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Camouflaged Military Bunkers of Switzerland (2015)
21–30 of 122 posts
Re: Camouflaged Military Bunkers of Switzerland (2015)
#22Fun Fact: The Swiss once lost tanks in their underground networks. Around 400. https://www.nzz.ch/maurers_schimmelnde_panzer-1.8120259
Might be a very stupid question, but when you saw "lost", do you mean they were destroyed somehow, or do you literally mean lost as in "couldn't find them"?
The tanks were thought to be destroyed (they weren't in use anymore) but while cleaning up a bunker/ tunnel system (idk) the reappeared. So they were lost (couldn't find them) somewhere in the process, instead of destroyed.
Re: Camouflaged Military Bunkers of Switzerland (2015)
#23Fun Fact: The Swiss once lost tanks in their underground networks. Around 400. https://www.nzz.ch/maurers_schimmelnde_panzer-1.8120259
While such stories and the pictures posted here are rather interesting, as a Swiss, I also find it at the same time quite depressing. The Swiss army is a bottomless barrel when it comes to funding; always requiring & demanding money, while preparing for scenarios that were maybe somewhat plausible during the height of the cold war but are nowadays obviously antiquated, plain for anyone to see who doesn't wear the nostalgia-tinged glasses.
It provides cool pictures such as the ones posted here and some nice stories, but apart from that - the billions currently going to the army could be used so much better.
Re: Camouflaged Military Bunkers of Switzerland (2015)
#24Also an interesting fact: The Swiss packed all bridges connecting Switzerland to Germany with tons of explosives until just recently. The wooden bridge [0] connecting Bad Säckingen with Stein contained hundreds of kilo of TNT until 2015. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holzbr%C3%BCcke_Bad_S%C3%A4cki...
West Germany did much the same with all roads and train tracks crossing into East Germany and Czechoslovakia. There were pre-made holes in the roads to blast craters into them. Bridges and tunnels were prepared similarly. It was also rumored that the explosive charges were mounted in place all the time, but I don't believe that part anymore.
Re: Camouflaged Military Bunkers of Switzerland (2015)
#25Fun Fact: The Swiss once lost tanks in their underground networks. Around 400. https://www.nzz.ch/maurers_schimmelnde_panzer-1.8120259
They weren't lost, this politician just talked some nonsense
"die Logistikbasis der Armee hätte ihn darüber informieren können, denn trotz ihren Informatik-Problemen hat sie den Bestand an M-113 und M-109 säuberlich registriert, wie mehrere Stellen im Verteidigungsdepartement betonen.
Re: Camouflaged Military Bunkers of Switzerland (2015)
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's made with ventilation thru hidden inlets (often hundreds of meters away), the outlets are over pressure protected, when a explosion outside goes off those then close, so the inhabitants have no eardrum rapture, in the case of nuclear/chemical/bio attack you attach big filters to the inlets. In some Bunkers the circulation is so bad, that after 2 week sleeping on your mattress mold starts to grow in it (bunkerhus…
> It's made with ventilation thru hidden inlets (often hundreds of meters away), the outlets are over pressure protected, when a explosion outside goes off those then close, so the inhabitants have not eardrum rapture, in the case of nuclear/chemical/bio attack you attach big filters to the inlets. Maybe a stupid question, I understand that with Swiss Conscription this is perhaps common knowledge for a large chunk of…
As someone with a causal passing interest in the cold war and nuclear weapons, yes this is public knowledge. How to build a blast shelter or fallout shelter was widely disseminated in the cold war for citizens to build their own. Overpressure protection and NBC air filtration is just part of building a good shelter. The filtration systems are not some exotic radiation neutralizing material, they are just filters to catch irradiated particles and keep them from entering the shelter and being breathed in. If anything, the pictures of the bunkers showing their camouflage design and locations would be the biggest disclosure, but even that is obviously not an issue at this point.
Re: Camouflaged Military Bunkers of Switzerland (2015)
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have explosive nearly on every main bridge and "autobahn" sometimes in the street sometimes on the walls of mountains, to slow down tanks/troop transports. Fun detail: Those can just be detonated with a "encoded" metal-plate. They look a bit like that: https://img.luzernerzeitung.ch/2018/4/14/5f68fda6-34ec-4375-...
There was explosives, but they've all been taken out ~10 years ago
True, but not all, just most of them.
Re: Camouflaged Military Bunkers of Switzerland (2015)
#28Looks like anyone wanting to invade is in for a rough patch, but maybe modern tech renders these types of things worthless. Considering what a rough time the US (and Russia) has had in Afghanistan, I suspect they'd still be fairly effective.
This made me remember something about castles...
I was wondering, how useful are ancient castles in modern battles? Armchair generals all over the planet kept prattling about them being useless because modern weaponry is awesome and all...
Then I went to look properly:
1. Kerak de Chevaliers, yes, that one crusader castle, was occupied during the Syrian war, and gave a hard time to the enemy outside, the castle worked exactly as intended, even with modern weapons.
2. Ditto to a bunch of other castles in some past wars.
3. A fortified monastery gave enemies a hard time in WW2 in Italy, I forgot its name now.
4. Not exactly "ancient castle", but a "star fort" in France was captured in the opening days of Battle of Verdun, in part because the french leadership believed castles to be outdated and didn't garrisoned it properly... the result was that the attempts to retake the fort resulted in 100.000 casualties on the French side before they succeeded.
5. Also in Verdun there was a smaller fort, the commander of that fort was old and the military ordered him to retire for medical reasons, he refused and basically "kept" the fort as his own, with a small garrison, the old guy and his small garrison fought fiercely against the invading Germans and caused 3000 casualties to the Germans before they lost.
Re: Camouflaged Military Bunkers of Switzerland (2015)
#29Looks like anyone wanting to invade is in for a rough patch, but maybe modern tech renders these types of things worthless. Considering what a rough time the US (and Russia) has had in Afghanistan, I suspect they'd still be fairly effective.
>Considering what a rough time the US (and Russia) has had in Afghanistan, I suspect they'd still be fairly effective.
That was the whole plan in WW2, take the army back to the mountains leave the city's and flatland to the enemy, then start Guerilla warfare and protect the big Mountain Fortresses.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Redoubt_(Switzerland)
Re: Camouflaged Military Bunkers of Switzerland (2015)
#30Fun Fact: The Swiss once lost tanks in their underground networks. Around 400. https://www.nzz.ch/maurers_schimmelnde_panzer-1.8120259
I've also learnt that they threw a lot of (expired?) ammunition into the lakes...
And that 2 weapons bunkers have exploded, 1 annihilating a village. Well, half of it exploded, and the other half is a ticking time bomb: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/mitholz--life-in-the-shadow-of-...