Free war () is a form of

guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include recruited children, use ambushes, sabotage, terrori ...

that is conducted with cut-off smaller military units in enemy occupied territory. The largest difference between free war and guerrilla warfare is that free war is conducted by regular military forces, instead of

paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

organizations or

irregular military Irregular military is any military component distinct from a country's regular armed forces, representing non-standard militant elements outside of conventional governmental backing. Irregular elements can consist of militias, private armie ...

forces. The term is most often associated with the Swedish military, primarily during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

era. Though Sweden no longer has free war in their official doctrine, there are still military manuals that mention and deal with this subject. During the Cold War, conducting free war was to some degree a part of the military training curriculum in Sweden, where the purpose was to enable every conscript soldier to conduct free war in the case of enemy occupation of Sweden.'

Tactics

In free war, battles should primarily be conducted through ambushes and raids on enemy logistics and commands in order to disrupt enemy operations, which ties down more enemy combatants behind the

front line A front line (alternatively front-line or frontline) in military terminology is the position(s) closest to the area of conflict of an Military, armed force's Military personnel, personnel and Military technology, equipment, usually referring to ...

, thus making frontline operations easier. In Swedish doctrine this is also where ''jägarförband'' units (Swedish

commando A commando is a combatant, or operative of an elite light infantry or special operations force, specially trained for carrying out raids and operating in small teams behind enemy lines. Originally, "a commando" was a type of combat unit, as oppo ...

-like infantry) will be conducting warfare, though through planned operations, as opposed to free war where the operations are unplanned.

In modern Swedish military doctrine

Though there is no mention of free war in the modern Swedish strategic or operational doctrine documents, there are books that deal with this subject, namely ''Arméreglemente Taktik'' (Army Regulation Tactics) and certain ''Handbok Markstrid'' (Handbook Ground Combat) books. This is what ''Arméreglemente Taktik'' has to say on the subject of the Free War: Here is what ''Handbok Markstrid - Grupp'' and ''Handbok Markstrid - Pluton'' have to say on the subject of the Free War.

References

{{reflist Warfare by type

Tactics

In modern Swedish military doctrine

See also

References