Cavalry (Switzerland)

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Swiss Cavalry Squadron 1972 (traditional club)

The Swiss cavalry was a branch of the Swiss Army .

Historical development

Battle of Grandson: The cavalry recruited by the Swiss from the Austrian foothills attacks the Burgundian cavalry

From the beginning of the 13th century, the federal leagues primarily served for national defense . Threatened federal locations were able to warn the allies to help and they had to provide military support within a short period of time. In the 15th century, their strength was based on the dreaded Swiss pikemen (spear bearers), four-quarters of the infantry. The numerically insignificant cavalry was provided by allied secular and spiritual feudal lords, city guilds and wealthy citizens or recruited from allied powers. The cantons of Bern and Zurich were able to raise 500 riders each, Basel 200 and Freiburg 100 riders. In the battle of Grandson and Murten , 1,800 mostly Austrian riders fought alongside 20,000 infantry on the side of the Confederates. In the battle of Marignano there were 1,500 Lombard and papal horsemen. The mountainous topography of the Swiss Confederation largely referred the horse to a transport role in warfare.

Defensive from Wil

In 1647 the Swiss cantons agreed in the Defensionale von Wil on a ratio of three mounted to one hundred foot soldiers. At that time, Bern had 35,000 soldiers, divided into 21 infantry regiments and 16 squadrons with 120 riders each. 900 mounted people were listed in the Zurich military toboggan. While their own cavalry stocks were deliberately kept low, the federal towns sold thousands of horses for cavalry to France, Piedmont and Lombardy every year in the 17th and 18th centuries. The cavalry played a subordinate role in the foreign military service of the Confederates. In 1632 a cavalry corps was raised in the Bernese subject area of ​​Vaud for service in Sweden. Individual Swiss distinguished themselves as cavalry generals in the Swedish, Prussian and French armies.

Portrait of a dragoons from the city ​​and republic of Bern from the 18th century

In the 18th century, the cuirassiers who had been fighting on horseback until then became mounted infantry. As dragoons they fought on foot with a carbine and only used their horses to move. The cavalry of around 1,500 men in the federal towns carried out the guerrilla warfare, was in the vanguard when troops moved, served for reconnaissance, the escort of artillery and train and as combat support for the infantry against the opposing cavalry.

Helvetic and mediation

The defeat by Napoleon's army brought about the end of the old, decentralized federal defense organization and made the question of building a tightly organized overall armed forces of the Swiss Confederation an important political issue.

During the Helvetic Republic and mediation , the development of cavalry and other branches of the army stagnated. The massive requisition of horses by Napoleon led to a decline in mounted troops during the Restoration. At the time the contingent army was organized in 1817, the Swiss cavalry consisted of 11 companies of hunters on horseback, made up of contingents from the cantons of Zurich, Bern, Lucerne, Friborg, Solothurn, Basel, Schaffhausen, St. Gallen, Aargau, Thurgau, Vaud and Geneva. Uniforms and equipment were left to the cantons. In the Sonderbund War of 1847, the federal troops owned 1,700 horsemen for 10,000 soldiers.

Federal constitution 1848 and military organization 1850

With the federal constitution of 1848, the federal government took over the training of dragoons and guides (escorts, courier and army police), while the most important military competencies remained with the cantons.

The military organization of 1850 had 22 companies of dragoons and seven companies of guides in exodus and 13 companies of dragoons and eight half companies of guides in reserve. The uniform was the orderly with a caterpillar helmet and green tails and trousers laid down in the regulations of 1852 .

The federal army of 1870 comprised 201,000 men with 4,619 cavalrymen. The mobilization in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 brought to light serious deficiencies in the addition of young horses to the military horse population ( remonte ), the training and equipment of the riding troops. Their armament consisted largely of pistols and sabers until the cousin rifle was introduced in the 1870s .

While every horse soldier paid for his horse and equipment himself until 1848, the members of these troops were now able to get their horse, the Swiss Confederation , at a reduced price from the Federal Horse Directorate in Thun , which was particularly attractive for arable farmers. In rural areas, for many Swiss , the confederation became a symbol of the militia system and the bond between home and the army.

Military organization in 1874 and foundation of the Swiss Army

The revision of the Federal Constitution of 1874 gave the federal government control over the armed forces, restricted the military powers of the cantons and thus led to the establishment of the Swiss army. Each division had a cavalry regiment and a guide company. With the military organization of 1874, a unit of the Dragoons became a squadron. There were 24 dragoon squadrons of 124 men, combined in eight cavalry regiments of three squadrons and twelve guide companies of 43 men, a total of 3,500 men.

In 1895 the cavalry consisted of four dragoon brigades with 15 instructors and 6,594 men (3,458 excerpts , 3,136 Landwehr ). In 1898 each brigade received a mounted mitrailleur company with - for the first time in Europe - eight Maxim machine guns . The short training was supplemented with voluntary off-duty activities such as horse shows. The conversion of the cavalry into a mobile infantry proposed by the chief instructor of the cavalry, Colonel Ulrich Wille , failed due to the resistance of the cavalry officers, who up until 1914 adhered to the concept of cavalry as a shock force and a means of attack. From 1893 the orderly carbine was introduced by SIG Neuhausen in 1893 because the long rifle was not suitable for cavalry.

Military organization in 1907 and World War I

The military organization of 1907 was a compromise that took into account the failure of the complete centralization of the military in the referendum of 1895. The cantons continued to provide the dragoon squadrons and procured their personal equipment. The military organization in 1907 brought the subordination of the guides to the six divisions (one division of two companies each).

The First World War, with its increased firepower, the use of poison gas and the fact that the dragoons served on foot during the occupation of the border , questioned the continued existence of the cavalry. In 1916 the 24 dragoon squadrons were divided into four cavalry brigades in two regiments with three squadrons each. There were also twelve guide squadrons and eight mitrailleur squadrons. This reached the highest level with 6,600 men. In 1918, during the general strike , the cavalry had to take on the politically sensitive task of security .

Between the wars and the Second World War

The dismantling began with the troop order in 1925. In 1924 and 1938 individual squadrons were given up. The guides disappeared and became dragoons. There remained 30 dragoon squadrons and twelve mitrailleur squadrons. Each cavalry brigade had a new bicyclist division. The cavalry brigades now comprised two mounted regiments and a cyclist battalion. There were 6,000 men in total. In 1936 the light troops were created with around 5,000 men. The cavalry brigades were converted into light brigades, which consisted of two dragoons (30 squadrons) and two cyclist battalions. The Mitrailleur squadrons were disbanded and the Mitrailleurs integrated into the existing squadrons. In 1940 the light divisions with the cavalry brigades were introduced into three regiments of six squadrons each.

During the Second World War , the mobilization of the dragoons impaired the cultivation battle because there was a lack of horses in agriculture and there was also a shortage of hay and oats. The light brigades, as the only mobile units of the army, were used in the concept of the Swiss Réduit in the border area, Jura and in the Central Plateau to delay combat and against the use of parachutists.

After large sections of the army had withdrawn into the Réduit area, the presence of the mobile cavalry alongside the local defense units was an important factor in maintaining the will to defend the population in the spirit of national defense . In the Swiss film Gilberte de Courgenay from 1941 about the occupation of the border in World War I, the march past the horse-drawn artillery battery forms an emotional climax.

Post War and Army 61

Dragoons of the Swiss cavalry in uniform with his "Confederate" at a jumping competition in Switzerland in the 1960s

In 1947, 158,000 citizens who, like General Guisan, were in favor of retaining the cavalry, signed a petition. From this point on there were only motorized dragoons (later tank grenadiers) in the light brigades and one division of dragoons on horseback per field division. The troop order in 1951 resulted in a reduction to 24 Dragoons squadrons with 4,400 men and subordination to the eight field divisions.

With the troop order of 1961, Army 61 , the army units were adapted to the operational areas. The army structure only provided for one dragoon regiment per field army corps. The number of squadrons was reduced from 30 (1938) to 18 squadrons with around 3,462 men. In 1972, despite a petition with 432,430 signatures, parliament decided to abolish the cavalry. At that time, Switzerland was the last country in Europe that still had mounted combat units.

Cavalry clubs

Cavalry Squadron 1972

The memory of the cavalry is kept alive by the cavalry clubs founded in the 19th century: in 1856 the Association of Eastern Swiss Cavalry and Riding Clubs was founded, the largest section in Switzerland with around 20,000 active equestrian enthusiasts. At that time, his main goal was to establish equestrian troops in the Swiss Army and to promote training outside of the service period. In 1995, former cavalrymen, mainly from Dragoon Squadron 15, founded the Swiss Cavalry Squadron in 1972.

See also

literature

  • Christian Hug: Swiss cavalry . Swiss Cavalry Squadron 1972 (Ed.) (PDF; 217 kB), Höfen bei Thun 2012.
  • Robert Staub: Immortal Cavalry . Verlag Der Schweizer Kavallerist, Pfäffikon 1946.
  • Denis Borel: A Century of Swiss Cavalry 1874–1973 , Verlag Bern 1974.
  • Max E. Ammann: The Confederate. The history of the Swiss cavalry . Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1977, ISBN 3-7243-0112-X .
  • H. de Weck: La cavalerie jurassienne , 1978.
  • Markus Imhoof , film: Ormenis 199 + 69 , première 1970. And so the film turned out: a masterpiece about the cavalry in the Swiss army of the sixties - against the cavalry in the Swiss army of the future. (Frank A. Meyer, Zurich Week)

Web links

Commons : Cavalry in Switzerland  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Marc Tribelhorn: Swiss Cavalry: The Last Equestrian Battle of Europe In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of February 27, 2017