{"id":3539,"date":"2018-04-25T12:56:16","date_gmt":"2018-04-25T18:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/?page_id=3539"},"modified":"2023-06-06T12:46:56","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T18:46:56","slug":"anker-christian-jensen","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/the-biographies\/anker-christian-jensen\/","title":{"rendered":"Anker Christian Jensen"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

(Kempton, Illinois, October 27, 1888 \u2013 Kankakee, Illinois, June 8, 1974).1<\/a><\/p>\n

Jensen\u2019s parents were born in Denmark; they emigrated to the U.S., apparently separately, in the early 1870s and married in 1878. Christen Jensen, Anker\u2019s father, farmed land in Ford County, Illinois, where Anker was born.2<\/a>\u00a0Anker Jensen initially attended Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois. Like many second Oxford detachment men, he excelled in athletics and was a pitcher for Wesleyan\u2019s baseball team.3<\/a>\u00a0He transferred to the University of Illinois to be able to play under baseball coach George Huff.4<\/a>\u00a0After graduating in 1910, he began playing professionally, but his pitching arm gave out.5<\/a>\u00a0He went on to study law at Northwestern University, receiving his degree in 1914 and in the same year setting up a law practice in Kankakee, Illinois.6<\/a><\/p>\n

In 1917 Jensen attended ground school at his alma mater, the University of Illinois, graduating September 1, 1917.7<\/a> Along with most of the men from his ground school class of about thirty, Jensen chose or was chosen to go to Italy for flying training and thus sailed with the 150 men of the \u201cItalian\u201d or \u201csecond Oxford detachment\u201d to England on the Carmania<\/i>. They departed New York on September 18, 1917, and made a brief stopover at Halifax where they joined a convoy for the Atlantic crossing. On October 20, 1917, Jensen wrote to a friend in Kankakee:<\/p>\n

We arrived at Liverpool sometime during the morning of Oct. 3. Upon disembarking orders were given us, or rather to our major, to leave directly for Oxford, there to take a six week course in the Royal Flying schools, know as the R.F.C. Our major at first refused to accept the order as we were scheduled for Italy and that was where he had planned to take us. You can imagine the disappointment that came to the whole bunch of us when we learned that we had to take the same work over again that we had already had in the American ground school. It meant six weeks of listening to the same lectures we had already committed to memory in our own school.8<\/a><\/p>\n

The six weeks at Oxford turned out to be four. On November 3, 1917, most of the men, including Jensen, left for Grantham in Lincolnshire to attend gunnery school at Harrowby Camp. Fifty of these men departed on November 19, 1917, for flying schools, but Jensen was among the men who remained at Grantham through the end of November. On November 29, 1917, they celebrated Thanksgiving in great style, with many of the men who were already at flying schools coming in to join them. Festivities included a football game between the \u201cUnfits\u201d and the \u201cHardly Ables.\u201d9<\/a>\u00a0Jensen played for the winning Unfits and appears in photos<\/a> of the team taken that day.10<\/a><\/p>\n

A few days later, on December 3, 1917, the remaining men at Grantham were posted to flying squadrons, and Jensen was one of eight assigned to No. 33 Home Defense Squadron, headquartered at Gainsborough, about thirty-five miles north of Grantham. According to William Thomas Clements, they went from Gainsborough to Scampton<\/a>, where a flight from 33 was stationed.11<\/a>\u00a0Clements\u2019s diary entries indicate that the personnel at Scampton were at a loss as to what to do with the trainees, but nevertheless gave them some instruction.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Payden’s photo of Jensen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Towards the end of January word came that the eight men would be transferred, and on January 27, 1918, four of the men, including Clements and Arthur Paul Supplee, went to Waddington, while four went \u201cdown near London some place.\u201d12<\/a>\u00a0Jensen may have trained near London, but he also ended up for a time at Waddington, judging by a photo of him there saved by Joseph Raymond Payden.13<\/a>\u00a0This would have been consistent with Jensen\u2019s later squadron assignment, as pilots were taught to fly DH.4s at Waddington.<\/p>\n

I have found no further information on Jensen\u2019s training in Great Britain. He was one of many cadets whose appointments as first lieutenants with \u201cnon-flying\u201d status Pershing recommended in a cable dated April 8, 1918. For some reason it took Washington over a month to send the confirming cable, which is dated May 13, 1918; Jensen was placed on active duty on May 30, 1918.14<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"
Special orders no. 194.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jensen was one of a large group of pilots ordered in July 1918 to travel from London to Issoudun, where the American 3rd Aviation Instruction Center was located.15<\/a>\u00a0 There he presumably had instruction in flying the American-built DH-4.16<\/a>\u00a0 In mid-July 1918 he was in charge of a group of nine pilots, including Allen Tracy Bird, Edmond Thomas Keenan, and John Howard Raftery of the second Oxford detachment, who were ordered to the 2nd<\/sup>\u00a0Corps Aeronautical School, an aerial observation school at Chatillon-sur-Seine.17<\/a><\/p>\n

On August 18, 1918, Jensen, along with fellow second Oxford detachment members Edward Addison Griffiths, Edward Russell Moore, and John Howard Raftery, was assigned to and joined the U.S. 8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero Squadron at Amanty, about seventeen miles southwest of Toul; they were soon followed by Hilary Baker Rex and Newton Philo Bevin.18<\/a>\u00a0The 8th<\/sup>\u00a0was an observation squadron flying DH-4s; it had been at Amanty since the last day of July, attached to the I Corps Air Service of the American First (and at that time only) Army. The squadron was now doing intensive training, including making flights over the lines. On August 31, 1918, as part of the planning for the St. Mihiel Offensive, they were transferred to IV Corps and moved to Ourches-sur-Meuse, about eight miles due west of Toul, where the IV Corps Air Service was based.19<\/a>\u00a0 A transcription of part of Jensen\u2019s log book shows him to have made fourteen \u201ctest\u201d flights during the period August 21\u2013September 8, 1918, usually flying with observer and fellow Illinois farmer\u2019s son Arthur Paul Wilkinson, but also with James Russel Congden, the squadron radio officer; John H[arold] Mulherin, observer; and the otherwise unidentified \u201cFineley\u201d and \u201cMurphy.\u201d20<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"
8th Aero assignments two days before the St. Mihiel Offensive.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An 8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero roster dated September 10, 1918, shows that Jensen, flying DH-4 no. 9, was assigned as leader of B flight, with Albert C. Rothwell (of the first Oxford detachment) as his deputy leader and Wilkinson as his observer.21<\/a><\/p>\n

The offensive to reduce the St. Mihiel salient began in the early hours of September 12, 1918. The 8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero was assigned to assist the IV Corps\u2019s 1st<\/sup>\u00a0Division, which was at the westernmost part of the American line on the south front of the salient. The squadron C.O., John Gilbert Winant, reported that on the 12th<\/sup>\u00a0and 13th<\/sup>\u00a0planes of the 8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero \u201cwere in the air for thirty-six hours and thirty minutes\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. and twenty-four separate missions were accomplished.\u201d22<\/a>\u00a0The transcription of Jensen\u2019s log book shows him, with observer Wilkinson, to have flown three missions on September 12, 1918\u2014this in terrible weather with a low ceiling and strong winds. On the first mission, which lasted eighty-five minutes, he noted \u201c7 bullets in A\/C [aircraft?].\u201d On September 14, 1918, Jensen and Wilkinson flew one long (105 minute) reconnaissance flight. On the fifteenth, with Congdon as his passenger, Jensen flew a test flight, and then returned to flying reconnaissance missions, one each day, on September 16\u201318. The effort to reduce the St. Mihiel salient was by now over, but on the evidence of Jensen\u2019s log book, the planes of the 8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero continued to fly reconnaissance and \u201cReg.\u201d (presumably \u201creglage,\u201d or artillery adjustment) missions through September 26, 1918.<\/p>\n

The IV Corps Air Service did not participate in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, but remained initially at Ourches.23<\/a>\u00a0On September 29, 1918, IV Corps squadrons, including the 8th<\/sup> Aero, moved a few miles east to Gengoult aerodrome near Toul. From there the 8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero flew extensive photographic missions as well as voluntary bombing missions.24<\/a>\u00a0\u201cOne of the duties assigned at this time was to photograph the entire Corps front to a depth of ten kilometers, an area of about six hundred square kilometers.\u201d25<\/a>\u00a0Jensen\u2019s log book shows him flying fourteen missions during the time the 8th<\/sup>\u00a0was at Toul, some well over an hour long, but there is no indication of the nature of the flights.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Jensen in a photo probably taken in 1918. I am grateful to Jorie Walters of the Kankakee County Museum for her research and for supplying a copy of the photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On October 23, 1918, the 8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero moved once again, this time about ten miles northeast to Saizerais where, now attached to VI Corps, they again undertook photographic and voluntary bombing missions, and once again Jensen\u2019s log book shows numerous flights of a nature unspecified.26<\/a>\u00a0The 8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero was now part of the Air Service of the recently formed Second Army, whose \u201ctask was to begin a general offensive leading to the capture of Metz and the gateway into Germany proper.\u201d27<\/a>\u00a0The armistice supervened.<\/p>\n

In his recorded recollections, Jensen notes that on one occasion \u201c[my] propeller was shot off at 13,000 feet but I was able to glide the plane to base.\u201d The transcription of his log book does not provide enough information to match this occurrence to a date. He also recalls that he and his observer \u201cwere given credit for bringing down four enemy planes.\u201d I find no record of these incidents in the account of the 8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero in Gorrell, but documentation on the squadron is sparse, and the absence of reference to the credits in Gorrell and in standard claims lists is not incontrovertible proof they did not happen.<\/p>\n

A flight roster for the 8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero from January 2, 1919, shows Jensen still in B flight, but he and Alfred Edward Bennett (of the first Oxford detachment) have exchanged places, with Bennett now flight leader.28<\/a><\/p>\n

During January Jensen evidently received some leave. There are photos kept by his fellow second Oxford detachment member Joseph Raymond Payden of Jensen and his observer Wilkinson, as well as Payden and first Oxford detachment member Edward Milton Wilcox, in southern France, Italy, and Monaco\u2014all still in uniform but off duty.29<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo, presumably taken by Payden, of Jensen, Wilkinson, and Wilcox on the steps of the Casino at Monte Carlo. It was taken prior to January 28, 1919, when Wilcox sailed for the U.S. From p. 68 of Payden and Payden, J.R.: Joseph R. Payden, 1915\u20131925.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In late February Jensen was able to board the Honolulu<\/i>\u00a0at Bordeaux and head home; he arrived at Hoboken on March 13, 1919.30<\/a>\u00a0He returned to Kankakee and resumed his interrupted legal career.<\/p>\n

mrsmcq April 25, 2018; updated October 29, 2021 to include Payden’s photo<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Notes<\/h3>\n

(For complete bibliographic entries, please consult the list of\u00a0works and web pages cited<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\n

1<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Jensen\u2019s place and date of birth are taken from Ancestry.com,\u00a0U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918<\/i>, record for Anker C Jensen. His place and date of death are taken from Ancestry.com,\u00a0U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935\u2013Current<\/i>, record for Anker Jensen.\u00a0 The photo is taken from p. 121 of\u00a0The Wesleyana 1909.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

2<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0On Jensen\u2019s family, see documents available at Ancestry.com and the article about Jensen on p. 396 of vol. 3 of Dunne\u2019s\u00a0Illinois: The Heart of the Nation<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

3<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See p. 121 of\u00a0The Wesleyana 1909<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

4<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cPortrait Gallery: Anker C. Jensen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

5<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Ibid<\/i>. For his date of graduation, see the entries for Jensen in Phelps,\u00a0University of Illinois Directory<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

6<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Dunn,\u00a0Illinois: The Heart of the Nation<\/i>, vol. 3, p. 396.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

7<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cGround School Graduations [for September 1, 1917].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

8<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See Shapiro, \u201cAnker Janson [sic<\/i>] Writes of his Trip Over Sea,\u201d which cites a letter of October 20, 1917, to a friend on the staff of\u00a0The Kankakee Republican<\/i>, which published it November 19, 1917. Apparent errors in the transcription have been corrected.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

9<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Chalaire, \u201cThanksgiving Day with the Aviators Abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

10<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Ludwig\u2019s diary entry for November 29, 1917, lists the \u201cUnfit\u201d team members.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

11<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Foss, \u201cCadets of Italian Detachment Posted Dec 3rd<\/sup>\u201d (in Foss, Papers). Clements, \u201cWorld War Diary of W. T. Clements 1917-1918,\u201d entry for December 3, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

12<\/strong><\/a> \u00a0Clements, \u201cWorld War Diary of W. T. Clements 1917-1918,\u201d entry for January 26, 1918; on Supplee\u2019s assignment to Waddington, see Clements\u2019s entry for the next day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

13<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Payden and Payden, comp.,\u00a0J.R.: Joseph R. Payden, 1915\u20131925<\/i>, p. 54.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

14<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Cablegrams 874-S and 1303-R; see here<\/a> regarding the recommendation for \u201cnon flying\u201d status.\u00a0 The date of Jensen\u2019s active duty status is taken from McAndrew, \u201cSpecial Orders No. 205.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

15<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 [Biddle?], Special Orders No. 109; Coulter, Special Orders No. 105; Dwyer, \u201cMemorandum No. 8 for Flying Officers,\u201d p. 4. In recollections recorded in 1974, Jensen tells of crossing the Channel on May 23, 1918; he has almost certainly misremembered the date; see Jensen, [Recollections of World War I Service], transcript p. 5.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

16<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Dwyer, \u201cMemorandum No. 8 for Flying Officers,\u201d p. 4. Conventionally \u201cDH.4″ refers to the British built, original version of the plane; \u201cDH-4″ to the American built plane with the \u201cLiberty\u201d engine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

17<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Benedict, \u201cSpecial orders No. 194.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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18<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201c8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero Squadron,\u201d pp. 140-41.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

19<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See the brief \u201cHistory of Eighth Aero Squadron (Observation)\u201d on pp. 110\u201312 of \u201c8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero squadron.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

20<\/strong><\/a> \u00a0Jensen, [log book].<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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21<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201c8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero Squadron,\u201d p. 134.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

22<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a08th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero Squadron,\u201d p. 116; this is part of the \u201cReport on Operations against the St. Mihiel Salient\u201d submitted by Winant, which is also reproduced on pp. 689-91 of Maurer,\u00a0The U.S. Air Service in World War I<\/i>, vol. 3. Unfortunately operations reports that might provide details of individual flights appear not to have been preserved; they are not, for example, in Gorrell C.14. Also unfortunately, the 8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero, unlike the 50th<\/sup>\u00a0and 135th<\/sup>, did not find a dedicated chronicler.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

23<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Maurer,\u00a0The U.S. Air Service in World War I<\/i>, vol. 1, p. 245.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

24<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201c8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero Squadron,\u201d pp. 111 and 112.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

25<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Ibid<\/i>., p. 111.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

26<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201c8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero Squadron,\u201d pp. 112 and 144.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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27<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Sloan,\u00a0Wings of Honor<\/i>, p. 360.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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28<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201c8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero Squadron,\u201d p. 136.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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29<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 The photos are reproduced on pp. 67\u201368 of Payden and Payden, J.R.: Joseph R. Payden, 1915\u20131925.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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30<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0War Department, Office of the Quartermaster General. Army Transport Service,\u00a0Lists of Incoming Passengers, 1917 – 1938<\/i>, Passenger list for the S.S.\u00a0Honolulu<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Kempton, Illinois, October 27, 1888 \u2013 Kankakee, Illinois, June 8, 1974).1 Jensen\u2019s parents were born in Denmark; they emigrated to the U.S., apparently separately, in the early 1870s and married in 1878. Christen Jensen, Anker\u2019s father, farmed land in Ford County, Illinois, where Anker was born.2\u00a0Anker Jensen initially attended Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois. … Continue reading “Anker Christian Jensen”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3541,"parent":30,"menu_order":64,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3539","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3539"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8117,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3539\/revisions\/8117"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}