Play as · WW2 1939 · L1 · Armed Neutral · Alpine Redoubt
Switzerland - 1939
Switzerland in 1939 mobilized its army within 48 hours of the German invasion of Poland - 430,000 men called up under General Henri Guisan, the largest mobilization in the country's history relative to population. Population about 4.2M. The Federal Council has reaffirmed the armed neutrality the country has run continuously since 1815 and is preparing for the war it expects but does not yet know will encircle it geographically by June 1940. The strategic identity is the Alpine redoubt - Switzerland will not stop a determined invader on the Mittelland, but the Alps make occupation expensive enough that occupation is the question, not victory.
Starting position
The Swiss Army of 1939 is a militia force mobilized from the entire male adult population, organized in three corps with the bulk of the strength in mountain divisions, equipped with K31 rifles, a small inventory of LTH light tanks and 7.5cm field guns, and an air force of about 80 Messerschmitt Bf 109D/E aircraft (purchased pre-war from Germany) plus older types. The serious investment is the fortified line - Saint-Maurice, Sargans, the Gotthard fortifications, the National Redoubt strategy that General Guisan formalizes in 1940 to pull the army back into the Alpine massif and let the cities fall if necessary. The financial system runs gold convertibility through the war, and the Swiss National Bank's gold operations with the Reichsbank become a core wartime balancing act.
What turns the campaign
What Switzerland wants is the armed neutrality respected by both sides (the German operational planning files contain Tannenbaum, an invasion plan that is repeatedly drafted and never executed because the cost-benefit never resolves), the airspace defended seriously enough that violations carry a price (Swiss pilots will down both German and Allied aircraft over the war), the gold and currency operations with both Berlin and the Allies sustained at the level that keeps Switzerland economically viable, and the Alpine redoubt credible enough that a German operational planner concludes the lowlands are not worth the mountains. What Switzerland fears is a German operational decision that judges the cost worth paying (the 1940 and 1943 windows where Tannenbaum gets serious staff work), an Allied bombing campaign that treats the country as Axis-economic-infrastructure (Schaffhausen 1944 prefigures this), and any neutrality breach significant enough to force a side.
Signature challenge
The redoubt calculation
Switzerland's central strategic problem in 1939 is that its deterrent works only if the cost of attempting the invasion is calculated to exceed the value, and that calculation is being done in Berlin by staff officers Switzerland cannot directly influence. The National Redoubt is the answer to the calculation: by visibly preparing to abandon the lowlands and dig into the Alps, Switzerland reduces the value of conquest (the cities, finance, industry are gone before the invader arrives) while raising the cost (the mountain campaign that nobody in 1940 wants to fight). NationFall surfaces this as the Swiss campaign's defining tension: a defense whose entire purpose is to be expensive enough not to be tested, played against an opponent whose calculation could change with a single political decision in a capital Switzerland has no leverage in.
Try the Switzerland campaign
Free demo. Pick WW2 1939. Pick Switzerland. The redoubt is the strategy.
Play Free Demo as Switzerland