Fort de Chillon, one of Switzerland's defenses against a possible invasion during World War II

Like neighboring Liechtenstein, Switzerland remained neutral during World War II. However, it took certain precautions.

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In June 1940, at the end of the German invasion of France, Switzerland found itself in a difficult situation. The country was practically surrounded by two Axis powers (Germany and Italy). Its western border with France was divided in two: the northern part bordered the German-occupied zone of France, while the southern part bordered the collaborationist Vichy regime, an area that was occupied by German and Italian troops on November 11, 1942.

Thus, if Switzerland had been invaded by Germany and Italy, the invaders could have entered from all four corners of the compass. The Swiss people already had extensive military experience dating back to the Middle Ages, when their soldiers were considered the best mercenaries in Europe. In 1880, the country had developed a defense strategy, the Swiss National Redoubt, against a possible invasion. The strategy was based on taking advantage of the mountainous landscape of the Alpine country to build defensive fortifications around its entire perimeter.

Switzerland developed this defensive plan as a deterrent: any attempt to invade the country would have been extremely costly for the invading forces. The Swiss had the horrendous memory left by the hellish battles in the Alps during World War I on the Germans, Austrians, and Italians.

From 1940 onwards, Switzerland expanded its defensive strategy by building new fortifications in order to expand its National Redoubt and adapt it to modern warfare. These precautions were not exaggerated: Hitler despised Switzerland and saw it as an enemy of Germany, due to the democratic, multilingual, and decentralized nature of the Swiss state. Germany began planning the invasion of Switzerland on June 25, 1940, the day it ended its occupation of France. The plan was called Operation Tannenbaum and initially planned to use 21 German divisions in the invasion.

One of the fortifications built by Switzerland after the occupation of France was Fort de Chillon, located in the southwest of the country, near Geneva, on the side of a mountain, in the canton of Vaud. Its construction began in January 1941 and was completed in the middle of that year, next to a medieval castle located on the shores of Lake Geneva. The fort was equipped with six 75 mm cannons, two 81 mm mortars and five 7.5 mm MG-11 machine guns, as well as anti-tank obstacles.

This fort controlled the road and railway line that ran just below it, a strategic crossing. If the Germans had tried to penetrate Switzerland at this point, they would have encountered a modern version of Leonidas' Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae.

The fort was garrisoned by 131 men belonging to the Festungsartilleriekompanie 9 (9th Fortress Artillery Company), which was replaced in 1943 by the Festungsartilleriekompanie II/4. The fort had its own ammunition store, water and fuel depots, a kitchen, mess halls, an operating theatre and dormitories for 181 soldiers.

Ultimately, the German invasion never came, but the Swiss Army kept Fort de Chillon active after the war, replacing the 75mm guns with 90mm pieces. Finally, the Swiss Army decommissioned Fort de Chillon in 1995, following the end of the Cold War. In 2010, the position was bought by private investors, who have turned it into a museum showing what life was like for the soldiers who served there for decades.

You can find more information about the Fort de Chillon Museum on its official website: fortdechillon.ch. If you'd like to see a bit more of this World War II fort, Misis Swiss has published a video showing its interior:

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Main photo: Kevin Bigler.