Danish WW2 Pilots

Erhardt Frederik Jensen

(1900 - 1972)

Pvt Erhardt Frederik Jensen was one of the more than 30,000 Danish-Americans who were mobilized during the Second World War. He served in the Army Air Force.

Erhardt Frederik Jensen was born on 5 December 1900 in Bangsbo on the island of Læsø in Denmark. He was the son of Melchior Jensen and Dorthea Margrethe Jensen (née Remmer).[1]

At the age of 15, Jensen had joined the Danish merchant navy, and in 1920 he emigrated to the United States. He arrived in New York on 24 November 1920 on-board SS Frederik VIII accompanied by his younger brother Otto William Jensen. According to the immigration records Jensen had planned to stay at his older half brother and his brother at their half sister.[2] They had both emigrated to the United States before the First World War.

Jensen later moved to Connecticut, where he lived with his younger brother and his family. He worked as a galvanizer.[3]

Jensen enlisted in the U.S. Army in Hartford, Connecticut, on 3 October 1942.[4] He served as a private in the Army Air Force (31193010).[5]

Endnotes

[1] DNA: Parish register, Hals Sogn.

[2] Ancestry: New York, Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957.

[3] Ancestry: 1940 United States Federal Census.

[4] Ancestry: U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946.

[5] Obituary, The Bridgeport Post , 12 Jan 1972, p. 67.