When I am not working, I spend a lot of time continuing with my study / research on the Swedes who fought on the Western Front in the First World War. As you already know, I limit myself to those who were born in Sweden bySwedish parents, fought and fell on the Western Front and are buried or remembered on the same.
I set a goal for myself some time ago that I would find at least 50 individuals who fought for the American side during the First World War, and at the time of writing I have found these 50 who fall within the above-mentioned criteria, but I have only been able to verify 47 individuals. I will return when I can verify at least 50, ie found the correct excerpt from the church register that shows their birth in Sweden.
During the evening I searched through manual search in the archive cards and found John H Erlandson, who turned out to be Johan Herman Erlandsson, born in 1887 in Jönköping, living in Mariebo, before he emigrated to the USA, to Chicago via Hull in England, and arrived in the USA on 21 June 1910. Jönköping is my home town, and it feels a bit special to know where he lived before he emigrated.
Johan joined the American Expeditionary Force and was sent to France during 1917-1918 and fought in the region around Argonne, France. He took part in the famous Meuse-Argonne offensive and fell in battle on October 10, 1918, previously reported to have fallen on October 14.
I promise to one day walk in his footsteps, and visit the area where he fought with the 33rd Division, which I marked with a red ring on the map, as I visit all the other soldiers’ places I have in my database, which are now beginning to approach 200.
Yes, it will take time, but I have promised to visit their place where they fell, and where they are buried, it is my way of showing them appreciation for the way they contributed to Swedish history. May they rest in peace. Never forgotten.
Down below you can see some snippets from pages about Johan Herman Erlandsson.
