On May 10, 1940, the German Dornier Do.17 bomber was intercepted by Swiss Air Force fighters and landed at Altenhain airfield.
On June 1, 1940, a formation of 36 He.111 bombers that flew on a mission to the Marseilles area decided to "cut the corner" through the airspace of a neutral country. 12 Swiss Messerschmitts were raised to intercept - the violators tried to resist. As a result, two German aircraft were destroyed. The Swiss suffered no losses.
On June 4, 1940, a "retaliation action" took place - a lone He.111 lured 12 Swiss Bf.109Es into France, where they were hit by 28 Luftwaffe fighters. In a short skirmish, the intruder and two German Me 110s were shot down. Own losses of the Swiss amounted to 1 aircraft.
The matter took a serious turn - the tiny country and its "toy" air force was desperately unwilling to let the Luftwaffe planes pass and toughly suppressed any violations of its border.
On June 8, 1940, an open raid on Swiss territory was undertaken - a group of He.111 (KG 1) bombers escorted by 32 Bf.110C (from II / ZG 76) attempted to strike at Swiss airfields. The plans of the Nazis were prevented by an accident - a patrolman EKW C-35 was on the way of the group. "Corn" was immediately shot down, but before his death, he managed to raise the alarm. Twelve Bf 109s immediately flew to intercept. In the ensuing air battle, the Swiss pilots managed to shoot down three Messerschmitts in exchange for the loss of one of their aircraft.
Having suffered a fiasco in aerial battles, the Germans no longer dared to tempt fate. The new plan to neutralize the Swiss Air Force provided for the old reliable method - sabotage at the airfields, carried out by the caring hands of German saboteurs.
On June 16, 1940, a German sabotage group of 10 people was captured in full by the Swiss military. From that moment on, events developed rapidly …
On June 17, France surrendered, Wehrmacht units reached the Swiss border in the Doubs with the intention of continuing the offensive on the territory of the last "island of stability" in the center of Europe. The Swiss leadership made desperate attempts to keep the peace. To avoid escalation of the conflict, the pilots were forbidden to attack single intruder aircraft.
On June 19, another note was received from Berlin, containing a direct threat:
The Reich government does not intend to waste words anymore, but will defend German interests in other ways if similar events occur in the future.
Germany was seriously preparing for Operation Tannenbaum, an armed invasion and occupation of Switzerland by the Wehrmacht's 12th Army.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Swiss Armed Forces hastily issued an order prohibiting the interception of any aircraft over the country's territory.
Fortunately for the Swiss, there was no war. Switzerland was more useful to the Reich as a partner than as an enemy. Despite its small size (the area of Switzerland is approximately equal to the area of Crimea), an armed invasion of a mountainous country, dotted with tunnels, fortifications and firing points carved into the rocks, with 100% mobilization of its population (a well-trained and well-equipped people's militia) made the capture of Switzerland extremely long and a costly event. This would not take 2-3 days, as planned by the German leadership.
The 40-day confrontation between the Luftwaffe and the Schweizer Luftwaffe cost the Germans 11 aircraft. The losses of the Swiss turned out to be noticeably lower - only 2 Bf 109E fighters and one C-35 patrol.
In mid-1940, a fragile truce was reestablished on the German-Swiss border. Both sides did not take any hostile actions towards each other. Only occasionally were German planes off course intercepted by Swiss fighters and forced to land at Swiss airfields. The interned aircraft was included in the Swiss Air Force, but most of it was unusable due to the lack of necessary spare parts.
The loudest incident happened on April 28, 1944. At the Swiss airbase Dubendorf, a Bf.110G-4 / R7 night fighter, equipped with the latest FuG220 Liechtenstein radar and the Wrong Music fire launcher (with guns placed at an angle to the horizon, made an emergency landing) firing "bottom-up" - from this angle it was easier to see the British bombers against the background of a lighter sky). Worse, on board the Messerschmitt was a secret tablet with a list of German air defense radio commands.
A German task force led by Otto Skorzeny immediately set about preparing a raid on Dubendorf airbase with the aim of destroying the fighter and documents before they fell into the hands of British intelligence. However, no armed intervention was required - both sides reached a consensus peacefully. The Swiss authorities destroyed the plane and its secret equipment, in exchange they were given the opportunity to purchase 12 newest Messers, modification 109G-6. As it turned out later, the Nazis deceived the Swiss - the resulting fighters turned out to be worn out junk. Engines of all 12 "Messerschmitts" were on the verge of writing off the form of developing their service life. Switzerland did not forget the grievance - in 1951 the Swiss obtained compensation in court.
Surrounded by Nazi countries, Switzerland formally continued to pursue an independent policy, maintaining the status of a neutral state. The confidentiality of deposits in Swiss banks remained an unshakable secret and a guarantor of the security of a small country.
Meanwhile, the air war flared up with renewed vigor. From the middle of the war, the main enemy of the Swiss air force was the aircraft of the alliesthat regularly invaded the country's airspace. The wrecked and off-course vehicles were forcibly landed at the airfields in Switzerland. Over the years of the war, over a hundred such incidents were recorded. As expected, aircraft and pilots were interned on the territory of a neutral state until the end of the war. British and American pilots were stationed in ski resorts cut off from the rest of the world by war, mountains and snow.
With the beginning of the Allied landings in Normandy, about 940 pilots of the Allied countries voluntarily left the place of their confinement and tried to cross the border into France. 183 fugitives were detained by the Swiss police and placed in a prisoner of war camp in the Lucerne area with a much harsher regime than before. They were released only in November 1944.
However, not everyone got a chance to settle in an alpine chalet - on April 13, 1944, a damaged American plane was mercilessly shot down in Swiss airspace, despite the fact that it defiantly released its landing gear (which, according to international rules, meant "I am following to the airfield you specified") … Seven Americans were killed.
But the real "action" is associated with the raids of strategic bombers - throughout the war, the Swiss territory was regularly bombed. The following episodes are best known:
- April 1, 1944 A formation of 50 Liberators dropped their deadly cargo on Schaffhausen (instead of the designated target in Germany, 235 km north). 40 Swiss were killed in the bombing;
- December 25, 1944Teingen was heavily bombarded;
- February 22, 1945 Yankees bombed 13 settlements in Switzerland;
- March 4, 1945 American strategic bombers simultaneously bombed Basel and Zurich. It is noteworthy that the real target was located 290 km north of Frankfurt am Main;
Bombings have taken place before. During 1940, the largest cities in Switzerland (Geneva, Basel, Zurich) were periodically bombed by the Royal Air Force of Great Britain.
The hapless pilots themselves also suffered losses: in early March 1944, Swiss fighters managed to shoot down the Flying Fortress; a second bomber of the same type was forcibly landed in Switzerland.
Were all these "mistakes" accidental or intentional? History does not provide a precise answer. It is only known that the bombing of Switzerland met with approval from American pilots: strong pro-Nazi sentiments were common among the Swiss population, and many of the affected enterprises were directly associated with the military-industrial complex of the Third Reich. The commander of the US Air Force, General Arnold, adhered to the version that most of the episodes with the bombing of Swiss cities were provocations by the Nazis using captured aircraft. Nevertheless, after the end of the war, the Swiss were paid good compensation.
On July 1, 1945, a demonstration trial of pilots and navigators of strategic bombers who took part in the raids on Switzerland was held in London. The pilots just shrugged their shoulders and referred to the strong tailwind and bad weather over the target. All were acquitted.
In general, the situation is obvious: despite the complexity of the relationship between Switzerland and the Third Reich, "dark" banking transactions and outright flirtation of the country's leadership with the Nazis, there are no complaints about the air force. The actions of the Swiss Air Force completely coincided with the doctrine of neutrality - any provocations and violations of the airspace were suppressed by the most decisive methods. At the same time, the Swiss tried not to go beyond the framework of international law. Neither side had priority in the event of encounters with fighters with red and white crosses on their wings. Violators were escorted to airfields, and those who risked resisting were mercilessly shot down. The Swiss pilots acted competently and professionally, sometimes throwing a much stronger and more numerous enemy from heaven to earth.
It remains to add that during the war the air force of the small mountainous country was armed with over a hundred Messerschmitt fighters (including the obsolete 109D, interned vehicles and 12 purchased 109G-6 modification fighters).
Epilogue
February 17, 2014. Europe has been woken up by reports of the hijacking of an Ethiopian Airline passenger Boeing 767 en route from Addis Ababa to Rome. As it turned out later, the culprit of the incident was the co-pilot, an Ethiopian citizen, who seized control of the plane and arbitrarily changed the course to Geneva in order to obtain political asylum in Switzerland.
The fighters of the Italian and French air forces were immediately taken into the air, taking the hijacked plane for escort - from the moment of its discovery to landing.
Fortunately, everything worked out - the airliner reached Switzerland on the last drops of fuel and made a soft landing at the Geneva airport at 6:00 local time. None of the 200 passengers and crew on board were injured. The hijacker pilot will soon receive his legal 20 years in prison.
But why did the Italian and French air forces need help to escort the hijacked plane? Where at that moment were the gallant Swiss pilots, whose grandfathers bravely shot down German, British and American planes?
The Swiss "captains of heaven" were drinking their morning coffee at that time, watching on TV screens the incredible adventures of the Ethiopian Boeing in the airspace of their country. None of the 26 multirole F / A-18C Hornets and 42 F-5E Tiger II fighters of the Swiss Air Force took off that morning.
The gates of the airbases are locked all night, the flight technical personnel are leaving for their homes - the Swiss military aviation works exactly from 8 am to 5 pm, with a mandatory one and a half hour break for lunch. The reason for this decision is the banal cost savings in peacetime.
From dusk to dawn, the Swiss sky is guarded by the air forces of neighboring countries - Germany, Italy and France, with which corresponding agreements have been concluded.
