This is the Good Conduct Medal delivered to Harold Gustaf Sjostrom at the end of his first enlistment in December 1927. It includes two bars earned at the end of his next two four-year enlistments. The whereabouts of Harold’s Posthumous Purple Heart Medal or other medals is unknown. This post is in memory of Harold and his 201 shipmates who died shortly after midnight on 11 September 1943 and the 71 that survived after their ship was torpedoed and sunk off Salerno, Italy.

 

 

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Chief Machinist's Mate, US Navy, "Killed In Action" off Salerno, Italy, September 11, 1943. Harold was the only son of Swedish immigrants, John Gustav Sjostrom (b. 1867), a painter, and his wife, Ida Kristina Liljengren (b. 1869). John immigrated to the US in 1884 and settled in Minnesota. Harold had three older sisters Ana (b 1893), Ellen (b. 1898) and Emma (b. 1900). His mother died giving birth to him in 1903 and his father died when Harold was 10. After his father's death, Harold and his sisters went to live with his late wife's mother, Matilda, and their uncles, Eddie and Alix Liljengren, who were farmers at Bernadotte Township, Nicollet County, Minn. Harold enlisted in the Navy in 1923 from California.

 

Among the ships Harold served on were the Clemson-class destroyer, USS Henshaw (DD-278) in the late 1920s and the battleship USS Tennessee (BB-43) in the early 1930s based at San Pedro, California. He was awarded a Good Conduct Medal on December 9, 1927 at the end of his first enlistment. Harold was awarded subsequent good conduct bars following the end of his second enlistment in 1931 aboard Tennessee and at the end of his third enlistment on December 9, 1935. In 1937 he was transferred to the Naval Air Station at San Diego.

 

"Swede", as he was known to his shipmates, was married to Roxy, a girl from Oregon who was seven years his junior. In October 1939, he was a Machinist's Mate First class (MM1c) when he was attached to the Benham-class destroyer USS Rowan (DD-405) that had been commissioned at Norfolk, VA the previous month. Rowan was assigned to Neutrality Patrol and after the US entry into WW2, the European theater of operations. On 1 April 1942, Harold received an acting appointment as a Chief Machinist Mate (MMC) that became permanent later that year. Rowan was placed under command of the British Home Fleet in the summer of 1942 and was one of the escorts for the ill-fated Russian convoy from Murmansk, QP-17.

 

Rowan later engaged French warships in the Naval Battle of Casablanca while supporting Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa. Rowan then defended convoy UGS 6 before supporting the invasion of Sicily.

 

Harold was one of 202 men lost in the Gulf of Salerno shortly after midnight on September 11, 1943 when his destroyer was hit by a torpedo from a German "E"-Boat while escorting shipping from the Salerno invasion area to Oran, Algeria. According to the US Navy, Rowan was the only U.S. destroyer known lost during the first three years of the war from an immediate magazine explosion triggered by an enemy weapon. The German "E"-boat torpedo apparently struck and detonated abreast an after magazine which probably contained spare depth charges, causing a mass detonation of the depth charges. Rowan sank in less than a minute and only 71 men managed to get off and swim through the inky blackness and oily sea. "Swede" Sjostrom and the men below decks didn't have a chance to get out. His remains and those of most of the crew that died were never recovered.

 

Ship's Data Plate

 

 

 

Thanks so much for sharing !!!

Ship’s Company, USS Rowan (DD-405) September 1941 at Norfolk, VA. Harold is circled.

Then Machinist’s Mate 1c Harold Gustaf “Swede” Sjostrom, September 1941

 

Muster roll 1939

 

Muster roll 1943

 

USS Rowan (DD-405), underway in 1940

 

USS Rowan (DD-405)

 

USS Rowan (DD-405) underway and taking supplies via high-line from USS Augusta (CA-31), December 1942

 

One of the 71 USS Rowan (DD-405) survivors, cleaning up aboard a rescue ship.

 

Other survivors aboard a rescue ship

 

Ship’s patch

 

 

Thanks for taking the time to read and remembering Harold "Swede" Sjostrom and his shipmates.

 

Edit- USS Rowan earned 5 battle stars in WW2. I'm pretty sure, if she had lived, there would have been more.

Nice presentation.

Very touching may they all rest in peace

Great post AB, thanks.

 

Rest in peace sailors. We remember.

 

 

 

Wharf

Great Presentation and medal.

Fair winds and Following Seas Sailor !

Thanks for posting

Dan

There is some horrific footage of this incident on YouTube. Very sad. So many lives lost that day.

An excellent tribute to this sailor. RIP.

Very nice tribute aerialbridge. Here is a link to a Purple Heart and Good Conduct Medal that I have from a sailor who was lost board the Rowan also.

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/74464-y2c-henry-f-laakmann-uss-rowan/?hl=rowan

Guys, thanks for all your comments. It's an honor to help remember Chief Sjostrom and the sacrifice of the crew of the Rowan. Beast, thank you for linking to your beautiful Purple Heart group to one of the crew who died on 9/11/43. I hope Harold Sjostrom's PH has also survived these 73 years and to one day see it. Here's the after action report for the sinking of USS Rowan.

 

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