After the fall of France, what sort of losses would Germany sustain in an invasion of Switzerland? I know that the initial scenario is highly implausible, but I'm just interested in how badly the Swiss could maul the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe.
After the fall of France, what sort of losses would Germany sustain in an invasion of Switzerland? I know that the initial scenario is highly implausible, but I'm just interested in how badly the Swiss could maul the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe.
After the fall of France, what sort of losses would Germany sustain in an invasion of Switzerland? I know that the initial scenario is highly implausible, but I'm just interested in how badly the Swiss could maul the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe.
It would be nice to get an answer from someone who has detailed knowledge of the Swiss plans for countering a German invasion.
Are paratroopers really that good of an idea? The terrain might be a bit tricky for organizing landings-- parachuting onto a mountainside is rather difficult, I understand, what with the crosswinds and rocky slopes.
If the paratroopers were to land in the urban areas and take hold of them, they might be hard-pressed to reach their targets in the first place. IIRC the Swiss air force was equipped with Bf 109s and other modern, metal-skinned monoplanes, and their performance IOTL against German and Allied planes straying over Swiss airspace was not too shabby.
Interesting question...the Swiss planned for an invasion and essentially planned to fight delaying actions at their borders and then retreat to alpine redoubts, leaving their population centers.
The germans would no doubt have planned for this, sending perhaps mountain troops or perhaps airborne troops to sieze the critical passes. I can see the Germans incurring some losses but they had such an overwhelming numerical superiority, I can't see how the invasion of Switzerland would last too long.
The U.S. would go ape over this but the $64 question is, would they have declared war on Germany because of the invasion? Maybe...certainly the Nazi's would greedily welcome the conquering of Switzerland, not only for good watches and chocolate but for all the gold being held in the banks.
The Germans would seize the major population centers and resource areas that the Swiss planned to give up, and then would leave the Swiss to starve to death in the Reduit.
The Reduit, like Bataan, would only be useful if someone from outside were coming to rescue you pretty soon and you could then coordinate attacks down the mountain with that outside ally. If Hitler took over the Swiss lowlands and cities before Barbarossa (after the latter began, he would not have the resources to do so) this leaves the Swiss army sitting in its alpine caves for over three years, at least. If they make serious attacks from their caves, the Germans retaliate by destroying the Swiss cities one by one and killing civilian hostages ten to one. So, the Swiss only make small and cautious attacks. Still, the Germans would have to leave a large occupying force in Switzerland, like in Norway, and every soldier planted there would be one less soldier for the Eastern Front or for countering the Allies in Normandy. The same could be said for Norway, but the latter country did have strategic usefulness (submarine bases, ensuring strategic supplies from Sweden, keeping Allied bombers from using Norwegian air bases, keeping the British Home Fleet tried down at Scapa Flow out of fear of the Tirpitz). Occupying Switzerland, which was neutral and was willing to collaborate with the Nazis in useful ways, would have had no strategic value whatsoever.