Artillery positions Gempenplateau
Map with all coordinates: 
The Gempenplateau artillery positions were bunkered positions for the field artillery. They were created by the Swiss army during the Second World War for national defense and to prevent Switzerland from bypassing the Maginot Line .
In May 1940, the Renfer building department began building the battery positions on the edge of the Gempen plateau in the area of the cantons of Basel-Landschaft and Solothurn . The Gempenplateau barrier is a military-historical monument of national importance.
Strategic importance
During the Second World War, the Gempen Plateau, together with the upstream city of Basel ( Stadtkommando Basel ), formed the left and right cornerstones of all defensive positions against the northeast and northwest. To prevent foreign armies from being bypassed through the territory of Switzerland, it had to ensure the connection to the Maginot Line or the Siegfried Line . The artillery positions erected on the Gempen plateau could have covered the Rhine crossings and the entrances to the Birs valley as well as those into the Ergolz valley .
Due to a lack of troops, artillery units and guns, the positions on the plateau could not be occupied. The Border Brigade 4 had to delay with three battalions a rise of opponent to the dominant Gempen without artillery support.
Maneuver H
Until October 1939, the Swiss army command had made agreements with the French army to close this defensive gap with the help of French troops in the event of a German attack. These agreements enabled the Swiss Army to move large contingents of Swiss troops from the border with France to the border with Germany and to establish and occupy the first army position ( Limmat position ) there.
At the end of March 1940, maneuver H was fully worked out and ready for implementation. In order to counteract a bypassing of the Maginot line of German troops through Switzerland, a French army corps should establish the connection to the left wing of the Swiss army position. This should block the southern exits of the city of Basel and maintain the plateau of Gempen.
In the new directives of the French General Bessons for a possible intervention in the Basel area, the Swiss "Gempen hinge detachment" is mentioned, which would be subordinate to the French corps when it arrived in Switzerland.
Gempen Division
Construction of the positions began in the spring of 1940. On May 20, command of the reinforced Gempen Division (11 battalions of Border Brigades 3 and 4, Basel city command ) was transferred to Colonel Du Pasquier. The Gempen Division, formed ad hoc, had the task of anchoring the Limmat position of the Swiss Army on the Maginot Line and protecting the deployment of the French intervention troops in the Gempen Plateau artillery positions in the event of a German invasion of Switzerland.
The Gempen division had 26,295 men and the following infantry weapons at its disposal: 792 light machine guns (Lmg), 210 mounted Lmg, 280 heavy machine guns, 64 81-mm mortars, 44 47-mm anti-tank guns.
The western campaign of the German Wehrmacht, which began on May 10, 1940, forced the French high command to withdraw more and more of the intended intervention troops (Besson Army Group) towards the end of May / beginning of June for the fighting in northern France.
The rapid advance of the Wehrmacht fundamentally changed the strategic situation in Switzerland and the mission of the Gempen division. The division now occupied the interface between the Limmat position and the western front. In mid-July the first divisions of the Limmat position had taken up the new army position in the Reduit . On July 3, 1940, the Gempen division was abolished, and on July 6, the troops subordinate to the city command were released. Basel was declared an open city .
Prepared artillery positions for the French army
The battery positions were designed for use with French guns (7.5 cm cannon and 15.5 cm howitzer).
Battery 1: Therwil BL
- 15 cm field howitzers Froloo 1 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Froloo 2 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Froloo 3 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Froloo 4 ⊙
Battery 2: Therwil BL
- 15 cm field howitzers Hinterlind 1 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Hinterlind 2 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Hinterlind 3 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Hinterlind 4 ⊙
Battery 3: Reinach BL
- 15 cm field howitzers Reinacherheide 1 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Reinacherheide 2 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Reinacherheide 3 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Reinacherheide 4 ⊙
Battery 4: Arlesheim BL
- 7.5 cm field cannons Ermitage 1 ⊙
- 7.5 cm field cannons Ermitage 2 ⊙
- 7.5 cm field cannons Ermitage 3 ⊙
- 7.5 cm field cannons Ermitage 4 ⊙
- Shelter / KP / fire control center Ermitage ⊙
Battery 5: Arlesheim BL
- 7.5 cm field cannons Ermitage Gobenmatt 1 ⊙
- 7.5 cm field cannons Ermitage Gobenmatt 2 ⊙
- 7.5 cm field cannons Ermitage Gobenmatt 3 ⊙
- 7.5 cm field cannons Ermitage Gobenmatt 4 ⊙
Battery 6: Gempen SO
- 15 cm field howitzers Schönmatt Süd 1 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Schönmatt Süd 2 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Schönmatt Süd 3 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Schönmatt Süd 4 ⊙
Battery 7: Gempen SO
- 7.5 cm field cannons Schönmatt, Haselstuden W 1 ⊙
- 7.5 cm field cannons Schönmatt, Haselstuden W 2 ⊙
- 7.5 cm field cannons Schönmatt, Haselstuden W 3 ⊙
- 7.5 cm field cannons Schönmatt, Haselstuden W 4 ⊙
Battery 8: Gempen SO
- 7.5 cm field cannons Schönmatt, Haselstuden E 1 ⊙
- 7.5 cm field cannons Schönmatt, Haselstuden E 2 ⊙
- 7.5 cm field cannons Schönmatt, Haselstuden E 3 ⊙
- 7.5 cm field cannons Schönmatt, Haselstuden E 4 ⊙
Battery 9: Gempen SO
Battery 10: Nuglar-St. Pantaleon SO
- 15 cm field howitzers Disliberg 1 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Disliberg 2 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Disliberg 3 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Disliberg 4 ⊙
Battery 11: Nuglar-St. Pantaleon SO
- 15 cm field howitzers Muni 1 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Muni 2 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Muni 3 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Muni 4 ⊙
Battery 12: Nuglar-St. Pantaleon SO
- 15 cm field howitzers Brunnenbachrain 1 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Brunnenbachrain 2 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Brunnenbachrain 3 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Brunnenbachrain 4 ⊙
Battery 13: Liestal BL
- 15 cm field howitzers Talacher 1 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Talacher 2 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Talacher 3 ⊙
- 15 cm field howitzers Talacher 4 ⊙
- Observer Felsenwerk Adler 2 MG ⊙
- Artillery observer Winterhollen Ost ⊙
- Artillery observer Winterhollen West ⊙
Artillery dispositiv of the 4th Division from May 1940
- Field Artillery Department 10 Division 4 (Batt 25 26 27), Gelterkinden BL ⊙
- Field Artillery Department 11 Division 4 (Batt 28 29 30), Sissach BL ⊙
- Field artillery department 12 Division 4 (Batt 34 35 36), Wittnau AG ⊙
Artillery positions in France
In the Maginot Line , eight 15.5 cm cannons and four 24 cm “Saint Chamond” cannons, model 1884-1917, each with a range of 18 kilometers, were prepared for the destruction of the Rhine bridges in Basel in the event of an invasion by the Wehrmacht. In addition, the French army had deployed four 32 cm railway guns nearby.
literature
- Christian Brückner: The Basel city command 1939–1989. Review on the occasion of the 50th anniversary. Basel, November 1989
- Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport (Ed.): Silvio Keller, Maurice Lovisa, Thomas Bitterli: Military monuments in the cantons of Solothurn, Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft. Inventory of the combat and command structures . VBS Bern 2001 (PDF file; 7.11 MB)
- Edgar Bonjour : History of Swiss Neutrality, Volume 5 . Helbing & Lichterhahn, Basel 1970, ISBN 3-7965-1171-6 .
- Hans Senn : Basel and the Gempenplateau in World War II. Huber Verlag, Frauenfeld 1996, ISBN 3-274-00079-5 .
Web links
- Gempen Division: Task and position ( Memento from March 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ^ Silvio Keller, Maurice Lovisa, Thomas Bitterli: Military monuments in the cantons of Solothurn, Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft. Inventory of the combat and command structures. VBS Bern 2001
- ↑ Hans Senn : The operational importance of the plateau of Gempen in the Second World War. In: Silvio Keller, Maurice Lovisa, Thomas Bitterli: Military monuments in the cantons of Solothurn, Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft. Inventory of the combat and command structures . VBS Bern 2001
- ↑ Fortress Oberland: Artillery positions Gempenplateau - map of the positions and fire areas of the artillery batteries
- ^ Swiss Society for Military History Study Trips (GMS), trips from February 2, 1997 and October 25, 1997: The Maginot Line in Sundgau
- ↑ Wikimaginot: Battery de Breitenhaag
- ↑ Wikimaginot: Batterie du Strengwald
- ^ Swiss soldier: the leading military magazine in Switzerland. Volume 72, Issue 2 1997.