Category: Okategoriserade

I have now found quite many individuals in my research, who are within my criterias for my project, as you can read more about through the main menu at my front page.

So far I have found 412 Swedish born soldiers who all fell and are buried at the Western Front in Belgium and France.

Through the time I almost have learned to know them, in my hunt for facts about their life and faith, before the made their ulimate sacrifice in the Great War. I will now start to make portraits about as many individuals that I can, which later on will be the base of the material in my book that I am planning to write.

A guidebook, for those who want to walk in the footsteps of those Swedes, and see the areas, know the fights and battles they participated and fell in, and it will be really nice to compile all the info that I have, and probably find new facts, not discovered before.

I realize the magnitude of the work, but at the same time, I feel that I owe them to do this. I will be the one who will bring their history into the light, especially for the Swedes in Sweden today, who I think should learn this, the history of our ancestries, what they actually did, when we said that “Sweden did not participate in the World Wars …”

As a country we did not, but the sons of our country did, for their new countries, or the countries they supported, voluntarily.

I will here give you an example of some facts that maybe will be in the portraits of the individuals, a letter from a father who is longing for his son, who died many years before the letter was written …

The letter is found below. The translation into english is found under the letter.

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From right to left:

Svineviken, April 28, 1920

Dear Andrew (Anders)

I so hoped would be my son, who from I haven´t heard anything since the War ended, I beg you to write a couple of lines to me so I can hear that you are alive. I am alive and having the health but me and Klara are separated now because it was very hard to manage the hard times during the War, which were present for so long. I have worked in the Feldspar Mine for a year. I now end the letter with a dear greeting to you, good bye for now. My address is August Johansson …

PS. After a lot of trouble, has August Johansson through the Ministry of foreign affair found the address, which August use to write to Andrew (Anders) – August is now working at the Feldspar Mine in Brattås in Svineviken. Andrew has to remember now, to write to his father to make him happy.

Svineviken, May 10th, 1920.

S Martinsson.

Imagine to write to your son around 2,5 years after his death, dont knowing if he is alive or not.

Andrew John Johansson (Anders Johan Johansson), Johansson from his father Johan August Olsson, even if he says August Johansson in the letter. Andrew was born in Tegneby, close to the city of Gothenburg, quite close to Svineviken mentioned in the letter, October 23, 1979.

Andrew became a sailor, and there is not any date stated when he left for Australia, but he made his Statutory Declaration in Adelaide, March 1911, and he arrived to Australia from London in 1908. Probably he left Sweden around that year as well.

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Andrew joined the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in Alexandria in June 1916, and proceeded to France. Andrew fought for the 50th Infantry battalion in the Third battle of Ypres and fell October 11, 1917. Andrew is buried in Passchendaele New British Cemetery in Belgium.

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For some reason I have missed to take a photo of his headstone when I was in the area, but I will do it next time when in Belgium. May Andrew rest in peace.

Once again I was searching through old digitized Swedish-American Newspapers, and stumbled over a small note, who said, in my perspective, interesting facts. I saw the name of my village, where I live today.

The small text informed me about a father who was grieved his lost son, who was a soldier in the 122nd Bayerische Infanterie Regemente, and the father had just received info that his son fell, but it didnt tell any date. You find the small note below, and beneath it I have translated it into english.

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I made two pictures, one with the text and one with the text but also including the date from The newspaper, The Texas Post from early January, and I assume his son fell in 1917.

“Jönköping. Swedish Iron Cross Knight dead in the war. The 2nd Lt in the 122nd Bavarian Infantry Regiment, Iron Cross Knight B. J. W. Swahn, has according to a message to his father in Smålands Taberg died in a war hospital in Schwaben, 29 years old.”

It is always interesting to find this information in a American Newspaper from Texas, from over 100 years ago. I understand now, from reading a lot of those newspapers, that it was important for the Swedish Emigrants in North America to read about the faith of their countrymen.

I assume that B J W Swahn died in 1917, and he should then be born around 1888. The thing I know is that his father probably also has the surname “Swahn”.

I first search in the archive from Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, and I search for “Swahn”. You can see the result below.

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It must be him. 1888 and Jönköping is correct, and also that he died in 1917 is also correct. Now I have date of birth.

I go into the Swedish Archive portal “Arkiv Digital” and search for Wilhelm Swahn, born September 24, 1888. And there he is, with all his family. B. J. W. Swahn becomes Bror Jonas Wilhelm Svahn, born in Jönköping, Sweden, and raised by his mother, with the quite unusual name Aqvilina, Sandberg as Surname, and his father Johan Wilhelm Swahn.

Bror´s father is a military, from Jönköping Regiment, I 12, which later on together with Kalmar Regiment becomes Norra Smålands Regemente I 12, in 1927, my regiment, where I started my career.

Bror does his conscript, probably at the same regiment as his father, but later on becomes a sergeant, today the level of OR7, up North in Sweden, at Norrlands Artillery Regiment, A4, before he goes down south again.

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On the map below you can see some of the places where he lived with his family, after has been born in Jönköping city.

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You will find, underlined in red, some places that are mentioned in the church books, and also the small place called Sjötorp, with a map from just North-West of the word Taberg on the larger map, and how a house, that is called Sjötorp today, looks like. It can be in the same plot. I live in the area called “Gärdet” on the map.

I don’t find a lot of info from Bror and his history in the German Imperial Army, but I have some facts that says that he went to North America in 1910, but I haven’t found any information about when he went back again. I assume he did.

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I have tried to find his regiment, to which Division he belonged, and it is highly likely that he belonged to the 122nd Infantry Regiment from Wurttemberg, in the 243 Infantry Division. There is a small text below from that regiment history, from 1917.

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Bror Jonas Wilhelm Swahn is buried in Germany, in Schwaben region, in the cemetery of Kriegsgräberstätte in Schwäbisch Gmünd-Leonhardsfriedhof. May Bror rest in peace, I will remember him.

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I will in february 2022 have a lecture in my local community, and I will of course mention him and, so far, three other individuals from the parish, who fought in the Great War, on the American side, but those other three survived. Maybe they met eachother? Who will ever know …

In this case I will not register Bror in my database, as he is not within the criterias, but nevertheless I will think about him and his family when I walk around in the area next time. Imagine, such interesting history, just around the corner.