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A little known fact is that in 1940, over 13 thousand Polish troops fighting in France (the 2nd Rifle Division, to be precise) got interned in Switzerland. They were put to doing various construction work, and there was a quiet agreement between the Polish Government in Exile and the Swiss that the Polish soldiers would be rearmed and take part in the defense of Switzerland, in the event of German invasion.
Many of them were also allowed to study and complete their higher education in Switzerland. Last year marked the 80th anniversary of the polish divisions crossing the border.
Yes we had lots of internees from various nations. Soviets and Maroccans included. Moste of them had it nice. However if they Escaped and were caught, they were sent to Punishmentcamps...
Fun fact: Konstanz is one of the few German cities not to be bombed by the Allies, because of a clever trick. While Germany had enforced a nocturnal lights-out policy, Switzerland hadn't. Konstanz, being so close in proximity to Switzerland, kept their lights on, making it seem like they were a Swiss city, thus eluding bombing.
Personally I like how they acted as a backdoor for the Nazis to access the financial market. They got rich off gold stripped from victims of the nazi concentration camps. 80% of Nazi gold was purchased by Switzerland, enabling the regime to continue the war far longer than it should. Similar to Sweden, Switzerland has nothing to be proud of during WW2.
@@michaelflores2509 Not only are you supposed to be criminal record-free in order to get a gun in Switzerland, but you also must be deemed unlikely to cause harm to other Swiss. Local police who have doubts about a prospective gun owner’s well-being (or even those who are assured of the same but worry nonetheless) may and sometimes do ask local psychiatrists or friends about an applicant’s mental state or alcohol and drug use. Also, that gun license, even when approved, is only valid for a maximum of nine months, and applicants are allowed only one weapon. Period.
As a swiss my self i still remember what they told us in the Army; Its not about winning, its about inflicting as much damage and taking as many of the invaders with you as possible before dying. We cannot win a War. But we will make the Enemy bleed for every meter they take.
An interesting anecdote from the aerial fight on Switzerland's northern border: During a bombing run in Southern Germany, a British B-17 was critically hit and eventually managed to land in a field next to my hometown near Basel. Before the Swiss military police arrived to intern the crew, several people from the village had already investigated the downed plane and even started dismantling some of the weapons system. The Swiss army eventually took possession of the aircraft (if I am not mistaken, it is now in a museum in Dübendorf), but one of the stationary machine guns was nowhere to be found. Fast forward to the 70s (when my Dad grew up there) and upon the death of one of the people who had been there that night, the machine gun was finally recovered from his attic and put into a local museum.
That B17 was an American aircraft named “Lazy Baby”. One of the machine guns is located in a museum in the village of Ettingen. I lived there from 2013-24 and visited both the crash landing site and the museum.
My Granfather told a very similar story to me once. (Although in his version it was an American plane. I dare to doubt he knew the difference back then as he was a young boy) As far as i remember it was somewhat near Therwil? (a few km south of Basel)
@@nicelborg5267 It’s not a well known place. I visited it during the 750 year anniversary of Ettingen in 2018. It was open during the celebration weekend. I was told it is only open on election days. The location is on Haupstrasse on the left side as you travel in the direction of Hofstetten. I would think the Ettingen Gemeinde could give the exact address.
@@Aurirang It was an American B17. The crash site is located between Ettingen and Aesch about 300 meters north of the shooting club. If you search “B17 Lazy Baby” you’ll find details
You could have mentioned that the appointment of Henri Guisan in 1939 was quite significant. In Switzerland, "general" is a military rank only awarded to the army commander in wartime. So, appointing a general was an important signal to the world that Switzerland, while being at peace itself, was very aware that there was a war going on and that Switzerland was ready to fight when attacked.
@@yesyesyesyes1600 I'm not sure if those ranks are also restricted to commanders in wartime only - if so, then yes. But please bear in mind that in 1939, the last external war involving Switzerland had been in Napoleonic times and the last violent secession attempt in the mid 19th century - so to Switzerland, acknowledging the necessity of a wartime defence was pretty drastic.
@@GeudMurderface That, and the fact that they purposely overlooked Ulrich Wille jr. (whose father had been general during WWI), who was openly pro-Germany. Guisan's nomination was undoubtedly a signal of distrust towards the axis.
It blows my mind that leftists in America hate on countries that are neutral…They get mad if conservatives are neutral in cases of Russian aggression against a non Nato member but also defend China lol
Yes they do that because I think they realised one important thing, being neutral means having no enemies, but above all, it means you have no friends. You're on your own
During WW2, my grandfather had to defend the swiss/Italian border just above his home in the alps. They had a long trade history between them since far before the war so everybody knew each other. During the war, they traded some food and goods and also party together. When the high command knew about this, they were send at the other side of the country. My grandfather was always laughing about how stupid the situation was. Thanks for the video ! Amazing work !
just curious, how does the Swiss army deal with an Italian speaker being moved to another language speaking part of the country? I have no baseline to understand a multilingual decentralised country as I live in Australia where English is the common language. Even Italy where my family originated and a northerner may not understand a southerner in daily speech in dialects everyone speaks standard Italian and even dialect usage is fading and soon the only significant Italian dialect will be Swiss Italian.
@@v.sandrone4268 I don't know how things were in the 1940s, but currently, you study your native language and at least one other national language in school. It's also really easy to learn military commands in foreign languages. Sometimes you get orders repeated in another language, but sometimes it's just "pour les Romands, c'est la même chose", meaning "for the French speakers, it's the same." in French... very helpful :D
@@OWnIshiiTrolling Let's be honest. I was taught German for 14 years and I can barely speak it. Though it's funny how in the army we have sort of mixed language that is only spoken in the Swiss army. When I was in recrut school I learned many things by their German words and it's only later that I actually learned the actual French denomination.
@@v.sandrone4268in Switzerland you learn many languages at school. I learned German, French and English. In Switzerland you learn German only at school. We speak Swiss German in the German side, not German. Then if you learn two languages at the same time as a kid (in my case Spanish too, cus It’s my mother tongue) then it’s much easier to learn more languages…
This topic isn't something talked in deep about Switzerland and it's neutrality during the largest conflict. The animation helps us to understand better with the narration. Overall, feels great that people like you covers history from a perspective that most of us can understand.
@@spark5558 Well, like I live in latin america. It has been discussed a bit of that, but never fully extensive. I have seen videos of this topic but not that deep unlike this one.
@@HermanosLuDi There are some videos here on youtube about Operation Fir Tree (Unternehmen Tannenbaum). I think it was Marc Felton who made a video on allied bombers and crews getting interned.
Considering how respectful of the concept of neutrality was Germany when it came to Belgium and the Netherlands, no wonder why the already defensive Swiss went into full fortress mode.
To think that being neutral is an assurance from enemy aggression is very naive. No countries care about someone's neutrality if it benefits them to attack them. And saying only the germans breached others's countries neutrality means you re ignorant about history. You mention Denmark and Norway attack by Germany, yet it was triggered exactly because Britain didn't respect norwegian neutrality (altmark incident). Even today just look how Ukraine and his allies treated swiss neutrality shows you it's a concept that nobody respects if it doesn't benefit them.
@@Rohald20 It is hard to respect something that does not exist. Swiss' "neutrality" is sham and PR move. "Neutral" country selling arms to other countries is even bigger joke.
@@Rohald20 Do you really think that both cases are the same? During WWII, Switzerland had to take these precautions, as it was surrounded by unfriendly Axis powers. And today, the current aggressor of the continent is many countries away. There is no reason for them to just 'be neutral' while it is clear that there's a humanitarian crisis going on.
You probably aren't familiar with swiss politics because in the last year Ukraine and its allies regularly trashed swiss neutrality and demanded that Switzerland breach its neutrality to send weapons in Ukraine and sanctions Russia and russian individuals.
Even now 10 years ago when my grandparents retired and built a home they still made sure to install an air raid shelter in their cellar (basement). Growing up outside of Switzerland, it still amazes me that it is so normalized in my country something like this in your home. If someone in the US or anywhere else installed a bunker/airraid shelter in their basement you would think they're crazy.
There are places in the US where it's actually pretty normalized. Oak Ridge, with the National Labs and Y-12, has a good number of shelters installed in homes and public buildings. Most homes in the midwest and plains region have sturdy shelters (though these are more for tornadoes than air-strikes), and I think nuclear bunkers are pretty common in the plains and Rockies.
Till I think the 90s it was normal and obligational to have a shelter here in Austria as well. I still have one :D but it was never operational. Most Austrians used it just to storage Wine and food but some had an airfilter, blast proof doors and beds and were fully equipped for world war 3.
Interesting side note, it's well known that in the US a lot of backyard shelters were built incase of nuclear war. This being the cold war after all and the government encouraged it. What's less known is the idea that the government encouraged this knowing in the advent of an actual nuclear detonation it wouldn't help much except that you'd have ready made tombs with the dead already buried.
In Israel your house will not be connected to the electricity grid if you *don't* have a shelter... It's officially not allowed to live in a house without one.
@@omrilapidot6770 interesting, I suppose Israel being where it is it makes sense. Funny thing though is with the world being where it is currently what about off grid, solar for example? Where I live they are now incentvising rooftop solar.
I had the luck to serve in the swiss military at the foot of the gotthard which was at the time the only passage through the alps. We slept in an Old fort. The whole mountain is basically hollowed out like a swiss cheese with bunkers and every meter covered by guns, simply marvelous what my country built in such a short period of time
Money was certainly not the most important reason (if there was one at all with regard to single-rail transport). Even if Switzerland tried to provide for itself, there was no coal or other raw materials in Switzerland, so surrounded we were dependent on imports and on them getting to us, in return for the transport of other goods by the Axis powers ( Excl. weapons, officially, whether there were weapons among the coal loads, who knows...).
@@skycaptain3344 There was probably historical precedent or economic treaties regarding rail usage, if broken it would be picking a side. To put it short, the Swiss are ruthlessly pragmatic.
Being neutral and surrounded by axis powers was such an near impossible task Switzerland had to manage during WW II. Great job Mr. Johnson, thanks for your video.
Neutral? International law says that, if someone gets caught sneaking into your country, you send them back to from where they came. In many cases, the Swiss sent them to Germany.
Swiss neutrality was possible because of the GEOGRAPHY, MONEY (Swiss money+ money in Swiss banks from both sides of the war and both sides wanted to protect) and the will of the majority of the SWISS PEOPLE(probably Guisan was very influential and trusted general). Many nations wanted to stay out of the war, but in their equation, the 3 elements were not in balance...the absence of one element (or two made the situation worse) pushed/forced these nations to make a choice
One cool side effect the Swiss did at that time was in order to lessen their dependence on coal they experimented with converting their coal powered steam trains with electric powered steam trains. Literally attaching a pantograph on top and use an electric heater in the fire box. I learned this from the channel Train of Thought.
When Switzerland was given Independence from the Holy Roman Empire, Neutrality was a condition insisted upon by the Emperor. The Swiss where known to be fierce warriors and the Emperor was worried that Switzerland would allie with the French.
@@MrGMeredith1 You know your history. Yes they were and that explains to some degree why Swiss mercenaries were so sought after, they were very professional. Also you make a good point in that the Emporer's fears might have been justified if you look at how well these mercenaries were featured in the French armies. History is like a brick wall, the the top brick resting on the one beneath. So not to mention then the Pontif Gaurd.
@@LightBluly not exactly, the Holy Roman Empire was a spiritual successor of sorts, from the tenth to the nineteenth century in the middle of Europe. Still, that makes Switzerland neutral since the sixteenth century. So a very long tradition that took grit to protect amidst countless European wars.
A country that is rarely overviewed within the European theater. It’s a breath of fresh air that someone finally covered the Swiss. I would like the sweeds covered next.
@@lordpembridge303 if your country was surrounded by the most powerful militaristic state of the time you would let them have access to your countries natural resources as well.
@@jake7151 The swiss also built weapons for the germans too. They were collaberators. And in my opinion should've been heavily bombed starting in 1942. The entire point of bombing germany was not really just to kill civilains. It was to cripple and destroy germany's industry. Which the swiss were apart of now. So leaving them unbombed just helped the germans. So the bombings of swiss usually was aimed at their industry and mistakenly thinking its germany's factories. Ironically, they were germany's factories...Just built in switzerland and manned by swiss people. But still being put to germany's cause. Thus, valid targets. Accident or not.
@@NeiasaurusCreations I did not know that. Now that this info has been brought to my attention, I do agree that they should have been bombed but only the factories that have been known to produce German and German only weapons in WW2. Minimizing Swiss casualties in the process, the Allie’s could have used (at the time) high precision bombs in order to take out the arms factories.
I really like those videos covering historical events from lesser discussed perspectives. Would also be pretty interesting to get a look at WWII from the Chinese perspective since the country actually played quite a big role in the conflict (some historians even view the Japanese Invasion of the country as the actual start of the WWII) but is usually sidelined by the more prominent war theaters in Europe, North Africa and the Pacific...
3:59 - those K31s are some of the finest bolt-action rifles ever made. Your attention to detail on the parts of its straight-pull is phenomenal. I have its grandfather, a Schmidt-Rubin 1896/11, and it's by far the smoothest shooting and most accurate infantry rifle of its time.
Thank you so much for this video! There is very little content out there even looking at the Swiss and their neutrality, let alone go into what the war was like from their perspective.
Yup its great he made this video. I was looking so long for a video like this. I got also 1 Book with the history of switzerland in ww2. I just want to see what my country did during ww2. So if you have a question, I would like to answer it.
GREAT animation of the K31 rifle! I have one of those rifles and they are amazingly accurate and with the straight pull bolt...not a rifle you'd want to face in the hands of defenders on a mountain above you.
For good reason. The fact a good chunk of them firmly believed in the Nazi cause while the whole government justvwent along with them UNTIL 1944 speaks vokume of that shame. There is a reason the "Nazi gold in Swiss bank accounts" rumors never died because they are still alive, hidden behind closed vault doors and Swiss banking laws...
I think this is because they didn't really take part in the war, yet some things happened there ( economically and financially - typical swiss relationships) but still, there wasn't enough going on to be really important for the war at all
Switzerland not only had a well armed and prepared populace, a willingness to defend their ground, they also had geography on their side. Something many countries in Eastern europe simply do not have.
The mountains as a geographical blockade only work north to south. The so called plateau is flat land north of the alps harboring 2/3rd of the population. Entering from France or Germany you could take over most major cities without going over any mountains.
Yes there it may helped us but it in every other places switzerlands geography is a big disadvantage: No natural ressources, no sea, expensive infrastructure (lots of tunnels and bridges have to be built), less space for agriculture, less place for cities.... So one could say that it was the wars that helped switzerland to get rich.
@@tainted3922 You still have small mountains / hills. Lakes and Rivers. Together, they form a quite formidable obstacle. This is why the axis estimated the needed a 5 to 1 superiority. Even though the swiss were severely lacking in tanks, anti-tank and critical stuff like fuel for the airplanes. 5 to 1 meant something like 2.5-5 mio soldiers (active only swiss 500k - 1 mio incl. all reserves). Germany had only 3 mio available for the push against france.
@@monkeechyeah thats a good thing proud of my ancestors for being intelligent and profit from idiotic wars nothing shameful about that if you can‘t stop the war anyway
The axis and allies:*get in Swiss airspace* The swiss army and airforce:you know The rules and so do i Edit:THANKS FOR THE 771 LIKES GUY I REALLY LOVED THIS
Fun fact: germnay violated Swiss airspace at least 197 times but several air incidents, the Swiss shot down 11 Luftwaffe aircraft between 10 May and 17 June 1940 and they only loss like three aircraft of there own and Germany protested diplomatically on 5 June and with a second note on 19 June which contained explicit threats on 20 June, the Swiss air force was ordered to stop intercepting planes violating Swiss airspace. and both german and swiss trops has small Skirmishes throught out the war
Each strategy France and UK: Lets appease Belgium and Poland: Germany would never invade us... again Denmark and Norway: We can certainly defend ourselves Switzerland: 𝗜𝗳 𝗶 𝗳𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝗲
@CapCody 5731 Danish government didn't think it could ever defend itself against Germany, belgian and polish governments both knew that war was on the horizon after the remillization of Rhineland and invasion of czechosloviakia. The British government didn't try to appease Germans out of goodness of their heart, but waited for Hitler to make a mistake to raise public war support.
@@flyingkite2972 Polish goverment heavily underestimated German military and they thought that it's so weak after the Treaty of Versailles that it won't be able to do much. Im saying this as a Pole btw.
Love how in depth and entertaining your videos are in general, but I’ve been especially appreciative of this current series. Please continued to make perspective videos of countries during WWII, I’m really curious about Brazil, Egypt, New Zealand, and Korea; so I hope those countries get their own videos too
It's good video. People generally think that neutral countries didn't have any struggle during the war. I want to see WW2 from Turkish Perspective. It includes a lot of diplomatic games, border struggles etc.
Yeah the Turkish were pretty interesting in their Neutrality. On the one hand on late 1941 or so they signed a pact of friendship with Nazi Germany. On the other they threatened Bulgaria to not invade Greece or they would get attacked during the Italian Invasion of 1940
A giant factor as to why germany could not invade switzerland, especially since britain and the soviets have not surrendered, was it was too big of a distraction. And the swiss knew it. They mobilized their 435'000 within a few days and at its highest peak 850'000 swiss were mobilized (thats 18% of the total population at the time). They knew germany wouldnt attack switzerland because of their natural resources, we dont have any, but because of their infrastructure. If germany, like Griffin mentioned, needed at least 5 to 1 ratio to invade switzerland, that would be the entire force which invaded the soviets. 850'000 Swiss -> x5 -> 4'250'000 Germans And even then a quick victory would not be certain and if the swiss, like they planned, would have entrenched themselves in the mountains, the germans could still not use what they came for, the tunnels and mountain passes. That being said, if germany would have won at the other fronts, there would have been no way for the swiss to win that fight. The swiss strategy only worked because others also held up against the germans.
Kaiser Wilhelm II: "So, you have an army of 500,000 men. What will your small army do if I invade with 1,000,000 men?" The Swiss: "Shoot twice and go home."
I actually hope this channel takes sponsors more. They aren't that big of a deal and I really want thease amazing videos to be funded by one way or another.
Great video! Something I would like to add is the fact that Switzerland is historically a multi-ethnic country. Independent since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, it consists of German, French, Italian, and Romansh speakers, all of whom have always placed their loyalty to country over ethnicity.
Honestly Switzerland is one of the more respectable countries for me in the World wars. They did what's best for their citizens, which did include neutrality and putting pride aside to avoid a brutal war and possibly occupation. But they also built a formidable defense in order to maintain that Neutrality. And managed to achieve self sufficiency to not be bullied by Sanctions to join either side
This is an interesting story for me since I'm related to a Swiss air force high command member at the time, Oberstdivisonär Emil Sonderegger. During the war my great grandfather Hans Sonderegger was granted permission to emigrate and he went to Mexico, where my family currently live
This may sound very random, but do you play Hearts of Iron 4? There’s a popular alternate history mod for that game called Red Flood where Emil Sonderegger is the leader of Switzerland
@@conornorton1183 No, I'm more of a total war or age of empires guy, I didn't know he appeared in the game, could you elaborate please, for what I have seen in books and family albums Emil Sonderegger was in part responsible for the adoption of the BF-109 in the SAF and also in the stoppage of a communist attempt so seize control of some Swiss cantons in the 30'd
Oberstdivisionär Emil Sonderegger, the hero that prevented the communist subverters from a takeover in 1918 died in 1934. He never had anything to do with the airforce.
@@fabianbello3268 hey mate, i live in Mexico (chihuahua, to be specific) and I have family in Texas, I will be looking here in the Air Force archives (although don’t expect too much, either because it’s a Mexican system that is very old or because they maybe didn’t register that here ) and will ask my family near the air bases if they can find anything as well, if you want you can go to a embassy ( as I understand there ARE polish and Swiss embassy’s in Mexico) and ask for a family origin/line research, they are obligued to help you to the very least feel connected to the country (you can also ask for sweets and things you only get there, not so known fact about embassy’s) so they could surely look it up, in any way, I will try to help, and I hope you have luck in your search wey.
Wow. I read a lot about Swiss WW1 to WW2 officers and Emil Sonderegger is... well... interesting to say the least lol. He is probably the boogeyman of the Swiss leftist historians because of his role in maintaining the order in Zürich during the General Strike of 1918 under the command of his mentor and General at the time, Ulrich Wille. It didn't help his image that he was involved in the fascistic "Fronts" during the 30s. There's a documentary about the General Strike that blatantly portrays Sonderegger as this cartoonish villain and unapologetic Mussolini fan and while the latter may be true to some extent, he was in no way a key actor in putting down the strikes, that was General Ulrich Wille which he sort of had to in order to prevent the situation from devolving into an October Revolution 2.0 in Switzerland
As a Swiss myself, I’d like to add a few historical facts: the Swiss border police handed over Jewish refugees not only to Vichy but also German authorities, despite the Swiss government’s knowledge of the holocaust; the Swiss armament industry sold to Germany vast amounts of weapons and ammunition (the grandmother of a friend of mine who worked in a factory in Winterthur told us how all Swiss workers were told to greet a visiting German delegation with the Hitler salute); when Switzerland introduced the blackout in November 1940 it was upon German requests as hither-too illuminated Swiss towns had helped British bombers navigate the dark continent, especially Geneva on the way to Northern Italy.
as a Swiss, this is an underrated comment. ..well, at least we're not too proud or brainwashed to not admit our mistakes. I've learned about those things in school
Its amazing how Griffin is able to transcend his cartoon world and reach out to us in the real world. Its a demonstration that we could learn from - that no matter how far apart our worlds are we can always bridge the differences and come back together.
Switzerland was Kevin from Home Alone. Not projecting power outside of their territory but once you set foot inside there is a trap or weapon behind every rock.
8:37 do include more small jokes like this! Facial comedy, like commanders having extreme reactions, only go so far. These smaller jokes really flesh out the video.
I mean "nazis bad" is also important. But i agree it couldve been a little more in depth.. As my school is concerned the ww2 teaching period was a litteral dumpster fire
Could you one day do a video on the war from the danish perspective? A lot of people undermine Denmark because of their 6 hour surrender but many forget their many acts during their occupation and outside.
I can understand Switzerland tactic. It's something we Vietnamese adopt as well after gaining independence. People often criticize Swiss for their lack of involvement to the war and even benefit it. But to be honest, everyone benefits from the war. You need to look at the United States of fucking America and their British and French friends selling weapons. The recent war at Ukraine makes Switzerland being pressured to sanction Russia. But they don't even commit to it and just go along with everyone. Seeing Switzerland temporarily becomes not neutral is not much surprising given the fact that Europe's politics can be complicated and a headache to deal with. All I'm saying is, I understand Swiss people and their willing to stay out of trouble. Neutrality doesn't mean being friendly to everyone. It's being hostile to anyone messes with you.
I think it was quite much easier for the Swiss to shoot down the planes, as they didn't have to worry about which plane was friendly and which not, as they all were considered hostile.
I'm still pretty shure some of these bombings, especially towards the end of the war, were not entirely accidental. Maybe it was a hint tell us Swiss to stop trading with Germany. I would really recommend the video of Mark Felton about this theory.
And yeah, risk getting invaded by Germans over financial dispute. This is a reminder that Swiss trading also helps many allies nations under Germany rule, and after the war.
They were just in a really bad spot. But the Swiss government had to do what was best for their people. Same as any other government is supposed to do.
No one wanted to intentionally bomb Switzerland, the country wasn't important enough for that. Lots of neutral places were accidentally bombed during the war, like Ireland, Vatican City, and San Marino. Bombers were already innaccurate and the maps they were given probably didn't help.
As a student of history I am familiar with the stories. However your animation and fluid storytelling really bring the conflict to life. I could see this appealing to those that normally wouldn't spend a second on a historical documentary. You just earned a new subscriber.
9:50 you say plateau bc they're much higher than the surrounding area (aside from the alps), the swiss call them flatlands bc they're considerably flatter than the surrounding area (only the alps/jura mountains). in reality it most closely resembles a rolling country. there are some actual flats on this area where they drained their swamps and straightened their streams, but they are the exception to the rule. what general guisan said often sounds like he wants to completely give up the most highly populated areas in the so-called flats and defend some rocks where nobody lives, in reality he intended to defend switzerland as the ukrainians do bakhmut, as the soviets did stalingrad, as the british did gibraltar, as the viet cong did north vietnam, as the venetians did candia. every square inch from all sides and whilst supporting eachother. the airports and artillery in the mountains are completely safe from enemy raids and can freely support the frontlines from afar. he didnt intend on just moving 100k soldiers into the mountains, that'd be pointless and he'd be starved out in no time.
My grandmother who lived in Switzerland during the war suffered one of the many bombing campaigns. She was unaffected though cause the day her house was bombed she was in church. Despite this, the American government paid for the reparations later on.
I'm actually really surprised of the content of this video. I also thought for a long time that Switzerland only stayed neutral and thus never had problem during the entire war, in fact even profiting from it. I never expected they they suffered casualties but also had to use force to push both axis and allies out of the country. A very informative video
I am Swiss and My Grandpa was actually in Schafhausen when the allies bombarded it. Most Swiss people believe (its pretty obvious) that cities like winterthur werent bombarded by accident. As the allied bombarded a arnaments facility that made guns for germany.
@@Stormgamer-xb7gv The archives with the actual mission objectives are opened now, since more than 50 years have passed. Unless they made the effort of faking the stuff in the archives, there was never a mission sent to Schaffhausen. Its also pretty much common sense that when American pilots do night attacks on a continent they have never been to, missing the target by a few % is to be expected. Tbh it would be more surprising had there been no bombings of switzerland than the few that did happen.
@@CG-eh6oe still very sus that they hit the arnaments factory. And yes me as a swiss who has relatives in that bombing may be a bit bias. But whatever. :)
The bombardement of Schaffhausen was especially tragic, yet also understandable that it happened, because the inexperienced pilots of that attack confused it with the city of Ludwigshafen close by. There are stories that previously the Germany cities and town that were closeby to Schaffhausen would not enact any darkening of the city, hoping that allied bombers would think they were Swiss cities. After all, Switzerland was not at war, thus they would not have to darken their cities, that was the thought. Though I guess after that attack they prety quickly abandoned that idea.
Fascinating video. I never realized that they actually had engagement and so carefully had to navigate the line of neutrality, protecting their own borders, and war. Excellent video.
Great work as always , its so interesting in many aspects . So much stuff which seems today more or less unimportant * happend in the times of this war , unexplained mostly world wide . Im glad you are changing that . Little side note : Its Schweiz in german language .
I don't remember if it was WW1 or WW2 but the Italians (i believe, could be germans too) threatened to invade switzerland and asked "We have 200k soliders, you only have 100k. What are you going to do if we invade?" the swiss answered with a simple "Shoot twice and go home" It's a story I kept on hearing from a lot of people. We swiss were known for beeing fierce fighters and beeing sharpshooters which I believe is the reasoning behind that saying. I can't confirm or deny if that ever occured.
It was the German Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1912 (before WW1) during a visit in Switzerland. He asked what the then 250,000 strong Swiss militia army would do if Germany attacked with an army of 500,000. He was also quite shocked at how brutal we Swiss were to our own people during the army training that he was allowed to watch.
![PASULOL รามเกียรติ์ ตอนที่ 4 นนทกพบรัก [Ramakien Ep.4: Nonthok in love]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/tMUQgmZzf_A/mqdefault.jpg)
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Finally the based perspective
No
Ballsack
@@TheRoyalGoats as someone from the country i agree.
@@Uncle228 😋
A little known fact is that in 1940, over 13 thousand Polish troops fighting in France (the 2nd Rifle Division, to be precise) got interned in Switzerland. They were put to doing various construction work, and there was a quiet agreement between the Polish Government in Exile and the Swiss that the Polish soldiers would be rearmed and take part in the defense of Switzerland, in the event of German invasion.
Many of them were also allowed to study and complete their higher education in Switzerland. Last year marked the 80th anniversary of the polish divisions crossing the border.
Yes we had lots of internees from various nations. Soviets and Maroccans included. Moste of them had it nice. However if they Escaped and were caught, they were sent to Punishmentcamps...
Poles were every-damn-where...
Like 13 k soldiers woud have made any difference to the german warmachine LOL
@@dont5363 in Switzerland? It might have had actually. Besides, I'd say Swiss just didn't want their own citizens to die, so it was a fair deal.
Fun fact: Konstanz is one of the few German cities not to be bombed by the Allies, because of a clever trick. While Germany had enforced a nocturnal lights-out policy, Switzerland hadn't. Konstanz, being so close in proximity to Switzerland, kept their lights on, making it seem like they were a Swiss city, thus eluding bombing.
Thats smart
Big brain maneuver
@@pancakebandit2011
*FIRE AND MANUEVER REFRENCE!!!!!??!!?!!1?1!!1!?!1?
this is incredible
and the US bombed Schaffhausen by error... geography has never been their strength 😂
I really like how Switzerland took advantage of its geography and made a their entire country into a fortress.
4:02 is why we civilians should always fiercely defend the right to bear arms.
Oh hi, fancy seeing you here
@@scottanno8861 americans should learn from you guys. Especially from the safety of your schools
Personally I like how they acted as a backdoor for the Nazis to access the financial market. They got rich off gold stripped from victims of the nazi concentration camps. 80% of Nazi gold was purchased by Switzerland, enabling the regime to continue the war far longer than it should.
Similar to Sweden, Switzerland has nothing to be proud of during WW2.
@@michaelflores2509 Not only are you supposed to be criminal record-free in order to get a gun in Switzerland, but you also must be deemed unlikely to cause harm to other Swiss. Local police who have doubts about a prospective gun owner’s well-being (or even those who are assured of the same but worry nonetheless) may and sometimes do ask local psychiatrists or friends about an applicant’s mental state or alcohol and drug use.
Also, that gun license, even when approved, is only valid for a maximum of nine months, and applicants are allowed only one weapon. Period.
As a swiss my self i still remember what they told us in the Army; Its not about winning, its about inflicting as much damage and taking as many of the invaders with you as possible before dying. We cannot win a War. But we will make the Enemy bleed for every meter they take.
So they told you to make Europe, your own Carthage.
You’ll never be attacked by a western country. Not when you have the BIS still up and running
Yes indeed. "Sécurité et Liberté"
HOP SUISSE
Just because of those words I would be scared to invade Switzerland as a world leader, such as Germany for example.
Can you tell me more about you’re time in the swizz military? I’ll try to move to your beautiful country when I finished college.
An interesting anecdote from the aerial fight on Switzerland's northern border:
During a bombing run in Southern Germany, a British B-17 was critically hit and eventually managed to land in a field next to my hometown near Basel. Before the Swiss military police arrived to intern the crew, several people from the village had already investigated the downed plane and even started dismantling some of the weapons system. The Swiss army eventually took possession of the aircraft (if I am not mistaken, it is now in a museum in Dübendorf), but one of the stationary machine guns was nowhere to be found.
Fast forward to the 70s (when my Dad grew up there) and upon the death of one of the people who had been there that night, the machine gun was finally recovered from his attic and put into a local museum.
That B17 was an American aircraft named “Lazy Baby”. One of the machine guns is located in a museum in the village of Ettingen.
I lived there from 2013-24 and visited both the crash landing site and the museum.
@@richardzwolenski2777damn i live close to ettingen, wich museum is it?
My Granfather told a very similar story to me once. (Although in his version it was an American plane. I dare to doubt he knew the difference back then as he was a young boy)
As far as i remember it was somewhat near Therwil? (a few km south of Basel)
@@nicelborg5267 It’s not a well known place. I visited it during the 750 year anniversary of Ettingen in 2018. It was open during the celebration weekend.
I was told it is only open on election days. The location is on Haupstrasse on the left side as you travel in the direction of Hofstetten. I would think the Ettingen Gemeinde could give the exact address.
@@Aurirang It was an American B17. The crash site is located between Ettingen and Aesch about 300 meters north of the shooting club. If you search “B17 Lazy Baby” you’ll find details
You could have mentioned that the appointment of Henri Guisan in 1939 was quite significant.
In Switzerland, "general" is a military rank only awarded to the army commander in wartime. So, appointing a general was an important signal to the world that Switzerland, while being at peace itself, was very aware that there was a war going on and that Switzerland was ready to fight when attacked.
I think the fact that he was from the French speaking minority was also a big deal at the time.
So ... like a 5 star general in the US? Or THE Aluf in the IDF?
@@yesyesyesyes1600
I'm not sure if those ranks are also restricted to commanders in wartime only - if so, then yes.
But please bear in mind that in 1939, the last external war involving Switzerland had been in Napoleonic times and the last violent secession attempt in the mid 19th century - so to Switzerland, acknowledging the necessity of a wartime defence was pretty drastic.
@@notroll1279 Thanks for answering 🙂
@@GeudMurderface That, and the fact that they purposely overlooked Ulrich Wille jr. (whose father had been general during WWI), who was openly pro-Germany. Guisan's nomination was undoubtedly a signal of distrust towards the axis.
It blows my mind Switzerland has +374k bunkers, they went full defensive mode, no wonder they weren't invaded in WW2
Every apartment complex has a "bunker" for a basement
imagine if they had gone the other way 😂😂
It blows my mind that leftists in America hate on countries that are neutral…They get mad if conservatives are neutral in cases of Russian aggression against a non Nato member but also defend China lol
Yes they do that because I think they realised one important thing, being neutral means having no enemies, but above all, it means you have no friends. You're on your own
Albania 1967-1986:
Allied pilot: “hey which way is Germany?”
Swiss AA gunner: “it’s back the way you came, boy!”
Brrrrrrr boom boom peeewewe dhammmm!!!!! Rip
Kinda reminds me of the Kermit the Frog swamp cutaway from Family Guy.
@@stoneeagle7360 - Where do you think the guy came up with the idea? I am betting 10k it was from watching family guy, lol
Unless you want to deposit stolen money from murdered folk, then come on in.
German pilot: yo, could you point me to France?
Same Swiss AA Gunner: Same thing to you, back the way you came Jimbo!
I love how Swiss army tried to immediatly eliminate anything not swiss in their air territory.
The alternative was, demonstrably, to be bombed.
the image of the swiss AA defense vaporizing birds that aren't native to switzerland. Is now on my mind xd
they do not have illegal emigrant problems
@@shadownoobnoobslayer5424 oh yes we do.
@@shadownoobnoobslayer5424what illegal immigrants?
During WW2, my grandfather had to defend the swiss/Italian border just above his home in the alps. They had a long trade history between them since far before the war so everybody knew each other. During the war, they traded some food and goods and also party together. When the high command knew about this, they were send at the other side of the country. My grandfather was always laughing about how stupid the situation was. Thanks for the video ! Amazing work !
just curious, how does the Swiss army deal with an Italian speaker being moved to another language speaking part of the country?
I have no baseline to understand a multilingual decentralised country as I live in Australia where English is the common language. Even Italy where my family originated and a northerner may not understand a southerner in daily speech in dialects everyone speaks standard Italian and even dialect usage is fading and soon the only significant Italian dialect will be Swiss Italian.
@@v.sandrone4268 I don't know how things were in the 1940s, but currently, you study your native language and at least one other national language in school. It's also really easy to learn military commands in foreign languages. Sometimes you get orders repeated in another language, but sometimes it's just "pour les Romands, c'est la même chose", meaning "for the French speakers, it's the same." in French... very helpful :D
@@OWnIshiiTrolling Let's be honest. I was taught German for 14 years and I can barely speak it. Though it's funny how in the army we have sort of mixed language that is only spoken in the Swiss army. When I was in recrut school I learned many things by their German words and it's only later that I actually learned the actual French denomination.
@@v.sandrone4268in Switzerland you learn many languages at school. I learned German, French and English. In Switzerland you learn German only at school. We speak Swiss German in the German side, not German. Then if you learn two languages at the same time as a kid (in my case Spanish too, cus It’s my mother tongue) then it’s much easier to learn more languages…
This topic isn't something talked in deep about Switzerland and it's neutrality during the largest conflict. The animation helps us to understand better with the narration. Overall, feels great that people like you covers history from a perspective that most of us can understand.
In USA hardcore leftists hate on Switzerland because they think if you don’t fight “evil” you’re also bad
It depends on where you live in Switzerland you in the German region?
@@spark5558 Well, like I live in latin america. It has been discussed a bit of that, but never fully extensive. I have seen videos of this topic but not that deep unlike this one.
@@HermanosLuDi There are some videos here on youtube about Operation Fir Tree (Unternehmen Tannenbaum). I think it was Marc Felton who made a video on allied bombers and crews getting interned.
@@yesyesyesyes1600 Well yea, I already seen in videos and been told of that and the possible invasion plans of Germany. But, never really that deep.
Considering how respectful of the concept of neutrality was Germany when it came to Belgium and the Netherlands, no wonder why the already defensive Swiss went into full fortress mode.
To think that being neutral is an assurance from enemy aggression is very naive. No countries care about someone's neutrality if it benefits them to attack them. And saying only the germans breached others's countries neutrality means you re ignorant about history. You mention Denmark and Norway attack by Germany, yet it was triggered exactly because Britain didn't respect norwegian neutrality (altmark incident). Even today just look how Ukraine and his allies treated swiss neutrality shows you it's a concept that nobody respects if it doesn't benefit them.
@@Rohald20 It is hard to respect something that does not exist. Swiss' "neutrality" is sham and PR move. "Neutral" country selling arms to other countries is even bigger joke.
@@Rohald20 Do you really think that both cases are the same?
During WWII, Switzerland had to take these precautions, as it was surrounded by unfriendly Axis powers.
And today, the current aggressor of the continent is many countries away. There is no reason for them to just 'be neutral' while it is clear that there's a humanitarian crisis going on.
You probably aren't familiar with swiss politics because in the last year Ukraine and its allies regularly trashed swiss neutrality and demanded that Switzerland breach its neutrality to send weapons in Ukraine and sanctions Russia and russian individuals.
Well, you're either neutral or you aren't.
Even now 10 years ago when my grandparents retired and built a home they still made sure to install an air raid shelter in their cellar (basement). Growing up outside of Switzerland, it still amazes me that it is so normalized in my country something like this in your home. If someone in the US or anywhere else installed a bunker/airraid shelter in their basement you would think they're crazy.
There are places in the US where it's actually pretty normalized. Oak Ridge, with the National Labs and Y-12, has a good number of shelters installed in homes and public buildings. Most homes in the midwest and plains region have sturdy shelters (though these are more for tornadoes than air-strikes), and I think nuclear bunkers are pretty common in the plains and Rockies.
Till I think the 90s it was normal and obligational to have a shelter here in Austria as well. I still have one :D but it was never operational. Most Austrians used it just to storage Wine and food but some had an airfilter, blast proof doors and beds and were fully equipped for world war 3.
Interesting side note, it's well known that in the US a lot of backyard shelters were built incase of nuclear war. This being the cold war after all and the government encouraged it. What's less known is the idea that the government encouraged this knowing in the advent of an actual nuclear detonation it wouldn't help much except that you'd have ready made tombs with the dead already buried.
In Israel your house will not be connected to the electricity grid if you *don't* have a shelter... It's officially not allowed to live in a house without one.
@@omrilapidot6770 interesting, I suppose Israel being where it is it makes sense. Funny thing though is with the world being where it is currently what about off grid, solar for example? Where I live they are now incentvising rooftop solar.
I had the luck to serve in the swiss military at the foot of the gotthard which was at the time the only passage through the alps. We slept in an Old fort. The whole mountain is basically hollowed out like a swiss cheese with bunkers and every meter covered by guns, simply marvelous what my country built in such a short period of time
The Swiss still charging the Axis powers for train transit despite being surrounded and in extreme danger is an absolute sigma move, goddamn
I still don’t understand why they were actively shooting at aircraft but allowing combatant trains through.
@@skycaptain3344 It was money!
Money was certainly not the most important reason (if there was one at all with regard to single-rail transport). Even if Switzerland tried to provide for itself, there was no coal or other raw materials in Switzerland, so surrounded we were dependent on imports and on them getting to us, in return for the transport of other goods by the Axis powers ( Excl. weapons, officially, whether there were weapons among the coal loads, who knows...).
@@skycaptain3344 There was probably historical precedent or economic treaties regarding rail usage, if broken it would be picking a side.
To put it short, the Swiss are ruthlessly pragmatic.
Russian pipelines are still sending gas towards Ukraine…
“I’m going to be late for work!” As someone living in Switzerland I can confirm that sentiment.
I au
I au!
@@Aralakh919 less goo
Giele nume sexy blibe gäu
Can you explain? I'm in the US and I don't have the most complete grasp of work ethnic in other countries/cultures
Ya know switzerland isnt realy looked at in ww2 but some stuff actually happend there and its pretty good so its nice to see a video about it
and everybody " forget" mentioning the swiss banks (;-)
@@michaelpielorz9283 That held all of that plundered treasure from the Nazis.
What are you talking about? Ita definitely "looked into"
Being neutral and surrounded by axis powers was such an near impossible task Switzerland had to manage during WW II. Great job Mr. Johnson, thanks for your video.
Neutral? International law says that, if someone gets caught sneaking into your country, you send them back to from where they came. In many cases, the Swiss sent them to Germany.
@@gwine9087awesome strudel beer and Hugo boss.
Swiss neutrality was possible because of the GEOGRAPHY, MONEY (Swiss money+ money in Swiss banks from both sides of the war and both sides wanted to protect) and the will of the majority of the SWISS PEOPLE(probably Guisan was very influential and trusted general). Many nations wanted to stay out of the war, but in their equation, the 3 elements were not in balance...the absence of one element (or two made the situation worse) pushed/forced these nations to make a choice
Don't forget Liechtenstein
@@gwine9087 its not that kind of neutral its military neutrality which we have
The swiss looked at everyone around them and said "I'm surrounded by idiots and I will not stand for it."
One cool side effect the Swiss did at that time was in order to lessen their dependence on coal they experimented with converting their coal powered steam trains with electric powered steam trains. Literally attaching a pantograph on top and use an electric heater in the fire box. I learned this from the channel Train of Thought.
This goes a long way to explain why Switzerland doesn't really show up to the wars
When Switzerland was given Independence from the Holy Roman Empire, Neutrality was a condition insisted upon by the Emperor. The Swiss where known to be fierce warriors and the Emperor was worried that Switzerland would allie with the French.
@@MrGMeredith1 You know your history. Yes they were and that explains to some degree why Swiss mercenaries were so sought after, they were very professional. Also you make a good point in that the Emporer's fears might have been justified if you look at how well these mercenaries were featured in the French armies. History is like a brick wall, the the top brick resting on the one beneath. So not to mention then the Pontif Gaurd.
@Glenn Noname god damn i have no idea it was that long. They gained independence when Roman Empire (or at least the remnants) still exist?
@@LightBluly They mean the Holy Roman Empire, ie, what is modern day Germany and a few other countries. th-cam.com/video/cZcQrIFtuGw/w-d-xo.html
@@LightBluly not exactly, the Holy Roman Empire was a spiritual successor of sorts, from the tenth to the nineteenth century in the middle of Europe. Still, that makes Switzerland neutral since the sixteenth century. So a very long tradition that took grit to protect amidst countless European wars.
the attention to detail like the newspaper as a swiss citizen i must say, is fascinating.
A country that is rarely overviewed within the European theater. It’s a breath of fresh air that someone finally covered the Swiss. I would like the sweeds covered next.
Oh yes the cowardly Swedish
@@lordpembridge303 if your country was surrounded by the most powerful militaristic state of the time you would let them have access to your countries natural resources as well.
@@jake7151 WRONG
@@jake7151 The swiss also built weapons for the germans too. They were collaberators. And in my opinion should've been heavily bombed starting in 1942. The entire point of bombing germany was not really just to kill civilains. It was to cripple and destroy germany's industry. Which the swiss were apart of now. So leaving them unbombed just helped the germans.
So the bombings of swiss usually was aimed at their industry and mistakenly thinking its germany's factories. Ironically, they were germany's factories...Just built in switzerland and manned by swiss people. But still being put to germany's cause. Thus, valid targets. Accident or not.
@@NeiasaurusCreations I did not know that. Now that this info has been brought to my attention, I do agree that they should have been bombed but only the factories that have been known to produce German and German only weapons in WW2. Minimizing Swiss casualties in the process, the Allie’s could have used (at the time) high precision bombs in order to take out the arms factories.
I really like those videos covering historical events from lesser discussed perspectives. Would also be pretty interesting to get a look at WWII from the Chinese perspective since the country actually played quite a big role in the conflict (some historians even view the Japanese Invasion of the country as the actual start of the WWII) but is usually sidelined by the more prominent war theaters in Europe, North Africa and the Pacific...
3:59 - those K31s are some of the finest bolt-action rifles ever made. Your attention to detail on the parts of its straight-pull is phenomenal. I have its grandfather, a Schmidt-Rubin 1896/11, and it's by far the smoothest shooting and most accurate infantry rifle of its time.
Thank you so much for this video! There is very little content out there even looking at the Swiss and their neutrality, let alone go into what the war was like from their perspective.
Yup its great he made this video. I was looking so long for a video like this. I got also 1 Book with the history of switzerland in ww2. I just want to see what my country did during ww2. So if you have a question, I would like to answer it.
GREAT animation of the K31 rifle!
I have one of those rifles and they are amazingly accurate and with the straight pull bolt...not a rifle you'd want to face in the hands of defenders on a mountain above you.
It says a lot that they’re still in use for target practice today.
Little fun fact: every adult swiss citizen can own one of those, even without a weapon license
@@tantaroba1337 as they should
Yeah having to fight a ton of snipers on montains was also a great deterrent to the nazis.
Makes sense when your in Switzerland. In America it would just be death
Thank you for making a video about the Swiss in WW2, I feel like their side of the story is largely forgotton/not mentioned
For good reason. The fact a good chunk of them firmly believed in the Nazi cause while the whole government justvwent along with them UNTIL 1944 speaks vokume of that shame. There is a reason the "Nazi gold in Swiss bank accounts" rumors never died because they are still alive, hidden behind closed vault doors and Swiss banking laws...
Especially the part about taking stolen Jewish gold from the Germans into their banks
I think this is because they didn't really take part in the war, yet some things happened there ( economically and financially - typical swiss relationships) but still, there wasn't enough going on to be really important for the war at all
Switzerland not only had a well armed and prepared populace, a willingness to defend their ground, they also had geography on their side. Something many countries in Eastern europe simply do not have.
The mountains as a geographical blockade only work north to south. The so called plateau is flat land north of the alps harboring 2/3rd of the population. Entering from France or Germany you could take over most major cities without going over any mountains.
Yes there it may helped us but it in every other places switzerlands geography is a big disadvantage: No natural ressources, no sea, expensive infrastructure (lots of tunnels and bridges have to be built), less space for agriculture, less place for cities.... So one could say that it was the wars that helped switzerland to get rich.
@@tainted3922 You still have small mountains / hills. Lakes and Rivers. Together, they form a quite formidable obstacle. This is why the axis estimated the needed a 5 to 1 superiority. Even though the swiss were severely lacking in tanks, anti-tank and critical stuff like fuel for the airplanes. 5 to 1 meant something like 2.5-5 mio soldiers (active only swiss 500k - 1 mio incl. all reserves). Germany had only 3 mio available for the push against france.
Switzerland really took "Never seek war but always be prepared for it" to the next level
"Never seek war but always profit from it" - There fixed it - a swiss.
@@monkeech lmao
@@monkeechyeah thats a good thing proud of my ancestors for being intelligent and profit from idiotic wars nothing shameful about that if you can‘t stop the war anyway
The axis and allies:*get in Swiss airspace*
The swiss army and airforce:you know The rules and so do i
Edit:THANKS FOR THE 771 LIKES GUY I REALLY LOVED THIS
*say goodbye*
Ahh NATO good old NATO…
Lol is that a Rick roll?
Got turned into Swiss cheese
@@mustang5132 now that made me laugh
Fun fact: germnay violated Swiss airspace at least 197 times but several air incidents, the Swiss shot down 11 Luftwaffe aircraft between 10 May and 17 June 1940 and they only loss like three aircraft of there own and Germany protested diplomatically on 5 June and with a second note on 19 June which contained explicit threats
on 20 June, the Swiss air force was ordered to stop intercepting planes violating Swiss airspace. and both german and swiss trops has small Skirmishes throught out the war
Each strategy
France and UK: Lets appease
Belgium and Poland: Germany would never invade us... again
Denmark and Norway: We can certainly defend ourselves
Switzerland: 𝗜𝗳 𝗶 𝗳𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝗲
This comment is like.. entirely wrong
@@flyingkite2972 why?
@CapCody 5731 Danish government didn't think it could ever defend itself against Germany, belgian and polish governments both knew that war was on the horizon after the remillization of Rhineland and invasion of czechosloviakia. The British government didn't try to appease Germans out of goodness of their heart, but waited for Hitler to make a mistake to raise public war support.
@@flyingkite2972you've said why the British appeased not that they didn't do it. Chamberlain is infamous for his policy of appeasement.
@@flyingkite2972 Polish goverment heavily underestimated German military and they thought that it's so weak after the Treaty of Versailles that it won't be able to do much. Im saying this as a Pole btw.
This video is excellent! I’ve been interested for a while in what happened to Switzerland during the war, so this is fascinating!
Switzerland: avoids being invaded by building a lot of bunkers.
Post-war Albania: Write that down, write that down!
Enver: "Double it."
Love how in depth and entertaining your videos are in general, but I’ve been especially appreciative of this current series. Please continued to make perspective videos of countries during WWII, I’m really curious about Brazil, Egypt, New Zealand, and Korea; so I hope those countries get their own videos too
It's good video. People generally think that neutral countries didn't have any struggle during the war. I want to see WW2 from Turkish Perspective. It includes a lot of diplomatic games, border struggles etc.
If i recall they did take a side near the end, bt yeah it d be nice to see the diplomacy game till that.
@@havocgr1976 because the Turks were told by the allies to declare war on the Axis or be invaded
videos of that have been made, search youtube and you'll find them
@@stephen4121 No. Almost the whole world declared war on Japan and Germany in March-April 1945 to join United Nations.
Yeah the Turkish were pretty interesting in their Neutrality. On the one hand on late 1941 or so they signed a pact of friendship with Nazi Germany. On the other they threatened Bulgaria to not invade Greece or they would get attacked during the Italian Invasion of 1940
A giant factor as to why germany could not invade switzerland, especially since britain and the soviets have not surrendered, was it was too big of a distraction. And the swiss knew it.
They mobilized their 435'000 within a few days and at its highest peak 850'000 swiss were mobilized (thats 18% of the total population at the time). They knew germany wouldnt attack switzerland because of their natural resources, we dont have any, but because of their infrastructure. If germany, like Griffin mentioned, needed at least 5 to 1 ratio to invade switzerland, that would be the entire force which invaded the soviets.
850'000 Swiss -> x5 -> 4'250'000 Germans
And even then a quick victory would not be certain and if the swiss, like they planned, would have entrenched themselves in the mountains, the germans could still not use what they came for, the tunnels and mountain passes.
That being said, if germany would have won at the other fronts, there would have been no way for the swiss to win that fight. The swiss strategy only worked because others also held up against the germans.
Kaiser Wilhelm II: "So, you have an army of 500,000 men. What will your small army do if I invade with 1,000,000 men?"
The Swiss: "Shoot twice and go home."
Is this an actual quote? If so that goes hard
@@Frostaltered I'm not sure but I think it's probably just a story. Nevertheless it encapsulates the Swiss mentality.
I actually hope this channel takes sponsors more. They aren't that big of a deal and I really want thease amazing videos to be funded by one way or another.
As long as they aren't scams
@@madeanaccounttospillthebor9568 NordVPN is a scam, good VPNs don't have to force advertising onto everyone who will take it.
Agreed, just please nothing remotely financial lol
Petition for griffin to do WW2 from the Romanian perspective!
second this
Yes please
Romania just wanted to kill Jews like Germany
Why? They just stole everything and that was that
@@cringcring8473 based
As someone who loves studying 1930-40s Swiss history I am happy to see a video on the topic from you
Great video! Something I would like to add is the fact that Switzerland is historically a multi-ethnic country. Independent since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, it consists of German, French, Italian, and Romansh speakers, all of whom have always placed their loyalty to country over ethnicity.
We’re not really multi ethnic, we’re all from a Celtic background.
@@brunol-p_g8800Germans, french, Italians and romansch are one ethnicity?
Multi lingual more than multi ethnic.
Honestly Switzerland is one of the more respectable countries for me in the World wars. They did what's best for their citizens, which did include neutrality and putting pride aside to avoid a brutal war and possibly occupation.
But they also built a formidable defense in order to maintain that Neutrality. And managed to achieve self sufficiency to not be bullied by Sanctions to join either side
The video I didn't know I wanted, but but always needed
This is an interesting story for me since I'm related to a Swiss air force high command member at the time, Oberstdivisonär Emil Sonderegger. During the war my great grandfather Hans Sonderegger was granted permission to emigrate and he went to Mexico, where my family currently live
This may sound very random, but do you play Hearts of Iron 4? There’s a popular alternate history mod for that game called Red Flood where Emil Sonderegger is the leader of Switzerland
@@conornorton1183 No, I'm more of a total war or age of empires guy, I didn't know he appeared in the game, could you elaborate please, for what I have seen in books and family albums Emil Sonderegger was in part responsible for the adoption of the BF-109 in the SAF and also in the stoppage of a communist attempt so seize control of some Swiss cantons in the 30'd
Oberstdivisionär Emil Sonderegger, the hero that prevented the communist subverters from a takeover in 1918 died in 1934. He never had anything to do with the airforce.
@@fabianbello3268 hey mate, i live in Mexico (chihuahua, to be specific) and I have family in Texas, I will be looking here in the Air Force archives (although don’t expect too much, either because it’s a Mexican system that is very old or because they maybe didn’t register that here ) and will ask my family near the air bases if they can find anything as well, if you want you can go to a embassy ( as I understand there ARE polish and Swiss embassy’s in Mexico) and ask for a family origin/line research, they are obligued to help you to the very least feel connected to the country (you can also ask for sweets and things you only get there, not so known fact about embassy’s) so they could surely look it up, in any way, I will try to help, and I hope you have luck in your search wey.
Wow. I read a lot about Swiss WW1 to WW2 officers and Emil Sonderegger is... well... interesting to say the least lol. He is probably the boogeyman of the Swiss leftist historians because of his role in maintaining the order in Zürich during the General Strike of 1918 under the command of his mentor and General at the time, Ulrich Wille. It didn't help his image that he was involved in the fascistic "Fronts" during the 30s. There's a documentary about the General Strike that blatantly portrays Sonderegger as this cartoonish villain and unapologetic Mussolini fan and while the latter may be true to some extent, he was in no way a key actor in putting down the strikes, that was General Ulrich Wille which he sort of had to in order to prevent the situation from devolving into an October Revolution 2.0 in Switzerland
This episode is FREAKING AMAZING!!!!!
Your animation has kept getting better and I can never get enough of your voice
As a Swiss myself, I’d like to add a few historical facts: the Swiss border police handed over Jewish refugees not only to Vichy but also German authorities, despite the Swiss government’s knowledge of the holocaust; the Swiss armament industry sold to Germany vast amounts of weapons and ammunition (the grandmother of a friend of mine who worked in a factory in Winterthur told us how all Swiss workers were told to greet a visiting German delegation with the Hitler salute); when Switzerland introduced the blackout in November 1940 it was upon German requests as hither-too illuminated Swiss towns had helped British bombers navigate the dark continent, especially Geneva on the way to Northern Italy.
as a Swiss, this is an underrated comment. ..well, at least we're not too proud or brainwashed to not admit our mistakes. I've learned about those things in school
Good comment. It's always important to recognize our past failures
Im from Zürich and the fakt that you used the NZZ for your newspaper made me happier than it should have
“Switzerland has no army Switzerland is the army”
Man I miss Prussia, it didn't have an army It had a state.
“While most states have an army, the Prussian Army has a state” and the Swiss state is itself an army
outstanding work as usual armchair historian team!
By far one of the coolest intros I've seen for a history video. Good job!
Its amazing how Griffin is able to transcend his cartoon world and reach out to us in the real world. Its a demonstration that we could learn from - that no matter how far apart our worlds are we can always bridge the differences and come back together.
Switzerland was Kevin from Home Alone. Not projecting power outside of their territory but once you set foot inside there is a trap or weapon behind every rock.
Awesome video as usual! Really interesting to see a more in-depth explanation of the Swiss foreign relations during the war.
Wow this is really well done the animation quality is amazing and I never knew any of this Swiss involvement in the war is definitely very overlooked
Beautiful Intro! I love seeing this perspective! 🙏🏾
I think there’s a saying or something, ‘The Swiss don’t have an army, because the Swiss are an army’ or something like that.
Thank you for showing the complexity of the situation. This history is often poorly understood by people outside and inside Switzerland.
Armchair historian vids are always a treat
it has been a lot of fun to watch you production go up over the years. that beginning panoramic shot to you in the chair was really good!
8:37 do include more small jokes like this! Facial comedy, like commanders having extreme reactions, only go so far. These smaller jokes really flesh out the video.
“The Swiss will never part with his gun.” This statement can also be used to describe Americans.
It’s quite a bit different in modern times. Most who have a gun at home here do not have ammunition…
as a Swiss, I wish they would've taught us more of this at school and not just "Nazis bad"
I mean "nazis bad" is also important. But i agree it couldve been a little more in depth.. As my school is concerned the ww2 teaching period was a litteral dumpster fire
@@liandre9035 true, nothing wrong with saying "Nazis bad" but what I meant is that we never looked at Switzerlands position and defense in all this
A Soviet-Afghan War video would be phenomenal
I’m pretty sure there is one
@Conner Rutherford he has one on the U.S in Afghanistan, not the Soviets
Thanks Armchair Historian :)
I am Swiss and this Video is really good 🇨🇭
Could you one day do a video on the war from the danish perspective? A lot of people undermine Denmark because of their 6 hour surrender but many forget their many acts during their occupation and outside.
I can understand Switzerland tactic. It's something we Vietnamese adopt as well after gaining independence. People often criticize Swiss for their lack of involvement to the war and even benefit it. But to be honest, everyone benefits from the war. You need to look at the United States of fucking America and their British and French friends selling weapons. The recent war at Ukraine makes Switzerland being pressured to sanction Russia. But they don't even commit to it and just go along with everyone. Seeing Switzerland temporarily becomes not neutral is not much surprising given the fact that Europe's politics can be complicated and a headache to deal with. All I'm saying is, I understand Swiss people and their willing to stay out of trouble. Neutrality doesn't mean being friendly to everyone. It's being hostile to anyone messes with you.
There is a mistake at 7:20 in the spelling of the word "Schweiz". Otherwise very nice video!
I think it was quite much easier for the Swiss to shoot down the planes, as they didn't have to worry about which plane was friendly and which not, as they all were considered hostile.
No, they had planes up in the air, too, even dogfights.
if you're talking about anti-air, then yes. in planefights they had their own planes that they couldn't shoot down
I'm still pretty shure some of these bombings, especially towards the end of the war, were not entirely accidental.
Maybe it was a hint tell us Swiss to stop trading with Germany.
I would really recommend the video of Mark Felton about this theory.
And yeah, risk getting invaded by Germans over financial dispute. This is a reminder that Swiss trading also helps many allies nations under Germany rule, and after the war.
They were just in a really bad spot. But the Swiss government had to do what was best for their people. Same as any other government is supposed to do.
No one wanted to intentionally bomb Switzerland, the country wasn't important enough for that. Lots of neutral places were accidentally bombed during the war, like Ireland, Vatican City, and San Marino. Bombers were already innaccurate and the maps they were given probably didn't help.
@@gabriel.b9036
Bombing Ireland is intentional! It's an island not connected to Britain. No axis bomber can be that dumb.
Well allies bombed the train viaduct in Zürich
Switzerland: How many times do i have to tell you? I AM NEUTRAL!
(Starts shooting down allied and axis planes in swiss airspace)
As a student of history I am familiar with the stories. However your animation and fluid storytelling really bring the conflict to life. I could see this appealing to those that normally wouldn't spend a second on a historical documentary. You just earned a new subscriber.
In 7:25 There is a typo. It is called Schweiz not Shweiz.
beautiful animation, as always!
The Swiss story is amazing. I wish you would go deeper into it, and tell more stories.
I bet the espionage stories would be great.
The swiss fighters genuinely look awesome
They were mostly using Messerschmitt 109 at the time. Essentially, the Germans fought against their own fighters over Switzerland.
Griffin Johnsen is pretty good at teaching history. Most of his cases are known to me but It still very nice to watch them in his way.
9:50 you say plateau bc they're much higher than the surrounding area (aside from the alps), the swiss call them flatlands bc they're considerably flatter than the surrounding area (only the alps/jura mountains). in reality it most closely resembles a rolling country. there are some actual flats on this area where they drained their swamps and straightened their streams, but they are the exception to the rule. what general guisan said often sounds like he wants to completely give up the most highly populated areas in the so-called flats and defend some rocks where nobody lives, in reality he intended to defend switzerland as the ukrainians do bakhmut, as the soviets did stalingrad, as the british did gibraltar, as the viet cong did north vietnam, as the venetians did candia. every square inch from all sides and whilst supporting eachother. the airports and artillery in the mountains are completely safe from enemy raids and can freely support the frontlines from afar. he didnt intend on just moving 100k soldiers into the mountains, that'd be pointless and he'd be starved out in no time.
Could you do the WWII from Romanian perspective?
My grandmother who lived in Switzerland during the war suffered one of the many bombing campaigns. She was unaffected though cause the day her house was bombed she was in church. Despite this, the American government paid for the reparations later on.
"Brave heroes of Switzerland, let's cheerish our Fatherland with our national anthem! Ein, zwei, drei..."
"RICOLAAAAAAAA!"
I think than only Swiss can understand this one.
the most interesting and detailed (i didn't know many of them) video about this topic on youtube.
You know we had to do the “Hi I’m griffin Johnson the armchair historian” to em
Small remark for 2:15; the real Swiss flag has the shape of a square.
True, only square flag in the world
@@sylvainpolti1101* sad pope noises*
WW2 from the Irish Perspective next? Would be epic
0:01 - what is the name of the song? I really like it!
I'm actually really surprised of the content of this video. I also thought for a long time that Switzerland only stayed neutral and thus never had problem during the entire war, in fact even profiting from it. I never expected they they suffered casualties but also had to use force to push both axis and allies out of the country.
A very informative video
It's wierd without the desk. I guess that's why usually in movies you see people in armchairs from the side, possibly.
At 7:37 it is written Shweiz but correctly its written Schweiz
I am Swiss and My Grandpa was actually in Schafhausen when the allies bombarded it. Most Swiss people believe (its pretty obvious) that cities like winterthur werent bombarded by accident. As the allied bombarded a arnaments facility that made guns for germany.
It is pretty well proven by now that it was accidents, altough some people at the time certainly thought there was something more to it.
@@CG-eh6oe Where? Well the allies obviously said its an accident. But it cant be proven.
@@Stormgamer-xb7gv The archives with the actual mission objectives are opened now, since more than 50 years have passed. Unless they made the effort of faking the stuff in the archives, there was never a mission sent to Schaffhausen.
Its also pretty much common sense that when American pilots do night attacks on a continent they have never been to, missing the target by a few % is to be expected. Tbh it would be more surprising had there been no bombings of switzerland than the few that did happen.
@@CG-eh6oe still very sus that they hit the arnaments factory.
And yes me as a swiss who has relatives in that bombing may be a bit bias. But whatever. :)
The bombardement of Schaffhausen was especially tragic, yet also understandable that it happened, because the inexperienced pilots of that attack confused it with the city of Ludwigshafen close by. There are stories that previously the Germany cities and town that were closeby to Schaffhausen would not enact any darkening of the city, hoping that allied bombers would think they were Swiss cities. After all, Switzerland was not at war, thus they would not have to darken their cities, that was the thought. Though I guess after that attack they prety quickly abandoned that idea.
And by close by you mean 200km(100mi)?
Fascinating video. I never realized that they actually had engagement and so carefully had to navigate the line of neutrality, protecting their own borders, and war. Excellent video.
I live in Swiss, Zurich and the “NZZ”, the “ Neue Zürcher Zeitung” is also today active! 2:45
You should do some more videos covering neutral countries in ww2. As a swede I would love to see more about our actions during ww2 👍
Great work as always , its so interesting in many aspects . So much stuff which seems today more or less unimportant * happend in the times of this war , unexplained mostly world wide . Im glad you are changing that . Little side note : Its Schweiz in german language .
13:33 bravo to private citizens who saved countless lives.
I don't remember if it was WW1 or WW2 but the Italians (i believe, could be germans too) threatened to invade switzerland and asked "We have 200k soliders, you only have 100k. What are you going to do if we invade?" the swiss answered with a simple "Shoot twice and go home"
It's a story I kept on hearing from a lot of people. We swiss were known for beeing fierce fighters and beeing sharpshooters which I believe is the reasoning behind that saying. I can't confirm or deny if that ever occured.
It was the German Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1912 (before WW1) during a visit in Switzerland. He asked what the then 250,000 strong Swiss militia army would do if Germany attacked with an army of 500,000. He was also quite shocked at how brutal we Swiss were to our own people during the army training that he was allowed to watch.
The definition of having military strong enough nobody dared to fight it.