Travel magazine reported that the citizens of the Swiss cantons were “so indifferent to national concerns that to the average man the name of the president of the Federation remains unknown, yet so cohesive in a crisis that only the great Napoleon violated, and in vain, the frontiers that have stood since the Dark Ages.” There was a saying: “National liberty grew from individual liberty in Switzerland. Nothing lasted that was imposed from above.”40
The national Shooting Festival (Schützenfest), which remains the largest rifle competition in the world, was held in Lucerne in June in conjunction with the world championships of the UIT, or International Shooting Union. Federal President Etter, author of the concept of “spiritual national defense,” spoke at the event, stressing that something far more serious than sport was the purpose of their activity. His comments demonstrated the connection between national defense and the armed citizen:
The Swiss always has his rifle at hand. It belongs to the furnishings of his home. . . . That corresponds to ancient Swiss tradition. As the citizen with his sword steps into the ring in the cantons which have the Landsgemeinde, so the Swiss soldier lives in constant companionship with his rifle. He knows what that means. With this rifle, he is liable every hour, if the country calls, to defend his hearth, his home, his family, his birthplace. The weapon is to him a pledge and sign of honor and freedom. The Swiss does not part with his rifle.41
Rudolf Minger, who had pushed through the country’s immense defense buildup after Hitler came to power, also spoke. Noting the presence of the best rifle competitors from 19 foreign countries, Minger declared that the “foreign guests must see that the Swiss people are still martial and strong, and ready at any time to sacrifice everything for the maintenance of their freedom and independence.”42
At that 1939 festival, Switzerland won the service rifle team competition for the world championship.43 A Swiss also set a new world record in pistol. In the Free Rifle event, the Swiss team used rifles based on their standard army-issue carbine, the K31, and came in third, behind Estonia and Finland.44 Count Hermann Keyserling, an apostle of Nietzsche, wrote at this time that in Germany “it is recognized that aristocracy has a higher value. But in Switzerland, plebianism is the ideal.”45 In a shooting war, the Swiss plebeian would have been quite a match for Nietzsche’s Übermensch.
Secretary of State Cordell Hull, in a speech to the United States Senate on July 14, 1939, recalled the historic American avoidance of “entangling alliances” and insisted that “both sides agree that, in the event of foreign wars, this nation should maintain a status of strict neutrality.”46
United States policy also strictly limited the immigration of refugees. In mid-May 1939, a boat of 930 German Jews tried to land in Cuba. The U.S. State Department attempted to facilitate their entry. Cuba refused. The State Department did not offer to allow the refugees to enter the United States, and they were thus forced to re-cross the Atlantic.47
Despite official Washington’s standoffish attitude toward the whole subject of Europe, at least some politicians were willing to acknowledge Switzerland’s evolving militance in the face of growing threats to her independence. On August 2, 15,000 people joined in celebrating Switzerland’s 648th anniversary at the World’s Fair in New York City. On that occasion, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia described Switzerland as “a bulwark of democracy in Europe,”48 adding:
When people are suppressed in the different parts of Europe, when hope is gone in the Mediterranean, when the future is dim in the Balkans, when air raids threaten other sections, the people look to Switzerland as the hope of Europe. . . . We have so much in common. We have learned so much from the glorious history of your country. You were a free country before America was discovered.49
Returning from a visit to Switzerland, the Lord Mayor of London referred to Switzerland’s army as “the oldest militia in Europe. . . . The system is one which helps to ensure that the Swiss Army can mobilize more rapidly than any other army in the world.” He recommended the Swiss model for England.50
In Switzerland herself, fortifications continued to rise. Numerous forts were built along the German border and, “for appearances’ sake,” two were erected on the French border. In the summer of 1939, the world had yet to witness the devastating power of a German blitzkrieg, but the Swiss were already intent on employing their resources to make any invasion exceedingly costly.51
On August 19, it was reported from Basel that the heightened anti-Swiss propaganda campaign and the uncommonly large German troop concentrations in southern Germany during the preceding few weeks had prompted the Swiss to further strengthen garrisons along the German and Italian frontiers. One German rumor making the rounds at the time was that homes of German citizens in Basel had been ransacked by Swiss mobs. Though patently false, this was the same type of propaganda lie that had preceded Hitler’s aggression in such places as the Sudetenland. Over 20,000 motorized German troops were concentrated in the Black Forest, just north of the Swiss border, within easy striking distance of Basel.52
Meanwhile, Hitler was using the status of the Baltic port and “Free City” of Danzig, which was ruled locally by Nazis, as a pretext to justify an aggression against Poland.53 In June, the Führer had approved a secret military plan to eradicate Poland’s army and to occupy the country.54 On August 23, the Nazi and Soviet governments shocked the world by announcing a non-aggression pact, signed by Foreign Ministers von Ribbentrop and Molotov. Little did the world know, until after the war, of the two parties’ secret protocol for carving up Poland and eastern Europe between them.55 Yet, by seeming to free Germany from concern with the totalitarian behemoth to its east, the pact alarmed the Swiss and made them even more determined to prepare for war.
With total war rapidly approaching after the Nazi-Soviet pact, it is instructive to compare how the small neutral countries of Europe were preparing for the coming storm. The following table includes the populations and the numbers of men under arms for selected European countries during the period 1937–39. The “peace army” includes those on active duty or on maneuvers; in some cases this service was only seasonal. The “war army,” for all countries except Switzerland, was purely theoretical. It included the number of soldiers who could be mobilized given sufficient time. As events in early 1940 would demonstrate, a small country could be taken over in a few hours, before a mobilization order could even be issued. In the case of Switzerland, the figure for the “war army” was real, in that every soldier already had all equipment at home and could begin fighting at any time. In this sense, it may be said that Switzerland’s “war army” was really the same size as her “peace army.”
Men Under Arms, 1937-3956
Country Population “Peace Army” “War Army” % Pop.
Belgium 8,276,000 100,000 650,000 8
Denmark 3,764,000 4,000-10,000 150,000 4
Finland 3,762,000 30,000-100,000 300,000 8
Netherlands 8,640,000 39,000 400,000 5
Norway 2,884,000 18,000-30,000 110,000 4
Switzerland 4,183,000 25,000-36,000 400,000 10
The last column shows the percentage of the population included in the “war army.” As will be seen, during the war Switzerland would mobilize as many as 850,000 soldiers and local defense troops, which would raise her proportion of men under arms from 10% to 20% of the population. The low number of men under arms in Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway corresponded with their subsequent inability to resist invasion.
Finland effectively resisted the Russians in 1939. The Finns, like the Swiss, were by reputation a nation of riflemen. But Belgium, with the same proportion of men under arms (albeit under the hypothetical “war army”), was unable to resist the Germans in 1940. In addition, Belgium (like the Netherlands) had colonies which could distract from its national defense in Europe. Switzerland, of course, had no colonies.
The above data are taken from a 1937 Austrian publication and a 1939 German publication, respectively, using the 1939 data when available
. The statistics changed little if at all between those two years. As is obvious from these sources, those planning the expansion of the Third Reich were well informed of which countries were weak militarily and which were stronger.
In the last week of August, with her citizen soldiers undergoing summer training, Switzerland had nearly 100,000 men on active service.57 On August 25, several units of elite frontier troops were called to their posts.58 On the 28th, the Federal Council decreed mobilization of an additional 100,000 troops.59
On August 29, the Federal Council proclaimed a state of active service throughout the country, automatically invoking the far-reaching provisions of the military code. Civilians who committed certain offenses were to be tried by military courts. These offenses included incitement to desertion from the army, demoralization of the army, spreading false information to countermand military orders, and violation of military secrets.60
On August 30, anticipating that general war was imminent, the Swiss Parliament unanimously elected Colonel Henri Guisan as commander- in-chief of the army. The appointment of this French Swiss had been agreed on since the Munich crisis of 1938. Reflecting the country’s anti-militarist tradition, in peacetime the highest rank in the army was colonel, but in wartime Parliament was empowered to elect the commander-in-chief, with the rank of general. Guisan had been Commander of the III Corps and was a native of the canton of Vaud in French-speaking western Switzerland. Colonel Jakob Labhart, from a German-speaking area, was appointed Chief of the General Staff.61
As general, Guisan would represent the ordinary citizen-at-arms. During the course of the war, this common man and inspirational military leader would come to symbolize the Swiss spirit of resistance.62
At that time, the militia included all males aged 20–60 and had female volunteers for special duties. The Elite troops were aged 20–36, the Reserve were in the 36–48 age group, and the Home Guard were aged 48–60.63 Frontier guards were put in place, explosives installed in bridges, and the air force called out—it had 150 obsolete Swiss airplanes and 50 Messerschmitt Me-109 fighters purchased from the Germans.64 The Me-109, an aircraft similar in overall performance to the British Spitfire, was the mainstay of the Luftwaffe fighter arm. The Germans would soon come to regret their sale of these 50 planes to the Swiss.
On August 31, together with its call for a general mobilization, the Federal Council issued a formal declaration of neutrality similar to that which it had issued at the beginning of World War I.65 The declaration began:
The international tension which has motivated the Swiss Confederation to take military measures obliges it to declare anew its unshakable will not to depart in any way from the principles of neutrality which have for centuries inspired its policy and to which the Swiss people are profoundly attached. . . . 66
The National Exposition, popularly called the “Landi,” was taking place at this time in Zurich. It demonstrated Swiss values, unity in diversity and readiness to meet future challenges. An area called the “Höhenweg” was an elevated path under the open sky over which, in a breathtaking display, hung 3,000 different flags representing every Swiss city, town and village. Large numbers of Swiss found reassurance and solidarity at the Exposition.67
An English visitor to the National Exposition heard such statements as: “There’ll be no talk of a ‘Munich’ here” and “If anyone attacks us, we will know how to repel the invader.”68 While a year earlier an occasional voice would defend the Führer, today he symbolized evil to virtually everyone in the country. “The Third Reich, from being disliked, has come to be hated. Hitler is generally regarded as a war-obsessed politician, self-perjured and a trickster, a bully given to sudden and unprovoked attacks on his smaller neighbors.”69
On September 1, 1939, Hitler launched World War II in Europe by invading Poland. For the first time, the world witnessed the tactics of blitzkrieg—lightning war—in which tanks would slice into and surround an enemy’s front and planes would swarm behind the enemy lines as mobile artillery. The Poles fought bravely, but within a week it was clear that strategic points of their front had been irreparably broken and their major units had been outmaneuvered by German armor.
Despite the Nazi threat that had been evident for years, Poland was woefully unprepared for war. In some cases, orders to give out ammunition to riflemen or artillerymen had not been issued. In one telling incident, the commander of a unit found only enough cartridges to kill himself and his horse.70 Much of the Polish air force was caught by surprise and destroyed on the ground by German bombers. As the Wehrmacht closed in on Warsaw, already terror-bombed by the Luftwaffe, the Polish government surrendered.71 To preclude civilian resistance, the Nazis conducted house-to-house searches for arms.72 Persons found in possession of firearms in defiance of the invaders were executed.73
On the morning the German invasion of Poland began, a telegram in Switzerland at 11:00 A.M. announced that the entire Swiss armed forces were mobilized. Recalls one soldier, “We grasped our sharpened bayonets, sharpshooting ammunition, and Totentäfeli [dog tags], and swore to sacrifice life and limb for the defense of the fatherland and its Constitution.”74
Switzerland faced two threats against which the country would have to defend herself. The first was the fear of a German attempt to incorporate Switzerland forcibly into the Third Reich or to invade in conjunction with the Italians to divide the country among themselves. The second threat—more immediate now with the advent of general war in Europe—was that a belligerent would invade a portion of Switzerland in an attempt to reach an enemy’s territory more quickly.
By September 3, when Britain and France declared war on Germany, 435,000 Swiss—out of a mere 4.2 million people—were mobilized. Most were stationed in the north in anticipation of a German-French war in which those powers would attempt to outflank each other by violating Swiss neutrality.75 The Swiss could mobilize quickly because every man had his arms and equipment at home. By contrast, in France, aside from its standing troops, it took weeks to mobilize the reserves.76
Recalling Hitler’s threat in Mein Kampf to seize new territories in the East, the Journal de Genève commented:
Bound to his adventure but prisoner of his method, Chancellor Hitler must push to the brink; the plenipotentiary of Warsaw not coming to Berlin to receive the Diktat that was put to Mister Hácha, the German troops were launched against Poland to impose the dictator’s will.77
On September 17, the Russians moved into Poland to occupy the territory agreed upon in the Nazi-Soviet Pact.78 The cynical secret protocol between Hitler and Stalin to divide Poland was not then known, and many Polish officers surrendered their units intact to the Soviets, thinking Stalin had moved his army forward to prevent further German aggression. Eight thousand of these Polish officers would later be found buried in mass graves in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk; thousands of others in Soviet custody were never heard from again.
The blitzkrieg which crushed Poland in just 20 days led General Guisan to intensify his planning for the expected attack against Switzerland. The Swiss now made plans in the event of “Case West,” in which the French would invade en route to Germany, and for the more likely event of “Case North,” in which the Germans would loop down into Switzerland under the Maginot Line.79 On the 18th, the Federal Council authorized the army high command to reduce the age for military training from 20 to 19. The first year of military training entailed 88 days.
On September 21, General Guisan rejected a request by political leaders for partial demobilization so that soldiers could return to their farms. Concentrations of foreign troops on the border still required the army to prepare for “any eventuality.”80 At the same time, economic pressure from the warring parties began—Switzerland depended on France and Italy for foodstuffs and on Germany for fuel.81
That same day the normally reserved lower house of Parliament cheered Federal President Etter when he warned that Switzerland was ready to resist any invasion. Europe had recognized Swiss neutralit
y in the Treaty of Vienna of 1815 only “on condition we defend it ourselves.” Pointing out that the army was “entirely mobilized on the first day of this war,”82 Etter added that if “war extends to our country, it will find us ready—men, women, soldiers, civilians, old and young, all of whom swear to give their life to their country, preferring death rather than slavery.”83
The next day, September 22, Swiss anti-aircraft batteries fired on two or more German planes flying over Schaffhausen, Switzerland’s northernmost canton, and also fired at two French warplanes near Basel.84
As reported from Paris on September 23, the French anticipated German flanking movements over and below the Maginot Line via Belgium and Switzerland. The Swiss mountains would be difficult to pass through, but one possible route included the Basel Gap, where Germany, France and Switzerland meet. Since Napoleon’s fall and the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1815, France had honored its pledge not to build fortifications within three leagues (nine miles) of Basel. While the Maginot Line did not reach the Swiss border, the gap was protected by works set up further west, including the strongly fortified position of Belfort.85
Another possible invasion route was through Switzerland’s Aare Valley, located east of the Jura Mountains. German military writers had frequently spoken of a blitzkrieg through the Aare Valley, beginning by crossing the Rhine over the nineteen bridges between Basel and Schaffhausen and thrusting southwest to Geneva and into France.86
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