70th Infantry Battalion
The Infantry Battalion 70 (Inf Bat 70) is a traditional association of the Canton of Zurich , which was founded in 1874 and belonged to Zurich Field Division 6 until 2003 . It was the first battalion of the former 28th Infantry Regiment and the first Zurich Fusilier Battalion (Mech Füs Bat 70) to be mechanized.
With Army XXI , it was subordinated to Infantry Brigade 7 in 2009 and to Mountain Infantry Brigade 12 in 2010 . It was formed with militiamen and will be dissolved as of December 31, 2017.
Military organization 1874
With the army reform of 1874 (military organization MO 1874), the military became a federal matter , and the Swiss army emerged as the first federally organized army. Larger formations were no longer formed ad hoc when they were called up, but were already divided into divisions , brigades , regiments and battalions during peacetime . Despite the central organization, there were cantonal associations such as the VI. Army division, in which mainly Zurich militiamen were divided. Until it was dissolved in 2003, this was known as the “Zurich Division”. In 1874 the Inf Bat 70 was founded as part of the 24th Infantry Regiment, later the Inf Bat 71 and 72 joined them. In Zurich, 20 infantry battalions were formed, half each in the move out and half in the Landwehr . The infantrymen were equipped with the new 10.4 mm repeating rifle System Vetterli 1869. Recruit school and refresher courses (WK) were introduced for all branches of service.
The first commandant of Inf Bat 70 was Major Johann Brandenberger from Zurich, who led the battalion from 1875 to 1883 and then took over Inf Rgt 24. The soldiers were mainly recruited from the two lake districts of Meilen and Horgen . Around 1890 the Inf Bat 70 was renamed Fusilier Battalion 70 (Füs Bat 70). According to MO 1874 an infantry battalion consisted of four companies of 185 men, a total of 740 men with ten wagons, 20 draft horses and seven riding horses.
In the summer of 1896, the Füs Bat 70 and 71 were called up for security service during the Italian riots in Zurich-Wiedikon . The mobilization of the Zurich troops was well prepared. The Füs Bat 70 and 71 took five hours to get to the site in the city of Zurich, only the two battalions from Zurich city 68 and 69 were faster. With the troop order in 1911, the number of divisions was reduced from eight to six, the 6th became the 5th division. In 1912 the Füs Bat 70 took part in the large-scale imperial maneuvers on the occasion of the maneuver visit by the German Kaiser .
First World War
During the First World War , the Füs Bat 70, like all units of the Swiss Army, was used to occupy the border. In addition to the border guard, a lot of time was invested in military training and maneuvers, displacement marches and building fortifications. All deployed troops had to keep a diary. The Füs Bat 70 gathered (as part of Inf Rgt 28 and the 5th Division) on August 4, 1914 at 9 a.m., one day after the general mobilization , with 1103 officers, NCOs and soldiers at its corp assembly point at the Limmatstrasse schoolhouse in Zurich .
At the beginning of September 1914, the Füs Bat 70 was first used at Lützel as a border guard, followed by the border guard in the Basel area in mid-November . From August 1915 to March 1916, the Füs Bat 70 was called up as part of the 5th Division to strengthen the border guard on the southern border, in the vicinity of which fighting between Italy and Austria-Hungary took place. In 1917 the Füs Bat 70 was mobilized twice, for training and military road construction in the area of the Hauenstein fortification and for border protection near Basel and in the Jura. The fifth active service of the Füs Bat 70 took place from May to September 1918 with border guards from the Bernese Jura to Schaffhausen. During the First World War, the Füs Bat 70 was mobilized five times and it did a total of 678 days of active service.
In 1938 the 5th Division was renamed the 6th Division again as part of the new troop order of 1936. Since there were Zurich soldiers for more than one division, they were divided into other divisions. Herbert Constam (1885–1973), who later became the commander of the 3rd Army Corps, became the new commander .
Second World War
On September 1, 1939 at 12 noon, the Swiss radio station announced the decision of the Federal Council to mobilize war and September 2 as the first day of mobilization. Officers of the Fus Bat 70 already arrived at the corp assembly area on September 1st. On September 2, the troops moved to the corp assembly point in Uster at 9 a.m. , where they were sworn in. The lack of men was particularly noticeable in agriculture, so the army helped out wherever it could.
On September 22nd, the battalion marched from the Winterthur area to the area south of the Limmat . There it was used in the construction of the first army position, the Limmat position , in the section of the 6th Division near the fortress Uetliberg .
In September 1940 the battalion moved into its redoubt position in the Schindellegi-Biberbrücke area for the first time , and Richterswil was the new corp collection point . The years 1941/42 were quieter, the battalion only had to enter three times. In addition to building obstacles, a lot of training was carried out. The area could be got to know on weekly training marches. There were sniper exercises, combat exercises, hand-to-hand combat training, assault training, fortress storming, mountain service, ski patrol training as well as division exercises and large maneuvers, in 1943 for the first time training with flamethrowers and tank grenades. 1943/44 had to be indented three times. In July 1943 (collapse of Italy) the regiment was used for the first time to guard the north ramp of the Gotthard Railway. In 1945 the Füs Bat 70 had a single use. For one month, divided into detachments , it had to guard all 95 internment camps between Lake Constance , Lake Geneva and southernmost Ticino .
The 28th Infantry Regiment performed its duties in a single district , often in the canton of Zurich, now and then in central Switzerland in the Reduit and towards the end on the border in the Jura . It began with a long service (327 days uninterrupted) when the war broke out and ended with the guarding of internment camps when the war was over. On October 4th, the active service ended with a total of 832 days of service for the Füs Bat 70.
Cold war and army reforms
From 1948 on, the repetition courses took place again in the normal three-week cycle. With the Troop Order 51 (TO 51), the 6th Division again took over the structures of the TO 36, in addition it received a reconnaissance and a mobile light flak division. In 1955, the maneuver was the first to practice behavior in the event of an attack with nuclear weapons.
With Army 61 , the 6th Division became Field Division 6 and was now part of Field Army Corps 4 . Large maneuvers and general defense exercises were carried out. The operational area of Field Division 6 including Border Brigade 6 was 40 kilometers east-west and 48 kilometers south-north. The division, including the border brigade, had to hold the Schaffhausen bridgehead , prevent an enemy advance into Zurich, the Limmat and the occupation of Kloten Airport. It had to support the counter attacks of the mechanized division 11 in the areas of Winterthur, lower Glatttal and Brüten.
With the Army 95 the Füs Bat 70 was mechanized as the first bat of Inf Rgt 28 and received the Piranha armored personnel carrier . In 2003, Field Division 6 was released from cantonal military sovereignty and dissolved. It was replaced in 2008 by the 7th Infantry Brigade from Zurich and Eastern Switzerland. In 2010 the Füs Bat 70 was assigned to the Mountain Infantry Brigade 12 with command in Chur.
With the WEA , the last Zurich infantry battalion will be disbanded after 143 years on December 31, 2017.
Outline Füs Bat 70 today (2016)
- Staff Inf Bat 70
- Inf Stabskp 70
- Inf Kp 70/1, 70/2, 70/3
- Inf Ustü Kp 70/4
literature
- Gubler Robert: Field Division 6 - From the Zurich militia to the field division 1815–1991. Volume 1, Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 1991, ISBN 978-3-03823-062-5 .
- Gertrud and Paul Wyrsch-Ineichen: In the Réduit: The canton of Schwyz during the Second World War. Situations and events about which not everything was in the newspaper at the time. MHVS 87, 1995.
- Oswald Schwitter: Réduit fortifications of the 6th Division between Etzel and Rigi. In: Michel Kaspar: "The 29er" - history and military political environment of the mountain infantry regiment 29 (= Schwyzer Hefte Volume 27). Schwyz 2000.
- Valentin Kessler: The fortifications in the canton of Schwyz. Reprint from the communications of the Historical Association of the Canton of Schwyz, Issue 95, 2003.
- Hans-Ulrich Solenthaler (Ed.): Field Division 6. Field Division 6 from 1992 until it was transferred to Army XXI. Volume 2, Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 2003, ISBN 978-3-03823-048-9 .
- Video "History of F Div 6": old Zurich military history and changes in the Zurich military system from the French era through the " Züriputsch " and the Sonderbund War to the founding time of today's F Div 6. Kdo F Div 6, Zurich 2003.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Inf Bat 70: History
- ↑ Swiss Army: Commander Inf Bat 70
- ^ Inf Bat 70: No place for emotions
- ↑ DDPS: Infanteriebataillon 70 ( Memento of the original from September 9, 2016 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.
