The Men's World at Lidingövägen

Summary of Olof Santesson's article in RSAWSPJ no 2 2001.

The Swedish Armed Forces were woefully unprepared when the Second World War started. It was not only a question of inadequately trained conscripts and a lack of equipment. 135 years of peace had left its mark. Staff work at higher levels left much to be desired. In April 1940, as the first Swedish Supreme Commander, General Olof Thörnell seems to have had no idea of how to make use of the single fully motorized unit of the Army, the Cavalry Brigade. This in spite of the fact that there was every indication that Scandinavia was about to be attacked by Nazi forces.

The Cavalry Brigade was the nation’s only strategic reserve. It was sent to the coast in southern Sweden in dispersed order prior to the formation of any covering forces.

We can read the story of the mishandling of this brigade in a recent book, K 1 1928-2000, edited by Bengt Wallerfeldt (Livgardets dragoners historiekommitté, Stockholm 2000), a historical work about the only cavalry regiment that remained in the Swedish capital Stockholm, after there had been an amalgamation of two cavalry regiments. This was the result of the Defence Review of 1925 which abolished several units, especially those of the cavalry.

As in the United Kingdom, for instance, the Swedish regimental tradition is a very important one. The book bears witness of this in its detailed description of daily regimental life. The reader also gets a picture of how the Armed Forces developed in a build-up during the war. In every infantry division there was a cavalry battalion with horses, armoured cars (very primitive to begin with) and cyclists, mobilized by the cavalry. These were strenuous days for the remaining four Swedish cavalry regiments, not least because the number of divisions increased from five to ten. Today all that is left is one division.