Hitler took Belgium, Netherlands and we had the feeling we are next. And all these rooms and other forts have been built for survival of Switzerland. This is the dining room and over here the kitchen. Guide: This is the bedroom for 100 soldiers 50 beds, they have to share it because they have to work in shifts. The Swiss have since found documents indicating that both the Nazis and the Soviets actually had plans to invade Switzerland.
With the advent of the Cold War in the 1950s, the fortress was retooled for the threat of the USSR. Rick: Wow there it is, 62 21, the top of the peak.
SWISS NUMBER OF ROUNDS WW II SOLIDER SERIES
The Swiss implemented a plan to retreat into the mountainous heart of the country and defend themselves with a series of hidden fortresses dug into mountain sides like this one. There are installed I think in total 44 canons. Guide: In central Switzerland we have now nine forts like this, bigger ones and smaller ones. Recently decommissioned, it now welcomes visitors interested in Switzerland’s secret defenses. One example, the Fortress Fürigen has done its duty. The Swiss managed to make their rugged mountains an even more effective barrier. What to do? Turn your mountains into a hidden fortress. You’re Swiss your country is completely surrounded by Hitler and Mussolini. A short ride drops you at any number of interesting sights - one of which come with a surprise. Romantics will want to ride one of the classic paddleboat steamers. That’s its English name, but the Swiss call it the Vierwaldstättersee - literally, “Lake of the Four Forest Cantons.” That’s because it lies at the intersection of four of Switzerland’s cantons or states. While the Swiss may be ready for war, they seem most at peace with nature.īoats connect towns around Lake Lucerne. And - like minutemen awaiting an invasion - they have their guns, gas masks, and ammo ready and waiting. Swiss men are required to spend time in the military, including about 20 years in the reserve. Rick: This is not just a museum piece - it feels like it could still work.įritz: Yes, if we had a live round, we could still fire it today.Īnd these wooden houses look cheery and vulnerable from the outside… but, like nearly all modern Swiss houses, Fritz's family home sits upon a no-nonsense concrete bomb shelter.įritz: This is the door to our bomb shelter.įritz: A couple of thousand pounds - concrete and steel. Rick: So, Fritz, from headquarters they would tell them what coordinates to set this on?įritz: Yes, they would put the coordinates into that calculator, and the gun gets adjusted.Ī quick demonstration shows how the gun was prepped and loaded. Rick: This is the gun we just saw? Guten Tag. With the end of the Cold War, many of these once top-secret sites are now open to the public as museums. In this town, four innocent-looking hay barns conceal a network of tunnels connecting several of these big guns. Generations were not aware what was actually inside these buildings. Rick: Now, children could have grown up outside these doors and not known there was a gun was sitting here?įritz: Not only children. Rick: And was it used later than World War II?įritz: Yes, it got updated over the last decades and has new technology in it. What was this for? Why did they have this here?įritz: For World War II. Rick: Fifteen thousand underground installations?įritz: This barn looks like many others in Switzerland, but it hides a secret. And even the neighbors they were not aware what was in, they were so secret. Now we have over 15,000 buildings like the ones around us with hidden guns. But over the last 70 years, the Alps got turned into a huge fortress. Rick: So, Switzerland is famous for being neutral?įritz: Yes. My friend Fritz Hutmacher, who just finished 20 years in the army reserve, is giving away a few Swiss military secrets. Every strategic bridge and tunnel - designed with explosives built in - could be destroyed with a moment's notice. Behind this door hides an army hospital with several thousand beds.Īnticipating an invasion, Switzerland had airstrips buried in mountainsides and pop-up tank barriers embedded in freeways. In the 20th century, Switzerland - famous for its neutrality - became an alpine fortress, honeycombed with underground military installations.
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