Fortress Guard Corps

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The fortress guard corps (FWK, French corps des gardes-fortifications , Italian corpo della guardia delle fortificazioni , Rhaeto-Romanic corp da guardiafortezzas ) was a professional formation of the Swiss Army .

history

The corps was established on April 1, 1942 during World War II . In addition to the surveillance squadron of the Air Force , the VCs was the only formation that not militiamen insisted.

The task of the FWK was the maintenance and security of the combat and command infrastructure ( fortresses , bunkers, ammunition stores, obstacles, explosive objects, protected command systems), especially before the troops entered. During Army 61, between 5,000 and 6,000 fortress guards were on duty across Switzerland.

Later on, guarding tasks in front of foreign consulates or supporting mine clearance abroad were among the tasks for which fortress guards were called in. In addition, fortress guards were deployed to reinforce the border guard corps .

The corps was disbanded in 2003 and the members were transferred to professional formations of military security .

Fortress guards' museums

So that the importance of the fortress guard corps is not forgotten, the IG Bödeli-Werke association set up a small museum in the former Goldey command post in Unterseen in 2017.

In 2018, a special themed room was dedicated to the fortress guards in the Naters Fortress.

literature

  • FWK (Ed.): 50 Years of the Fortress Guard Corps: 1942–1992. Fortress Guard Corps Command, Bern 1992.

Web links

Commons : Fortress Guard Corps  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Federal Department of Justice and Police: State Security Report 1999, page 175
  2. ↑ The plans to transform the fortress guard corps: Do you need a professional military police? Neue Zürcher Zeitung from April 9, 2002
  3. ↑ Fortress Oberland: Reminder of the fortress guard corps ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / festung-oberland.blogspot.ch
  4. ↑ Rhone newspaper of March 22, 2018: Naters Fortress Museum is being expanded