THE SWEDISH INFANTRY

THE OLDEST BRANCH OF THE ARMY

The infantry has always been the largest and oldest of the branches and it still remains the largest although the disbandingfrenzy might change this in a few years. According to the order of 1634 the national infantry (excluding hired mercenary units that made up the bulk of the fieldarmy in Germany at that time) would consist of 20 regiments of which 7 were finnish. Since then the number has varied and at the beginning of 1900 there were about thirty regiments or corps Before he disbanding of 1927-8 there were 28 regiments and after 1929 there were 21 regiments and 1 corps. In 1937 that corps ( I 18 )was transformed into a regiment again. In 1939 1 regiment was disbanded and in 1942 2 regimets were transferred to the newly raised armored units. 1957 1 regiment was disbanded while 1 was re-transferred from armor. In 1963 4 infantryregiments were transferred to the armored forces and in 1989 ? regiments were disbanded. In 199? ? regiments were disbanded and in 1997 3 more were disbanded. In 2000 all remaining regiments but two were disbanded, fianlly killing the oldest branch in practice, and both totally reverted to mechanized training. One regiment was officially transferred back from the mechanized corps but only in name.

The branchcolor of the infantry is yellow.

The numbering was changed after the massacre the army had to go through and many high numbered regiments assumed deceased lower numbered regimets numbers. Thus the old ranksystem was lost.

Brigade raised today tells what wartime organisation the regiment is responsible of raising today. Bfeore the second world war every regiment was a wartime organisation in itself. This was changed to a brigade system where every regiment was responsible for raising one brigade. The brigade being the unit used in the field army while the regiment was used for administrating the territorial defence units as well as being a depot for the brigade. During the second world war the army was almost doubled in size. This was accomplished by ordering most infantryregiments to raise one more brigade. These doublebrigades recieved the number of the first brigade + 30. Thus I 11 raised 11th and 41st infantry brigades, I 17 raised 17th and 47th infantrytbrigades etc. In the eighties two sorts of infantry brigades were in existance:the 66-brigades that were little more than glorified brigade sized territorial defence units depending on tractors and bycycles for transport and the 77-brigades that at least were motorized. The 66-organization brigades were all disbanded in the late eighties (the equipment used for true territorial defence units) but the numbering and the rythm of raising the units meant that it was the lowernumbered brigades that were disbanded. For some years the brigades raised at I 15 was thus 45th infantry brigade and at I 16 the 46th infantry brigade. In the early nineties this was corrected since the older logic was less known. Some infantry regiments ( I 7, I 10, I 15) became armored infantry regiments after the second world war, jointly raising the armored brigades with the armor regiments that only trained tank crews and units in those days. For example P 4 and I 15 jointly raised 5th and 9th armor brigades while I 15 still had its own brigade. This ended in 1963 with the new armored organization where the armor regiments were doubled in numbers but got the training responsibility for all the tank and armored infantryunits themselves. All but one of the former armored infantry regiments were transferred to use the experience gathered, I 7, I 10 where armored infantry regiments and I 18 had plenty of experience due to its sharing of barracks with the Göta life guard Gotland detachment. I 15 returned to the infantry while I 6 became an armor regiment without having had experience with armor.

The defence decision of 2000 will finally kill off the infantry. While I 1 and I 5 still will remain and MekB 19 will be renamed I 19 again both of the later will train armored units under an infantry designation while I 1 will train territorial defence units (FIBUA-battallions) only.