America's 'War' Against Switzerland

[Music] by the summer of 1940 Switzerland found herself surrounded by a dangerous neighbor to the north east and west Nazi Germany the South wasn't any better Switzerland bordering fascist Italy Germany's Ally as the war progressed Switzerland became both a place of refuge for escaping Allied POWs on the run from camps in Germany and Italy and also a safe place to land stricken bombers that couldn't make it back to Allied airfields under the terms of the 1929 Geneva Convention Switzerland was obligated to intern for the duration of the war military personnel that crossed its borders and the Swiss authorities created two camps one for Allied officers at Davos and the Alps and one for other ranks prisoners at ro Borden for those allied soldiers and airmen they attempted to escape from these camps they were sent to the favela mousse prison camp run by the Swiss Army just like a regular powa amp in Germany the question of airspace violations was particularly annoying for the Swiss who had mobilized their armed services of the outbreak of war and ultimately conducted what might be called a robust defense of their airspace the Swiss Air Force had up-to-date fighter aircraft from Germany they had purchased Messerschmitt Bf 109 s and before France was occupied had an agreement to license build Mahane solely a D 3800 fighters a modernization program in the late 1930s ensured that the Swiss Air Force though small was well-trained well-equipped and even had its own aircraft industry aircraft were even based in caverns to protect against air attack and an integrated air-raid warning service backed up the air force and civil defense frontline defense rested on single-seat interceptors including 90 purchase from Germany in the late 1930s augmented by the license-built french fighters and over a hundred and fifty domestically manufactured fighter bombers in 1940 during the Battle of France Swiss Air Force fighters had shot down 11 German aircraft for the loss of three of their own as they attempted to determine if fafa overflights the Germans responded by threatening sanctions perhaps even invasion and the Swiss stopped intercepting German aircraft however the mass Allied bombing campaign against Germany led to fresh attempts to deter particularly us overflights of Swiss territory some American and British bombers used Swiss airspace as a relative safe zone during transit to and from targets in Germany and in 1943 the Swiss Air Force was sent up to shoot them down in an undeclared war the first successes were to RAF bombers downed on the night of the 12th to 13th of July 1943 by Swiss anti-aircraft batteries over valet in the southwestern part of the country American bombers came in larger numbers targeting Bavaria and Austria in daylight raids a u.s. b-24 liberator was down by swiss Messerschmitt 109s on the 1st of October 1943 near bad Rockets only three Americans survived the encounter drin 1943 Swiss fighters down six Allied bombers with four more brought down by anti-aircraft guns killing 36 Allied airmen the survivors being interned the Americans also repeatedly bombed Switzerland which did little to improve relations between the two nations [Music] these bombings were supposed at cases of mistaken identity the some historians have maintained the Switzerland's cozy relationship with the Nazis in particular the behavior of Swiss banks and the passage of German troop trains and trains carrying industrial supplies through the supposedly neutral territory may have played a part in sending a warning to the Swiss government the worst example occurred on the 1st of april 1944 when 50 american b-24s flew off course and attacked the swiss town of Schaffhausen 235 kilometers south of their actual target the German city of Mannheim the b-24s deposited 60 tons of bombs on Schaffhausen killing 40 Swiss injuring 270 and destroying fair amount of the town [Music] an allied investigation found that bad weather and a much higher the normal wind speed had confused the American navigators leading to the tragedy for which the US government paid the swiss four million dollars by way of an apology relations between the u.s. and switzerland remained strained as evidenced by a full-blown air battle that took place a few months later another aerial incident with the germans occurred on the night of the 28th to 29th of April 1944 when a German Messerschmitt Bf 110 G for night fighter pursued a British Lancaster bomber into Swiss airspace the Germans suffered engine trouble and was forced to land at the Swiss Air Base at Durban Dorf and was interned the aircraft was very sensitive as it mounted the latest Liechtenstein radar and shraeger music gun installation the Luftwaffe feared the Swiss would use the aircraft themselves but a secret deal was struck and the me1 10 was burned under German supervision in return for 12 brand-new Messerschmitt Bf 109 g 6 gustav fighters these 109s would soon be used against the Americans by the Swiss on the 5th of September 1944 a damaged US b-17 Flying Fortress crossed the Swiss border and was pounced on by Swiss fighters the b-17 had an escort of US p-51 Mustangs handed the ensuing dogfight the p-51s shot down one Swiss Messerschmitt 109 killing its pilot and damaged another further bombings took place in 1945 on the 22nd of February US aircraft hit 13 different towns across Switzerland killing 21 people all supposedly accidents on the 4th of March 1945 six American b-24 bombers became separated from the main group heading for a chiffon work in Germany had mistaken Zurich for the German town of Freiburg deposited twelve and a half tons of high explosives and twelve tons of in centuries over the Swiss city killing five and causing major damage incredibly while this group of b-24s was bombing Zurich more lost American bombers hit the Swiss city of Basel with 12 and a half tons of high explosives than five tons of in centuries the undeclared hostilities between the United States and Switzerland cost the Americans dearly financially in October 1949 the US government paid the swiss fourteen point four million dollars in reparations today some 209 million the Swiss had also accumulated a large collection of u.s. bombers in this clip we see Swiss MS 3800 fighters force a damaged American b-24 liberators Earl and this b-24 was one of many foreign aircraft have made emergency landings in Switzerland after sustaining battle damage from German flak or fighters or suffering mechanical problems they would be escorted all the way to the ground by Swiss fighters and the crews taken into custody has sent to one of the internment camps for the duration the Swiss collection point was very crowded by the end of the war after the war the b-24s and b-17s were repaired by US servicemen and flown out in total 198 non-swiss aircraft had landed there during the war plus another 56 that had crashed thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my new audiobook channel war stories with mark Felton you can also help support both of my channels at PayPal and patreon details in the description box below [Music] and

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 1,537,559

Rating: 4.9536605 out of 5

Keywords: Mark Felton Productions, Switzerland, Swiss Air Force, B-24 Liberator, B-17

Id: FILxoQyKzDg

Length: 10min 1sec (601 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 09 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Intersting, thanks for sharing this!

[u/Swissstu]

I wish I could find it but there was a good article about the Shafhausen raid. It alleged that the Swiss were making parts for Germany there so the Allieds bombed the factory then slated a mistake....

[u/SkylarPheonix]

didn't know this. thanks for sharing

[u/signifYd]

"German troop trains?" I don't think this ever happened. Plenty of supply trains. Troop trains would have been a big no no.

[u/signifYd]

ROFL how can you mistake Zürich for Freiburg in Baden-Würtemburg.