Bomber Crew Mourns Iowa Pilot’s Death
By Walter Cronkite
A BOMBER BASE IN ENGLAND (U.P.)
On an R.A.F. airdrome somewhere on the south coast the sun was shining. There was the smell of falling leaves in the air that wafted through the open windows of the buildings. Back home you’d call it “perfect football weather.”
“Out on the edge of the field a Fortress squatted, a little apart from the perky Spitfires and Typhoons. She was sitting at a cockeyed angle.”
Her right tire was wrapped in strips around the hub. Where her nose had been was shattered Plexiglas. The underslung radio antennae hung in frayed ends.
Tail Gunner
The ball turret hung limply on one side; the other side was accordion-pleated up into the fuselage. Sunlight penciled through cannon holes in the wings and tail.
Inside the ship, the wreckage followed the pattern cut outside by Nazi gunners. But inside there was blood. There was the blood of the ball turret man there in the waist where they’d hoisted him up and given him first aid. There was the blood of the tail gunner outside his cramped compartment where they’d dragged him out.
And in the nose was the blood of the pilot. Down to the nose he had crawled because he couldn’t fly with one good arm - and the other had been shattered when German ack-ack burst alongside his window. He’d crawled there because he must have known he was dying and he wanted to be with his navigator, his school days pal.
Lieut. Harold Christensen was that pilot, a nice lad from Eagle Grove, Ia. He had a nice crew too, but I’m not giving their names because fighting men don’t want to have it reported that they have emotions. But I have to tell you that every one of those three officers and six enlisted men was blubbering like a baby when they lifted Chris down from the nose and took him to the hospital, where he died a few hours later.
Offered Blood
The crew lugged away its personal equipment and left the big ship standing forlornly with the wounds she’d earned over Schweinfurt. None of them had gone back since. Some day they have to go back to the plane, but not yet.
Now they were up at the officer’s club in their dirty, stained O.D.’s, slumped in chairs and trying to read with eyes that stung. One or two tried to play pool but gave it up. They’d offered their blood for Chris but now that was over.
The R.A.F. boys knew what they were going through. They’d been all through it and they knew it wasn’t any use to say anything.
Maybe that’s it. Maybe there isn’t any use my saying anything about it now - but I can’t help remembering it over all the recollections of blood, noise and battle - that forlorn old Fortress and those nine weeping boys.
Souce: By Walter Cronkite, Thursday, November 11, 1943
Biography - Military Hall of Honor - ID:312380
Harold R. Christensen
First Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Forces
Harold R. Christensen was born on 10 October 1921, the son of Holger Martin and Nora Hansen Christensen.
On 14 October 1943, First Lieutenant Harold R. Christensen was serving as the Pilot of a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber with an unspecified unit of the U.S. Army Air Forces in the European Theater of Operations.
On that day, 1LT Christensen’s unit was in action against German forces during an air mission over Schweinfurt, Germany. During that mission, 1LT Christensen’s arm was shattered by the flak from a German anti-aircraft shell that had exploded by his window in the cockpit. Unable to fly any longer, he crawled down into the nose turret out of the way of those fighting to keep the damaged plane in the air, 1LT Christensen’s courageous actions and extraordinary heroism that day, at the cost of his life, earned him the U.S. Army’s second highest award for valor, the Distinguished Service Cross.
1LT Christensen died of his severe wounds on 15 October, a few hours after the mission.
Medals, Awards and Badges
Distinguished Service Cross
Purple Heart
Air Medal
American Campaign Medal
European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal
Army Air Force Pilot Badge
Distinguished Service Cross Citation (Synopsis)
The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross (Posthumously) to Harold R. Christensen (0-738094), First Lieutenant (Air Corps), U.S. Army Air Forces, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy during an air mission against enemy forces on 14 October 1943. The personal courage and devotion to duty displayed by First Lieutenant Christensen on this occasion, at the cost of his life, have upheld the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Army Air Forces.
Headquarters: European Theater of Operations, U.S. Army, General Orders No. 97 (1943)
Burial
First Lieutenant Harold R. Christensen is buried at Rose Hill Cemetery in Eagle Grove, Wright County, IA.
Sources: World War II Honor List of Dead and Missing Army and Army Air Forces Personnel from Iowa; Military Hall of Honor and ancestry.com
