Anaxagoras
Banned
Running the factories should provide at least as much as trade did.
I doubt the Swiss would have left any factories intact for the Germans.
Running the factories should provide at least as much as trade did.
I don't see why would Hitler invade his personal bank, which also provided weapons to Germany.
Does anyone know how many tanks, artillery and so on the Swiss had in 1940?
I think it would go like that:
The Germans would invade and bring the cities, plains and streets under their control, but the Swiss in the mountains would start a guerilla war that'd take a heavy toll on the Germans. Tito did the same in Yugoslavia, and Switzerland is even more mountainous.
I know, I know (didn't I mention this bit of information in some earlier Operation Tannenbaum thread first?). But still - the rebels need to eat something, and although high mountains make good defences, you can't grow food there. That's a problem. The civilians in the occupied parts would support them, but the nazis would keep an eye on them.
Hmm.I envision this being a mistake for Hitler,it is technically a strategic victory for Germany over Switzerland,in the larger scheme of things this hurts Hitler a lot.I think what will happen is kind of an parellel to the Russian-Finland war,while Russia officially won,with a small amount of territory going to Russia,it was a Finn victory in the larger strategy,as it did a lot of damage to the Soviet forces and brought to light just how weak the Soviet military had become post-purge,giving Germany the confidence to go on the attack against them.Switzerland will hold in the face of a tough guerilla war,with perhaps just a slight concession.Germany will have taken unneccesarily large casualties and would have had to pull a number of troops off somewhere else in order to do this,so they hurt themselves in the long run.Just saw a documentary on HIST CHANNEL last night in the Secret Passages series, which was all about secret tunnels of WWII, including with the very elaborate underground passages set up by the Swiss to resist a possible Nazi invasion. Now, what would've been the outcome of Hitler deciding to invade Switzerland at some point after July-Sept 1940 ? Given the immense strengths of the Swiss fixed defences in the Alps, the large nos. of Swiss soldiers and reservists who would've waged a partisan war against the invaders for every inch of Swiss territory, the respectable Swiss arms industry and the very rugged terrain of the country itself which would've seriously hindered the execution of blitzkrieg tactics, would the Germans have been given a very bloody nose if Hitler had decided to invade Switzerland ?
this is an old posting but u guys are missing something...nearly forty-forty five percent of the population were in favor of the Nazis and probably would have supported them...giving Hitler an advantage,,, ,,,