Jocke Hallberg – Page 16 – Swedes on The Western Front

“On the following day these units continued their advance to the road running from Sivry-sur-Meuse to the Villeneuve Farm, but at dusk a powerful attack delivered
against their right flank forced a retirement to the Tranchee du Cable
just south of the Bois de Chaume, Reinforcements were immediately despatched
across the river and by an attack on the morning of October 10th regained
all ground lost, which was subsequently held notwithstanding that the
right flank remained exposed for four days.”

(Brief Histories of Divisions, U.S. Army 1917- 1918.)

“The following day” mentioned above was October 9th, 1918. One day later John H Erlandson was killed in action, and before the fightings was over in the specific area, also Elof H Johnson was killed.

We don’t know if John and Elof knew eachother, but it is highly likely that they did. They fought in two different companies in the 131st Infantry Regiment, 33rd Division, in the American Expeditionary forces, when they finally met their destinies in the Argonne area in France during fearceful fightings against the enemy.

They ended up in the same field cemetery before they were moved to their final resting place, the American Meuse-Argonne Cemetery.

But they were not the only Swedish born soldiers in that field cemetery.

John H Erlandson, or Johan Herman Erlandson, which was his name when he lived in Sweden, was born in November 27, 1887, in my home town of Jönköping, in the western part of the town. He was raised by his mother Eva Mathilda Ring and his father Johan Peter Erlandson.

Some of Johans siblings had moved to North America before him, and Johan followed in their path June 11th, 1910. It looks like Johans mother Mathilda died already in 1903, but his father died later in 1938. Johan mentioned his brother Axel Birger Erlandson as his next of kin in his papers.

Johan signed his draft June 5th, 1917 in Chicago, Illinois, and it was also here he lived before he went on training with his unit. The 33rd Divison was organized in Fort Logan, Texas, in July 1917, and Johans unit, 131st Infantry Regiment, went in under the 66th Brigade.

Elof H Johnson

Elof H Johnson, or Frans Hjalmar Elof Johannesson as he was called in Sweden, was born October 24th, 1891 in Pjätteryd parish, quite close to the town of Älmhult. (Most famous to be the founder city of the Swedish furniture company IKEA).

Älmhult and Jönköping is not far from eachother, around 130 km, but at that time the travel between those two cities could be quite long. Elof is also mentioned as Olof or Elaf in some documents, which makes it a bit tricky when trying to find information in digital archives.

He was raised by his mother Sara Kristina Salomonsdotter and his fatherJohannes Jonasson. Elof went to North America in 1911, and it looks like that he was the only one in the family that moved to the large country in the west. Elof signed his draft in June 5th, 1917, also in Chicago, Illinois, and maybe John and Elof met eachother in this situation?

Elof and John went over to France with their units, John with company M, and Elof with company L, on the same ship, LEVIATHAN, in May 2nd, 1918. The first units from the 33rd Division went over in May 1918, and the last units reached France in June, 1918.

The 33rd Division trained together with the Brits near the town of Abbeville. In September they acted as the right flank of the 57th French Division.

During October the 33rd Division constructed bridges over the Meuse in quite exposed circumstances under heavy shelling.

On October 10th, John was exposed for heavy shelling and these are the words from 1st Sgt O’Keefe, Company M:

“Pvt. Erlandson was killed instantly by the concussion of a shell. It occurred on the morning of Oct. 14, 1918. We were at that time in the trenches, in rear of Consenvoye, France. He was preparing his breakfast at the time.”

It was assumed that John was killed during October 14th, but was later changed to October 10th, according to the information on the casualty card.

There is no known information about how Elof was killed, but both John and Elof was buried in the same field cemetery. John was buried October 16th, but there is no info when Elof was buried. John was disinterred April 21st, 1919, the day before Elof. Both were moved to the American Meuse-Argonne Cemetery, buried on the dates mentioned above.

On the same day as John was disinterred, thare were also another Swedish born soldier disinterred from the same field cemetery. He was John A Dahlgren, or Johan Alfred Dahlgren as he was called in Sweden, born in Hällsjö parish in Jämtlands county., September 28, 1888.

He left Sweden with his family at an age of 2, and lived in Minnesota, in Kanabec county. John Dahlgren was killed in action on the same day as Elof, when fighting for the 129th Infantry Regiment, and buried in the same field cemetery as both John and Elof.

He was shipped backed to the US and are now buried in Kanabec county in Minnesota. You can find his name in the cemetery plan mentioned in the beginning of this post.

There are a lot more Scandinavian traces all over the Argonne area, and it will be so exciting to finally visit the area this summer.

May the soldiers Erlandson, Johnson and Dahlgren rest in peace.

These are a few of many Swedish soldiers who fell in this part of the Western Front and I will do what I can to mention their stories, of how they gave their lives for their new country in the First World War.

Normally I do all my research through archives to trying to confirm the Swedish born soldiers history, that it fits my criterias in my project, but sometimes I also get information, from friends around the world, that is really interesting to look up, even if it is not connected to the project.

In this case I got some information from my friend from England, Warren Smith, (Twitter profile @wampasmudge). He had recieved some information about a soldiers with a Swedish name who died in the Gallipoli campaign in 1915, and later on mentioned with his name on the memorial in Lone Pine Cemetery in Turkey. Swen was born in Australia, but I decided to look up his story anyway.

The soldier is Swen Addvin Sandstrom. Probably his name was Sven Edvin Sandstrom, or maybe Sundstrom. Then it was probably written as Swen Addvin Sandstrom to suit the english language. His father’s surname in Australia was Sandstrom though.

I decided to try to do some research about Swen’s ancestries, to see what I could find.

I found out through Australian archives that his father was Roland Sandstrom, and with those facts I tried to find more about Roland. I found out that Roland, as many of those Swedes who emigrated to Australia, was a sailor.

Through his application papers for Naturalization I found out that he arrived to Australia in 1863, from Greenwick, Scotland. He disembarked in Sydney, Australia.

He does this application in 1907, and states that he is 65 years old at this time. I also find that he says that he is born in November 25, 1841, in Charlshamn in Sweden, which could be Karlshamn.

I decided to search for a person called Roland Sandstrom (Sandström) in Sweden, born at the date he mentioned in his papers. First search results in zero hits. I decide to search just for Roland with the date of birth and I find a Roland Magnusson, Magnusson after his father Magnus, (Magnus’s son) born in Asarum, not far away from Karlshamn. Could Roland Magnusson be Roland Sandstrom? There is no more Roland born at the specified date. I haven’t found any information about when and why Roland changed his surname to Sandstrom, if Roland Magnusson is the correct Roland, that is.

In the Swedish church books I also find out that This Roland Magnusson is mentioned as sailor.

Roland is mentioned in the book of absent and there is no note about when he left Sweden, which is quite common when is comes to sailors. Probably the left port on some missions, and then they just decided to continue their lives somewhere else. In this case Roland went to Australia.

If we looking in Swen’s papers we can see that he had a wife called Lena, and a brother called Malcolm. Roland stated in his papers that he had five kids. Roland also had two wives, but I don’t know if he had all his five kids with one or two wives. Swen was, as we know, born in Australia, and he registrered for Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) in September 1914.

There is not much information in his papers about when he went to Gallipoli, but it is mentioned that he was killed in Action in May 2nd, 1915. Swen was quite old when he signed his registration papers, he had an age of 34, born in 1880, around May 1880, by his mother Harriet Anna Duncan, later on Sandstrom, when married to Roland in 1871.

Below a snippet from the unit diary, the 16th Infantry Battalion, May 2nd, 1915.

Swen was also active in South Africa, probably in the Boer War in a period of one year and five months, in two different units.

Swen’s father Roland seems to have been in trouble with the law enforcement. I have found some documents that he was sentenced to two year hard labour after have been accused to have inflicted bodily harm, probably to his second wife, Victoria Hanna Sandstrom. If I understand this correctly he was also sentenced to not longer be able to live with his wife, Victoria Hannah Sandstrom.

It is sad to read about those fates.

Below I have saved some snippets from Ancestry about his sentence.

I haven’t yet been able to search more information about Swen’s mother, but I will later on try to find more about her.

When it comes to Lena Sandstrom, Swen’s wife, there are some text about her conversations with the government regarding her husband and his service in the AIF.

First up is a letter that was printed in the Australian Newspaper, The Sydney Morning Herald:

“THE CENSOR. “TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD.

“Sir, — Today I received a letter that was written and posted to me on February 6, 1915. This letter should have reached me yesterday morning, but was not delivered until this afternoon. The reason I find was because it had to be put back to be passed by the censor. Now, this letter was posted in Picton by my sister-in-law. I want to know why my letters should have to be put through the Censor. We are not German. My husband is Australian born, of a Swedish father and an Australian mother. If the Censor knows anything about different nations he ought to know all Stroms are Swedes. My husband, Sergeant S. A. Sandstrom, E Company, 16 B.H., 4th Brigade, A. E. Force, is in Egypt fighting for England and the Empire, and was in South Africa under Colonel Lassetter for two years. I consider it a great insult to my husband and myself and child to be treated as if we were one of the enemy. Why should other people in the same house receive their letters without the brand “Passed by the Censor” while my letters are kept back and read? I have given my husband up for his country only to be insulted. I, as a Briton, resent such treatment. What is in a name. I am, etc. “S. A. SANDSTROM.”

The Sydney Morning Herald’ (New South Wales), 13th February 1915.

(The text above was handed to me through my contact Warren Smith)

The letter is about the reactions from Lena about censoring of letters by the Military Authorities which was made to ensure the letters did not contained any secret information. As far as I know this was made for military purposes, but Lena seemed to have thought it was connected to her husband Swedish surname.

Please be free to correct me in this if anyone know more about the specific situation, or the subject regarding censoring of the letters from the soldiers in the war.

Below there is also one snippet from Lena, when she is trying to sort out where the belongings of here late Swen husband are.

Swen’s wife Lena seems to have died of the raging influenza at the time, and there are a lot of conversations from the military trying to search for her to hand over Swen’s war medals.

Finally they seem to have established contact with Swen’s brother Malcolm to sort out these matters.

Imagine what kind of information you can find in the digital archives just through some information about a soldiers with Swedish roots.