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My immediate analysis of Switzerland is that the flag is a big plus.

I think their ability to avoid wars is not related to those bunkers but because nobody wants to attack their own banker …😊

As a US veteran living and working in Switzerland, I love going hiking with our dear old friend Heinz. He frequently shows us interesting defensive outposts hidden in the gorgeous natural surroundings. My daughters both know how to shoot, one does so competitively, and the Swiss are remarkably firearm-friendly by European standards. We love it here!

Switzerland doesn't have an Army; Switzerland is an Army.

Some years back we were in a remote area of the Swiss Alps when a door opened high on a cliff and a helicopter flew out. A surreal experience - like something out of a James Bond movie...

Somebody has got to guard the banker's hidden hoards.

Staying out of the EU is another smart move. no pressure to take the Kalergi plan

The Gnomes will not give up their hoards of gold without a fight!

It may not be 100% true but it is said that a German officer once said we could invade Switzerland if we wanted. A Swiss asked "and how would you do it" The German replied "we would send a million men" The Swiss replied " We would all have to shoot twice and then we could all go home"

I just got back from Switzerland and drove that stretch of road under the shooting range. The Swiss may have a lot of guns but they rarely fire them at each other, that would be against the rules and if there’s one thing the Swiss do well it’s obeying the rules.

The highways going in from the borders have big counterweighted blocks that can pop up as needed. A large chunk of their Air Force is in mountain bunkers as well, they use the roads as runways. Swedes do that too. The vegetation has some shades of green I haven't seen anywhere else in the world.

Everything can kill you, especially Roaming internet data costs, with 7000€ per 1GB 😂

The Axis was heavily dependent on rail shipping through the Swiss tunnels, which would have been blown immediately in the event of an invasion. Rommel's supply line would be severely restricted.

Great video of something people usually don't realise in Switzerland. Though you missed the main points of Swiss preparedness.. It is people's army with huge reserves and continuous practising. And not to mention their real democracy... people vote and make decisions continuously.. it is called direct democracy and their defense is like that too. Their unique history has made this defence and this governing system.. so you should go to reasons behind it. And for your information.. it is not about generals it is about people

True but, but, but... As all other countries in Europe, Switzerland disarmed heavily after the fall of iron curtain. Most of military bunkers are no more adapted to today's menaces and have to be upgraded. Add that a lot have been completely abandoned from more than 30 years, many sold to private owners and internally transformed... The military bunkers ready for war are certainly less than 10%. This figure is certainly a little higher for civilian shelters but owners will have to evacuate all the stuff amassed in stockpiles... The Swiss airforce is only the shadow of what it was during the cold war. Enrollment was strongly reduced, the target being about 110'000 men only... Switzerland ready for a war ? Not at all !!! But certainly much more than France, Germany, Italy and others

Took me awhile to get here but I’m never disappointed. Fascinating information. Thank you Mason!

This is pretty similar to Norway and finland as well. Crazy defensive capabilities, many hidden in plain sight. When you look, you start to see them.

eye opening. great video. thanks

The Heart of the Beast will always be heavily defended.

Switzerland: "We are polite and peaceful people who had been training and building our defenses to the point that any attacker will be massacred" I like their philosophy, a lot

Thanks for the no nonsense look into this.

This was fascinating!

Super interesting. Thank you.

Merry Christmas buddy! Thanks for the great videos 🎉

This is what America's southern border should look like.

Love it , Great Stellungs . !

Excellent research

I never knew that. Thanks for the informative video.

Amazing mini-doc my guy! Thanks for putting this out there!

When I was there I loved the roads with speed signs for tanks. Its a miracle they have not all been stolen by Aussies. They do send a message tho. Railway lines and roads ending at doors into mountains were fun also.

I want to note that you do a very good summary of what is official myth here. Also you got a very good choice of video material. It's fascinating what is still in the mountains. There are also many Swiss who believe such as I did when I was 11 years old.

Cool video!

2 rules. Don't mess with the guy keeping your money safe and don't mess with the one feeding you...

'concrete Toblerones' is so obvious once you hear it

Interesting content, and you presented it well. I subscribed!

You know what else is deadly about Switzerland, at least to me: cold temperature and high altitude.

Good video 👍👏🇬🇧

Nothing that comes out of purple cows can be safe.

Thanks!

Liebe Leute ich bin ADA und ehemaliger Angehöriger der Red Br 22, also ich war einer von jenen der in den Festungen der Schweiz dienst geleistet hat und das von 1976 bis 1995. Ich kenne viele dieser Anlagen, habe damit gearbeitet (geschossen) und geübt. Uebungen damit hiess für mich immer auch in der Woche min. 3-4 aktive Schiesstage und Training. - Was hier gezeigt wird beurteile ich als eher dürftig.

Australian. I had no idea you were going to mention Australia specifically but when I saw the thumb "everything in Switzerland will kill you I thought "what is this bullshit" Then I watched the video. Excellent. Thank you.

I lived in Switzerland for a couple of years, these "fortifications ' are out of military doctrine of 150 years ago. Locations are known for decades. They are tourist atractions but not more. Nobody wants to invate Switzerland and that works on the Swiss ego. In WW 2 Germany hadg nothing to gain by invading Swiss. Austria was part of the Reich, Italy was an Ally, France was rolled over. There was no strategic benefit to invade the Swiss, they where an enclave ,nothing else. Only the Americans bombed Switzerland a few times because of navigational errors and one time the bombed Basel as retaliation for the Swiss had shot down a few US bombers out of frustration that nobody noticed tbem.

I love bunkers! I would love to go explore all the caves and bunkers there!

Nice folley work on the black and white footage 👍👍👍

The United States could learn much from the Swiss! The Swiss live eat and breathe preparedness! They are ready in ways that we haven't thought of!

Switzerland has the oldest overseas deployment in the world, to the Vatican. 210 years unbroken, and 490 years since it started in 1509 (515 years ago).

The Swiss don't play around. While I was on vacation there a few years ago planes mysteriously appeared out of no where and proceeded on to a runway without any stopping. They were up and gone in a matter of seconds. They began low level flying through the valleys so close to the edges it looked like they could just reach out and touch the mountain sides. I later found out from the locals that the US was actually training with the Swiss and many of the pilots were from the states. All in all very interesting but apparently very normal for the locals.

I remember visiting Vallorby (sp). one of the forts in the west closr it Geneva. Very impressive.

All very accurate. My wife and I lived in Switzerland for 6.5 years and traveled extensively, by car, motorcycle and foot. I have seen many features similar to those he shows and even smaller concrete gun emplacements that control small rural roads near the border. Both houses we lived in had concrete bomb shelters in the basement with specialized air filtration equipment and reinforced concrete doors over 2 feet thick. The Mont Blanc tunnel has giant blast doors that can be closed on both sides with enough supplies for hundreds of Swiss to survive inside. I have seen blast doors open in the side of a mountain, fighter jets pull out onto a runway running parallel to the highway but barely visible and shoot into the sky. In the second small village we lived in the Jura it was not uncommon to pull to a stop coming into the village and to have to wait for several tanks to go by along with companies of soldiers going to a practice range nearby. (The military equipped the tanks with rubber caps on the treads so as not to damage the roads and they avoided movement when the farmers were bringing their cattle through the village to the barns from the fields or vise versa.)

Great video, very informative. I've been to Switzerland loads of times. It's a beautiful country, very friendly people. You'd never get the impression that it's armed to the teeth and ready to take on even the most powerful invaders. Hitler would never have allowed the country to remain independent if he had won the war. Switzerland was definitely on his bucket list of still to invade and occupy countries. The Swiss would have made sure to make it costly for him though.

I read somewhere , a German general said to a Swiss general. If the German army invaded Switzerland. And we outnumbered you 3-1 in infantry , how would you cope ? The Swiss general said . Every Swiss soldier , would shoot 3 times !

10:55 on the left. What is that? Is that ice? Glass? It’s like, natural rock formation but clear and stiff?

For those that are loving the glorious Alpine views at 2:19, the wonderful meadows and peaks are....in Italy! And not the part next to Switzerland but the Dolomites in Sued-Tirol, next to Austria, a hundred miles away from Switzerland.

There's a lot to unpack here.

If you were to attempt going into the Alps with a military force, guns and artillery pieces were waiting for you on every turn on the switch backs going up into the mountains. Blocking your advance over and over

Peace through strength.

2:55 what tool is that person holding, and what is its name?

Good photography. Very interesting. I like it. I didn't know about this until this video. General George S Patton is reputed to have said "Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man", and as of this comment I don't know how the Maginot Line did for France during WW2. Not much apparently. But what is described here is not quite the same. Doesn't seem like at least before WW2, and maybe even now.

imagine storming this country and you see a giant boulder turning towards you

As a result of seemingly random videos like this one, I heard of that shooting range before.

Switzerland: if “Escape from New York” was a country

Oorah Marine! Semper Fi.

Beautiful and thank you… 🇺🇸♾️😎

Wow.💥💥👍👍

yeh we know how to use the mountains to our advantage. Most of us know where to go and how to defend if the time comes, hopefully never, but if so, we know what to do. Hop Schwiiz. Viva la Grischa. Nice video.

Concrete Toblerones XD

With drones so much of this is obsolete instantly and turned into open air museum

I’m still seeing Australia responding to this with the Bane monologue. “You only adopted the dark. I was born to it..”

"you are surrounded by bloodlust neighbours, and you are a small nation. But would you lose??" "Nah. I'd win" Switzerland probably

Kinda like a big, dispersed Maginot Line, or a throwback from the 10th century. Good luck with that.

I seen an interview where an old man was guarding a bridge , he said that his job was to blow the bridge in case of invasion

It's over, i have the high ground...

The Centrist inside me Understands Why.

I stayed in the alps on a snowboarding holiday in Switzerland

A country that takes care of itself. What a novel idea

*Laughs nervously in Australian*

There was an urban legend about Hitler asking the Swiss, how many soldiers do they have, and when answered, he threatened to invade with double the amount. The Swiss allegedly responded: "Well, in that case, each of our soldiers will have to shoot twice."

Access for the axis

I understand these military features are no longer maintained.

When a defensive network is seemingly that good an invasion force simply goes back to siege tactics, they can't get in but neither can the defenders get out. The Swiss would then be left to either depend on an ally breaking the siege or eventual surrender.

G'day Mason, I'm ex-Australian Air Force and for the past 15-years or so I've been a military historian. Your video has, frankly, made me slightly ashamed. Although I knew the Swiss had an active, nation-wide, 'citizen/soldier' reserve; I had no idea they had such an extensive network of heavy-duty defensive positions in its alpine region. That is so impressive. Since seeing your excellent video I've given their 'Alpine redoubt' a lot of thought, and some extra reading. It all makes perfect sense and, like the Swiss themselves, it's totally logical. For a long time I'd assumed that it was the country's ultra-secure and, basically, 'no-questions-asked' banking system that kept them safe from invasion. I figured that if they had large sums of money and bullion from all sides in WW2; then those 'depositors' would leave the Swiss alone. Well, that was wrong, or mostly so. I discovered some time ago that the Nazis had a preferred habit of stashing all kinds valuables, including stolen treasures from defeated countries, in tunnels, caves and disused mines etc. Also, that the Nazi's Swiss bank holdings were, by comparison to other countries, rather small, although large German companies did 'squirrel away' cash reserves, just in case things went bad at home. I also discovered that both the Allies and the Nazis 'accidentally' mounted air raids on Swiss territory. There has been increasing doubt as to how accidental these raids were. 'Testing' their resolve or neutrality, perhaps. Some time back I saw a documentary that looked into these brief 'attacks' on Switzerland, I'll have to see if I can find it again. Obviously, at the beginning of the war, there was natural curiosity to see which side, if any, the Swiss might favour. You've got to hand it to the Swiss; it was a definite, some would say brutal, last-ditch strategy. They made the centre of their country too difficult to invade; with basically every member of the population part of a military reserve, or, if an attacker did succeed, there would be little left in the country of any great value. Thanks again, Mason for a truly interesting video, also, thank you for your Service. Cheers, Bill H. P.S. Mason, I've taken no offence about your opening remark that Australia has, "Hostile, nightmare fuel." That might be true if you've been to a Collingwood -v- Melbourne AFL football game 😉 , however, I must point out that, although we have several species of deadly snakes (I've lived here for nearly 70 years and only ever seen snakes in the wild twice); we don't have Mountain Lions, Tigers, Bears (the Koala Bear is, essentially 'cuddly' and tiny), or any other massed, lethal species that can found in many other countries. Sure, we've got sharks, but they are around most of the world's oceans and, yes, we have crocodiles but they are confined to extremely remote, almost unpopulated regions. The Tasmanian Devil (don't help us Warner Bros cartoons!) in reality is no bigger than a ferret, on 'angel dust'. Definitely not 'man-eaters'. If you let yourself be attacked by a 'Tassie Devil' you'd have to lay on the ground among a 'pack' of them then, well, you'd be an idiot. 😀 BH

basically they said "what if the COUNTRY was the weapon? the country is small enough for that"

Greatness

ROFL. The barrel of the gun shown this video inside a wooden box (like 50-60 years old at the best) is sealed forever, and so - most of the Switzerland’s defenses.

Thank you for the security Intel, Hans ;)

How does CERN come into play with the Swiss defense mentality?

Funny that in almost every video when they talk about the swiss alps, they show the mountains of Italy.

anyone taking over the Bank Country will have to assume running that bank ...

Switzerland, at least in World War II, only pretended to be neutral. And in that war it was horrible to be neutral. I believe one of the Nazi underground routes went through that country. If allied air crews bailed out over Switzerland or landed there they were not allowed to leave. And Switzerland went so far as to threaten them with harsher imprisonment if they tried to leave. Not to mention that all those armaments or whatever have never been tried.

Your description of the USA makes it seem as though it will always be the greatest threat to itself

2017 Harvard and Northeastern University report, about half of the 265 million privately owned firearms in the United States are owned by 3% of the adult population. This group of "super-owners" have an average of 17 guns each, with collections ranging from eight to 140 guns. In total, 8% of gun owners own 10 or more guns, which accounts for about 40% of the country's total gun

got to keep all that dirty money safe !!!

"two friendly countries in north and SOUTH" Mexico: Que ?

Cesar was the only one that conquered the Helveti they became then a vital part of the roman army as mercenaries - that mercenary tradition stayed for more than two thousand years and still exist as the swiss guard at the Vatican despite being more sybolic nowadays than anything.

"over a hundred guns for every hundred people."-That's America!

Moot point - I can assure you, no one can run and hide from a nuclear bomb.

time to play Dwarf Fortress

How do they feel about expat retires

Switzerland is, if not THE hardest country in Europe if not the Eastern Hemisphere to invade.