Can Nazi Germany invade Switzerland?

Anaxagoras

Banned
When faced with the choice between surrender or watching Geneva burn, the Swiss will surrender.

IIRC, the Swiss government had already let the people know that, in the event of a German attack, any radio message or other communication that indicated that the Swiss government wanted to surrender to the Germans was to be treated as enemy propaganda and ignored.
 
Apart from the money (which is a valid point) the Nazi's would have to fight a strong militia and many Swiss are trained on guerilla warfare too. So, the Nazi''s would have a hard time.

There was also a series of orders issued to the Swiss military forces by the Federal Council and by General Henri Guisan, their overall CO, which basically amounted to this.

"Aggressively attack invaders; act on your own initiative; regard any surrender broadcast or announcement as enemy propaganda; resist to the end."

Roughly 850,000 Swiss people out of a population of 4.2 million were armed and mobilized. Men were in the Army itself, while the Home Guard provided work for the boys and old men who could shoot, and women found a place in civil defense and antiaircraft forces. Swiss troops were reported to be in good spirits, were very capable riflemen, and had decent equipment to boot. Even as late as 1944, when the Germans were being pushed back across France and up through Italy, the Swiss maintained a state of heightened security to be certain.
 
The key point is really: Would it do any good?

Switzerland manufactured a lot of things (optics, Oerlikon etc) which Germany could indeed use.

Germany also convinced Switzerland that it would be a very good idea to do as all coal imports had to come from Germany.

Switzerland as a safe haven was worth a lot more than another occupied zone which could freely be bombed.

... and then of course Switzerland as a clearing house for gold.

However, it is an interesting spion-off.

There were a few neutrals sitting around:

Sweden
Spain
Portugal
Switzerland

All of them were heavily involved with Germany (except Portugal).

Could Germany have created more "neutrals" and thereby creating safe havens?

Ivan
 
Germany got all of it's tungsten from Portugal which insisted on being paid exclusively in gold. That gold was delivered to Swiss banks and then eventually shipped to Portugal itself. If Germany invades Switzerland it cuts off its source of tungsten.
 
Could Germany have created more "neutrals" and thereby creating safe havens?

A neutral Netherlands would have been more beneficial for Germany in terms of defeating UK and USSR than OTL situation. A neutral Netherlands would have presented an unbombed manufacturing haven (albeit in small scale) and a nice air defense frontier. Of course when invading the Netherlands German leadership could not have assumed France was beaten just in weeks.

A neutral Norway would have probably been more useful than an occupied one, as Germany effectively lost the fleet it was going to base in Norway when conquering it.
 
I think that Hitler thought at Switzerland as the next victim after (a victorious) WW-II.
Probably in 50s.
The loot was too much rich.
 
Hasn't anyone here heard of the famous exchange between a German general and a Swiss one during World War I?

German: How many soldiers can you put into the field?

Swiss: 500,000 sir.

German: What if I send an army of one million across your borders?

Swiss: We'll each have to shoot twice.

Got to like that Swiss attitude.
 
I suspect my opinion is among the majority - i.e. they could, but it wouldn't be easy - requiring resources diverted from other fronts. And the benefits of doing so would be negligable (even negative, given the point about the train links).
 
can - (sucessfully) - yes

would - NOt now - the swiss independent are adding to Germanys war effort more than an occupied Switzerland could (if you count the cost of attacking and occupation)
 
Of corse can The Third reich invade the Swiss
it was on Hitler to do list after Soviet union conquest.
because he wanted all german speaking nation under The Third Reich
in fact fascist Italy was eager that the Third Reich invade the Switzerland.
so they could integrate the italian speaking part of swiss into motherland Italy.

Neutrality was no effect on man like Hitler
see how the Wehrmacht invade Belgium and Netherlands even under Neutrality status
and Sweden also on Hitler to want list, because "Aryan" population and resource Wood and iron

but in the end ti would ending something like this:

1944 a Swiss General asking Wehrmacht general in Zurich, during the capitulation of Wehrmacht.
Swiss "who defeated you ?"
general "the...the Swiss"
Swiss "who exactly ?"
general weep "the Swiss people"
Swiss joyful "exactly!"
 
Of corse can The Third reich invade the Swiss
it was on Hitler to do list after Soviet union conquest.
because he wanted all german speaking nation under The Third Reich
in fact fascist Italy was eager that the Third Reich invade the Switzerland.
so they could integrate the italian speaking part of swiss into motherland Italy.

Neutrality was no effect on man like Hitler
see how the Wehrmacht invade Belgium and Netherlands even under Neutrality status
and Sweden also on Hitler to want list, because "Aryan" population and resource Wood and iron

but in the end ti would ending something like this:

1944 a Swiss General asking Wehrmacht general in Zurich, during the capitulation of Wehrmacht.
Swiss "who defeated you ?"
general "the...the Swiss"
Swiss "who exactly ?"
general weep "the Swiss people"
Swiss joyful "exactly!"

When he is running dangerously low on cash building his great capital Hitler would loot it under some pretext. Until then I think probably not as he would want the world to think he is done with the military expansion business at least for a couple years after WW2 so that he could get the world markets reopened to help him rebuild assuming a 42 or 43 victory. By 1945/46 because of his Pakistan's Hitler would have been totally demented and unable to lead Germany.
 
Also, there is a question of WHEN would Germany launch such an attack.

Prior to July 1940 is a no no. Can't pick ANOTHER neutral to attack, it would just bog down the attack on France to have to deploy more forces from Fall Gelb.

AFTER June 1941, all forces are needed against the Soviet Union. It would be madness to pull forces away from that front to defeat Switzerland (then again, when did anything Hitler did consider madness or not).

So between July 1940 and June 1941 perhaps?

This sends a clear signal to all neutrals that all bets are off. If you're not with the Nazis, you're against them. This may or may not be a help with the countries around the Balkan region.

((I know Hearts of Iron does it because of gameplay issues)) Who guaranteed Swiss independence? Would they (if not already at war) be prepared to declare war on Germany (yes, I'm looking at the USA)?
 
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