Dalarna Regiment

The Dalarna Regiment (Swedish: Dalregementet), designations I 13 and I 13/Fo 53, was a Swedish Army infantry regiment that traced its origins back to the 16th century. It was disbanded in 2000. The regiment's soldiers were originally recruited from the province of Dalarna, and it was later garrisoned there.

History

The regiment has its origins in fänikor (companies) raised in Dalarna in 1542. During 1598, some of the units participated in the War against Sigismund and in 1605 one fänika from Dalarna fought at the Battle of Kircholm. In 1615, these units—along with fänikor from the nearby provinces of Uppland and Västmanland—were organised by Gustav II Adolf into Upplands storregemente, of which 1,400 of the total 3,000 soldiers were recruited in Dalarna. Upplands storregemente consisted of three field regiments, of which the Dalregementet was one. The Dalarna Regiment was also the first Swedish regiment to be allotted, which happened as early as in 1621. Parts of this grand regiment participated in the Polish–Swedish wars during the siege of Riga in 1621 and as garrison from 1626–1629. During this period, sometime between 1623 and 1628, the grand regiment was permanently split into three smaller regiments, of which the Dalarna Regiment was one. The regiment's first commander was Axel Oxenstierna.

The regiment was shipped to Germany and arrived at Wolgast in June 1631 to participate in the Thirty Years' War. Its first major battle was the Battle of Breitenfeld on 17 September that same year, where it stood in the first line. It also stood in the first line as part of the Swedish Brigade at the Battle of Lützen the next year, a battle which caused heavy casualties to the regiment. The regiment's "creator", Gustav II Adolf, was killed in a cavalry charge trying to ease the pressure on the Dalarna Regiment's part of the front. The regiment returned to Sweden to replenish shortly after and remained at home until 1638, when one of the regiment's two battalions was sent as garrison to Stettin. The Dalarna Regiment was one of the original 20 Swedish infantry regiments mentioned in the Swedish constitution of 1634. Carl Gustaf Wrangel was the commander from 1639 on. The second battalion was sent to Germany in 1642, and the whole regiment fought at the Battle of Leipzig that year, only to return to Sweden again the following year. They were present during the siege of Landskrona in 1644 during the short Torstenson War.

The Dalarna Regiment was shipped to Pomerania in 1655 following the outbreak of the Northern Wars. The regiment was part of the army that sieged and captured Marienburg in 1656, after which one of the battalions was sent to reinforce the garrison in Riga while the other participated in the attack on Copenhagen in 1659. In preparation for the Scanian War, one of the battalions was sent back to Germany in 1674, and was once again put under command of Carl Gustaf Wrangel, who led a thrust into Brandenburg, which ended in the Battle of Fehrbellin. The other battalion was used in Scania in the Battles of Halmstad, Lund and Landskrona in 1676–1677. A temporarily raised reserve regiment of eight companies was used against Norway in the Battle of Uddevalla.

When the Great Northern War started, the Dalarna Regiment was under the command of Magnus Stenbock and was used against Denmark but was soon sent to the Baltic region, taking part in the Battle of Narva in 1700 and the Crossing of Daugava in 1701. In 1702, the regiment received orders to join the main army at Warsaw. The regiment took part in the Battle of Kliszów, but was sent back to the Baltics for periods between 1702 and 1705. It then was subordinated to the main army that fought at Holovczyn, Malatitze and finally at the Battle of Poltava, where the regiment surrendered to the Russians. The regiment was reformed with new recruits in Sweden in 1710 and was sent to Pomerania and the Battle of Gadebusch in 1712. The Dalarna Regiment once again had to surrender, this time in 1713 after the Siege of Tönning. The regiment was reformed a second time, and took part in both the 1716 and 1718 attacks on Norway.

The next action of the regiment was in 1741 during the Hats' Russian War and the Battle of Villmanstrand, the last of the regiment's major battles. In 1758 the regiment was shipped to Pomerania yet again, this time to participate in the Seven Years' War, but the Dalarna Regiment saw no major battles during that war. In Gustav III's Russian War, the Dalarna Regiment was initially positioned along the southern Finnish coast but was later transferred to the inland, where several minor skirmishes took place during 1790. One of the battalions was involved in the First War against Napoleon, fighting minor battles against Norwegian troops which ended with the whole battalion being captured in early 1808. The final battle of the Dalarna Regiment was during the Campaign against Norway in 1814, in the Battle of Kjölbergs bro, one of the last battles Sweden fought before adopting a policy of neutrality.

The regiment was given the designation I 13 (13th Infantry Regiment) in a general order in 1816. Dalregementet was garrisoned in Falun from 1908. In 1973, the regiment gained the new designation I 13/Fo 53 as a consequence of a merge with the local defence area Fo 53. The regiment was disbanded in 2000.

Campaigns

• The War against Sigismund (1598–1599)^[1]
• The Polish War (1600–1629)
• The Thirty Years' War (1630–1648)
• The Torstenson War (1643–1645)
• The Northern Wars (1655–1661)
• The Scanian War (1674–1679)
• The Great Northern War (1700–1721)
• The Hats' Russian War (1741–1743)
• The Seven Years' War (1757–1762)
• The Gustav III's Russian War (1788–1790)
• The First War against Napoleon (1805–1810)
• The Campaign against Norway (1814)

Organisation

Name, designation and garrison

Commanders

See also

• List of Swedish regiments
• Provinces of Sweden

References

Notes

Coordinates: 60°36′21″N 15°39′06″E / 60.60583°N 15.65167°E / 60.60583; 15.65167