City Command Zurich

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Georeferencing Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap
Base "Panama", Altstetten
Bunker Quaibrücke A 4844
Kursaal Bunker A 4841, Ter Bat 155

The Zurich City Command was an army unit of the Swiss Army created specifically to defend the city of Zurich during the Second World War under the direction of Colonel Hans von Schulthess (1885–1951). The city of Zurich was not declared an open city , but with its strategically important Limmat bridges was for General Guisan an important bulwark (“Obstacle absolu”) of the Limmat position that had to be maintained. For ten months, the city of Zurich prepared to become the main line of action in a German attack.

The city command was disbanded on December 10, 1940 on the orders of the general. The lock point is considered a military historical monument of national importance.

prehistory

Bollwerk zur Katz, Schanzengraben

In the city of Zurich, fortifications in the Turicum were built in Roman times and above all from the late Middle Ages to the early 19th century. The medieval city wall comprised 15 towers. During the Thirty Years' War a belt of entrenchments with star-shaped bastions was created, most of which were razed in the 1830s. Some buildings have been preserved at the Schanzengraben , Bauschänzli and the old botanical garden .

history

Wehrmacht 1940: city plans for Switzerland

The general mobilization for war on September 2, 1939 could take place quickly and smoothly due to the pre-organized detailed plans. The army deployment took place in a standby position and from there into the Limmat position . With the “Operation Order No. 2” on October 4, 1939, General Guisan determined the connection Sargans - Walensee - Lake Zurich - Limmat - Bözberg - Hauenstein to be the most important line of defense of the Swiss Army in an attack from the north. This was attached from September 27, 1939 including the city of Zurich.

At the end of September 1939, Hans von Schulthess, the previous place commandant (mobilization place in the city of Zurich), was appointed the commandant of the new city command. At the beginning of November the city command received its own chief of genius in Colonel Genius Erwin Stirnemann (1885–1970).

The Zurich city command had the main military responsibility for the defense of the city of Zurich. The main line of defense of the defense device "Fall Nord" of the first army position (Limmat position) ran through the middle of the city of Zurich. The right bank of Lake Zurich and the Limmat would soon have been given up after initial fighting to delay. The actual defensive battle would have taken place on the left bank of the lake and the Limmat.

On February 15, 1940, the city command received the following order from the 3rd Army Corps:

  • secures the lakeshore between Bendlikon / Kilchberg and Wollishofen against any translation attempts
  • locks in Wollishofen between the lake and the slopes of the Uetliberg and thus covers the left flank of the lake protection against enemy troops who have broken through the city of Zurich
  • holds the left bank of the Limmat in the city of Zurich
  • organizes the defense of the city of Zurich in such a way that it can be held even if the opponent has embraced it

The city command had to hold the left bank of the Limmat and develop corresponding positions with the help of several territorial battalions. By the end of June 1940, 95 fighting stalls and numerous wire obstacles had been set up and over 3,000 Spanish riders were placed in depots. Explosive charges and barriers were installed at the bridgeheads on the left bank. In order to prevent an opposing advance through the Sihl valley towards Central Switzerland , the Wollishofen-Sihl valley barrier was the first to be built by the Zurich city command as part of the Limmat position.

After the fall of France at the end of June 1940, the army command ordered that the fortification work be suspended, as the Limmat position had lost its importance and the general had decided to withdraw the bulk of the army to the Reduit . The independent city command was dismissed on July 6, 1940. The 6th Division took over the city section, later the 3rd Light Brigade. The city would hardly have been defended, only bridges would have been blown. On December 10, 1940, the city command was definitely dissolved.

During the Cold War , the locking points belonged to the operational area of Field Division 5 . The fortifications and bunkers that were built became superfluous and some of them were dismantled over time. The facilities were declassified in 1986 and 1994 , have largely been preserved and are historically worthy of protection.

Evacuation

In January 1940, the Zurich Government Council and Territorial Command 6 informed the civilian population how to behave in the event of war and how to prepare for a possible evacuation . In the event of war, it was planned that the civilian population would remain at their place of residence until the army had ordered an evacuation for military reasons. It was recommended to leave your place of residence as part of “voluntary emigration” in order to get yourself to safety. This means that fewer people would have had to be evacuated in the event of an evacuation ordered by the military.

In mid-May 1940 it was feared that Switzerland might be involved in the military operation of the German offensive to the west. From mid-May, around seven percent of the city school students left the city with their families and mostly returned by early June. The city schools were closed from May 15th to May 22nd.

Any military evacuation of 170,000 civilians from the city of Zurich was prepared in detail by Territorial Command 6, including the prevention of looting of the abandoned city, and the population was continuously informed about the status of the evacuation preparations. For reasons of neutrality policy, an evacuation could only have been triggered after an attack on Switzerland. On Lake Zurich, the population on the right bank would have been evacuated via Meilen (ferries and ships) to Horgen and those on the left bank would have been evacuated to Horgen with vehicles on planned routes into central Switzerland.

Section boundaries

The city command was assigned the section of the Limmat position between the 6th Division (west) and the 7th Division of the 4th Army Corps (east). The operational area comprised the districts on the left bank of the Limmat, which formed the front line of the army position towards the north:

The western parts of the city ( Altstetten , Albisrieden ) and the Uetliberg area were assigned to the 6th Division, which set up the "Dachslern", "Panama" and "Kappeli" bases in Altstetten for fighting tanks and the defense position for the Uetliberg Fortress .

  • "Dachslern" base

  • Base "Panama"

  • Base «Kappeli»

Assigned troops

  • Territorial regiments 75 (Ter Bat 135, 136 and 137), Ter Rgt 82 (Ter Bat 154, 155), Ter Rgt 83 (Ter Bat 156, 157)
  • Sapper battalion 24 (minus the Sap Kp II / 24)
  • Detachment Telegraph Pioneers (Lst Tg Det)
  • various units of supply, medical, emergency services and local defense
  • the command post was in Wollishofen Lochen (A 4813)

Fastening objects

In the city of Zurich, 24 former combat and command structures are protected as military monuments.

Infantry bunkers and crew shelters

  • Permanent weapon position Manegg A 4805 ⊙
  • Half-move shelter Manegg A 4806 ⊙
  • Small shelter Entlisberg A 4807 ⊙
  • Permanent weapon position Entlisberg A 4808 ⊙
  • Permanent weapon position Entlisberg A 4809 ⊙
  • Permanent weapon position Entlisberg A 4810 ⊙
  • Permanent weapons position Entlisberg, Entlisbergweg A 4811 ⊙
  • Permanent weapons position Entlisberg, Entlisbergweg A 4812 ⊙
  • Small shelter (former command post system), Entlisbergwald-Lochen A 4813 ⊙
  • Permanent weapons position at Kalchbühlstrasse opposite 110 A 4814 ⊙

  • Bunker Manegg A 4806

  • Entlisberg A 4807

  • Entlisberg Paradis A 4809

  • Command post system A 4813

  • Permanent weapon position in Herrenbad Enge-Süd A 4839 ⊙
  • Permanent weapon position in Herrenbad Enge-Nord A 4840 ⊙
  • Permanent arms position opposite Kursaal, General-Guisan-Quai A 4841 ⊙
  • Permanent arms position at the Yacht Club, General-Guisan-Quai 21 A 4842 ⊙
  • Infantry bunker Quaibrücke-Stadthausquai A 4844 ⊙
  • LMg-Leichtstand A 4847, extension to Schipfe 24 (broken off in 1987) ⊙
  • Former command post of Railway Regiment 3, K85, Hirschengraben 54, F 6998 ⊙

  • Bunker Männerbad Enge-Süd A 4839

  • Bunker Männerbad Enge-Nord A 4840

  • Kursaal Bunker A 4841

  • Bunker Yacht Club A 4842

  • Infantry stand "Wasserschloss" Z 689 Sihlquai opposite No. 87: Base of the rope transmission tower from 1875 of the Letten power station ⊙
  • Gun position Z 717 Sihlquai No. 170: Base of the rope transmission deflection tower ⊙
  • Permanent weapon position, Letten Viaduct, upstream Limmat A 4856 ⊙
  • Permanent weapons position Lettenviadukt, Limmat down A 4857 ⊙
  • Permanent weapons position, SBB viaduct Oerlikon-Wipkingen A 4858: the only remaining BBB bunker on the Limmat ⊙
  • Infantry cannon Ik-Stand Hardbrücke A 4862 (broken off) ⊙
  • Permanent weapon position Hardturm Ost A 4872 ⊙
  • Permanent weapon position Frost-Fischerweg A 4875 ⊙

  • Machine gun stand «Wasserschloss» Z 689

  • Z 717 light machine gun stand

  • BBB Bunker SBB Viaduct Oerlikon-Wipkingen A 4858

  • Bunker Hardturm Ost A 4872

Observation bunkers and tank obstacles

  • Armored barricade magazine Frymannstrasse 110 B 9045 ⊙
  • Armored barricade Bruchstrasse T 2505.05 ⊙
  • Tank wall on Seestrasse between No. 497 and 501 T 2505 (Z1) ⊙
  • Observation station Donner A 4881 ⊙
  • Artillery observation post Tellsplatte-Hinterschlierenberg A 4904 (Zurich-Altstetten) ⊙
  • Small shelter Tellsplatte – Hinterschlierenberg A 4905 (Zurich-Altstetten) ⊙
  • Observer Löwenbräustübli – Hohenstein 1 A 4965 ⊙

  • Tank wall Z1 Seestrasse 497

  • Explosive object Rudolf-Brun-Brücke M 2322

  • Tank wall Hohlstrasse Z 897

  • Explosive object Dammsteg Wipkingen M 2313

Permanent weapon positions in Adliswil and Kilchberg

The city command received eight 12 cm heavy motor cannons in 1882, as these were replaced by the 10.5 cm heavy motor cannon in the field artillery.

  • Bunker for 8.4 cm cannon Löchli A 4800 Adliswil ⊙
  • Bunker for 8.4 cm cannon Löchli A 4801 Adliswil ⊙
  • Shelter 3 A 4802 Adliswil ⊙
  • Bunker for 4.7 cm infantry cannon A 4803 Adliswil ⊙
  • Shelter 2 Chopfholz A 4804 Adliswil ⊙
  • Mg bunker A 4823 Morfanlage, Kilchberg ⊙
  • Mg bunker A 4824 Schilfmatt, Kilchberg ⊙
  • Mg bunker A 4826 Widmer-Land, Kilchberg ⊙

  • Bunker for the 8.4 cm Löchli A 4800 cannon

  • Mg bunker A 4823 peat system

  • Mg bunker A 4826 Widmerland

  • Mg bunker A 4826 Scharte Ost

museum

The civil defense museum is located in the three-story underground civil defense round bunker of the former Landenberg medical aid station in the Wipkingen district . It shows a historical snapshot of the civil protection and medical service of the city of Zurich during the Second World War and its development into a modern civil protection .

literature

Web links

Commons : Stadtkommando Zürich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the first phase of World War II, Zurich would have become a front-line city if attacked. NZZ from August 15, 2009
  2. ^ Military monuments in the canton of Zurich. Inventory of the combat and command structures. Bern 2004
  3. ↑ Swiss website with documentation of Swiss and German operational planning: Limmatstellung 1940 ( memento of September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ).
  4. ^ City of Zurich: Erwin Stirnemann, city councilor and head of the civil engineering office
  5. ^ Limmatstellung: The defense works of the city of Zurich
  6. ↑ Assessment by the cantonal monument preservation, In: Matthias Dürst, Felix Köfer: The defense works of the city of Zurich. The Zurich bunker guide.
  7. ↑ Caroline Senn: The voluntary evacuation did not have a strong effect on us. Traces of a historical event from mid-May 1940 in the Zurich City Archives. Litzentiat work. Zurich City Archives, Annual Report 2007–2008, pages 271–295 [1]
  8. ^ Barrier Leimbach and Artillery Bunker Adliswil ZH with overview maps on the Small Porcupine website
  9. ^ Oberland Fortress: City Command Zurich
  10. ↑ Georg Küttel: The 10.5 cm heavy motor cannon is 50 years old. ASMZ Sicherheit Schweiz magazine, General Swiss Military Magazine, Volume 151, Issue 9 1985
  11. ↑ Tages-Anzeiger of February 20, 2012: The Bunker Hiking Guide. [2]