If you like my work and want to support the channel, consider subscribing to my Patreon for more, exclusive content! patreon.com/GermanWWIIArchive Or buy me a Kaffee here: www.buymeacoffee.com/germanwwiiarchive Remarks: 00:16 The „No. 214“ you can see here refers to the number of the “Swiss Film Newsweek”, a Swiss newsreel produced from 1940 to 1975. It was ordered by the Swiss government, and produced by the Cinegram company in Lausanne. It was mainly produce to counter both French and German propaganda newsreels, which were heavily pushed by the French and German government in WWII to win over neutral Switzerland. On April 16th, 1940, a law came into effect that mandated the showing of these newsreels. They were usually around 5 to 10 minutes long, and focused on national defense, both during WWII and the cold war. Over 6,600 episodes were produced between 1940 and 1975. 00:27 These planes are French Morane-Saulnier MS. 406 fighter planes, one of the main French fighter planes during WWII. Development started in 1934, and the first MS. 405 prototypes were built in 1938. The 405 was then further developed into the MS. 406. Production started in January 1939, and 1,176 planes were made until French defeat in June 1940; it was one of two types of French planes which were produced more than 1,000 times before the surrender, the other being the Potez 630. The MS. 406 is generally regarded as a good plane, especially when it comes to maneuverability, but it was considered underpowered, having only an 800hp engine, and the armament was also not that great, with only one 20mm cannon and two 7,5mm MGs. The plane was exported and used by many countries, and captured examples were given by the Germans to Bulgaria, Croatia and Finland. Switzerland bought a license to produce a copy of the MS. 406 in September 1938, and produced 289 MS. 406 during the war, forming the backbone of Swiss air defense. 01:50 The biplane on the right is most likely a Bücker Bü 133 “Jungmeister”, a German training airplane built between 1935 and July 1941. They were mainly used for training, but also for aerial acrobatics. It was made of wood and steel and covered with fabric powered by a 160hp radial engine. Around 250 were built, and Switzerland bought three machines and obtained a license to produce these planes locally; 49 were built. 03:05 These planes are K+W C-36, a locally produced Swiss reconnaissance and ground attack airplane. Development began in 1935 to replace the outdated Fokker C.V biplanes used for reconnaissance, and the C-36 was put into service in mid-1940. Mainly used for reconnaissance, and as ground attack plane, it was later specially used as a towing plane, to tow targets for AA-crews, and as mock enemy planes. 142 or 175 planes (sources vary) were built, and the C-36 was fitted with a 1,000 hp engine, armed with one 20mm cannon and four 7,5mm MGs in the wing, and could carry up to 400 kilos of bombs. 06:10 This officer is a Major, as indicated by his collar tab (a single star with a golden stripe). Unlike many other armies, the Swiss Army has the same ranks and rank names for both its Army and Air Force. 06:16 “L-37” is a code assigned to the bomber in question. If a foreign plane violates the airspace, it is assigned an individual number or code to identify it. 06:35 Officially, the Swiss Air Force reported 6501 airspace violations during WWII, with 198 foreign planes landing or being forced to land in Switzerland, 56 crashing and 21 Aircraft (10 Allies and 11 German) being shot down. Many of these airspace violations were only brief, e.g. an Allied bomber crossing into Swiss airspace for only a few minutes, so they weren’t intercepted. 07:20 This is an American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber, introduced in 1941. 9,816 planes were built, and they were used in every theater of WWII. This scene of the bomber being intercepted are most likely staged. In real life, there would be no cameramen there to film these scenes, as it was unclear whether the American bomber would fire on Swiss planes, as happened sometimes. Also, the B-25 bomber here has no American markings, these were most likely covered up by the Swiss because the plane was no longer flying under American crews. I therefore believe these scenes are staged for this newsreel. 07:40 On several occasions, Allied bombers mistook Swiss planes for German ones (especially because the Swiss Air Force was also using German planes, such as Bf-109 or Bf-110 fighters), and opened fire on Swiss planes. For example, on September 5th, 1944, several American P-51 fighter, escorting B-17 bombers through Swiss airspace, were intercepted by Swiss Bf-109, and the American pilots, believing the Swiss planes to be Germans, shot down one and damaging another. 09:15 In this scene, the covered American marks can be clearly seen (no white star on the rudder), again a clear indicator that this is a staged scene, filmed later with an American bomber that was forced to land in Switzerland.
Re the Types, the fighter seen is the Morane 406, called D-3800 in Switzerland where it was license produced. The aearobatic plane is the Bücker 181 Jungmann. For both planes but especially for the Bücker, Switzerland is the source of 90 or more per cent of preserved aircraft. The plane at 3:16 is the K+W C-36 light bomber some of which were later converted into the C.3605 "Swiss Ant Eater" turbo prop target tug, of which both turbo prop and re converted piston engined examples are still flying. I suppose the B-24 was one of those that landed in Switzerland and was made flyable again by the Swiss
The funny thing about the Swiss air force radio is that they used a unique radio language called "Bambini Code" until the adoption of the F/A-18 Hornet (when they switched to english) that largely consisted of italians words but in a fixed terminology. The Swiss had figured out that italian was more comprehensible over bad radio communications than german or swiss so they basically made up a fictional italian based air language based on italian. Though in this video they communicate in German, either to preserve secrecy or because Bambini Code had not been introduced yet
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Good to enjoy the peace fought for so bitterly by nations defending themselves, without ever contributing to that defence. Still got plenty of that Nazi money to spend no doubt - the depositors never came back for it ? Shameful.
Yes! First you did nothing to help defeat some of the worst barbarism the world has ever seen. Then you received and hid the valuables of the victims. Finally you helped the perpetrators flee from justice. Neutral indeed…
This was a B-24, not a B-25. The intercept was certainly staged, as some of the footage of the landing was shot from inside the plane. Also, all of the national insignia and the inevitable nose art had been eliminated. I suspect that the legalistic Swiss viewed flying an interned plane with the US insignia as improper. Love your channel. Please post as many newsreels and training films as you can get your hands on.
It is weird having swiss speaking high german (with only a very slight accent) for a newsreel. But I guess back then they weren't yet as insisting on their own lingual identity
Newsreel narrators were instructed to speak as clear as possible, mainly due to the rather bad audio quality of the magnetic audio stripes used to store the audio. So the narrator here is probably trying very hard to speak with as little accent as possible.
British and American planes bombed Switzerland roughly seventy times during World War II, killing 84 people. Although these bombings were attributed to error, and reparations were paid to the Swiss as stated, it was suspected that the Anglo Americans wanted to send a warning to Switzerland to curtail suspected dealings with Germany. Damaged (and some not so damaged) Luftwaffe, RAF and USAAF aircraft landed in Switzerland and the crews were detained for the remainder of hostilities. "Armed neutrality" was Switzerland's policy during the war and it mostly worked to their advantage.
According to Google the Swiss shot down over a dozen German and Allied aircraft. The Swiss of course had a right to patrol their airspace, especially because of accidental bombings. But I hope actual shooting was only as a last resort, and not cases of misdirection, emergency, etc. In this case (obviously staged) the plane simply landed per instructions. What if it had simply turned for the border to escape? On the other hand, did any bombers shoot back? Allied bombers were capable of defending themselves against better planes than those in this video. Once again according to Google, a P51 escort shot down a Swiss plane (almost certainly technically overmatched).
This is interesting. First I have family in Suisse and have been there often. Now the B24 in the film had its markings painted over . Obviously this is propaganda for a swiss audience. Now my question is : did the swiss fly this aircraft from the interned pool for this film ?
