Carl Brietenstein Christensen was born on June 14, 1921 in Bancroft (Pine Grove Township), Portage County, Wisconsin. He was with the 525th Squadron, when he died in the crash of his aircraft near Downham Market, England, on April 11, 1944.

Early Life

Carl Christensen was born in 1921 in Pine Grove Township (mailing address Bancroft), WI, to Ida (Pagel) and Carl “Charlie” Wilhelm Christensen. Charlie emigrated from Denmark in May 1904, at age 28. He married Ida 2 ½ years later, on his birthday, Nov. 2, 1907 in Almond, WI. Five years later, he was a naturalized citizen. They had four known children – Lydia, Louisa, Agnes and Carl. Charlie was a self-employed machinist in the 1917 WWI registration and in the 1920 census. (Charlie’s obituary in 1975 – age 99 – said he was a blacksmith.) He farmed in 1930, and by 1940 had taken a job as a machinist in a Milwaukee steel foundry. His obituary indicated he worked for A O Smith during WWII.

Between 1935 and 1940, Carl (Jr.) worked as a laborer on the William and Bridget Hetzel farm in Almond Township, Portage Co., WI. He was looking for work, according to the census.

When Carl registered for the draft in February 1942, he resided at RFD 3 in Plainfield, WI, and worked for Vern Clark in rural Bancroft, WI. He stood 5’10 ½ ”, weighed 148 lbs., had blue eyes, blonde hair and a light complexion.

Military

Carl enlisted on 21 October 1942 in Milwaukee, where his folks were living. He gave his address as Portage County. He had completed two years of high school; his occupation class was farmhands. He was single, and 21 years of age. His service number was 36276991. He attained the rank of Staff Sergeant.

He was assigned to the 525th Bomb Squadron, of the 379th Bomb Group, Army Air Forces (8th Air Force). They were trained for the B-17 bomber, the Flying Fortress. Carl had an A.E. rating, believed to mean Aerial Engineer. His role was generally a bombardier, waist gunner, nose gunner or togglier. In 1944 the 525th was based in Cambridgeshire, England at Kimbolton airfield (station 117).

Death and Burial

According to the 379th Bomb Group association, Carl was part of a new crew to fly the “Tenny Belle” on April 11, 1944. It was Carl’s 21st bombing mission; he was the nose gunner on this mission. It was also reported as their 1st mission on the Tenny Belle; 2nd Lt. John E. Daly Jr. was pilot. The target was Sorau, Germany where a large factory complex for Focke-Wolf-190 aircraft was located. A thousand heavy bombers and 800 escort fighters were involved in the mission.

The Tenny Belle (42-31083) took off at 0741. At 0900, it was flying in formation, at about 9,000 feet altitude and an air speed of 115 MPH. An accident occurred, resulting in a crash and explosion. Nine members of the crew perished (KIA), including S/Sgt. Carl B. Christensen; he was 22 years old.

According to the Aircraft Accident Report, the lone survivor, 2nd Lt. William F. Evans, Navigator (O-694353):

“The formation entered the clouds and we leveled off. We were in the clouds only a few minutes when the ship swerved violently to the left. I thought the pilot saw another wing tip and was trying to avoid it. We then swerved more violently to the right. I then figured the plane was out of control and thought that the plane had broken in two. I had my chute on before this. … We were going straight down, and the engines were all running very fast. There did not appear to be any fire in the wings. I tried to get to the escape hatch, but everything at this point is very confused and I do not know if I got out this way…..[After I hit the ground] I looked around to see the plane coming down, the tail part landed way behind the ship and numbers of burning pieces were falling around.”

The cause of the crash was never determined. The crash site was about four miles west of Downham Market, England, near a village called Barroway Drove.

S/Sgt. Christensen was buried in Cambridge Cemetery, England, until his remains were brought back to the US. He was reinterred at Spiritland Cemetery in Almond, WI. His awards included the Purple Heart and the Air Medal with 2 oak leaf clusters.

In 1953, the American Legion Post at Bancroft, WI added Carl’s name, to become the Yonke-Christensen post. (Leo Yonke had been killed in action in World War I.) In addition, a memorial plaque was recently placed in the Village Hall at Barroway Drove in 2018. It commemorates each member lost in the crash of the Tenny Belle. (See Gallery for photo.)

Crew lost in the 11 Apr 1944 B-17G crash near Downham Market, England:

2nd Lt. John E. Daly, Jr. O-805776

2nd Lt. Robert W. Koerber O-692968

S/Sgt. Carl B. Christensen 36276991

T/Sgt. Omer L. Young 17070153

T/Sgt. Adriel W. Langendoerfer 37406828

S/Sgt. Harvey W. Tuber 36329211

S/Sgt. John MacCallum 11100403

S/Sgt. Frank J. Hearne, Jr. 35579373

S/Sgt. Howard L. Polizzo 31313795

Major Sources (See Gallery at Fold3.com also):

1. Wisconsin birth record, 1921, Portage County, available at ancestry.com

2. https://b17flyingfortress.de/en/b17/42-31083-tenny-belle/

3. 379th Bomb Group Archives at http://www.379thbga.org/Looking4%201290-1281%20p29.htm

4. American Air Museum in Britain at https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/aircraft/42-31083

5. Aircraft Accident Report 31109 available at https://assets.americanairmuseum.com/s3fs-public/media/media-31109.pdf

6. Barroway Drove Village Hall Memorial Plaque, Nov. 2018 at https://www.facebook.com/BarrowayDroveVillageHall/

7. https://www.aviationarchaeology.com/dbSearchAF55.asp

8. Portage County WI (history) written by Malcolm Rosholt, 1959 available at https://www.pocolibrary.org/files/Documents/Local_His_PDFs/Our_county_our_story.pdf

9. Draft Registration Cards at Fold3.com.

10. WWII Hospital Admission Card Files, 1942-1954, at Fold3.com. Note the age for Carl is mistakenly listed as age 23 on the April 1944 record. He was 22.

11. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/54855259/carl-b-christensen . Note, both findagrave and the headstone recorded Carl’s birth year as 1922. This is an error. Carl B Christensen was born in 1921.

12. Headstone Application is available at ancestry.com . Note, the headstone application had year of birth hand-written and corrected to 1921, over the crossed-out 1922 year. The headstone maker did not pick up the correction.

13. https://mylegion.org/PersonifyEbusiness/Find-a-Post The Bancroft Post is No. 533 today.

14. US Federal Census for 1920 (Pine Grove Township, Bancroft, Portage County, WI)

15. US Federal Census for 1930 (Pine Grove Township, Bancroft, Portage County, WI)

16. US Federal Census for 1940 (Almond Township, Portage County, WI; and Milwaukee, WI)

17. Wisconsin Newspapers: Wisconsin State Journal, 20 May 1944; Stevens Point Journal, 25 Feb 1975. Available at newspapers.com or other online.

Written by dahlengret1952, August 11, 2023. Please contact me with any corrections or additions.

SBTS/WI/Portage County/Pine Grove Township/Bancroft/Almond

SBTS/England/Cambridgeshire/Kimbolton

SBTS/England/Downham Market/Barroway Drove

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org ). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 421,000+ of the US WWII fallen on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Together We Served and Fold3/Find A Grave have smartphone apps that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery and read these stories of the WWII fallen.