Swiss accidentally invade Liechtenstein

AP via Yahoo ^ | 2 March 2006 | AP

[Brujo]

What began as a routine training exercise almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident after a company of Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighboring Liechtenstein.

According to Swiss daily Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers wandered just over a mile across an unmarked border into the tiny principality early Thursday before realizing their mistake and turning back.

...

[dfwgator]

"Today Liechtenstein, tomorrow Luxembourg."

[Flightdeck]

No ammunition, huh? Sounds like our border patrol.

[bert]

.....It's obviously a quagmire...

Based on threads earlier this week regarding Bolivian nationalization of Swiss mining interests. The manuvers are certain to be training for the iminent invasion of that South American state.

[Loyal Buckeye]

Good thing they didn't invade Fredonia.

[Gator101]

Yeah - they're small - but I wouldn't want to be the country that tried to take them on. They would bleed you to death

Yep, by promising anybody who violated her borders a big old dose of headache Switzerland was able to avoid the destruction that the rest of Europe endured...twice. Militarily speaking Switzerland is to the world what a porcupine is to the animal kingdom.

[Betteboop]

I was waiting to see who would post this.....great movie!!

[WV Mountain Mama]

Having honeymooned in Switzerland, I can tell you that you can be in the alps, in the middle of nowhere and come across a little beer pub. I also had a swiss hairdresser. We were talking about that one day and he talked about how they did their training. At night, everyone would find themselves at the beer pubs and the officers would act like they didn't see their men there drinking. I am betting the guys were drinking or hungover when the error was made. :)

[Charles Martel]

The Swiss keep their ammo at home.... a a sealed minimum pack of 50 rounds is required by law.

Yep, and the Swiss government subsidizes the purchase of additional military-spec ammunition for practice, practice and more practice. I can't recall it it's a full or partial subside, but either way, that's one social program I could really embrace!

[ansel12]

"Furthermore the martial spirit of rabid independence is eroding in Switzerland. An active leftist movement seeks to abolish the army altogether, and as many as 40% of the citizens have voted to do just that."





The fatal deed was done in 1971.

***1971: Swiss women get the vote
Swiss women can now vote in federal elections and stand for parliament after a national referendum.
The official result shows 621,403 of the all-male electorate supported the vote for women and 323,596 were against.

All of the Swiss political parties, both houses of parliament, and many church and business leaders supported the vote for women.

The Swiss media has also welcomed the result. Tribune de Geneve said the referendum ended a status quo that had become "unjust, untenable and abused".

The poll was almost a complete reversal of a 1959 referendum, when women were refused the federal vote by a 2-1 majority.***

[magslinger]

LOL!

[null and void]

The first 680 years weren't so bad...

[relictele]

BTW, did you know that John Kerry served in Vietnam?

Really? Which side?

PMSL! Would have been a perfect Morecambe & Wise bit.

[Stonewall Jackson]

During the short, but bloody, Franco-Prussian War, several thousand French troops crossed the border into Switzerland and surrendered rather than face the Prussian Army.

[cowtowney]

LMAO

[R. Scott]

With the primitive navigation and radar equipment we had (Boats built for Korea with WWII radar), we were lucky to know what planet we were on. Our radar had a hard time distinguishing between solid land and heavy rain at ranges over a few miles and the typhoon we were in had a lot of rain.
Our navigation was primarily by dead reckoning - judging our position by course steered and best guess at speed. US Navy vessels of the same type seldom had this problem - they were carried by LSD to their operational areas.

[R. Scott]

No excuse if they had GPS - and it was working.
After I retired I visited the Army’s 3rd Port to check out the new ships we finally received. As I checked out the navigation bridge with the 1st Mate, I asked where the chronometer, sexton and sight reduction tables were.
“We don’t use that old stuff anymore. We have SatNav.”
Satellite Navigation was the early version of GPS. When I asked him what they did if the receiver failed he just stood with a blank look.

[Fierce Allegiance]

When I left the Coast Guard in '89, we used sextants, etc, for positioning buoys with the newfangled GPS as a second check. It didn't take long to develop a level of confidence in the GPS, and the less critical buoys were set solely with the gps. It also allowed us to work in the rain.

Thankfully, i was a snipe, and didn't have to deal with that stuff.

[R. Scott]

Ah! Snipes - those greasy little critters that prowl a ship looking for clean paint to foul!
But they do come in handy when something breaks. If you haven’t guessed, I was a deck ape with several years of slinging a paint brush.
I do have faith in electronic navigation equipment, if it is in good working order.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Actually the Swiss model is "you may win, but the cost will ruin your army". It is why the Germans stayed out of Switzerland during WW-2. (Also I think that half of the SS had their savings accounts there.)

The Swiss have universal conscription for all men and you do your basic and active service and then go into the reserve which requires periodic meetings and a summer proficiency camp until you are about 50 years old. Every Swiss man has a rifle and ammunition issued to him which he keeps in his house in case the army is called up.

We could take some profitable lessons from the Swiss.

[Fierce Allegiance]

HEY! I resemble that remark! But, I was a way better painter and could do all the splices and knots, etc. as well as any deckie, but could also fix anything, include the deckies cars and weld with the best of them.