Jenson, Henry
Army Private 1st class

Henry Jenson from Minnesota, Goodhue county.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Tuesday, October 17, 1944
Death details: The Battle of the Hürtgen Forest, one of the bloodiest conflicts of World War II, was fought between Allied and German forces from September 1944 to February 1945. As U.S. forces advanced eastward into Germany, the defending Germans manned “Siegfried Line” positions opposite the Belgian border. The battle grew to involve approximately 200,000 troops, with tens of thousands of casualties on both sides. American forces initially entered the area seeking to block German reinforcements from moving north toward the fighting around Aachen, the westernmost city of Germany, near the borders with Belgium and the Netherlands. In the battle’s second phase and as part of the Allied’s larger offense toward the Rhine River, U.S. troops attempted to push through the forest to the banks of Roer River. Aided by bad weather and rough terrain, German forces in the Hürtgen Forest put up unexpectedly strong resistance due to a well-prepared defense. American forces were unable to break through to the Rur before the German Ardennes offensive struck in December 1944, known as the Battle of the Bulge, which halted the eastward Allied advance until February 1945. Private First Class Henry Jenson entered the U.S. Army from Minnesota and was a member of Company L, 3rd Battalion, 60th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division. In mid-October 1944, his unit was positioned in an area of the Hürtgen Forest south of Raffelsbrand, Germany, known as the Raffelsbrand Forest. On October 17, Company L took part in an attempt to push German forces entrenched in the Raffelsbrand Forest eastward. However, the American soldiers were pushed back and German counterattacks inflicted additional losses. PFC Jenson was reported missing once his unit regrouped following this action. The exact details of PFC Jenson’s loss are unknown. He has not been associated with any remains recovered from the area following the war, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Private First Class Jenson is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency