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Grave marker for Roland E.
and Precille Archambault in the Calvary Cemetery, Livingston (Park),
Montana.
Roland enlisted at
Providence, RI on 22 October 1942, the same day that the 508th PIR was
activated at Camp Blanding, FL. As a parachutist volunteer he soon
joined them there.
Trained as a medic, Pfc
Archambault was a member of the 508th Medical Detachment and attached to
Company B, 508th. He participated in the jump into Normandy on
D-Day, 6 June 1944 and was taken prisoner that same day while attending to a
trooper who had broken a leg in landing.
The following day Roland
was in a convoy of German trucks when it was strafed by Allied aircraft.
He was hit in the arm but managed to escape in the confusion as Germans
and prisoners alike jumped out of the trucks trying to avoid the
aircraft's bullets.
He ran about 2 miles
before seeking medical attention for his badly bleeding wound.
Stopping at a French farmhouse, the housewife bandaged his arm but while
she was doing so her husband left and returned with a German soldier.
Roland was liberated from
the Stalag 4B POW camp and was listed on the manifest of the SS
Monticello under Movement Orders RO Group, E 1026-1 which states that he
was returned to US control on 23 April 1945. The ship carried
hundreds of POWs when it arrived in New York City harbor. His home
was shown as Slatersville, RI, a small town on the Massachusetts border
west of Woonsocket, RI.
In 1951 he and his wife
Precille were listed in the Woonsocket, RI city directory residing at
199 Jenckes St, His employment at the time was as a construction
worker. When or why they moved to Montana is unknown. |
