List of blocking points in Switzerland

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Lock Wimmis
Vogelau bunker, Dietikon

The list of blocking points in Switzerland ( French position de barrage , Italian Sbarramento (difensivo) , military abbreviation: Sp Stel ) contains defensive positions from the 13th century to the end of the Cold War . Artillery works were built throughout Switzerland to provide fire support for the most important blocking points .

Older locking points ( Letzinen )

Letzimauer Näfels

The medieval letzins consisted of earthworks, walls and palisades, which were laid out in favorable terrain so that outnumbered defenders had an advantage. At the time of the Battle of Morgarten (1315), access to central Switzerland was secured with Letzinen near Arth, Rothenthurm, Brünig Pass , Rengg Pass ( Pilatus ) and palisades (Schwirren) in the water near Brunnen , Stansstad and Buochs . The Letzi near Morgarten was only built in 1322.

Blocking points of the Swiss Army ( tank traps )

A barrier or blocking point is a defensive position of the national defense, which is supposed to stop the advancing opponent along a spatially limited attack axis. It is primarily oriented in one direction. Lock points are part of the permanent combat infrastructure. They can be explosive objects, obstacles, infantry bunkers and shelters, fortress mine throwers, or combinations thereof.

The Swiss Army maintained fortified barricades with around 2,000 anti-tank obstacles and infantry bunkers or infantry cannon shields to protect them. During the Second World War bunker with were anti-tank - or artillery guns of the caliber 4.7 cm and 7.5 cm and armed machine guns. The blocking points received fire support from nearby artillery works and artillery positions.

With Army 61 , the locking points were modernized with 9 cm anti-tank guns and new bunkers such as the Centi and Vickers bunkers as well as 8.1 and 12 cm underground fortress mine launchers .

The blocking points were at the border , at the Reduite entrances and at strategically important constrictions (“passage obligé”). They were maintained by the fortress guard corps .

Most of the blocking points were taken out of service with the army reform in 1995 , the rest around 2004. The explosives in the explosive objects were expanded until the end of 2014.

Some locking points have been made accessible as museums or can be visited on request. The blocking points are classified in the inventory of combat and command structures (ADAB) according to national **, regional * and local importance:

Lock point at Näfels

Aargau

Basel-Country

Basel city

Bern

Freiburg

Glarus

Grisons

law

Lucerne

Nidwalden

Obwalden

Schaffhausen

Schwyz

Solothurn

St. Gallen

Ticino

Thurgau

Uri

Vaud

Valais

train

Zurich

literature

  • Arnold Nüscheler : The last of Switzerland . "Mittheilungen" of the antiquarian society, Volume 18, Zurich 1872.
  • Max Mittler: Letzinen in original Switzerland . In: Schauplätze der Schweizer Geschichte, Zurich 1987.
  • Jost Bürgi: The last of the original cantons . In: Actes du symposium 1982.
  • Leo Fabrizio: Bunkers . Infolio éditions, Gollion 2004, ISBN 2-88474-008-2 . GMS investment list with locations (PDF; 11 kB)

Web links

Commons : Blocking points in Switzerland  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Historical Association of the Canton of Glarus: Letzinen in Switzerland
  2. ↑ Swiss Armed Forces: Terms of Armed Forces Command Regulations ( Memento of December 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Homepage of the Association of Former Members of the Fortress Guard Corps (VEAFWK) with the history of the Fortress Guard Corps
  4. ↑ DDPS: Explosive objects from the Swiss Army ( Memento from September 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Armasuisse: Inventory of combat and command structures (ADAB) per canton, classified according to national, regional and local importance
  6. ^ ETH library: Jost Bürgi - The last of Arth and Oberarth