Battalion (Sweden)

A Swedish/Finnish battalion during the mid 17th century up to the mid 18th century was the smallest tactical unit during battles. The 600 men unit was temporary formed at the inception of a battle by joining four foot companies from a foot regiment of eight companies. The commander of the regiment, a Överste, led the first battalion and his deputy, a Överstelöjtnant the second battalion. Battalion commanders as well as all the officers were marching in front of the formation. Underofficers were marching at its sides and at the back to make sure that no soldiers escaped their positions as well as replacing officers who were killed. Each senior officer such as Major, Överstelöjtnant and Överste was, in addition to their principal duites, as well in command of a company. The actual command of the Överstes' company was delegated to a Kaptenlöjtnant for the Överste to better concentrate on managing the regiment and the first battalion. During battle, each officer, except Fänrik, was in charge of a division of his company. An underofficer is one of Furir, Förare, Fältväbel, Sergeant or Rustmästare.

Tactics -- Infantry vs Infantry

Even though the formation was within the range (100 meters) of hostile musketeers and being fired upon, the march continued accompanied by drums until the range between the unit and enemy lines reached 50 meters. At that point, the formation halted in order for the last third and fourth rows of musketeers to aim and open fire. The march continued some 20 meters further and halted again for the first and second row of musketeers to aim and open fire. The purpose of the tactics was to frighten the enemies by displaying zombie like determination and courage despite of being fired upon as well as casing major causalities by firing at close ranges. The zombie like appearance of rapidly approaching Swedes along with major casualties from the first and second blasts should be sufficient for the enemies to panic and run away. When that happened, swords and pikes were used to kill enemies on the run. Situations when two parties run into each other in close battle with swords and pikes were rare. Light artillery units were sometimes placed in the gap between battalions – a practice at the end of the Great Northern War.

Tactics - Infantry vs Cavalry

A third alternative, which was effective against cavalry attacks, was to line up the whole regiment into one huge battalion of six lines.

The first two lines consisted of musketeers the second two lines of pikers and the last two lines of musketeers.In this formation the Major was in charge of the center, the Överstelöjtnant the left wing and the Överste the right wing.

Se also

* Swedish allotment system
* Great Northern War
* Field Artillery (early 18th century)

References

* "Karl XII på slagfältet", Generalstaben, 1918
* "Karolinsk och europeisk stridstaktik 1700-1712", Gunnar Artéus, 1972
* "Stora Nordiska Kriget 1700-1721", Lars-Eric Höglund och Åke Sallnäs, 2000
* "Gustav II Adolf och hans folk", Göte Göransson, 1994

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