Danish WW2 Pilots

Sgt Dagmar Andrea Maria Groth

(1902 - 1988)

Sfc. Dagmar Groth enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in 1944. She was one of twenty-nine Danish born WACs during the Second World War. She served in the WAC for more than twenty years, before discharge in 1964.

Dagmar Andrea Marie Groth was born on 2 April 1902 in Copenhagen, to an unmarried mother,[1] who is not recorded in the parish register.

She emigrated to the United States in 1925 arriving in New York from Copenhagen onboard the SS United States on 11 August 1925. She listed an uncle Th. Nielsen in Kolding as her contact in the old country and a Theodor Nielsen in Palo Alto, California, as the contact in the new. She settled in Palo Alto.

She married Sven Rosenberg on 25 June 1928 in Redwood City.[2] They had two sons; Robert Rosenburg in 1930,[3] and Theodore Rosenburg in 1931.[4] Sven Rosenburg died in 1938,[5] and she seems to have returned to the use of her maiden name at this point.

In 1940, she lived in Santa Barbara with her two sons.[6]

Groth enlisted as a Private (A-905521) in the Women’s Army Corps in San Francisco, California, on 30 June 1944. She was a trained nurse at the time.[7] There is little information on her service, even if she served for more than twenty years. She is known to have served at Fort Dix, New Jersey, in 1950,[8] and in in Japan in 1954. She was discharged from military service on 31 July 1964.[9]

In 1954, her son Theodore died in a shooting accident, while on a rabbit hunt with his brother and a fried. He was a U.S. Navy veteran, who had just returned from a tour in Korea.[10]

Groth died in Santa Barbara, California, on 22 August 1988.[11]

Endnotes

[1] DNA: Parish register, Den Kgl. Fødselsstiftelse.

[2] Married at Pastor’s Home, Redwood City Tribune, 25 Jun 1928, p. 7.

[3] Ancestry: U.S., Obituary Collection, 1930-Current.

[4] Ancestry: California Birth Index, 1905-1995.

[5] Ancestry: U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current.

[6] Ancestry: 1940 United States Federal Census.

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

[8] Ancestry: 1950 United States Federal Census.

[9] Ancestry: U.S., Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940.

[10] Identify Hunting Victim as Friend of Wayne Family, The News, 31 Aug 1954, p. 1 and 13.

[11] Ancestry: U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014.