WWII 82nd Airborne 325th Glider POW MIA Capt Hansen Normandy Korea Archive For Sale

EXCEPTIONAL NAMED TWO-WAR U.S. AIRBORNE / GLIDER INFANTRY / KOREAN WAR POW-MIA ARCHIVE
Offered here is the personal military archive of Captain Robert Maurice Hansen, U.S. Army, ASN O-362443.
This extraordinary collection follows one American officer from his prewar life through some of the most important campaigns of World War II, his return home after victory, his later Army service and finally the Korean War, where he was captured in combat and died while being held as a prisoner of war in North Korea. His remains have never been recovered.
WORLD WAR II – 82ND AIRBORNE / 325TH GLIDER INFANTRY
Original records in the collection document Hansen\'s service as a gliderman, platoon leader and operations officer with the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division.
His documented campaign history includes Sicily, Italy, Normandy, Holland, the Ardennes and Central Germany.
The 325th Glider Infantry participated in the Normandy airborne invasion, arriving by combat glider on June 7, 1944, D-Day +1. The regiment later made another combat glider assault in Holland during Operation Market Garden and subsequently fought with the 82nd Airborne during the Battle of the Bulge.
WWII Army records for officer number O-362443 document meritorious service with the 325th Glider Infantry from September 23, 1944 through May 12, 1945 in Holland, Belgium and Germany.
Hansen later served with the 194th Glider Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division during the closing period of the war.
THE LETTERS
The archive contains a substantial body of Hansen\'s original 1945 correspondence written from Europe to his beloved “Mimi.”
The letters are unusually personal while also containing important contemporary military and historical content.
Hansen writes from locations including Epinal, Luneville and Marseille, France.
In a June 22, 1945 letter from Epinal he asks about young Marilee Ann playing with her blocks at home and writes emotionally about being reunited with his family. He describes traveling through the Vosges Mountains and seeing the physical aftermath of the war, including damaged and destroyed communities and shell-damaged buildings.
Other letters discuss Army points, officers returning home, transfers, occupation duties and Hansen\'s growing hope that he will finally be returned to the United States.
An August 1945 letter contains Hansen\'s contemporary reaction to the atomic bomb, Japan and the approaching end of World War II.
His August 14, 1945 letter from Luneville discusses the anticipated Japanese surrender and the possibility that his division would soon leave Europe.
By August 31 Hansen was in Marseille. In that correspondence he writes about having received orders concerning his Bronze Star Medal.
The Bronze Star represented in this archive therefore survives together with Hansen\'s own wartime correspondence discussing the award.
One original photograph is identified on its reverse:
“In Luneville, France – Bastille Day, 14 July 1945.”
RETURN TO AMERICA
Captain Hansen survived World War II and returned to the United States.
Original later military paperwork in this archive continues his story into 1950, including named personnel/property records, a November 1, 1950 allotment authorization and November 29, 1950 orders from the Japan Replacement Training Center.
These documents provide an exceptional original-paper trail connecting Hansen\'s WWII airborne career with his subsequent Korean War service.
KOREAN WAR – CAPTURE AND POW
During the Korean War Captain Robert Maurice Hansen, ASN O-362443, served with Company C, 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division.
On February 6, 1951, during Operation Thunderbolt, Company C encountered a large Chinese Communist force while operating along a railroad north of Yonghyon-ni, South Korea.
Hansen was captured.
He was marched north with other American prisoners and by March 1951 had reached the Suan Bean POW holding camp in North Korea.
The camp was not marked as a prisoner-of-war installation. During an Allied air raid on a supply dump adjacent to the camp, Captain Hansen was mortally wounded.
Surviving American prisoners reported that fellow POWs buried Hansen at the camp.
His remains were never recovered.
Official records give his death date as April 22, 1951.
Captain Robert Maurice Hansen remains officially unaccounted for. He is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific and his name appears on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.
THE ARCHIVE
The grouping includes the original wartime correspondence shown; named military documents and orders; envelopes and postal material; Bronze Star Medal; military insignia; original photograph; 325th/17th Airborne service material; personnel/property and clothing paperwork; 1934 University of Nebraska Regents Scholarship Contest certificate issued to Robert Hansen of Lyons, Nebraska; 1950 Army paperwork; POW-related newspaper material; Domain of the Golden Dragon certificate; and the additional related documents and ephemera shown.
Of particular provenance importance, the 1934 University of Nebraska certificate identifies Robert Hansen of Lyons, while later Army records for O-362443 state that he entered military service from Lyons, Nebraska.
This is not simply a collection of WWII letters.
It is an unusually complete surviving personal archive documenting the life of a decorated American glider infantry officer who survived the Mediterranean campaigns, Normandy, Operation Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge and the defeat of Germany; returned home after World War II; subsequently returned to Army service; fought in Korea; was captured by Chinese forces; and ultimately died while a prisoner of war in North Korea.
His remains are still unaccounted for.
An exceptional research and display collection for the advanced collector of the 82nd Airborne Division, 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, Normandy, Operation Market Garden, Battle of the Bulge, 17th Airborne Division, Korean War, POW/MIA material or named American military archives.
The archive has been kept together and is being offered intact.
On February 5, 1951, U.S., Republic of Korea, and United Nations forces launched Operation THUNDERBOLT, with the objective of advancing north to the Han River in South Korea. The 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, was positioned at the center of the operation forces. On February 6, as part of Operation THUNDERBOLT, members of Company C of the 9th Infantry Regiment were patrolling a railroad line north of the village of Yonghyon-ni, South Korea. After proceeding along the railway and sending out small patrols to investigate nearby hills, the company encountered a large element of Chinese Communist Forces (CCF). The CCF launched a series of attacks that forced Company C to fall back to Allied lines. Several men were lost during the course of this fighting.Captain Robert Maurice Hansen, who joined the U.S. Army from Iowa, was a member of C Company of the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was captured on February 6, after his patrol was attacked by the Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) during Operation Thunderbolt. He was put in a group of other prisoners of war (POWs) and marched north, arriving at the Suan Bean holding camp in Suan, North Korea, in March of 1951. The Suan camps were not marked as POW camps, and CPT Hansen was mortally wounded during an Allied air raid on a supply dump adjacent to the camp. Survivors reported that other prisoners buried CPT Hansen at the camp; however, his remains have not been recovered, and he was not identified among remains returned to the U.S. following the war. Today, Captain Hansen is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC, which was updated in 2022 to include the names of the fallen.

Based on all information available, DPAA assessed the individual\'s case to be in the analytical category ofDeferred.

If you are a family member of this serviceman,you may contact your casualty office representative to learn more about your service member.

CAPT. ROBERT MAURICE HANSEN

• Unit
  C CO 1/9 REGT 2ID
• Historical Country of Loss
  North Korea
• Current Country of Loss
  KOREA, NORTH
• Home of Record*IA
• *Home of record is the city and/or state where the service member joined the service. This may not be the same location as where the service member was from.