Swedes on The Western Front

In my research I follow up Swedes in the Great War, especially those who fell and are buried at the Western Front. In my database I have Swedish born soldiers who fought for different nations, such as Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany and North America.

I read a lot of material and I especially like to find text in diaries from Swedes who participated in the battles. A quick analyze shows that it was often the Swedish officers notes who became books which they often wrote when they came home, after having survived the War.

In some notes I can read information about where and when they fought in a specific region, and it is very interesting but at the same time a great challenge to figure out if it could have been like that, that they fought against eachother, from a short or long distance, or met eachother. I know it will be very hard to find out, but it is highly likely that they of course where in the same area, where some of them paid the ultimate price, their lifes.

I will write more about this subject in an upcoming article, but will give you an example in this blog post.

Carl Belfrage (Karl Mauritz) was born in Mölndal (Fässberg) parish April 28, 1887. He was raised by his mother Jenny Elfrida Gustafva Lagerlöf and his father Knut Arcadius Belfrage, together with his twin brother George Knut and their older brother Nils Gustaf.

Carl took his officer exam in December 19, 1908. At new years day in 1908 he became an “Underlötjnant” (sub lieutenant) and at new years day in 1914 he bacame a lieutenant.

When Swedish officers applied for going to War for another country, they were in all cases denied to do that, so they had to resign as officers. Carl did that June 3, 1915, and became a lieutenant in 162nd Prussian infantry regiment.

He participated in the War at the Western Front in following battles:

Roye-Noyon July 7, 1915 to September 28, 1915
Autumn battle between La Bassé and Arras in 1915.
Giessler hight east of Souchez in February 21, 1916.
Fightings at Givenchy en Gohelle May 21, 1916 to June 2, 1916.
Battle of the Somme July 20, 1916 to August 21, 1916 and September 25, 1916 to October 7, 1916.
Fightings at the Yser, October 18, 1916 to February 5, 1917.
Siegfried front at Ribe-court in Artois April 24, 1917 to May 15, 1917
Artois in June 5, 1917 to August 9, 1917 and September 17, 1917 to September 29, 1917
Arras and Albert April 1, 1918 to April 20, 1918
Hebuterne July 15, 1918 to July 28, 1918
Monchy and Bapaume August 21, 1918 to September 2, 1918.
West of Cambrai September 3, 1918 to September 6, 1918
Armentieres and Lens September 7, 1918 to October 11, 1918
Antwerpen-Maas stellung October 12, 1918 to November 4, 1918.
Went back through the German area to Germany between November 12, 1918 to December 16, 1918.

Carl became a Captain October 5, 1916. He received the Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd Class, and he left the German Army in March 31, 1920.

In the book about “Swedes in War”, (Svenskar i Krig) by the Swedish Historians Lars Gyllenhaal and Lennart Westberg, there is a short story from one of Carl’s colleague, the Norwegian officer Lyder Ramstad, when they were out on a patrol in no mans land around Ypres:

“We, as the englishmen, often did patrols. One night we heard only some meters away and small talk from the other side. My comrade grabbed me in the arm and said; – It sounds like when you and Belfrage speaks to eachother! It was like that, the talk was made in perfect Swedish. (Norweigian and Swedes understand eachothers language) We crawled around them and shouted – Hands Up! The three men immidiately gave up. The were very surprised when I talked to them in Norwegian. When we came back to our lines , and Belfrage talked to them in Swedish, they looked very surprised. They were three sailors who fought for the Brits (It doesn’t tell for which commonwealth country). Belfrage decided to help them back to Sweden”

Belfrage wrote his own diaries and they have been made into a book by one of his relatives, Bengt Belfrage, and is called “War memories – The hell on the Western Front” (Vanvettet på Västfronten).

As mentioned above, I will try to compile more analyzes and stories from other sources into a larger article, which I probably will send to the Great War Group.

A trip for just three days seems a little bit too short when going from Sweden to Belgium, but in this case it was worth it.

Leaving a very stressed situation at work and then directly go on a trip down to the battlefields for a few days can maybe be seen as a thing to keep up the level of stress, but in this case it is just a very nice way of refueling some energy.

I had my list of about 10 places to visit, and I managed to visit almost all of them. Below you will see some facts about the soldiers and places that I visited.

The flight arrived late on friday, and I drove in heavy rain to the hotel in Ypres. The room was facing towards the market square, and gave me a calm feeling, seeing the old Cloth Hall rising in the lights of the square, and I felt it will be a very good start next morning, when going out to the soldiers. I managed to attend to the online meeting with the Great War Group on friday evening which always is of great joy.

The first place I visited was the Oxford Road Cemetery where the Swedish born soldier Charles Anderson is buried. He fought for the Canadian Engineers in the 2nd Tunneling Coy. You can read more about him in an earlier post.

It is always very moving when standing by the headstone, and I always try to photograph them with the little Swedish flag attached, shown in the photo.

From Charles Anderson it was not far to the Passchendaele New British Cemetery where I visited the Swedish born soldier of Andrew John (Anders Johan) Johansson, and the place where he is buried. I was completely alone this morning except for some traffic of farmers on the road outside, and I sat by Andrew John for a while, trying to take in the specific feeling of the area and the spirit of the soldiers buried at the cemetery.

On my way to the next positions I passed the places and the areas where the Swedish born soldiers David Fridengard Carlson and Eric Ostberg fell. David fought for the 42nd Infantry battalion in the Australian Imperial Forces and fell near the Red Line Objective, one of the lines to reach for the troops in the Campaign that day on October 4th, 1917.

Eric Ostberg fought for the 29th Canadian Infantry battalion and fell near the area of Abraham Heights on November 11th, 1917, just west of the large cemetery of Tyne Cot.

I drove towards Ypres and the took the road down south to the small village near the border to France, Ploegsteert, and visited the resting place of the Swedish born soldier John Mattson. He is buried at the Berks Cemetery Extension which is placed near the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing.

You can really feel the presence of the soldiers when you walk around the area. John fought for 8th Australian Infantry battalion, but I have not yet been able to find any information about in which area John fell that day of June 29, 1916. It was a great feeling to commemorate him in this area.

On saturday evening I attended to the last post ceremony in Ypres, which always is a great moment of peace, listening to the signal, and see the people who are there to visit the Memorial and its surroundings.

Every time I am at the Menin Gate Memorial I try to visit one of so far 20 Swedish born soldiers who have their names on the walls, and this time I visited the soldier who made me start this project, Oscar Wikstrom, who can be found on panel 29, among the other names of those from the 50th Australian Infantry battalion who doesn’t have their own grave.

On Sunday morning I decide to visit the area of Sanctuary Wood to locate the area where the Swedish born soldier Louis John (Lars Johan) Engstrom is assumed to have fallen on one of the days between 2nd and 5th of June, 1916. He probably fell in the area between Maple Copse and Sanctuary Wood, according to the unit diary of the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles.

At this moment I also took the opportunity to try the Digital Trench Map tool from Great War Digital, which worked excellent. On the trench map picture below you can see some of the trenches that were present in the area at that time. (red lines). My position on the map is the red circle.

I went back to Brussels Airport knowing that I will be back in July this year, and will then also start to visit the Swedish born soldiers who are having their last resting places in the Somme area in France.

But I will also be back in Belgium, to visit this very beautiful part of West Flandern, which I feel so strong connected to. Who knows, maybe I have lived here in an earlier life? We will never know.

Posts

Swedes against Swedes

A weekend with the soldiers