Blue Brigade (military unit)

The Blue Regiment or the Blue Brigade was an infantry regiment in the service of Gustav II Adolph during his campaigns in Germany in the Thirty Years' War. A large portion of the regiment was made up of German mercenaries, who were a common phenomenon on both sides. The regiment's name is derived from the blue colored uniforms worn by the soldiers.[1]

Blue Regiment
Musketeer of the Blue regiment
Active	c. 1624-1650
Country	Kingdom of Sweden
Size	c. 1200 (later 16 companies)
Colors	Blue
Engagements	Thirty Years' War
Commanders
1624	Hans Georg von Arnim-Boitzenburg
1625	Maximilian Teuffel
1627	Hans von der Noth
1629	Hans Kaspar von Klitzing
1630	Hans Georg aus dem Winckel

The regiment was raised around 1624 during the Polish–Swedish War of 1621–25,[2] originally recruited from Swedish provinces. Following the landing of Gustavus Adolphus and his army in Pomerania, new recruits came from local German inhabitants to fill the ranks. From 1630 onward, the Blue regiment took part in almost every battle of the Swedish intervention in the Thirty Years' War, such as the battle of Breitenfeld (1631), Lützen (1632) and Nördlingen (1634). Battle of Lützen in particular, where it is referred to as the "Old Blue" regiment, though this name was official from 1634 only, was disastrous to the regiment as it lost more than half of its veteran soldiers from the recurring attacks of the Imperial cavalry and the heavy enemy volleys.[3]

Term brigade is derived from a Swedish infantry formation called the "Swedish Brigade", which was developed by Gustavus Adolphus during his military reforms. Normally, a brigade would be composed of 2 regiments divided into 4 or 3 squadrons of c. 400 men each, though in some cases, a double sized regiment of around 16 or more companies was able to form a brigade on its own, as it was later with the Blue and Yellow regiments.

The regiment was dissolved around 1650 with other colored regiments dissolved around 1638 or before. It was later resurrected as the Göta Life Guards, which was dissolved in 1980.