Permanent historical factsheet

Invasion of Switzerland

Switzerland · Warfare / World War, 2nd. Chronological records rendered directly from the World History Database.

6Records
1939–1940Date range
2Named people
0Places

Chronological records

1939

Henri Guisan30 August 1939

Warfare / World War, 2nd

Given the directive to safeguard the independence of the country and to maintain the integrity of the Swiss territory

Giuseppe MottaSeptember 1939

Warfare / World War, 2nd

The entire country is fully mobilized in only three days, the Swiss Government began to fortify positions throughout the country, the total strength of the army and militias grew to over 500,000

Giuseppe Motta1939

Warfare / World War, 2nd

The entire country is fully mobilized in only three days, the Swiss Government began to fortify positions throughout the country, the total strength of the army and militias grew to over 500,000. In the course of the war, detailed invasion plans were drawn up by the German military command such as Operation Tannenbaum, but Switzerland was never attacked

1940

Henri Guisan1940

Warfare / World War, 2nd

Developed his famous "Reduit Concept" in summer 1940, according to which the Swiss Army would have retreated into the Alps relatively soon if attacked.

Henri Guisan1940

Warfare / World War, 2nd

The Swiss paramilitary organisation Aktion Nationaler Widerstand (Resistant National Action), formed from contacts between selected army figures and conservative civilian circles, had the explicit task to persuade the civilian population to resist invade.

Henri Guisan1940

Warfare / World War, 2nd

but would have kept up resistance based on some sort of guerrilla and stay-behind tactics from there.

Names involved

Giuseppe MottaHenri Guisan

Provenance

This factsheet is generated from stored World History Database records matching the country, broad category, detailed category and exact Event value shown above. Duplicate display records are collapsed; database wording is otherwise preserved. Source provenance varies by record, so formal academic citation should be checked against the relevant primary source, archive or specialist historical reference.