Sgt Niels Haubert Jensen

T/Sgt Niels Haubert Jensen was one of the more than 30,000 Danish-Americans who served in the US armed forces during the Second World War. He served as crew chief on "the Hump" over the Himalayas.

Niels Haubert Jensen was born on 17 August 1907 in Humlum, Denmark. He was the son of postman Jens Jensen and Mette Jensen (née Hansen).^[1] He arrived in New York on 24 April 1924,^[2] and declared his intent to be naturalised on 20 September 1927.^[3] Jensen lived with his sister and brother-in-law in New York before the war.^[4] Jensen was naturalised on 20 July 1933.^[5]

Jensen enlisted in the US Army on 24 July 1942 on Fort Jay Governors Island, New York. He worked as a porter at that point.^[7]

He served in the US Air Corps in the India-Burma-China theatre of war. He flew more than 500 hours as crew chief on transport plains flying over “the Hump” from Assam in India to Kunming in China crossing the Himalayas. Air Transport Command operated the route from April 1942 to the end of the war.^[7]

A record on the award of the Conspicuous Service Medal in New York on 27 September 1948 states that Jensen served as technical sergeant in the 315th Troop Carrier AF.^[8]

Endnotes

[1] DNA: Parish registration, Humlum Sogn.

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

[3] Ancestry: New York, State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943.

[4] Ancestry: 1930 United States Federal Census; 1940 United States Federal Census.

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

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

[7] Danes or Americans of Danish Birth or Descent in the War, Nordlyset, 22 February 1945, p. 4.

[8] Ancestry: New York, Record of Award Medal, 1920-1991.