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Swiss war game envisages invasion by bankrupt French

A

auric

pfm Member
I still struggle to understand why this rubbish landed in international news.

Every army in the world invents situations for exercising purposes. They could as well have said that they prepared for an invasion of green-eyed filthy monsters.

The Telegraph said:
Some historians argued that Adolf Hitler left the Swiss alone because he wanted to use their banks.
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The journalist found it a good idea to give his story more weight by adding the word 'Hitler'. I thought the Telegraph was a more or less serious newspaper.
 
The World view according to The Telegraph + The World view according to the Tory Party Conference help too fill the pages and coffers.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Telegraph
Some historians argued that Adolf Hitler left the Swiss alone because he wanted to get their Toblerones.
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The Swiss always had their suspicions.
 
The daughter of my old boss at Sandoz (now Novartis) worked for the Swiss Commission that looked into Swiss behaviour and policy during the Second World War. The myth had long been that plucky little Switzerland was a formidable hedgehog that the Nazis didn't dare tackle. That they were ready for invasion can be seen by the pillboxes and rows of dragons' teeth that march across Swiss fields to this day.

The Commission's studies revealed a much more complex and ambivalent picture. It seems that the Nazis decided that the existence of Switzerland was more useful to them than its occupation. And, regrettably, plenty of Swiss were prepared to take advantage of the situation, from the bankers who made hay (refusing to pay up because the descendants of people who perished in Auschwitz couldn't produce death notices) to the German subsidiaries of Swiss companies which happily used slave labour.

As a small neutral, democratic country surrounded by large, unfriendly neighbours, Switzerland had to play its cards very carefully. It even played along with the Gestapo in stopping Jews escaping, punishing the few heroes who helped:

http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/stories/grueninger.asp

The only time that Germany contemplated invasion was when Italy surrendered, and the Germans wanted to secure their lines of communication. The Swiss got wind of it and Swiss General Guisan (the Swiss Army only has a general in time of war, appointed by Parliament) met a German general quietly and told him that not only would the Swiss resist, but the first thing they'd do was blow the Gotthard Tunnel. End of invasion plans.
 
tones said:
but the first thing they'd do was blow the Gotthard Tunnel. End of invasion plans.
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Which might also be the stuff of legend. I reckon there were very few people who know the exact reasons why Switzerland was left alone in WWII, and all of them are now up in the skies. Everything else is speculation.
 
If Hitler had wanted to invade Switzerland, judging by the ease with which he 'took over' most of the rest of mainland Europe, surely (clearly?) he would have done so. The natural conclusion to draw from this is that he thought it served his needs better if it was left as is. This leaves the door open to speculation as to why. If I was a member of the Swiss government at the time, faced with cooperation or invasion, I think I would have voted for cooperation.
FWIW, when I was working for a living (now retired) I regularly visited customers in both Germany and Switzerland and it was apparent from both sides of the border that there was not a lot of love lost between the two. It was also noticed by colleagues who occasionally accompanied me on such visits. If anything, this was more noticeable in the German speaking part of Switzerland.
That of course may just be coincidence and related only to the relatively small proportion of the populations that I met but I didn't think so at the time. Don't know whether it contributes much to this discussion but it might provoke further discussion.
Dave.
 
Switzerland an open country somewhat along the lines of an open city? I feel that Switzerland was useful to all sides during the conflict and that may well be a reason for their path through the history of the last 100 or so years.
 
DaveKen said:
If Hitler had wanted to invade Switzerland, judging by the ease with which he 'took over' most of the rest of mainland Europe, surely (clearly?) he would have done so. The natural conclusion to draw from this is that he thought it served his needs better if it was left as is. This leaves the door open to speculation as to why. If I was a member of the Swiss government at the time, faced with cooperation or invasion, I think I would have voted for cooperation.
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Not necessarily- the Swiss would have retreated to the Alpine Festung. Remember that, even employing the most ruthless of measures, the Germans never defeated Tito's partisans in the mountains of Yugoslavia. Trying to secure the Alps and the passages across them would have been a nightmare. However, as you say, given the fact that Switzerland was officially neutral, it was obliged to deal with the Nazi regime and not show favouritism to either side, well, not too much anyway. It actually was a good listening post. It was the Jewish Agency in Geneva which first noted the reports of mass transportation of Jews and of experiments with poison gas, and put two and two together.

FWIW, when I was working for a living (now retired) I regularly visited customers in both Germany and Switzerland and it was apparent from both sides of the border that there was not a lot of love lost between the two. It was also noticed by colleagues who occasionally accompanied me on such visits. If anything, this was more noticeable in the German speaking part of Switzerland.
That of course may just be coincidence and related only to the relatively small proportion of the populations that I met but I didn't think so at the time. Don't know whether it contributes much to this discussion but it might provoke further discussion.
Dave.
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No, Dave, it's no coincidence. There has always been a certain resentment by the German-speaking Swiss against Big Brother up north, fuelled by the fact that the Germans love Switzerland and come here to live and work in droves - most of the chief chemists in the labs where I spend much of my time are German, happily settled here.

It has lessened somewhat over the years, but springs up again every so often over various things, whether it be Swiss banking secrecy or the changing of the flight approaches over German territory to Zürich airport, forcing the planes to fly over the hyper-expensive real estate on Zürich's "Gold Coast" and potentially diminishing the property values.
 
auric said:
Switzerland an open country somewhat along the lines of an open city? I feel that Switzerland was useful to all sides during the conflict and that may well be a reason for their path through the history of the last 100 or so years.
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I think that sums it up pretty well - Swizzieland was useful to the Nazis and the Allies - for little meetings such as this (starting at 3.39):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t43w9oFIXcU&list=PL3168528FAD8E2530

Spain was also useful - wily old Franco might have enjoyed German help during the Spanish Civil War (such as the Condor Legion, which gave the Luftwaffe such good training) and he might have been ideologically aligned, but he was clever enough to stay out.
 
tones said:
The daughter of my old boss at Sandoz (now Novartis) worked for the Swiss Commission that looked into Swiss behaviour and policy during the Second World War. The myth had long been that plucky little Switzerland was a formidable hedgehog that the Nazis didn't dare tackle. That they were ready for invasion can be seen by the pillboxes and rows of dragons' teeth that march across Swiss fields to this day.

The Commission's studies revealed a much more complex and ambivalent picture. It seems that the Nazis decided that the existence of Switzerland was more useful to them than its occupation. And, regrettably, plenty of Swiss were prepared to take advantage of the situation, from the bankers who made hay (refusing to pay up because the descendants of people who perished in Auschwitz couldn't produce death notices) to the German subsidiaries of Swiss companies which happily used slave labour.

As a small neutral, democratic country surrounded by large, unfriendly neighbours, Switzerland had to play its cards very carefully. It even played along with the Gestapo in stopping Jews escaping, punishing the few heroes who helped:

http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/stories/grueninger.asp

The only time that Germany contemplated invasion was when Italy surrendered, and the Germans wanted to secure their lines of communication. The Swiss got wind of it and Swiss General Guisan (the Swiss Army only has a general in time of war, appointed by Parliament) met a German general quietly and told him that not only would the Swiss resist, but the first thing they'd do was blow the Gotthard Tunnel. End of invasion plans.
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Excellent post! May I add that possibly Switzerland was not useful to the Germans because of its banks, but as a neutral clearing house through which to obtain supplies of raw materials and manufactured goods.
 
There's one defence against the possibility of marauding French that hasn't been raised in this thread. The food in Switzerland is so universally dreadful that any French invaders will not be able to tolerate more than a couple of days before fleeing back across the alps.
 
TheDecameron said:
The food in Switzerland is so universally dreadful
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And that comes from a Briton :D

Question: Have you eaten a couple of times in average, Jean-Dupont-class French restaurants ? If so, you have certainly noticed that you are better served even in Britain.
 
I've had cause to visit Switzerland a few times for work and on every occasion found them to be rather arrogant and rude.

Perhaps I'm casting aspersions on a whole country but I really didn't enjoy visiting it at all.
 
thebiglebowski said:
I've had cause to visit Switzerland a few times for work and on every occasion found them to be rather arrogant and rude.

Perhaps I'm casting aspersions on a whole country but I really didn't enjoy visiting it at all.
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Sorry to hear that. I've generally found them to be unfailingly polite. You will naturally get a quota of arrogance, as you will everywhere, most especially among a sub-species that regards Switzerland as a paradise on earth, surrounded by large, envious neighbours. However, these are a dying breed as young Swiss love to travel and study abroad, and simply don't have the hidebound attitudes of some of their elders.
 
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