Swedish Brigade of the Thirty Years War

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In the field the Swedes used squadrons (battalions) and brigades (Brzenzinski, 1995). Brigades would have 3 or 4 squadrons.


Swedish Firing Brigade of 3 Squadrons
Swedish Firing Brigade of 3 Squadrons

Swedish Squadron / Battalion

Squadrons first appeared between 1617 and 1621 (Brzenzinski, 1995). A squadron was half a regiment, so about 500 men. The standard formation was a pike block (36 files of 6 ranks) followed a musket block (32 files of 6 ranks) and the remaining musketeers in two small blocks behind (each 8 files of 6 ranks) (Brzenzinski, 1995). This suggests a higher proportion of shot than were actually present in a squadron, but I don’t where the inconsistency comes in.

Swedish Squadron - Thirty Years War
Swedish Squadron – Thirty Years War

Swedish Brigade

Brigades were introduced in 1627 but abandoned again in 1634 (Brzenzinski, 1995). From 1628 to 1631 they had four squadrons (about 2,000 men), but otherwise three (about 1,500 men).

Deployment for a three squadron brigade (based on Brzenzinski, 1995):

Swedish Brigade of 3 Squadrons - Thirty Years War
Swedish Brigade of 3 Squadrons – Thirty Years War

Deployment for a four squadron brigade (based on Brzenzinski, 1995):

Swedish Brigade of 4 Squadrons - Thirty Years War
Swedish Brigade of 4 Squadrons – Thirty Years War

References

Brzenzinski, R. (1995). The Army of Gustavus Adolphus 1: Infantry [Men-at-Arms 235]. Osprey.

1 thought on “Swedish Brigade of the Thirty Years War”

  1. The surplus shot were generally used to replace casualties between battles and provide detachments for supporting the horse squadrons

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