According to Stephen P. Halbrook, author of a book called “Target Switzerland”
“Shortly before World War I, the German Kaiser was the guest of the Swiss government to observe military maneuvers.
The Kaiser asked a Swiss militiaman: ‘You are 500,000 and you shoot well, but if we attack with 1,000,000 men what will you do?’
The soldier replied: ‘We will shoot twice and go home.’”
One of my favorite quotes.
Swiss had a quazi semi-auto rifle technology as far as 18th century. It was a pneumatic PSP weapon. A single Swiss guardsman could gun down an entire platoon of Napoleon’s troops armed with contemporary muskets under one minute.