Danish WW2 Pilots

Cpl Alfred Nielsen

(1923 - 1999)

Cpl Alfred Nielsen was one of the more than 30,000 Danish-Americans who were mobilized during the Second World War. He was born in Denmark and a Danish national at enlistment in the Army Air Force.

Alfred Nielsen was born on 2 January 1923 in Skovshoved, the son of ship-carpenter Einar Martin Nielsen and Anna Debora Nielsen (née Jensen).[1] Nielsen’s father travelled to the United States in March 1924 on-board the SS Oscar II.[2]

Only weeks after the father had left Denmark, Nielsen’s elder sister, Lizzie Ruth died of tuberculosis only 3 years old. She was buried in May 1924.[3] A few months later, on 19 September 1924, Nielsen and his mother disembarked the SS Frederik VII in New York to join the father in Hartford.[4]

Nielsen’s father lived in White Street[5] initially but, in 1930, the family had moved to 2 Lenden Street in Weathersfield.[6] He attended the Dr. James H. Naylor School (elementary school)[7], and taler the Alfred E. Burr Junior High School until 1938.[8] He was confirmed in Our Savior’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1937.[9]

In 1940, as Nielsen was in his second year in high school at Bulkeley High School,[10] the family lived at 62 Victoria Road. Later that year, they moved to 162 Wolcott Hill Road[11] He was employed by the Nielsen Tool & Die Co., to which he returned after the war.[12]

Nielsen enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force in Hartford in March 1943. There is no information on the nature of his service, but it seems likely that the air force made use of the fact that he was a machinist apprentice at enlistment.[13] He was released from service as Corporal in December 1945.[14] He was naturalised as a United States’ citizen in Paris, France, before returning home.[15]

He returned to the air force during the Korean War serving as Sergeant from February 1951 to 18 November 1952.[16]

Endnotes

[1] DNA: Parish register, Skovshoved Sogn.

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

[3] DNA: Parish register, Skovshoved Sogn.

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

[5] Ancestry: Connecticut, Federal Naturalization Records, 1790-1996.

[6] Ancestry: 1930 United States Federal Census.

[7] 9 Schools Complete Promotions, Hartford Courant, 21 Jun 1935.

[8] Burr Junior High School Graduates 400 At Exercises, Hartford Courant, 21 Jun 1938.

[9] 1937 Confirmation Class, Hartford Courant, 20 Jun 1937.

[10] Ancestry: U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-1999.

[11] Ancestry: Connecticut, Federal Naturalization Records, 1790-1996.

[12] At the time of the World War II Draft in June 1942, he was employed by the company (Ancestry: U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947), and according to the Credit Union Declares 4 Per Cent Dividend, Hartford Courant, 31 Jan 1962, he was elected president of the Employees Credit Union that year.

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

[14] Ancestry: U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010.

[15] Ancestry: U.S. Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791-1992 (Indexed in World Archives Project).

[16] Ancestry: U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010.