Fascinating Film from Swiss Archives

[Von Stroheim]

Anyone interested in the early war should watch  this short film from the Swiss Bundesarchiv.  It show French and Polish troops crossing the border into internment. What is suprising is the amount of men and equipment. There are all troop types of the French Army - Colonials etc. At 6.40 the first French Armour is rolling. I do not know what happened to these men - if they were interned for the duration or repatriated.

[fastolfrus]

and what did the Swiss do with all the second hand armaments?

Interestingly large number of greys amongst the cavalry

[FramFramson]

Amazing. In hindsight they were probably pretty relieved that all those arms and munitions ended up in Swiss hands.

[carlos marighela]

and what did the Swiss do with all the second hand armaments?

Interestingly large number of greys amongst the cavalry

The  dozen or so R-35 tanks were apparently absorbed into the Swiss army but unless they were able to purchase spares from Vichy or via the Germans they wouldn't have been terribly useful for long.

The artillery would have been potentially useful but doesn't seem to have been adopted, probably due to limited ammo stocks.

The small arms would have required re-chambering for Swiss ammunition. As the Swiss didn't have a deficit in small arms and were significant producers of such  I'm not sure that would have been a worthwhile exercise.

[has.been]

Interesting stuff. Thanks for posting.

[Gunner Dunbar]

and what did the Swiss do with all the second hand armaments?

Interestingly large number of greys amongst the cavalry

I also noticed the greys, interesting.

[Khusru2]

Not usually interested in early war in general but I found this interesting. What's sad about watching old news reels is that everyone is nameless. Perhaps it's just old age catching up with me.

[carlos marighela]

If it helps there was Jaques, Marc, Gaston, Pierre, Jean-Luc, another Pierre, Alois, Gervais, Jean-Paul, three more Jaques, Alain etc, etc, etc.