Shortly after the arrival of my family in Switzerland, I started to propose them some excursions in order to get to know the country they now live in a bit better.
By coincidence, the Swiss Army Day (which is held every 4 years) was about to happen again - so I casually mentioned it as a possible destination, not thinking that this might catch their interest. I was quite surprised to see my daughter (14) say: yes yes! Let's go! Kids - they never stop making you wonder ;-)
While travelling to Thun where this show is held, let me briefly give you an introduction into the Swiss Army, as it seems to have quite a good reputation.
Switzerland managed to remain neutral during World War I and World War II. We had our army at the borders and some may argue that this held off the Germans to invade Switzerland.
Or maybe our gun factories like Oerlikon who was delivering weapons to both Allies and Axis were part of the reason. Who knows?
Anyway, Switzerland was quite happy that it was spared and the army got quite a popularity boost.
During Cold War Switzerland's Army was at its peak in terms of manpower, accounting for around 880'000 men. That's quite a size if you compare that to the total population of Switzerland at that time, which was around 6.3 million. Yes, that's more than 10% of the population. But those 880'000 were not all in active duty, that was basically the "pool" of soldiers it could activate if needed. It had 860 tanks, many of them being Leopard 2 MBT's which were not cheap if I recall my tax bill well of that time...
After the fall of the wall in Berlin, Switzerland started it's "Armee 95" reform and reduced the headcount to 400'000 men. The army become more mechanised and specialised. Tank effective went down to 134 with the second reform "Armee XXI", alongside another cut of manpower down to 150'000 men. I wonder what they did with the 600 Leo 2 MBT's they suddenly had "in surplus"...
But let's have a look now how Switzerland celebrates every 4 year that the army is still around ;-)
The whole show takes place on a large flat plateau and it traditionally includes a lot of marching and flags and stuff.
I guess it would be the same everywhere. Just here - everything is a bit smaller right?
I mean, if you compare this to the annual parades held in Moscow or Bejing, you get a good sense of scale no?
Anyway, weather was great and they also had great food on site! That alone made the trip worth...
But to be fair, Thun is mainly a "Tank Festival" and the guys on foot were more kinda decoration. That's why only a small group turned up to walk around maybe?
Sorry for the bad image quality - sun was not very cooperative today.
I am not sure which type of tank we are looking at here - it might be a "Panzer 61", a swiss tank model of the cold war era.
It is for sure not a Leopard 2.
There is a funny story about tanks and Switzerland: In 2010, they "found" 400 APC's in a shelter which were supposed to already have been destroyed...
Talking about fails: In 2015, the Swiss Army helped to provide remote farms with water for their cows as the summer was very hot and water sparse.
The fact that the army helicopters entered French territory to get the water from there was less welcomed by the French I guess...
Talking about helicopters. They also had a part in the show, air-lifting a couple of guys around - making them look kinda funny.
Speaking of funny: In 1985 the Swiss Army "attacked" its neighbour "Liechtenstein" by firing a couple of artillery rounds into a forest located in Liechtenstein - while the weather was dry and windy...
Switzerland planted up to 220'000 new trees to make that little "oopsie" ok again.
Oh, and because we speak of the mighty Swiss Air Force, a little fun fact maybe?
Our Airforce only operates from Monday to Friday from 8 - 12 and from 13:30 - 17:00. As we do not have enough planes to have a 24/7 umbrella. Please refrain from attacking outside our office hours.
The glorious Swiss Airforce. Admire around 25% of our Air Force in its full might :-)
Visit us again when we go on a trip to the "Riifäll" - the waterfalls of Schaffhausen. Did you know waterfalls can be scary? I didn't ;-)
See you soon!