Post by lordroel on Aug 4, 2017 16:11:59 GMT
What if: German invasion of Switzerland (Operation Tannenbaum)
Operation Tannenbaum (English: Operation Fir Tree or Christmas Tree), was a planned but cancelled invasion of Switzerland by Germany which they started planning on June 25th 1940, the day France surrendered.
While the odds were against any sort of meaningful Swiss victory in the event of the Germans implementing their planned operation to invade neutral Switzerland, the German operation was equally unlikely to have happen in the early years of the war. By 1943, the possibility of a successful German invasion had dwindled to virtually nothing, as the Swiss Army had expanded and modernized to a point that would make Tannenbaum a suicidal mission. Thus we are left with the question, what if the Germans did launch Operation Tannenbaum, thus begins our counterfactual story about the German invasion of Switzerland.
It is September 21st 1940, foreboding weather has spread across Bern and the country, despite the weather, Leutnant Emil Jurgen of the Schweizer Luftwaffe is engaged in a routine patrol somewhere over the Jura. Jurgen is with the 9 Fliegerkompanie based in Avenches, and gets separated from his wingman in the heavy cloud cover. At the same time, a unit of German Bf-109Es from the 54th J.G. is conducting their own patrol, led by a veteran of the Battle of France, Hauptmann Max Rankle. As the Germans fly though the clouds, the leftmost pilot, Leutnant Rolf Schüler, spots a plane. It isn’t one of theirs.
Schüler has only had his wings for six weeks now. Spotting a Morane-Saulnier exiting the clouds ahead, Schüler thinks back to the silhouette identification chart he diligently hung above his bunk. He then remembers why the outline looks familiar – it’s a French plane!
He opens fire, but it is sporadic and off-target. Jurgen sees the fire and pulls his D-3800 into a sharp climb, while he banks to his left. Below him is the perfect target; Schüler is silhouetted against the clouds, and with a precisely-aimed burst, Jurgen sets the right engine aflame and sends Schüler’s plane spiraling towards the ground.
Upon hearing of the encounter, Federal President Pilet-Golaz broadcasts a heartfelt apology that evening. “This pilot,” he promised, “will suffer the severest consequences permissible. Switzerland has always been a nation predicated on the rule of law, and nothing has been done to change that.” Hitler is not persuaded.
With the Luftwaffe unable to maintain a production schedule with their lack of jewel bearings, he has found his new pretense for invading another neutral country. In a radio address to the German people, he denounces the “barbaric aggression” of one “piddling nation,” which “thinks it can dictate to the German people their rights.” Promising a swift campaign, Hitler orders OKH to execute Fall Grün, which has not been reduced in size from the 12th Army version of the plan; 17 divisions are to be committed. After (very) brief consideration, he decides to not consult Mussolini, assuming that when the Germans are nearing victory, he’ll invade on his own initiative.
General Henri Guisan, commander of the Swiss army and air force immediately orders the full mobilization of the Swiss Army, effective as of midnight on September 22nd. The border guards are at full alert, and by 0600, the entire 800,000 man army is at their posts.
In a speech to his general staff, portions of which are broadcast on the radio, Guisan issues a stern rebuke to the German invaders: “For eight hundred years, we Swiss have persevered through the worst conflicts to ravage Europe. We have kept to ourselves, wishing to harm to any nation or peoples. But if you so much as set one foot across our borders, we will defend them to the last man. There will be no surrender from us.” To his officers, he says “now is the test of our national character. Our spirits are high, and we will win the day.” For his conclusion, Guisan switches to his heavily-accented German and, in a play on the Third Reich slogan, declares that “Wir sind nicht ein Volk, sondern Vielen. Wir sind nicht ein Reich, sondern viele Staaten. Wir haben keine Führer – wir haben jeder Mensch. Wir sind jetzt die Verteidiger der Freiheit im Europa und Welt! Wir werden niemals Verzicht!”
At 0200 on Tuesday, September 24th, a massive artillery barrage and intense heavy bombing of the border defenses begins. The 7th Grenzwache (border guard) battalion, many of whom are from the Landsturm reserve, is nearly wiped out in the Thurgau area. The rest escape relatively unharmed. In accordance with Fall Grün, the first wave of Fallschirmjäger is dropped into Bern and the St. Maurice region at 0300. At 0415, German troops cross the Swiss border at Geneva and in the Vaud, Basel, Neuchâtel, Aargau, Zürich, and Thurgau cantons.
Resistance is heaviest in the north, where 3 battalions of border guards are backed by two infantry divisions. The entire German XXV Corps enters there, along with two infantry divisions of the XXVII Corps. In the northeast, three German divisions have been committed against three battalions and a division. Geneva falls in hours. Three Fallschirmjäger battalions dropped into the Olten area are met by the Motorized Liebstandarte SS-Adolf Hitler Brigade at 0530.
In Solothurn on the outskirts of Bern, where much of the industry is located the citizenry has holed up in their homes. Most have weapons. However, Guisan has miscalculated. The traditional assumption was always that if the Germans chose to invade, it would be in order to the secure the mountain passes in the south. Thus, according to plan, the bulk of the Swiss Army fights a retreat back to the Alps. The primary goal of 12th Army is to secure industrial strongpoints. Even so, Fall Grün calls for swift action to secure the alpine transit routes, and this remains unchanged during the military operations.
The manufacturing plants in Zurich and Solothurn remain relatively untouched. Maurice St. Germain, an industrialist, manages to torch his Zeitmesser Fabrikat plant before he retreats to his country home in the Valais canton. The 1st Gebirgsjäger Division splits, sending half its men to Aarberg and the other half to Biel. The Motorized SS-Großdeutschland division is sent from the rear to hold Solothurn, and the various forces in Olten and Solothurn advance on Bern. Legend will have it that the capital falls at, in military time, 1648 – the year of Switzerland’s independence from the Holy Roman Empire – but regardless of the exact time, by 1700 Bern is in German hands.
Following the same strategy used by their predecessors in Belgium a generation earlier, Leeb opts to bypass and invest the few Swiss strongholds in the lowlands. The major cities are all taken by Day 2 of the invasion, the 3rd Light Brigade in Zurich having held out for thirteen hours longer than any other. A direct assault by the 260th Infantry Division, coupled with the two battalions of Fallschirmjäger that had dropped into Wegen on the Walensee put an end to the siege.
In total, the ‘Advanced Position’ outlined in Op. Bef. 12 had fallen even sooner than expected, and the Germans were closing in on the National Redoubt with three entire Army Corps a day ahead of schedule.
The first (and only, really) Swiss offensive is towards Geneva. The 20th Motorized Division, a part of the reserve force, has advanced to that city to assist the 52nd Infantry Division with occupation duty.
The 42,000 French and Polish soldiers interned, including the entire Polish 2nd Rifle Division, are rearmed with the great stockpiles of arms the Swiss have been preparing, and together with the Swiss 1st Light Infantry division and remnants of the 1st Grenzwache they march on Geneva. The battle is fierce, and lasts over several days, but as soon as the two panzer divisions of Generaloberst Hoth’s XV Panzer Corps are committed, it is over for sure. The French surrender, as do most of the Poles, but the Swiss fight to the last man. There are 18,042 prisoners taken in the Second Battle of Geneva. Only 1,162 are Swiss.
In the south, the Germans were taking an interesting route. Hoth’s XV Corps was to travel from Geneva through demilitarized France and attach the Simplon Pass from the rear. From Geneva, the 4th and 8th Panzer Divisions split into a pincer movement, terminating at Brig. They were to be joined by several battalions of Fallschirmjäger.
Lying in wait for them, thought, were the 10th Brigade and 1st Division of the Swiss Army at the St. Maurice Fortress. They were armed with a complement of 5 120mm howitzers, 4 84mm guns, and numerous 53mm positions at Fort Savatan and 6 120mm, 2 75mm guns plus 53mm emplacements at Fort Dailly. When Hoth’s panzers reached them on October 2, they managed to repulse the Germans with massive casualties. After two more days of fighting, Hoth withdrew and regrouped. “Die Schweizer können zu ihren verdammt Berg halten,” he spat. He was a patient man. And he did not mind waiting.
It is now November 9th 1940. The bitterness of the Battle for Switzerland is something that will live with all Swiss and those German soldiers who participated. Out of the 800,000 Swiss under arms on September 24th, 120,000 did not reach the redoubt. Only 15,486 of these soldiers were taken prisoner. In fact, there are more French and Polish prisoners in the German laagers then there are Swiss!
Guisan and his staff are secure in the Redoubt, with the Germans unable to penetrate the massive defense works. However, the Germans are rather unwilling to commit so many forces to the strategically irrelevant alpine region. In the areas at higher altitude, the first snow has fallen, tabling any large offensives until the spring of 1941.
No less than 20 divisions are in occupied Switzerland, and tensions between occupier and occupied are running extremely high. Just as in Czechoslovakia, all popular gatherings have been banned. Weapons and wireless sets owned by private citizens have been ordered to be turned into authorities, including hunting rifles. Heeresgruppe C has not been redeployed to the eastern front for a Russian offensive, and Wilhelm von Leeb has established his headquarters in occupied Bern for the winter.
The country has not yet been partitioned, as it has not yet been fully conquered. Active resistance in the lowlands is sporadic, and for those 650,000 troops in the alpine redoubt, there is not much to do except wait for an offensive that may never come. Those civilians left behind are plotting and planning.
Despite the new government (led by the former Federal Councilor Pilet-Golaz) and their confiscatory gun policy, many have not complied. Those living outside the cities in villages and chalets have not needed to register their weapons.
Hans Müsseler is one such man. Having lived in the small village of Clavaleyres all his life (population: 54), he has seen little of the Nazi intruders. He does, however, retain a great deal of pride in his country, and he owns a radio – he is certainly aware of the events of the past few months. He has always been in complete agreement with General Guisan’s repeated calls to continue resistance until the bitter, bitter end – that under no circumstances was a Swiss to surrender. He is 69 years old, and as such, was not qualified even for the Landsturm. He has served his time in the army, though. Müsseler also is an avid hunter, and owns a rifle for this purpose. His daughter lives in Bern proper, and sometimes he visits her.
November 9 was a national holiday in Nazi Germany. The anniversary of both the München Putsch in 1923 and Kristallnacht 1938, it is yet another one in that seemingly endless parade of military-themed celebrations. In Bern, Leeb considers it the perfect moment to demonstrate the might of the Wehrmacht, and to that effect, orders that a military review parade be scheduled for the afternoon of the 9th. The only units not on the hinterlands of the Alps are the 260th Infantry Division and an MG battalion. They will do, though.
Hans Müsseler has heard of both the holiday and the parade. When he learns that Leeb himself will be on the reviewing stand, he knows exactly what he must do. The security around Bern is tight, but by concealing the pieces in his car, Müsseler brings his scoped hunting rifle into the city and to his daughter’s apartment. The rifle is an 1889, the first of the Schmidt-Rubin bolt-action rifles. He had been issued it as a replacement weapon the very year it went into production. It’s a good weapon; light, steady, easy to use. His position is perfect – the reviewing stand is at the end of the Kramgrasse, in the shadow of the Zytglogge clock tower.
The sound of the shot is masked by the bells ringing, and Müsseler makes a clean getaway. Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm von Leeb lies dead on the reviewing stand of the Kramgasse.
Hitler’s rage knows no bounds. He rants to all within listening distance about the “despicable churchmice,” the “pimples and warts” of Europe, the “vile cheese-makers” and their “terrorist ways.” He demands that Henri Guisan be strung from the Zytglogge and ordered the reprisal massacres of 561 Swiss who lived in the buildings along the Kramgasse.
The atrocities were brutal, but what followed will always be remembered as one of the most terrible environmental travesties in history. Advised that with winter only a short time away, any offensive into the Alps would meet with disaster, Hitler opted to “blow them out.” For ten straight days, Operation Schneesfeuer (Snowfire) raged, as bombers of the Luftwaffe dropped explosives day and night over the entire range of the Alps. The Matterhorn, that famous mountain overlooking Zermatt and Cervina, had its peak blasted off. Entire glaciers were destroyed, and the heat from the burning Lötschental Valley in the Bernese Alps melted the face of the Langgletscher, inundating the entire valley. This, despite the fact that the Bernese Range was nowhere near the Alps of the National Redoubt.
Yet, for all its destructive power, the bombardment did little to change the minds of any Swiss, or even to kill those in the Réduit National. Postwar records would reveal that no more than 21 soldiers were killed, every one of whom had been outside their bunkers when they died. The bombings sparked massive uprisings across the country, most of which were put down, but an isolated band of partisans managed to hold out in the immediate area of the Rütli for several months. The tentative calm that had settled over Switzerland was shattered for the remainder of the war, and soon saboteurs were destroying everything from railway lines to factories.
The mind of Hitler was never still for very long, and soon his attention was turned towards the east. Leeb’s replacement in charge of the newly-renamed Heeresgruppe Nord was Generaloberst Georg von Küchler. Küchler was tasked with the northern sector in Operation Barbarossa, and was assigned the goal of taking Leningrad. Unlike Leeb, Küchler was unable to hold Tikhvin for very long, and the Red Army’s first victorious offensive came on November 9, 1941, when the Soviet 4th Army under Kirill Meretskov successfully repulsed the Germans along a wide front. They would never get any closer to Leningrad.
With Leningrad open, the supplies from the Lend-Lease program are far more wide-reaching. The horrors of Stalingrad still occur, as the Soviets never realize Hitler’s intent to attack in the south. This proves a fatal decision, however, when Soviet armies complete the encirclement not just of Paulus’ 6th Army, but of the entire German Army Group South. Divisions are rushed from all over Europe to the Eastern Front – but it is far too late.
With the German presence in Switzerland down to a paltry five divisions, the Swiss are ready to take back their country. When the Allies open their second front in France on May 6th 1944, the Swiss emerge from their Alpine shelter and quickly retake Switzerland. Divisions of the Swiss Army link up with General Patton’s Third Army in late July, and in recognition of the Swiss victory, torches are lit across the country on August 1st, echoing the centuries old tradition.
The Allies are across the German border by October, but General Eisenhower decides to put on the brakes and halt both Patton and Montgomery. Flush with victory, the Red Army marches triumphantly into Berlin in November of 1944.
This article was posted on Automatic Ballpoint and called: Operation Tannenbaum: Hitler’s Invasion of Switzerland
Operation Tannenbaum (English: Operation Fir Tree or Christmas Tree), was a planned but cancelled invasion of Switzerland by Germany which they started planning on June 25th 1940, the day France surrendered.
While the odds were against any sort of meaningful Swiss victory in the event of the Germans implementing their planned operation to invade neutral Switzerland, the German operation was equally unlikely to have happen in the early years of the war. By 1943, the possibility of a successful German invasion had dwindled to virtually nothing, as the Swiss Army had expanded and modernized to a point that would make Tannenbaum a suicidal mission. Thus we are left with the question, what if the Germans did launch Operation Tannenbaum, thus begins our counterfactual story about the German invasion of Switzerland.
It is September 21st 1940, foreboding weather has spread across Bern and the country, despite the weather, Leutnant Emil Jurgen of the Schweizer Luftwaffe is engaged in a routine patrol somewhere over the Jura. Jurgen is with the 9 Fliegerkompanie based in Avenches, and gets separated from his wingman in the heavy cloud cover. At the same time, a unit of German Bf-109Es from the 54th J.G. is conducting their own patrol, led by a veteran of the Battle of France, Hauptmann Max Rankle. As the Germans fly though the clouds, the leftmost pilot, Leutnant Rolf Schüler, spots a plane. It isn’t one of theirs.
Schüler has only had his wings for six weeks now. Spotting a Morane-Saulnier exiting the clouds ahead, Schüler thinks back to the silhouette identification chart he diligently hung above his bunk. He then remembers why the outline looks familiar – it’s a French plane!
He opens fire, but it is sporadic and off-target. Jurgen sees the fire and pulls his D-3800 into a sharp climb, while he banks to his left. Below him is the perfect target; Schüler is silhouetted against the clouds, and with a precisely-aimed burst, Jurgen sets the right engine aflame and sends Schüler’s plane spiraling towards the ground.
Upon hearing of the encounter, Federal President Pilet-Golaz broadcasts a heartfelt apology that evening. “This pilot,” he promised, “will suffer the severest consequences permissible. Switzerland has always been a nation predicated on the rule of law, and nothing has been done to change that.” Hitler is not persuaded.
With the Luftwaffe unable to maintain a production schedule with their lack of jewel bearings, he has found his new pretense for invading another neutral country. In a radio address to the German people, he denounces the “barbaric aggression” of one “piddling nation,” which “thinks it can dictate to the German people their rights.” Promising a swift campaign, Hitler orders OKH to execute Fall Grün, which has not been reduced in size from the 12th Army version of the plan; 17 divisions are to be committed. After (very) brief consideration, he decides to not consult Mussolini, assuming that when the Germans are nearing victory, he’ll invade on his own initiative.
General Henri Guisan, commander of the Swiss army and air force immediately orders the full mobilization of the Swiss Army, effective as of midnight on September 22nd. The border guards are at full alert, and by 0600, the entire 800,000 man army is at their posts.
In a speech to his general staff, portions of which are broadcast on the radio, Guisan issues a stern rebuke to the German invaders: “For eight hundred years, we Swiss have persevered through the worst conflicts to ravage Europe. We have kept to ourselves, wishing to harm to any nation or peoples. But if you so much as set one foot across our borders, we will defend them to the last man. There will be no surrender from us.” To his officers, he says “now is the test of our national character. Our spirits are high, and we will win the day.” For his conclusion, Guisan switches to his heavily-accented German and, in a play on the Third Reich slogan, declares that “Wir sind nicht ein Volk, sondern Vielen. Wir sind nicht ein Reich, sondern viele Staaten. Wir haben keine Führer – wir haben jeder Mensch. Wir sind jetzt die Verteidiger der Freiheit im Europa und Welt! Wir werden niemals Verzicht!”
At 0200 on Tuesday, September 24th, a massive artillery barrage and intense heavy bombing of the border defenses begins. The 7th Grenzwache (border guard) battalion, many of whom are from the Landsturm reserve, is nearly wiped out in the Thurgau area. The rest escape relatively unharmed. In accordance with Fall Grün, the first wave of Fallschirmjäger is dropped into Bern and the St. Maurice region at 0300. At 0415, German troops cross the Swiss border at Geneva and in the Vaud, Basel, Neuchâtel, Aargau, Zürich, and Thurgau cantons.
Resistance is heaviest in the north, where 3 battalions of border guards are backed by two infantry divisions. The entire German XXV Corps enters there, along with two infantry divisions of the XXVII Corps. In the northeast, three German divisions have been committed against three battalions and a division. Geneva falls in hours. Three Fallschirmjäger battalions dropped into the Olten area are met by the Motorized Liebstandarte SS-Adolf Hitler Brigade at 0530.
In Solothurn on the outskirts of Bern, where much of the industry is located the citizenry has holed up in their homes. Most have weapons. However, Guisan has miscalculated. The traditional assumption was always that if the Germans chose to invade, it would be in order to the secure the mountain passes in the south. Thus, according to plan, the bulk of the Swiss Army fights a retreat back to the Alps. The primary goal of 12th Army is to secure industrial strongpoints. Even so, Fall Grün calls for swift action to secure the alpine transit routes, and this remains unchanged during the military operations.
The manufacturing plants in Zurich and Solothurn remain relatively untouched. Maurice St. Germain, an industrialist, manages to torch his Zeitmesser Fabrikat plant before he retreats to his country home in the Valais canton. The 1st Gebirgsjäger Division splits, sending half its men to Aarberg and the other half to Biel. The Motorized SS-Großdeutschland division is sent from the rear to hold Solothurn, and the various forces in Olten and Solothurn advance on Bern. Legend will have it that the capital falls at, in military time, 1648 – the year of Switzerland’s independence from the Holy Roman Empire – but regardless of the exact time, by 1700 Bern is in German hands.
Following the same strategy used by their predecessors in Belgium a generation earlier, Leeb opts to bypass and invest the few Swiss strongholds in the lowlands. The major cities are all taken by Day 2 of the invasion, the 3rd Light Brigade in Zurich having held out for thirteen hours longer than any other. A direct assault by the 260th Infantry Division, coupled with the two battalions of Fallschirmjäger that had dropped into Wegen on the Walensee put an end to the siege.
In total, the ‘Advanced Position’ outlined in Op. Bef. 12 had fallen even sooner than expected, and the Germans were closing in on the National Redoubt with three entire Army Corps a day ahead of schedule.
The first (and only, really) Swiss offensive is towards Geneva. The 20th Motorized Division, a part of the reserve force, has advanced to that city to assist the 52nd Infantry Division with occupation duty.
The 42,000 French and Polish soldiers interned, including the entire Polish 2nd Rifle Division, are rearmed with the great stockpiles of arms the Swiss have been preparing, and together with the Swiss 1st Light Infantry division and remnants of the 1st Grenzwache they march on Geneva. The battle is fierce, and lasts over several days, but as soon as the two panzer divisions of Generaloberst Hoth’s XV Panzer Corps are committed, it is over for sure. The French surrender, as do most of the Poles, but the Swiss fight to the last man. There are 18,042 prisoners taken in the Second Battle of Geneva. Only 1,162 are Swiss.
In the south, the Germans were taking an interesting route. Hoth’s XV Corps was to travel from Geneva through demilitarized France and attach the Simplon Pass from the rear. From Geneva, the 4th and 8th Panzer Divisions split into a pincer movement, terminating at Brig. They were to be joined by several battalions of Fallschirmjäger.
Lying in wait for them, thought, were the 10th Brigade and 1st Division of the Swiss Army at the St. Maurice Fortress. They were armed with a complement of 5 120mm howitzers, 4 84mm guns, and numerous 53mm positions at Fort Savatan and 6 120mm, 2 75mm guns plus 53mm emplacements at Fort Dailly. When Hoth’s panzers reached them on October 2, they managed to repulse the Germans with massive casualties. After two more days of fighting, Hoth withdrew and regrouped. “Die Schweizer können zu ihren verdammt Berg halten,” he spat. He was a patient man. And he did not mind waiting.
It is now November 9th 1940. The bitterness of the Battle for Switzerland is something that will live with all Swiss and those German soldiers who participated. Out of the 800,000 Swiss under arms on September 24th, 120,000 did not reach the redoubt. Only 15,486 of these soldiers were taken prisoner. In fact, there are more French and Polish prisoners in the German laagers then there are Swiss!
Guisan and his staff are secure in the Redoubt, with the Germans unable to penetrate the massive defense works. However, the Germans are rather unwilling to commit so many forces to the strategically irrelevant alpine region. In the areas at higher altitude, the first snow has fallen, tabling any large offensives until the spring of 1941.
No less than 20 divisions are in occupied Switzerland, and tensions between occupier and occupied are running extremely high. Just as in Czechoslovakia, all popular gatherings have been banned. Weapons and wireless sets owned by private citizens have been ordered to be turned into authorities, including hunting rifles. Heeresgruppe C has not been redeployed to the eastern front for a Russian offensive, and Wilhelm von Leeb has established his headquarters in occupied Bern for the winter.
The country has not yet been partitioned, as it has not yet been fully conquered. Active resistance in the lowlands is sporadic, and for those 650,000 troops in the alpine redoubt, there is not much to do except wait for an offensive that may never come. Those civilians left behind are plotting and planning.
Despite the new government (led by the former Federal Councilor Pilet-Golaz) and their confiscatory gun policy, many have not complied. Those living outside the cities in villages and chalets have not needed to register their weapons.
Hans Müsseler is one such man. Having lived in the small village of Clavaleyres all his life (population: 54), he has seen little of the Nazi intruders. He does, however, retain a great deal of pride in his country, and he owns a radio – he is certainly aware of the events of the past few months. He has always been in complete agreement with General Guisan’s repeated calls to continue resistance until the bitter, bitter end – that under no circumstances was a Swiss to surrender. He is 69 years old, and as such, was not qualified even for the Landsturm. He has served his time in the army, though. Müsseler also is an avid hunter, and owns a rifle for this purpose. His daughter lives in Bern proper, and sometimes he visits her.
November 9 was a national holiday in Nazi Germany. The anniversary of both the München Putsch in 1923 and Kristallnacht 1938, it is yet another one in that seemingly endless parade of military-themed celebrations. In Bern, Leeb considers it the perfect moment to demonstrate the might of the Wehrmacht, and to that effect, orders that a military review parade be scheduled for the afternoon of the 9th. The only units not on the hinterlands of the Alps are the 260th Infantry Division and an MG battalion. They will do, though.
Hans Müsseler has heard of both the holiday and the parade. When he learns that Leeb himself will be on the reviewing stand, he knows exactly what he must do. The security around Bern is tight, but by concealing the pieces in his car, Müsseler brings his scoped hunting rifle into the city and to his daughter’s apartment. The rifle is an 1889, the first of the Schmidt-Rubin bolt-action rifles. He had been issued it as a replacement weapon the very year it went into production. It’s a good weapon; light, steady, easy to use. His position is perfect – the reviewing stand is at the end of the Kramgrasse, in the shadow of the Zytglogge clock tower.
The sound of the shot is masked by the bells ringing, and Müsseler makes a clean getaway. Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm von Leeb lies dead on the reviewing stand of the Kramgasse.
Hitler’s rage knows no bounds. He rants to all within listening distance about the “despicable churchmice,” the “pimples and warts” of Europe, the “vile cheese-makers” and their “terrorist ways.” He demands that Henri Guisan be strung from the Zytglogge and ordered the reprisal massacres of 561 Swiss who lived in the buildings along the Kramgasse.
The atrocities were brutal, but what followed will always be remembered as one of the most terrible environmental travesties in history. Advised that with winter only a short time away, any offensive into the Alps would meet with disaster, Hitler opted to “blow them out.” For ten straight days, Operation Schneesfeuer (Snowfire) raged, as bombers of the Luftwaffe dropped explosives day and night over the entire range of the Alps. The Matterhorn, that famous mountain overlooking Zermatt and Cervina, had its peak blasted off. Entire glaciers were destroyed, and the heat from the burning Lötschental Valley in the Bernese Alps melted the face of the Langgletscher, inundating the entire valley. This, despite the fact that the Bernese Range was nowhere near the Alps of the National Redoubt.
Yet, for all its destructive power, the bombardment did little to change the minds of any Swiss, or even to kill those in the Réduit National. Postwar records would reveal that no more than 21 soldiers were killed, every one of whom had been outside their bunkers when they died. The bombings sparked massive uprisings across the country, most of which were put down, but an isolated band of partisans managed to hold out in the immediate area of the Rütli for several months. The tentative calm that had settled over Switzerland was shattered for the remainder of the war, and soon saboteurs were destroying everything from railway lines to factories.
The mind of Hitler was never still for very long, and soon his attention was turned towards the east. Leeb’s replacement in charge of the newly-renamed Heeresgruppe Nord was Generaloberst Georg von Küchler. Küchler was tasked with the northern sector in Operation Barbarossa, and was assigned the goal of taking Leningrad. Unlike Leeb, Küchler was unable to hold Tikhvin for very long, and the Red Army’s first victorious offensive came on November 9, 1941, when the Soviet 4th Army under Kirill Meretskov successfully repulsed the Germans along a wide front. They would never get any closer to Leningrad.
With Leningrad open, the supplies from the Lend-Lease program are far more wide-reaching. The horrors of Stalingrad still occur, as the Soviets never realize Hitler’s intent to attack in the south. This proves a fatal decision, however, when Soviet armies complete the encirclement not just of Paulus’ 6th Army, but of the entire German Army Group South. Divisions are rushed from all over Europe to the Eastern Front – but it is far too late.
With the German presence in Switzerland down to a paltry five divisions, the Swiss are ready to take back their country. When the Allies open their second front in France on May 6th 1944, the Swiss emerge from their Alpine shelter and quickly retake Switzerland. Divisions of the Swiss Army link up with General Patton’s Third Army in late July, and in recognition of the Swiss victory, torches are lit across the country on August 1st, echoing the centuries old tradition.
The Allies are across the German border by October, but General Eisenhower decides to put on the brakes and halt both Patton and Montgomery. Flush with victory, the Red Army marches triumphantly into Berlin in November of 1944.
This article was posted on Automatic Ballpoint and called: Operation Tannenbaum: Hitler’s Invasion of Switzerland