THE SWEDISH INFANTRY

THE OLDEST BRANCH OF THE ARMY

The infantry was the largest and oldest of the branches but today it is in practice history altogether since the remaining so called infantry trains mechanised and armour units. According to the order of 1634 the national infantry (excluding hired mercenary units that made up the bulk of the field army 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 regiments were transferred to the newly raised armoured units. 1957 1 regiment was disbanded while 1 was re-transferred from armour. In 1963 4 infantry regiments were transferred to the armoured 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, finally 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 branch colour 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 rank system was lost.

Before 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 infantry regiments to raise one more brigade. These double brigades received the number of the first brigade + 30. Thus I 11 raised 11th and 41st infantry brigades, I 17 raised 17th and 47th infantry brigades etc. In the eighties two sorts of infantry brigades were in existence :the 66-brigades that were little more than glorified brigade sized territorial defence units depending on tractors and bicycles 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 rhythm of raising the units meant that it was the lower numbered 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 armoured infantry regiments after the second world war, jointly raising the armoured brigades with the armour regiments that only trained tank crews and units in those days. For example P 4 and I 15 jointly raised 5th and 9th armour brigades while I 15 still had its own brigade. This ended in 1963 with the new armoured organization where the armour regiments were doubled in numbers but got the training responsibility for all the tank and armoured infantry units themselves. All but one of the former armoured infantry regiments were transferred to use the experience gathered, I 7, I 10 where armoured 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 armour regiment without having had experience with armour. The defence decision of 2000 finally killed off the infantry. While I 1 and I 5 still remained and MekB 19 will be renamed I 19 again both of the later will train armoured units under an infantry designation while I 1 will train territorial defence units (FIBUA-battallions) only. In 2005 I5 was disbanded.