Quote:
Originally Posted by JCFalkenbergIII
SWISS NEUTRALITY
On a bombing raid on German military installations near the German/Swiss border on April 1, 1944, a force of 23 B-24 bombers from the USAF 392nd Bombardment Group, on its 59th mission, inadvertently entered Swiss air-space and owing to a navigational error mistakenly bombed the Swiss town of Schaffhausen. Fifty Swiss civilians were killed. The real target was to have been the chemical works at Ludwigshafen, 120 miles away. In 1949, the US agreed to pay $64 million in compensation. This was an attempt to secure Switzerland as an ally in the 'Cold War'. The greedy Swiss demanded that interest be paid on the $64 million, claiming that the damaged property had not been able to earn any money since the bombing. This demand was rejected.
The British Royal Air Force also flouted Swiss neutrality a couple of times and attempted to bomb a ball-bearing factory in Basel suspected of producing ball bearings for the German Army but both times the bombs missed the target. During the war a total of 167 American bombers and 12 British bombers made emergency landings in Switzerland. Severely damaged in combat over Germany and unable to return to their bases in England their only alternative was to head for neutral Switzerland. In one day, on March 18, 1944, no less than eleven American bombers made emergency landings at the Dubendorf airfield. The crews were interned by the Swiss authorities in camps at Adelboden, Grippen, Les Diablerets and in the notorious punishment camp at Wauwilermoos (for escapees). They were supposed to be treated like POW's under the rules of war but in many cases living conditions were little better than German concentration camps.
In all, around 1,500 American servicemen were interned in neutral Switzerland.
Does anyone have any more information on the Wauwilermoos punishment camp?
http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/1944.html |
I remember Barnes & Nobles bookstore had a few books about that subject a few years ago. I wanted to buy one in particular, (can't recall title) that was written by an American who was interred @ both: Adelboden and then Wauwilermoos.
I don't know if ti was in this mans book or not but, I thought it fairly funny that Americans were allowed to make emergency landings but, the Germans were not. Anyway, this book talked a bit about the Swiss's shootings down of German fighters. An what might seem odd-though it aint-was that German Messerschmitts were shot down by Swiss Messerschmitts. That must have been a sight to see. Also, the book said that the Swiss actually preferred killing any German who strayed into their space-instead of allowing him to leave or land and surrender.