The first general staff was
formed in the french army during the early period of Napoleonic wars. Around
the same time, the Prussian general staff was created in 1806, and after the war, the
Swedish general staff was established in 1816. It is essential to explain that the original
general staffs were mainly working with cartographic and topographic activities
and at the same time were functioning corps for higher army officers. The following
changes that resulted in new working procedures and professionalisation of
general staffs in Europe during the middle and following parts of the 19th century
were results of contemporary developments such as conscripted armies, railroad and
telegraph. Aspects as these affected the military abilities of the states such
as Prussia which in combination with professional general staff became able to
wage a new kind of warfare during the era of industrialisation.
In Sweden, after the topic for
reorganisation of the general staff was discussed several times since the 1850’s,
it was decided by the parliament (Riksdag) in 1873 that the general staff
should be organised as own corps with its own Chief of general staff. One of
the main agitators for this process was lieutenant colonel Hugo Rabb who at the
moment was chief for the Lantförsvarets kommandoexpedition (literally
meaning Command expedition of the land-defence
ministry which in part was one of the predecessors of today’s Ministry
of Defense). In Swedish military history writing, Hugo Rabb is described as military
reformer since he played a crucial role in several military developments in the army
During the later periods of the 19th century. In his view, regarding the
reorganisation of general staff, the latest wars had shown the need for a functioning
General staff in war-making process. This could be seen in the functional
development of the Prussian general staff that among other things came to
include war planning, educational work and intelligence gathering about other foreign
armies. Also the wars between Prussia and Denmark in 1864, Austro-Hungary in
1866 and France in 1870-71 resulted in several European countries creating or reorganising
their general staffs.
The newly reorganised Swedish general
staff was not only to have a central role during the war but also during peacetime
regarding the work with military education
and objective discussions of all questions that regarded the land warfare. One
Swedish military history writer called Gunnar Arteus had written about Hugo
Rabb, the general staff and german influence during the time of reorganisation.
During 1855-1858 Rabb was studying at Allgemeine
Kriegsschule in Berlin which Arteus has regarded being vital for Rabb's military
view. According to Arteus the new general staff had some Swedish continuity
however due the new role and assignments as for example interaction between serving
in the general staff and serving at unit level was a sign of the German influence
that dominated the reorganisation process. Rabb considered that it was
essential for the general staff officers after some time in the staff would be
given the possibility to serve on unit level to stimulate the war science
education but also to affect the planning and leading of exercises to
spread and update their knowledge. The general staff officers were also supposed
to serve in two army branch outside of their own. The interaction between the
staff and units gave the possibility for selection of future personnel since the Rabbs
stand was that it was not enough for the officers to only be employed by the staff.
They also needed to immerse themselves in their professionalism and in that way
the officers would be given the possibility to study in both Sweden and abroad and
also to participate in annual general staff filed exercises (theoretical) and
more significant field service exercises (in field with units).
Among
other decisions for general staff that were taken in 1873 were working
procedures for intelligence gathering about foreign armies, planning for the army’s
mobilisation and strategic deployment, writing Sweden’s military history and
working with the military cartography. Also, the staff was supposed to educate officers
for their specific field services and their work as teachers in the army schools.
Also, the general staff officers were to be provided as personnel for the Land-defense
Ministry and higher army staffs. Finally, the organisation of the general staff
was formed in four sections: military statics section, communication section,
topographical section and the military history section.
In
year 1874 a particular instruction was established for the Chief of general staff.
Among other assignments, he was supposed to continually follow the military
development to make proposals to Land-defense ministry for tests or changes
in the army when he considered that the new knowledge and experiences demanded
that. Since then towards the beginning of the 20th century, the growing working
complexity in general staff led to a new reorganisation. In 1908 the military
statistics section was reorganised in three new sections: central section,
organisational section and foreign section. The central section was assigned to
develop plans for different war scenarios (most of the planning was towards a
war scenario between Sweden and Imperial Russia), the organisational section
took care of the army’s organisation issues and mobilisation while foreign
section took care of intelligence gathering and elaboration of military
developments in other countries. The contemporary technical events as aeroplane,
balloons, motor vehicles and radio resulted in dividing the communication
section into technical section that took care of new technological developments and
communication section that took care of transport issues such as railways.
Regarding the employment of
the general staffs' personnel, it was regulated by instructions from 1904 where it
was said that the number of general staff officers would be maximum 48 while
the number of cadets should be maximum of 12. In order to be employed by the
general staff, it was necessary to initially be educated at the War College,
Artillery college or Engineering college and after that to serve two years in
general staffs main station and land-defence ministry. During the aspiration
service, the cadet was also given an amount of self-assignment that were supposed
to be presented verbally or written to Chief of general staff and was to
participate in both filed exercises. The result of the high demands for general
staff personnel was that only around 25% of approximately 25 officers that were annually
admitted for studies at the War collage later became cadets for the general
staff after being proposed by the teachers' council at the college. In 1914 the
number of active personnel in general staff was increased to a maximum of 56 while
the number of cadets was raised to a maximum of 24 in 1916 to increase the selection of
personnel and to meet the new demand for staff personnel. During the years
around 1914, only two to four cadets were employed by the general staff, which meant
only around 20 % of cadets annually serving in the staff later became general
staff officers. Also in 1914, the former general staff officers composed the 11
Of 13 army generals and almost little more over the half of all chiefs of infantry
regiments. During the WWI the Chief of general staff was lieutenant-general
Karl Gillis Bildt (1854-1927) who as Rabb was educated in Germany at the Kriegsakademie (1875-1878) and became a general
staff officer in 1882. He was also a member of parliament’s first chamber during
1899-1908 and commissioner for different comities such as the parliamentarian defence
committee in 1907-1910.
References
Arden Bucholz, Moltke and the German Wars , 1864-1871
(Basingstoke: Palgrave ,2001)