Territorially, Sweden was divided into five military districts, each of which was to mobilize one infantry (infanteri) division (fordelning) and a number of independent units, including a cavalry (kavalleri) brigade (brigad) and five independent infantry regiments (regemente).

In time of war, the army (armen) should organize two army corps (armekdr) HQs, 1st and 2nd. In 1942, as the army grew, the 3rd Army Corps HQ was formed.

Infantry Formations

The Swedish infantry divisions were a little bit different from other second-class European armies of the day. They were big, 22000 men divided into three infantry regiments, one artillery (artilleri) regiment, a cavalry battalion (bataljon), a HQ, and smaller anti-tank (Pansarvarn), anti-air (Luftvarn) and engineer (ingenjor) units.

The infantry regiments were made up of three battalions, each with four companies, a HQ company, a machine gun company, and a special company with construction, anti-tank and anti-air equipment. They had a very modest allotment of heavy weapons. In 1940 the figures were: 42 machine guns, 21 mortars and four anti-tank guns. There was no field artillery because mortars were believed to be more effective in the Swedish terrain. The field artillery was consolidated in the division's artillery regiment, which consisted of 11 batteries.

When the war started, the politicians realized that the army must expand rapidly if it expected to be able to deter a possible invader. In the beginning of 1940 it was decided that the number of divisions should increase from five to ten. One division was created 1 July 1940 by putting together three independent infantry regiments, but the rest had to be manned with recruits. This was done and new divisions were set up 7/1/40, 10/1/40, 1/1/41 and 4/1/41. To accomplish this, the divisions' numerical strength were decreased to 16500 by taking away one company from each battalion. As mentioned below, the artillery regiment lost two of its batteries. In compensation for this, during 1941 the divisions added more heavy weapons: 6-37mm AT-guns, 27-20mm automatic guns, 18 machine guns, 81-47mm mortars and 9-120mm mortars.

In 1944-45 infantry units also began to organize into bicycle brigades to enhance mobility.

Cavalry

The divisional cavalry had a rather odd composition: one motorized staff, one armored car squadron (skvadron), one horsed squadron and one bicycle squadron. In the winter the bicycle squadron was organized into a horsed squadron. The independent cavalry brigade, on the other hand, consisted almost entirely of horsed forces.

In 1941 the cavalry brigade was reorganized into the 8th Motorized (motoriserad) Brigade.

Armor

In September 1939 the Swedish tank (Pansar) force consisted of 48 light tanks of the Czech CKD AH-IV type, armed with only two machine guns, and 16 Swedish Landsverks m/38 medium tanks, armed with a 37mm Bofors gun, organized in a single tank battalion.

When the war came and the rest of the army grew, so did the tank force. In 1940-41, 20 Landsverks m/39 were delivered; in 1941-44, 180 Landsverks m/40 (an improved version of m/38); and in 1942-44, 238 CKDs TNH. All of these were medium tanks with a 37mm gun and a weight between 8.5 and 10.5 tons. Eighteen of the later types were modified to carry a105mm gun and were organized into an assault gun battalion in 1944. In 1943-45, 282 Landsverks 22-ton m/42 with a 75mm gun were delivered. When the war ended, Sweden had 766 tanks. In terms of units, Sweden got its second tank battalion late in 1941 and its third in 1942.

In early 1942 it was decided that the armor should be brought together into three armored brigades: 8th, 9th and 10th. The brigades each had two tank battalions, one motorized infantry battalion, one howitzer battalion, two engineer, one recon (spaning) and one anti-air company. The brigades were also supposed to have a tracked AT company, but its equipment wasn't delivered before the end of the war. The 10th Brigade entered service on 7/1/43. The other two began forming in 1944, but they were not fully equipped until the next year.

Artillery

The Swedish artillery was both quantitatively and qualitatively one of the army's weaknesses. At the outbreak of the war there were 320-75mm field guns, of which 200 tubes were the obsolete horsed m/02, and 108 tubes were the vehicle towed m/02-33. There were 132-105mm field howitzers m/10, of which only 20 were in good condition, and 60-105mm field guns m/17 and Bofors m/34 of which 48 tubes of the latter were modern and vehicle towed. The 94-155mm field howitzers consisted of 54 ancient m/06, 28 relatively modern towed m/38 and 12 very modern towed Bofors m/39. 

Divisional artillery was collected in an artillery regiment with 11 batteries with four tubes in each. This could be compared with the German divisional artillery with 14 batteries with 6 tubes each. The artillery regiments were organized with 12-75mm m/02, 12-75mm m/02-33, 12-105mm m/10 and 8-155mm m/06. The 5th Division had no 155's.

The corps artillery in 1939 consisted of 12-105mm m/17, 24-105mm m/34 and 12-155mm m/39. The cavalry brigade had a battalion with 12-105mm m/02-10.

A major problem was that most guns had too short a range: 6 km for 75mm m/02, 105mm m/10 and 155mm m/06; 10 km for 75mm m/02-10 and m/02-33; and 11 km for 105mm m/17 and 155mm m/34.

Of course, both the military and the politicians realized the weaknesses of the Swedish artillery and new materiel was ordered from Bofors. When it was decided that the number of divisions should increase from 5 to 10, however, the lack of artillery became critical. There were three possible methods to solve the problem: reduce the number of tubes in the divisions; import pieces from other countries; and produce new pieces in Sweden. All three of methods were used.

To give every division artillery, the artillery regiments were cut down to 36 pieces instead of 44. 142-105mm RheinmetallBorsig M18 towed howitzers with a range of 11 km were purchased from Germany starting in 1940 and designated 105mm m/39. The Swedish government commandeered guns and howitzers made by Bofors for Argentina, Siam, Turkey and the Netherlands: in all, three battalions of 75mm m/40 guns and two battalions of 105mm m/40 howitzers. In addition, 40 guns and 211 howitzers of these types were made during the war for the Swedish army.

In early 1942 the corps artillery (all corps) had been expanded with another 24-105mm m/34, 12-105mm m/39 and 24-155mm m/39; another 48 of the latter were added before the end of the war. During this time, the 105mm m/17 had been removed from the organization. In 1944 the divisional artillery at last had enough materiel to slowly increase the strength of the batteries from 4 to 6 guns.

Anti-Aircraft

The Swedish anti-aircraft forces were divided into the field AA, the territorial AA, and from 1941, the airfield AA.

In 1939, the field AA had 10 batteries with four guns in each, and the territorial AA 25 batteries. Almost all the equipment came from the Bofors factory: the tractor-towed 75mm m/30 and the famous 40mm m/36 to the field AA, 75mm m/18 and m/27-30 and 88mm m/22 to the territorial AA.

The divisions usually had one AA company and at the corps level there was one AA battalion, a number that by the end of the war had grown to eight. This battalion usually had three 75mm four-gun batteries.

Thanks to the Bofors factory, the war organization could expand rapidly when the war came. On 8/01/41 it consisted of 4 corps AA battalions (and two more almost combat-ready) in the field AA and 71 batteries in the territorial AA, usually with Bofors 75mm m/36. When the war ended, the figures were eight corps AA battalions, plus one at the island of Gotland, 30 airfield AA batteries and 57 batteries in the territorial AA.

Swedish Armed Forces 1939-45

Introduction
Army
Air Force
Navy