Presentation unveils story of N.D. evader in France

Sixty-one years ago today, North Dakota airman James Tronson parachuted to a remote French village of Abbeville from a burning B-17 bomber hit by German anti-aircraft guns.

Unlike the rest of his crew members, who were captured by the enemy, Tronson, a ball turret gunner from Hatton, was sheltered and hidden from the vigilant and watchful eyes of the occupying German forces for five months of 1944 by the villagers of nearby Bellifontaine. Some have called his escape miraculous.

The only North Dakotan evader during World War II, according to the Air Force Evasion and Escape Society, Tronson now leads a peaceful life in Doyon, N.D., 70 miles west of Grand Forks.

Tronson, 81, who prefers a low profile, has received a hero’s welcome in return visits to Bellifontaine, but he has evaded a lot of attention in his home state. Not so tonight, thanks to the efforts of UND’s Virgil Benoit.

French professor

The assistant professor of French in UND’s Department of Languages, using more than 18 months of research, will “unveil” the story of this North Dakotan war hero in a free 7 p.m. public presentation at 300 Merrifield Hall on campus.

Tronson and his entire family are expected to attend tonight’s presentation.

Tonight, Benoit said, he will make public for the first time in great detail the ways in which Tronson’s life was transformed when he parachuted over occupied France.

Through clips from an oral interview with Tronson, video footage and clippings from Benoit’s visit to the French village in December and January, Benoit says he will explain how Tronson faced challenges of orientation, hunger, thirst, safety, hiding and betrayal during his five months evading the Germans.

Benoit’s presentation will dwell in detail on the bonds created between the airman and his helpers through the risks that were shared and the ways in which local population helped. Benoit also will talk about the impact of local ideologies on Tronson’s survival. Having visited Bellifontaine and interviewed almost all the surviving people who helped Tronson, Benoit says his audio-video presentation will give French perspective of the village society where the North Dakotan was hidden.

“It was not easy for them to hide Tronson for such an unusually long duration,” Benoit said. “It was a matter of life and death for the villagers. They protected Tronson, even at the risk of their life. German soldiers were all around.”

Untold stories

Benoit’s presentation also will examine the issue at stake among the French peasants who never were discovered while hiding Tronson, a “bicultural narrative filled with pain and tenderness,” Benoit said.

Tronson, through an exchange of letters and occasional personal visits to France, maintains contact with these French families and their descendants. Every time Tronson visits them at Bellifontaine in France, he and his family members are given a red carpet welcome. The last he visited was in 1999. He now calls them his extended family.

“At the presentation, you will learn the importance of Tronson’s correspondence with the descendants of those who saved his life and how his oral history is contributing to the understanding of Air Force evader’s experience,” Benoit said.

A five-member delegation from Bellifontaine had planned to be in Grand Forks for tonight’s presentation but had to postpone their visit until June and July, Benoit said.