The Caroleans: The Strengths and Weaknesses of Gå–På

If wargamers, reenactors, and heavy metal fans have anything in common, it is what sometimes feels like a universal awe at the military prowess of Carolus Rex and his Caroleans. If you're unfamiliar with them, the Caroleans were soldiers of the Swedish Empire during its final days of greatness from the late 17th to the early 18th Century. They were renowned for their zeal, courage, and extreme discipline in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Repeatedly on their campaigns they would engage and defeat enemies many times their own size, and march on to do it again. How did the Caroleans, a short lived force to be sure, achieve such successes and gain this reputation? Who were they, and how did they fight? And how, ultimately, did the Carolean army fail and the Swedish Empire lose its status as a Great Power to the Russians?

If you would like to learn more about this subject, this book may be a good place to start:
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[briishperson]

"A certain Swedish boot" is the best description of Sabaton I have ever heard to this day

[Thecapper-cf]

”Gå på” is still a tactic we use today.
When in a close fight with the enemy, the squad leader can order his squad to ”gå på marsch!”, the order is to be followed by a general direction of the attack order or end point of the attack. During gå på, every soldier have permission to use whatever weapon system needed to win the fight, hand grenades, rocket launchers and grenade launchers.

It is extremely aggressive and according to the book, it is only meant to be used when the squad leader (or some cases platoon leader) can’t keep his guys organized and the enemy is extremely close to your own position.

/Retired Swedish Marine

[Fredn]

As a Swedish history teacher it brings warmth to my heart that someone so far away is interested in our Caroleans, and makes such a well researched video about it! Thank you, you did great with this one :D

[saiien]

I must say that Carolean uniforms were beautiful. Blue with yellow is a perfect combination.

[AdurianJ]

"Gå På" is still used as a command in urban fighting.
It basically means Attack Advance while Firing and ignore Losses.

[Vonstab]

The muskets would not be slung across the back as that took too much time but were rather carried in the left hand so that it could fairly easily be brought into action as needed. With regards to the pikes it was a simple matter of drill to shift from having the pikemen in the centre or interspersed through the entire battalion line. A much trained movement it was even done at the run during the battle of Kliszow 1702 to counter Polish cavalry.

[blacktemplar]

They lost due to the great Russian tactic known as advancing backwards

[JohanDanielsson]

One thing you missed about the two recruitment systems: switching to the alotment system, meant that the crown no longer could force conscription after conscription to replace losses. The rule was, that if a soldier died in the field, he would not have to be replaced until a certain day of the year, if I remeber this correctly. Thus, it meant a bigger cost for the local society in peacetime, but also gave them a bigger protection from the more or less never-ending conscription, which was so rightfully feared in times of war.


The alotted soldiers was provided with small farms for their service, where they would spend most of their time, during peace. While not mobilized, the soldier would mostly support himself by working this little farm, but would also get some support from the farmers in the rote. He would also sometimes have to train, in order to maintain his military skills.


Artillery and special guards units, was made up of full time professional soldiers. Thus, they were not alotted. Most cavalry was alotted in a slightly different way than the infantry. It was some time ago I read about this, but if I remember this correctly, cavarlymen was kept by rotes of bigger and wealthier farmers, who could afford to keep the cavalryman with a horse. Infantry, and naval sailors, were kept by more normal rotes.


This, of course, meant that the Swedish navy at this time was mainly not manned by full time professional sailors. Compared to for example the Danish navy, the crews of the Swedish navy were naturally somewhat inferior in terms of seamanship. On the other hand, the Swedish navy could mobilize its sailors much faster. The Danish navy enrolled civilian sailors in time of peace, and relied on them to come back home to serve in the navy in wartime. This could obviously take some time.


Also, "gå på" should be translated to "go on", nothing else. It is a direct translation, so I would just say "go on" when I speak English.

[elvenkind]

In Norway we call having a stubborn, postive will to succeed as "gå på vilje", or "gå-på will". Now I know where the phrase have it's origin. So to use another common Norwegian phrase: "One learn something new every day". :) Thanks for the production.

[kevinstewart]

Who else has " a certain heavy metal band" stuck in their heads for the duration of this brilliantly scholarly video?

[fin]

I know Sabaton gets a small amount of hate for popularising stuff without going into enough depth etc but thanks to them, stuff like this are actually known and less obscure.

[DominionSorcerer]

Let's just all agree that 'Stormaktstiden' is a much more awesome and cooler word than the 'Swedish Empire'.

Also, purely because of this video, I now dream of Brandon going through the many farbs present within the movie "Sovereign's Servant
".

[benjaminbrockway]

I just got the Sabaton album for Christmas, and then I open YouTube to find this video. The little coincidences of life.

[peope]

One important part of discipline was a serious christian faith. More so than most other armies.
One of the sayings on "Gå på" was "There is no use ducking. If god wills you to take a bullet it matters not if you duck.".

Another aspect was how they grouped people who where living close to each other with each other.
A lot of the enemy where conscripted militia from all over mixed together.
You wouldn't want to loose face towards your neighbours.
Both encouraging by friends and fear of loosing face.

Another interesting fact is that the pikemen where also armed with swords.
How they used it I do not know but they had it.

[alinalexandru]

"Thanks to a swedish boot" well technically a sabaton is the part of the armour that covers the boot and not the boot itself.

[jamesharding]

Lots of Sabaton fans here, I anticipate. I didn’t expect you to know of them, but I guess it shouldn’t surprise.

Also, Merry Christmas to you, Brandon!

One more thing: your Swedish pronunciation could use some work, but is overall good. Nicely done!

[antonteodor]

We should honour their courage with "My Heart Will Gå På" by Caroline Dion

[bcvetkov]

RIP the Swedes at Poltava. They put up such a valiant struggle until the very end.

[HS-sucf]

The Norwegian commanders knew their troops could not stand up to the Caroleans in battle. So they stayed in their fortresses. The invasion in 1716 failed when the citizen of Fredrikshald (modern day Halden) burned their city (to deny supplies to the besiegers), and the Danish-Norwegian Navy destroyed Charles XII's supplies.


The second attempt in 1718 ended in defeat for the Swedes, because Charles decided to stick his head above the trench.

[Stakan]

Peter the Great called swedes “our teachers”.