I've seen countless threads about the Germans invading Switzerland, but nothing on the WALLIES. What if, for reasons such suspecting that the Swiss were responsible for financing the German war machine, or because of imprisoning Allied pilots, the Allies invade Switzerland in October or November 1944?
WI the WALLIES invade Switzerland?
- Thread starter Drunk Gracchus
- Start date
The Swiss were willing to resist anybody that invaded. There is zero reason for the Western Allies to invade. They need all their resources to deal with Germany, Switzerland is no threat. If at some point they want to "punish" Switzerland, they can do that after they defeat Germany. At that point they literally surround Switzerland, and can control what does or does not enter the country which will bring the Swiss around with no bloodshed.
As far as imprisoning Allied pilots who end up in Switzerland, interning combatants who end up on neutral soil is part and parcel of normal rules. OTL the RUSSIANS interned American aircrew who landed in Russia after bombing Japan, as even though the USA and Russia were allies, Russia was neutral with Japan - although the aircrew eventually "escaped". "Financing" by a neutral of one or both combatants is perfectly legitimate, in WWI the USA had loans to both sides early on, later only the Entente, and of course in WWII the USA had loans to Britain and France while still neutral. Assisiting the Nazis in hiding the loot from the Jews and others is another story, but very little has ever been done about that OTL.
As far as imprisoning Allied pilots who end up in Switzerland, interning combatants who end up on neutral soil is part and parcel of normal rules. OTL the RUSSIANS interned American aircrew who landed in Russia after bombing Japan, as even though the USA and Russia were allies, Russia was neutral with Japan - although the aircrew eventually "escaped". "Financing" by a neutral of one or both combatants is perfectly legitimate, in WWI the USA had loans to both sides early on, later only the Entente, and of course in WWII the USA had loans to Britain and France while still neutral. Assisiting the Nazis in hiding the loot from the Jews and others is another story, but very little has ever been done about that OTL.
Cook
Banned
Interning airmen was in accordance with International Law, and prevented them otherwise ending up in German POW camps, or being shot trying to make their way through occupied Europe.
The Allies did have valid grievances however; the Swiss exported arms to Germany and Italy, and allowed German troop and supply trains to run through Switzerland to Italy, safe from allied air attack; both the expert of arms from state run factories, and the transit of German troops and supplies through Switzerland were violations of Swiss neutrality. There is also the Swiss banking system, which was essential to the Reich in the later years of the war for trading with neutrals - and which was directly targeted by Operation Safehaven. There is also the matter of the $780 million worth of German gold, most of it looted from occupied Europe, that ended up in Swiss bank accounts.
Had the Allies chosen belligerence, rather than covert operations and negotiations, they would hardly have needed to invade; Switzerland was unable to feed itself and also needed to import almost all of its oil and coal, without which all Swiss industry would have ground to a halt and they would have found winter to be particularly chilly - a siege would have sufficed to force capitulation.
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Maybe bombing the Swiss electrical generation. They sold a fair bit of the power to German industry.Or perhaps Swiss chemical and machine tool industries for their supply contracts to Germany.