# Why didn't the Nazis invade Switzerland? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 22, 2014, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-nazis-invade-switzerland/693731 "2014-07-22T12:24:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-nazis-invade-switzerland/693731/41 "2014-07-24T10:35:57Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > FWIW - This [link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugal) says that Portugal was one of only five European countries to remain neutral in World War II. I count six but some say Sweden was iffy. > > Switzerland > Andorra > Liechtenstein > Portugal > Spain > Sweden - though [its neutrality during World War II has been disputed.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden) There’s also Ireland. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-nazis-invade-switzerland/693731/42 "2014-07-24T10:37:50Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Well, number 1, we were’t trying to invade two fronts at once – we were helping to defend. The United States, as well as the UK, were quite obviously attacking on two fronts in the latter half of the war. They may have been retaking stolen territory but it was a theatrewide offensive. For that matter the USA attacked on multiple fronts in the Civil War. Attacking on two fronts is certainly quite a plausible strategy if you do it right. I would again point out that beating Russia is a doable thing, as evidenced by the fact that Germany did it just a little earlier in the 20th century. [QUOTE=here and there] Just another myth… see: Spanish SS (“blueshirts” or something…) [/QUOTE] Some second-rate volunteer division obviously is not the same as a nation-state actually entering a war, which, obviously, is the sense I meant. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-nazis-invade-switzerland/693731/43 "2014-07-24T11:31:37Z")
> [@here\_and\_there](#): > > Just another myth… see: Spanish SS (“blueshirts” or something…) [Blue Division](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Division). _Camisazules_, “blueshirts”, is the name given to [Falange](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falange) members, for the color of their shirts. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-nazis-invade-switzerland/693731/44 "2014-07-24T11:58:48Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > FWIW - This [link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugal) says that Portugal was one of only five European countries to remain neutral in World War II. I count six but some say Sweden was iffy. > > Switzerland > Andorra > Liechtenstein > Portugal > Spain > Sweden - though [its neutrality during World War II has been disputed.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden) > [@An\_Gadai](#): > > There’s also Ireland. The article probably meant Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Ireland, ignoring the two micro-states. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-nazis-invade-switzerland/693731/45 "2014-07-24T17:37:25Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > FWIW - This [link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugal) says that Portugal was one of only five European countries to remain neutral in World War II. I count six but some say Sweden was iffy. If you’re going to call Swedish neutrality ‘iffy’ then Portugal has no place on that list; the Portuguese decision to allow the Allies [basing rights and eventually outright leasing bases on the Azores](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugal_in_World_War_II#With_Allied_Powers) was vital in closing the Mid-Atlantic Gap which was otherwise beyond the range of land based air cover for convoys in the Battle of the Atlantic. ---
**Author:** ![here\_and\_there](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f07891/32.png) [@here\_and\_there](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/here_and_there)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2014, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-nazis-invade-switzerland/693731/46 "2014-07-25T10:23:11Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Some second-rate volunteer division obviously is not the same as a nation-state actually entering a war, which, obviously, is the sense I meant. You still try to underplay Spain’s help to the Fascist cause… Or just being too lazy to do some reading?:rolleyes: After the second world war, many people, and many countries that had collaborated with the Axis, in one way or another, needed to be “bleached” away from their sins. Because, now, there was a new war, a Cold War, and all these elements would help in the fight against the “evil” Communism. In this context, many propaganda myths were invented, including, of course, the “Spanish neutrality”. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2014, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-nazis-invade-switzerland/693731/47 "2014-07-27T05:57:29Z")
> [@here\_and\_there](#): > > You still try to underplay Spain’s help to the Fascist cause… > > Or just being too lazy to do some reading? What on earth could we be asked to read that would change the fact Spain’s contribution was a second rate batch of volunteers, not actually Spanish troops? Nothing’s being “bleached” here. You’re reading things in to people’s posts that aren’t there. ---
**Author:** ![here\_and\_there](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f07891/32.png) [@here\_and\_there](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/here_and_there)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2014, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-nazis-invade-switzerland/693731/48 "2014-07-27T12:03:56Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > What on earth could we be asked to read that would change the fact Spain’s contribution was a second rate batch of volunteers, not actually Spanish troops? > > Nothing’s being “bleached” here. You’re reading things in to people’s posts that aren’t there. You could start with the links **Nava** provided. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2014, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-nazis-invade-switzerland/693731/49 "2014-07-27T14:14:54Z")
> [@here\_and\_there](#): > > You could start with the links **Nava** provided. Perhaps you should. Nothing **RickJay** has said isn’t true. > [@](#): > > Although Spanish dictator Field Marshal (Generalísimo) Francisco Franco did not enter World war II on the side of Nazi Germany, he permitted volunteers to join the German Army (Wehrmacht Heer) on the clear and guaranteed condition they would fight exclusively against Bolshevism (Soviet Communism) on the Eastern Front, and not against the Western Allies or any Western European occupied populations. In this manner, he could keep Spain at peace with the Western Allies whilst simultaneously repaying Adolf Hitler for his support during the Spanish Civil War (see Condor Legion). Spanish foreign minister Ramón Serrano Súñer made the suggestion to raise a volunteer corps, and at the commencement of Operation Barbarossa, Franco sent an official offer of help to Berlin. > > Hitler approved the use of Spanish volunteers on June 24, 1941. Volunteers flocked to recruiting offices in all the metropolitan areas of Spain. Cadets from the officer training school in Zaragoza volunteered in particularly large numbers. Initially, the Spanish government was prepared to send about 4,000 men, but soon realized that there were more than enough volunteers to fill an entire division: 18,104 men in all, with 2,612 officers and 15,492 soldiers. > > Fifty percent of officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) were professional soldiers, many of them veterans of the Spanish Civil War. Many others were members of the Falange (the Spanish Fascist party). Others felt pressure to join because of past ties with the Republic or—like Luis García Berlanga, who later became a well-known cinema director—to help their relatives in Franco’s prisons. > > General Agustín Muñoz Grandes was assigned to lead the volunteers. Because the soldiers could not use official Spanish army uniforms, they adopted a symbolic uniform comprising the red berets of the Carlists, khaki trousers used in the Spanish Legion, and the blue shirts of the Falangists—hence the nickname “Blue Division.” This uniform was used only while on leave in Spain; in the field, soldiers wore the German Army (Wehrmacht Heer) field grey uniform with a shield on the upper right sleeve bearing the word “España” and the Spanish national colours. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2014, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-nazis-invade-switzerland/693731/50 "2014-07-27T14:21:01Z")
> [@Dissonance](#): > > Perhaps you should. Nothing **RickJay** has said isn’t true. RickJay said they were “second rate” yet the linked article shows they held up against superior forces to hold the Leningrad siege. They were also not solely volunteers as the linked article mentions that as casualties rose near the end of the war they started adding conscripts to the force. So yeah, it shows he’s not totally on the mark. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2014, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-nazis-invade-switzerland/693731/51 "2014-07-27T19:49:36Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > RickJay said they were “second rate” yet the linked article shows they held up against superior forces to hold the Leningrad siege. Yeah, I wouldn’t categorize them as second rate either, but “underplay[ing] Spain’s help to the Fascist cause” was clearly not his intent. They were organized as and assigned a number in the German infantry division sequence, the 250th, and from all I have read were considered the equal to a German division by the Wehrmacht itself. > [@CarnalK](#): > > They were also not solely volunteers as the linked article mentions that as casualties rose near the end of the war they started adding conscripts to the force. So yeah, it shows he’s not totally on the mark. Now this is interesting; I have never heard that conscripts were used. This is rather bizarre and at odds with everything I have read and has several equally odd statements around it - “Franco dispatched more reinforcements, which in time included conscripts in addition to volunteers. There is clear historical evidence that the Blue Division was guilty of war crimes because the seige of Leningrad led to the death of over 100,000 Russian civilians .” - How this is clear evidence of war crimes by the Blue Division is beyond me. It appears the site used as a reference is a defunct site paper. Roughly just short of 50,000 Spaniards served on the Eastern Front through rotation, but far from reinforcing the force Franco reduced the size of the force and eventually ordered its return altogether, although some refused to return. Following its losses at [Krasny Bor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Krasny_Bor) outside of Leningrad the Spanish volunteer force was reorganized as the much smaller Blue Legion: > [@](#): > > On February 15 the 250th Infantry Division reported casualties of 3,645 killed or wounded and 300 missing or taken prisoner, which amounted to a 70–75% casualty rate of the troops engaged in the battle. It claimed 11,000 Soviet troops of the 55th Army had been killed in the five days beginning February 9. Because of these heavy losses and Allied pressure on the Spanish government, the Blue Division was withdrawn to Germany and later disbanded. A new volunteer formation called the Blue Legion (Legión Azul) remained in combat on the Eastern Front, attached to the 121st Infantry Division until March 1944. It was then also disbanded and the majority of the volunteers sent back to Spain. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-nazis-invade-switzerland/693731.md?page=2)