Morgarten,
Switzerland – Here, in 1315, a force of Swiss mountaineers ambushed an invading
force of Austrian feudal knights who had come to reassert Hapsburg feudal rule
over the rebellious Swiss.
The
burly Swiss farmers and woodsmen from the forest cantons Unterwalden, Uri and
Schwytz fell upon the close-packed Austrian knights and men-at-arms, using long
pikes or deadly pole axes known as halbards, and massacred them without
quarter.
Two
years later, a second Austrian expeditionary force was caught by the Swiss
peasant infantry near Lucerne at Sempach and crushed.
These fierce battles were the
first time in modern history that foot soldiers had withstood heavily armored
mounted knights. These epochal encounters marked the beginning of the end
of European feudalism and the rise of infantry armies. They also freed Switzerland’s
forest cantons of Austrian rule, creating Europe’s first independent democratic
state, the Swiss Confederation.
The
always astute Machiavelli said of the Swiss warriors: ‘Most heavily armed, most
free.’ Indeed, most free to this day.
Those
who think of Switzerland as a quaint land of cuckoo clocks and chocolate are
sorely mistaken. To paraphrase Voltaire’s bon mot about Prussia,
Switzerland is a giant fortress, disguised as a country.
I
attended school and university in Switzerland. Over the decades, I kept
hearing about mountains opening up to disgorge warplanes, or cliffs studded
with hidden artillery. But even my Swiss friends didn’t know much about
these seemingly fantastic sightings.
Fifteen
years ago, I was the guest of the Swiss Fortress Guard Corps, a top-secret
military outfit that operates Switzerland’s mountain fortresses. I was
one of the first non-Swiss to be shown the mountain forts that guard the heart
of the nation’s ‘Alpine Redoubt.’ What I was shown astounded me – and
continues to do so.
In
the late 1930’s, as one European nation after another bowed down to Hitler’s
demands, the Swiss military and its popular rifle clubs, banded together and
decided their nation would not bend the knee as the Czechs, Dutch, Norwegians,
Belgians, and then the French had done.
A
feverish program of fortress construction was begun across the Alps. Some
900,000 troops were mobilized. Orders went out from Gen. Henri Guisan: ‘leave
your families behind in the lowlands. Man our mountain forts. We
have no place or food for civilians in them. Fight to your last
cartridge; then use your bayonets. No surrender!’
Every
road and bridge was mined; all mountain passes were rigged with
explosives. Particularly so the rail lines and tunnels that linked
Germany to its erstwhile ally, Italy.
Hitler
was furious. He denounced the Swiss as ‘insolent herdsmen.’
Mussolini, Hitler’s ally, rightfully feared tangling with the tough Swiss
mountaineers who had ravaged Italy during the Renaissance. The Pope’s
Swiss Guards are a memento of the era of ‘Furia Helvetica.’
Working 24/7, Swiss engineers
created a warren of tunnels and gun positions guarding the main entry points
into Switzerland at St. Maurice, Gothard, Thun and Sargans. These forts
were equipped with 75, 105 and 150mm cannons, machine guns and mortars emplaced
in mountain sides and camouflaged so they are almost invisible.
Inside
the forts are barracks, engine rooms, headquarters, clinics, observation posts
and magazines filled with shells. The hidden forts interlock their fire
and support one another. Unlike the less heavily gunned Maginot Line,
each fort was protected by a special infantry unit on the outside, linked by
telephone to the underground garrison.
In
addition, Switzerland built bomb shelters for most of its people.
The Swiss only began
decommissioning their forts in the 1990’s – after the collapse of the Soviet
Union. Switzerland was a prime target of the Soviet Red Army.
Advancing from Czechoslovakia, the Soviets planned to race across lightly
defended Austria into eastern Switzerland.
Then,
into the Swiss lowlands on a Basel-Neuchatel-Lausanne axis to Geneva.
From there, the Group of Soviet Forces powerful armored divisions would erupt
into France’s Rhone Valley and drive north for the Channel ports, taking US and
NATO forces in the rear and cutting their supply lines. It would have
been a replay of Germany’s brilliant Ardennes offensive in 1940.
But
Swiss forts and solid Swiss citizen troops stood in the way. The sons of
the heroes of Sempach and Morgarten were on guard.
When
Swiss mountaineers vote, they always carry rifles and swords as a symbol of how
their freedom was attained and preserved.
Eric S.
Margolis [send him
mail] is the author of War at the Top of the World and the new
book, American Raj: Liberation or Domination?: Resolving the
Conflict Between the West and the Muslim World. See his website.
Copyright © 2019 Eric Margolis
