As the consequences of the various declarations of war* resonated around Europe in those early August days and the belligerent countries’ armies mobilised, the Swiss began their own mobilisation on 2nd August, before formally declaring their neutrality in the forthcoming conflict two days later. Men of the Swiss 48th Fusilier Battalion in the main square of Zug, a dozen miles south of Zürich, on 5th August 1914, before their departure for the front, or, in their case, the frontier. The French-German border is further to the east on this map than it was in 1914. Modern terrain map of Switzerland, with the area where the French & German trenches ended at the Swiss border marked as a red circle.

*which explains, as a matter of interest, why so many Austro-Hungarian troops in the Great War had no idea, much of the time, what their officers were ordering them to do, because they all spoke different languages, and no, I jest not. Neutral countries at the time are marked in beige, or whatever colour that is, except for Switzerland, in the centre in red, of course, with the various ethnic groups within the Austro-Hungarian Empire also marked*. ‘Grenzbesetzung’, in both pictures, means ‘Guarding the frontiers’.ġ914.

The very beginning of the Western Front.Īnd these are the men of the Swiss Army (above & below) who would defend it, should they have to.

Kilometre zero