ...

, and an unverified claim from a prisoner that he met him at

Flossenbürg concentration camp Flossenbürg was a Nazi concentration camp built in May 1938 by the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office. Unlike other concentration camps, it was located in a remote area, in the Fichtel Mountains of Bavaria, adjacent to the town of Flo ...

in Germany.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Byerly, Robert Bennett 1916 births 1940s missing person cases 1945 deaths Canadian Army officers Canadian Army personnel of World War II Canadian military personnel killed in World War II Canadian prisoners of war in World War II Military personnel who died in Nazi concentration camps Missing in action of World War II People from Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania People who died in Gross-Rosen concentration camp Special Operations Executive personnel University of Chicago alumni World War II prisoners of war held by Germany Royal Canadian Corps of Signals soldiers

Background

Disappearance

Notes

See also

References