Guest Stoner Posted 7 October , 2003 Share Posted 7 October , 2003 I was looking at a generalised map of the Western front today, and was struck with, what I thought an odd question....... what actually happened to the trench lines on the neutral Swiss border? Were there extensive trench systems right up to the border, and then they stopped? Was there a little old Swiss man sat on a chair with a piece of paper in varying languages saying "no entry"? Or did both sides fronts stop at a natural barrier or perhaps a large and extensive de-militarised zone? Personally I quite like the idea of there being a little old man shooing off armed to teeth combatants but I can't quite see it!!? Regards Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhill Posted 8 October , 2003 Share Posted 8 October , 2003 I often wondered about that myself. I am sure we have some experts here who will point out some standard reference works, but until then you might look at a few articles on the "Unfortunate Region" website which is found at : http://www.unfortunate-region.org/ This is not my favourite website for ease of browsing, but if you look at the "Battlefields" section, you will find the articles: Hot spots on the Swiss border (1914-1918) Where WW1-front lines reached Switzerland By Oswald Schwitter which gives quite an interesting overview of the Franch-Germany-Switzerland boundary, and: The Northwestern Austro-Italian Alpine front: A General Overview. By Francesco Davini which talks about the Italy-Austria alpine front. Basically, it seems the geography did not encourage large operations where almost all transport was of the two-legged variety; especially as even a successful advance would not easily have changed the strategic situation. Of course, I don't really know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Birch Posted 8 October , 2003 Share Posted 8 October , 2003 Yes, the lines went right up to the Swiss Border. Great care had to be taken to avoid any overshoots or stray artillery or rifle rounds violating Swiss Territory. The Swiss protected their neutrality vigorously with forts, barbed wire and similar fixed fortifications. There were in the region of 450,000 Swiss soldiers deployed for this purpose. For this reason the waring Nations were relatively quiet near the border limiting their operations to holding the line only. There was an interesting article in Stand To! a couple of years ago on this subject. Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 13 October , 2003 Share Posted 13 October , 2003 http://homepage.sunrise.ch/homepage/schwitte/ then click ww1 Alsace and you will find the complete Swiss Army with its two soldiers.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stoner Posted 13 October , 2003 Share Posted 13 October , 2003 many thanks James, Tim and Egbert I don't have any particular interest in the area but as I said it was just a question that arose when looking at the map! It looks like my little old man wasn't there after all!!! Regards Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Somme1916 Posted 14 October , 2003 Share Posted 14 October , 2003 To get an idea of what it might have looked like along the border check out the scenes in the movie "The Great Escape" where Steve Maqueen is trying to escape into Switzerland on a motorcycle. Lots of barbed wire entanglements all along the boarder with Germany, or at least that's how Hollywood portrayed it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
franzmaximilian Posted 19 October , 2009 Share Posted 19 October , 2009 I often wondered about that myself. I am sure we have some experts here who will point out some standard reference works, but until then you might look at a few articles on the "Unfortunate Region" website which is found at : ............................... http://www.unfortunate-region.org/ .............................. Hot spots on the Swiss border (1914-1918) Where WW1-front lines reached Switzerland By Oswald Schwitter which gives quite an interesting overview of the Franch-Germany-Switzerland boundary, and: The Northwestern Austro-Italian Alpine front: A General Overview. By Francesco Davini ........................ Wow! Nice to discover six years later one more citation of my article... ! I may suggest another swiss website on this: http://www.stelvio-umbrail.ch/ If you can't read German, you can anyway see the nice pictures in their gallery: http://www.stelvio-umbrail.ch/gallery/wanderwege/index.html Regards, Francesco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 19 October , 2009 Share Posted 19 October , 2009 A subject covered before on this forum. I enclose a few links Here I'd do my usual rant (albeit a short one) about using the search engine but I haven't the heart as the search on this forum is so p**s poor that I can't even find threads I remember contributing to! BTW there were two fronts that ended at the Swiss border as the Alpine front also ended this way. So worried were the Italians of a German dash across Switzerland that substantial fortifications were built facing Switzerland (mounting heavy artillery which annoyed the Swiss somewhat) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 20 October , 2009 Share Posted 20 October , 2009 Yes, the lines went right up to the Swiss Border. Great care had to be taken to avoid any overshoots or stray artillery or rifle rounds violating Swiss Territory. The Swiss protected their neutrality vigorously with forts, barbed wire and similar fixed fortifications. There were in the region of 450,000 Swiss soldiers deployed for this purpose. For this reason the waring Nations were relatively quiet near the border limiting their operations to holding the line only. There was an interesting article in Stand To! a couple of years ago on this subject. Tim But this did not prevent the French air force bombing Lausanne in 1917 - by accident. They were aiming for Germany. There was a diplomatic incident, the French apologised profusely and that was the end of it. Both sides used Switzerland for the movement of spies and others whenever they could get away with it. The Ashenden stories and Rue St. Roche give details. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KernelPanic Posted 28 March , 2023 Share Posted 28 March , 2023 (edited) I've been curious about exactly where the easternmost 'End of the Line' was when it reached the Swiss border. I came across this very interesting webpage about the location: Kilometer Zero. I thought I would resurrect this thread and add it here. Edited 28 March , 2023 by KernelPanic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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