Tennenbaum, Jacob Isaak (01081764)

Jacob Isaak Tennenbaum
Personal details
Birth name	Jakob Isaak Tennenbaum
Born	11 March 1917 Vienna, Austria
Died	21 March 1988 Suffern, New York
Nativity	Austria
Religion	Jewish
Awards	Bronze Star Medal; French Croix de Guerre
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
Arm / service	Coast Artillery Corps
ASN	01081764
Rank	Captain
Rank at Ritchie	Second Lieutenant
Camp Ritchie	Class 14 (2 December 1943 – 31 January 1944)
Section	5A

Awards and honors

Bronze Star Medal	French Croix de Guerre

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Sources & confidence: Treat Research notes as leads, not settled fact. Prefer NARA, the class roster, newspapers, Find a Grave, or published histories for contested claims. Mark unsourced claims with {{Needs source}}, or explain disagreements on talk. Baseline import notes: About the data.

Jacob Isaak Tennenbaum (born Jakob Isaak Tennenbaum, later Jack Tilden; 11 March 1917 – 21 March 1988) was a Vienna-born Ritchie Boy who fought as an enlisted coast artilleryman on Guadalcanal, was commissioned, trained at Camp Ritchie, Maryland, in Class 14, and served as chief of intelligence of the First U.S. Army's psychological warfare combat team, earning the Bronze Star and the Croix de Guerre.

Biography

Jacob Isaak Tennenbaum, later known as Jack Tilden, was born Jakob Isaak Tennenbaum in Vienna on 11 March 1917 into a Jewish family. He graduated from a technical college in mathematics and physics and worked in Vienna as an import-export businessman and sewing machine dealer. After the Anschluss he fled, sailing from Le Havre to the United States in October 1938; he lived in New York City and by October 1940 was working as a stock clerk and shipping clerk.

Tennenbaum was drafted at New York City on 11 February 1941 as a private (enlisted ASN 32005751) and went through the Reception Center at Fort Dix, New Jersey, to artillery basic training with the 244th Coast Artillery Regiment (anti-aircraft) at Camp Pendleton, Virginia, where he specialized among other things as a gun pointer. By June 1942 he had been sent to New Caledonia in the Pacific, and until about February 1943 he served as a survey and instrument man and chief plotter with the 3rd Battalion and Battery F of the 244th (later the 259th) Coast Artillery alongside the 1st Marine Division at Tulagi and Guadalcanal. Back in the United States, he became a naturalized citizen in New York City on 24 May 1943, attended officer training at the Coast Artillery School at Fort Monroe, Virginia, from May 1943, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in October; he was assigned to the headquarters and to Headquarters Battery of the 2nd Battalion, 241st Coast Artillery (Harbor Defense), at Fort Dawes and Fort Revere, Massachusetts.

On 29 November 1943 Tennenbaum arrived at the Military Intelligence Training Center at Camp Ritchie, where he trained as a German-language interrogation officer and graduated with Class 14 (IPW 5A, German; certificate 5001) on 31 January 1944, classified as officer in charge. On 8 February 1944 he was assigned to the combat propaganda unit of the 2nd Mobile Radio Broadcasting Company and took the psychological warfare course at Camp Sharpe, Pennsylvania. He embarked on the Queen Elizabeth on 31 March 1944 and arrived in Glasgow on 6 April, took further propaganda training and served as an instructor at Clevedon and at the Psychological Warfare School in Brondesbury Park near London, and in May, under the First U.S. Army, took part as a prisoner-of-war interrogator in the propaganda and intelligence preparations for the Normandy landings.

Shortly after D-Day Tennenbaum landed in France, and the 2nd MRBC, stationed among other places at Colombières, lent him to a psychological warfare operational unit of the First U.S. Army. From August 1944 he served as a propaganda intelligence officer and morale analyst (Psychological Warfare Intelligence) with the experimental Psychological Warfare Advance Team of VIII Corps in Brittany. In September 1944 the 2nd MRBC detached him as chief of intelligence to the new Psychological Warfare combat team of the First U.S. Army, with stays at Verdun among other places, and he also worked with the Publicity and Psychological Warfare Section of the 12th Army Group. By way of Belgium and Luxembourg he analyzed the propaganda battle for Aachen in October, and he then wrote a regular weekly Psychological Warfare Intelligence report that served as the intelligence basis for leaflets during the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest in late 1944. He received the Bronze Star and the Croix de Guerre. After the war he worked in Germany in media and information control for the 6871st District Information Services Control Command, and he was discharged as a captain in November 1945. He died in Suffern, New York, on 21 March 1988.

Gallery

• 
  Caricature of Jacob I. Tennenbaum from the History of the 2nd Mobile Radio Broadcasting Company (U.S. Army, 1945)

Timeline

• 11 March 1917 — Born Jakob Isaak Tennenbaum in Vienna, Austria.
• October 1938 — Sailed from Le Havre to the United States.
• 11 February 1941 — Enlisted (drafted) in NYC as Pvt (ASN: 32005751); 244th Coast Artillery Regiment, Camp Pendleton, Virginia.
• June 1942 – February 1943 — New Caledonia; Tulagi and Guadalcanal with the 244th Coast Artillery.
• 24 May 1943 — Became naturalized U.S. citizen in NYC.
• October 1943 — Commissioned second lieutenant after the Coast Artillery School, Fort Monroe, Virginia.
• November 1943 — Battery officer, HQ Battery, 2nd Battalion, 241st Coast Artillery, Fort Dawes and Fort Revere, Massachusetts.
• 29 November 1943 — Entered Class 14 at Camp Ritchie.
• 1944–1945 — Awarded the Bronze Star and the Croix de Guerre.
• 31 January 1944 — Graduated Class 14 (IPW Ge); Classified as OIC.
• 8 February 1944 — Assigned to Mobile Radio Broadcasting Company 2; Camp Sharpe, Pennsylvania.
• 31 March 1944 — Embarked on the Queen Elizabeth for Glasgow (arr. 6 April 1944).
• June 1944 — Landed in France shortly after D-Day.
• August 1944 — Psychological Warfare Advance Team, VIII Corps, Brittany.
• September 1944 — Chief of Intelligence, PWB/1st Army combat team.
• November 1945 — Discharged as a captain.
• 21 March 1988 — Died in Suffern, New York.
• October–December 1944 — Aachen and Hürtgen Forest; weekly PWI reports.

Technical record

Field	Imported value
MRBC2	2
Approx Age at Death	71
Class_ASN	81764
Class_Name	TENNENBAUM, Jacob I.
match_method	asn_partial_name_exact
row_source	both

Research notes

• Also 32005751 CdeG
• Vienna
• also 11066760 Pfc
• D+17
• to 2nd MRBC
• ASN conflict: the Austriansoldiers biography gives his officer ASN as O108176 (seven digits); the page title and roster use 01081764. Title not changed; needs review.
• The Austriansoldiers biography dates his transfer to Camp Ritchie to November 1944; the roster's arrival date of 29 November 1943 and his January 1944 graduation are kept.

Sources

• Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
• Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records
• NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
• 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
• Dan Gross, Timeline of Jacob I. Tennenbaum for Camp Ritchie (private research document; 3 source documents reviewed)
• Dan Gross, Timeline of Tennenbaum, Jacob I. for Camp Ritchie (private research files; selected non-private narrative findings; 3 source files: JACOB I. TENNENBAUM (2020).doc, JACOB I. TENNENBAUM (2021).doc, JACOB I. TENNENBAUM.doc)
• Austriansoldiers biography: Jacob I. Tennenbaum, Austriansoldiers / Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on Consequences of War (in German; accessed 25 September 2026)