Border Brigade 7
Map with all coordinates: 
The Grenzbrigade 7 (Gz Br 7) was one of eleven border brigades of the Swiss Army . It was subordinate to the 4th Army Corps (since 1961 Field Army Corps 4 , FAK 4) and existed from 1938 to 1994 ( Army 95 ).
history
The border troops were reorganized in accordance with the Hague Agreement with the 1938 Troop Order (TO 38) and 11 border brigades (Gz Br) were created. In addition to the border fusilier battalions, they had a company of cyclists, motorized mitrailleurs and infantry gunners .
Border Brigade 7 was assigned to the 4th Army Corps for training and preparation for operations. The subordination during the mission was determined by the respective operation plan. In all units of the border troops, militiamen residing in the operational area were assigned because the border troops were the first to be mobilized in the event of mobilization and had to be ready for immediate action so that the mobilization of the majority of the army could not be disrupted.
The brigade was an infantry formation when it was formed and had to fight the attrition from the border. The operational area bordered on the left with Border Brigade 6 near Eschenz (Fänebach barrier) ⊙ and on the right with Steinach (Steinach estuary on Lake Constance) ⊙ with that of Border Brigade 8 .
Just before the outbreak of the Second World War , the 7th Border Brigade was mobilized on August 29, 1939. The locking points of the fortress belt were ready for defense after an hour and a half; after another half a day the four battalions were fully engaged. According to the defense concept of the time, the fortress belt should be able to delay an enemy attack by four to six days in order to prevent a rapid occupation of the Swiss plateau and thus enable the Swiss army to be fully mobilized .
The order of Border Brigade 7 was as follows: The brigade had to hold the section from Eschenz to the mouth of the Steinach "down to the last cartridge", to protect the border against an advance from southern Germany on the Lower and Lake Constance and to block the north-south axes.
The brigade had several large blocking points as combat bases. The centerpiece was the Kreuzlingen fortress belt , built in 1937 with 42 plants, armed with seven 4.7 cm infantry cannons , five light machine guns and 69 machine guns 11 and stretching from Bottighofen to Triboltingen : The Kreuzlingen fortress belt begins on the banks of the Obersee near Bottighofen ⊙ and runs behind a creek to the south to Lengwil ⊙ . From this position follows the Seerücken over Bätershausen ⊙ and Weiherhau ⊙ westward bends when Staudenhof ⊙ to the north and reached back behind a stream sink running in Triboltingen ⊙ the shore of Lake Untersee.
Two of the four border infantry battalions were deployed in the fortification belt: Battalion 274 in the eastern section (corp assembly point Oberhofen) and battalion 275 in the western section (corp assembly location Neuwilen).
After 1945 funds, orders and the organization of Border Brigade 7 were periodically updated and the infrastructure modernized. During Army 61 , the brigade was integrated into the combat management of Field Division 7 and had the support of a tank battalion and a self-propelled howitzer division. It had the following main weapons at its disposal: machine gun 51, 9 cm anti-tank cannon 57 , rocket tube (operating distance 200 m), anti-tank guided weapon "Dragon" (operating distance 1000 m), 12 cm fortress mine thrower , 10.5 cm howitzers of the fortress division 7, which was newly established in 1988.
For the defense of Lake Constance, the port of Romanshorn (ferry connection to Friedrichshafen) was included in the defense and fortified with a bunker below the terrace of the former "Schloss" hotel. In 1985 a protected weapon position (F 7560) for anti-tank guided weapons and rocket tube was created at the port entrance. The "Kampfgruppe Bodensee" (Kampfgruppe Bodensee) included the motorboat company III / 47 and its radar train.
In the years 1943–1945, 18 motorboats with 86 men were in use on Lake Constance. After the active service (TO 46), all of the army's own patrol boats were brought together in Motorboat Company 1. Three trains have been assigned for Lake Constance (Steckborn, Romanshorn, Rorschach). In 1981/82 four newly developed P-80 patrol boats were delivered for Lake Constance.
The brigade's last dispositive (1980s) was designed for an attack from the east along the Swiss border westwards with a possible parallel thrust across Swiss territory.
In 1994 Border Brigade 7 had around 800 permanent weapons positions, command posts and shelters. The firepower had been increased with the 12 cm fortress mine launchers.
Units (as of 1991)
- Border Brigade 7
- Infantry regiments (Inf Rgt) 55 with the Fusilier Battalions (Füs Bat) 274, 275, 276, 277
- Grenadier company I / 76
- Anti-tank company (Pzaw Kp) II / 7
- Anti-tank guided weapon companies (PAL Kp) 71, 72, 73, 74
- Mobile light anti-aircraft battery (Mob L Flab Bttr) III / 7
- Fusilier Company 639
- Heavy fusilier companies (Sch Füs Kp) 907, 913, 914
- Genius department 47 (with motorboat company III / 47 as "Bodenseemarine")
- Border Transfer Company (Gz Uem Kp) 7
- Works company 43
- Fortress department 107: Fortress fire control company (Fest Flt Kp) 107, fortress company I / 107 (mine thrower), fortress howitzer batteries (Fest Hb Bttr) II / 107, III / 107, IV / 107
Fusilier Battalion 75 (excerpt) would have been assigned for combat operations.
Command posts, artillery works and blocking points
The works and blocking points of Border Brigade 7 are in the Canton of Thurgau:
- Command post (KP): KP Border Brigade “Erichstollen” A 5745 above Weinfelden ⊙ , KP Infantry Regiment 32 “Ottoberg” F 7650 ⊙
- Blocking points (blocking points of national importance with *): Arbon-Steinach-Horn, Birwinken, Dippishausen, Engwang, Ermatingen, Fischingen, Gündelhart, Güttingen, Helsighausen, Hörhausen, Hugelshofen, Klarsreuti, Lipperswil, Mammern, Märstetten, Münsterlingen, Neuwilen, Romanshorn, Schwaderloh, Siegershausen, Steckborn, Uttwil, Werkgürtel Kreuzlingen (Kreuzlingen, Bottighofen *, Lengwil *, Triboltingen *)
Fortress Belt Association Kreuzlingen
The association maintains and operates facilities in the Kreuzlingen fortress belt within the framework of the contracts concluded with the sponsoring communities. He enables visits to the fortifications and operates a museum with exhibits belonging to members and third parties.
The facilities can be viewed from the outside on a military-historical hiking trail in four stages: Hiking trail 1: Liebburg – Tobel, hiking trail 2: Bätershausen - A7, hiking trail 3: Castel, hiking trail 4: Castel-Triboltingen
The command bunker of Grenzbrigade 7 above Weinfelden has been owned by the Kreuzlingen Fortress Belt Association since 2008.
The Ottoberg Military History Protection Association operates and maintains historical fortifications in the Ottoberg region in their original state. This includes the nuclear protection shelter F 7714 for radio and emergency beam, which is located above the command post of Border Brigade 7 in Weinfelden.
literature
- Ruedi Herzog: Border Guard at Lake Constance and the History of the Border Brigade 7 . Huber Verlag, Frauenfeld 1993, ISBN 978-3-7193-1078-3
- Peter Hofer: Planning and construction of the Kreuzlingen fortress belt. (= Series of publications by the Federal Military Library and the Historical Service , Volume 27), Federal Military Library (EMB) and Historical Service, Bern 2007, ISBN 3-906969-26-6 .
- Silvio Keller, Maurice Lovisa, Thomas Bitterli: Military monuments in the cantons of Schaffhausen and Thurgau, VBS 1999 .
Web links
- Bunker friends: Thurgau facilities
- VBS: Staff course in the KP of Grenzbrigade 7 near Weinfelden
- Little Porcupine: Border Brigade 7
- Volkshochschule Mittelthurgau: Command bunker Grenzbrigade 7
Individual evidence
- ↑ Agreement on the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers and Persons in the Event of Land War, concluded in The Hague on October 18, 1907.
- ↑ Thurgauer Zeitung of November 13, 2014: Threat - The enemy would have come over Lake Constance
- ↑ Hansjakob Burkhardt: Fortification "Seesperre Nas", infantry and artillery works Ober- and Unter-Nas with a sea obstacle at the Lake Lucerne entrance gate to the Reduit and Swiss Navy on Lake Lucerne, use of motor boat troops and cargo ship detachments - development and procurement of patrol boats P- 41 and P-80. Fischerdörfli-Verlag, Meggen 2005, ISBN 3-907164-14-8
- ^ Thurgauer Zeitung of November 13, 2014: War! Behind the bunker door
- ↑ Military historical monuments in the cantons of Schaffhausen and Thurgau, VBS 1999
- ↑ Fortress Oberland: Border Brigade 7
- ↑ Homepage of the Kreuzlingen Fortress Belt Association
- ↑ Military historical hiking trail 1 Liebburg – Tobel
- ↑ Military historical hiking trail 2 Bääterschhuse - A7
- ↑ Military historical hiking trail 3 Castel
- ^ Military-historical hiking trail 4 Castel – Triboltingen
- ↑ Tagblatt dated April 2, 2008: Uncovering the secret ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Open day of the bunker doors on August 24, 2013 in the Brigade Bunker Weinfelden
- ^ Website of the Ottoberg Military Historical Protection Plant Association