I understand that a sword or similarly shaped bladed weapon had many advantages when it came to personal defence, but I wonder if they were really used as ubiquitously on the battlefield as Hollywood would lead me to believe.
In my (admittedly limited) experience in mock-battles, I've found that an organised group will almost always be more effective with weapons that are specialised to their battlefield role such as pikes, bows, etc, than with swords, and I wonder if this is indicative of how wars were actually carried out, or if I'm missing something.
Understand, I'm not asking about skirmishes or groups with limited organisational support (in which I can absolutely see the value in having a decent all-rounder weapon like a sword - since you never really know what kind of a situation you're going to find yourself in), I'm asking specifically about organised/regimented armies.
The answer is that it varied. I can certainly point to some troop types armed principally with swords. Examples include Roman legionaries in particular periods (though they used throwing spears, or pila, as well) and similar period Celtic or Germanic warriors again, they might have throwing spears or other throwing weapons). However, in the same periods, there were troops armed with other weapons (thrusting spears, pikes, bows etc.). I (or any military historian) can provide more extensive lists of troops that used particular weapons.
Also consider cavalry in the 18th and 19th centuries. Once the use of pistols had died out, and apart from lance armed units, cavalry were armed with different types of swords. They might have pistols available but didn't use them in battle. Some units used different types of carbines but definitely as secondary arms.
In the early medieval period, swords were rare - they're prestige weapons carried by the wealthy. This goes for basically all Germanic folk from around the 5th-11th centuries. Far more common were the bow, axe, and, especially, the spear.
Here's a response from an earlier, similar question:
In the Carolingian Empire, there were several attempts to standardize the weaponry carried by soldiers, if not the quality of it. For example, the capitulare missorum of 792-793 instructed those landowners who were fighting to bring horse and armor, as well as shield and lance, longsword and sax. A letter sent by Charlemagne to Abbot Fulrad in 806 also ordered each horseman to have a bow and several quivers of arrows in addition to the shield and lance, sword and sax, indicating a differentiation between (presumably) heavy and light cavalry, respectively.
The Capitulary of Aachen, issued in 802-803, expected the counts to supply each of their foot-soldiers with a shield and lance as well as a bow with a spare string and twelve arrows, and a further provision that no soldier should carry a cudgel, presumably as an admonishment to those who didn't have a lord wealthy enough to provide a spear and shield.