Dad’s Army: Swiss Edition
Some 85 years ago this week, on 7 May 1940, the Swiss Federal Council authorized General Guisan to set up Local Guards (Ortswehren, gardes locales, guardie locali), a home guard organization outside the regular Swiss Army and reserves.
Whereas regular service with the Army ran to age 60, with most active requirements stopping at age 50, the Local Guard was able to enlist those young men who were not old enough to be conscripted yet, and those who had aged out at age 70. Finally, those medically unfit for service or, for one reason or another, can not serve in the Army were rolled into the Local Guard.
They typically wore civilian clothes, mixed with old uniforms from prior service, and used personal or donated rifles, with a few old Eidgenössische Waffenfabrik Modell 1889/96 rifles eventually taken from storage for the force.
As with the British Home Guard (Dad’s Army), there was a dedicated partisan in waiting vibe to the Ortswehr, especially in bicycle-equipped units.
The role of the Local Guards during the last mobilization was mentioned in the Final Report of the Chief of the General Staff of the Army as follows:
“The Local Guards contribute by their presence to reassure the population of the hinterland that no longer feels completely at the mercy of saboteurs, the 5th column, paratroopers or motorized detachments that would have pierced the front.”
The force reached 127,563 men in 2,835 units by January 1941 and then stabilized at around 155,000 for the rest of the war. Keep in mind that at the time, the country only had a population of about 4 million, of which 850,000 were on the rolls of the Swiss Army, albeit only about half of those were on active orders. Between the Army and the Ortswehr, you are looking at a full quarter of the Swiss population under arms.
A Schweizer Réduit indeed.
The Swiss thought the Ortswehr important enough to keep around until 1967, and the word is still in use in the cantons today for local fire fighter organizations.