Fort Heldsberg was built 1938–1940 near

St. Margrethen St. Margrethen (Saint Margrethen/Sankt Margrethen) is a municipality in the ''Wahlkreis'' (constituency) of Rheintal in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Geography St. Margrethen has an area, , of . Of this area, 28.3% is used for agric ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, overlooking the

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

, which forms the Swiss-Austrian border at that location, just south of

Lake Constance Lake Constance (german: Bodensee, ) refers to three Body of water, bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, ca ...

. The fort was part of the Swiss Border Line defenses, built between 1938 and 1941.

Concept

In March 1938, Austria was annexed by Germany under the ''

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

'', creating a new, potentially hostile section of frontier. The fort at Heldsberg was planned to stop or delay an attack across the nearby Rhine, as well as providing artillery coverage on the southern end of Lake Constance. The German plan for a Swiss invasion,

Operation Tannenbaum Operation Tannenbaum ("Fir Tree"), known earlier as Operation Grün ("Green"), was a planned but cancelled invasion of Switzerland and Liechtenstein by the Axis Powers during World War II. Background Before the outbreak of the Second World War ...

, noted the presence of the Heldsberg position and concluded:

A very desirable approach is to attack from the east at Rheineck, the shortest way to the enemy flank, but the mountainous terrain and the strong fortifications at Rheineck (Heldsberg) promise no success.

However, the Border Line fortifications shared common faults, including less-than-thorough attention to details of armor and protection, and a forward-facing position that left the positions vulnerable to direct return fire. By comparison with the

Maginot Line The Maginot Line (french: Ligne Maginot, ), named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, is a line of concrete fortifications, obstacles and weapon installations built by France in the 1930s to deter invasion by Germany and force the ...

, the positions were less well-protected and lacked the ability to fire laterally along the line of attack from a sheltered location.Kauffmann, pp. 157-158 The Border Line forts did not deploy a defense in depth.

Description

Heldsberg was armed with four 75mm guns, mounted in individual concrete blockhouses, supported by five machine gun blocks, divided into north and south batteries. A total of seven machine guns were provided, distributed between the dedicated machine gun blocks and the artillery blocks. The 75mm guns had a range of and could reach targets as far away as

Lindau Lindau (german: Lindau (Bodensee), ''Lindau am Bodensee''; ; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Lindou'') is a major Town#Germany, town and Lindau (island), island on the eastern side of Lake Constance (''Bodensee'' in German) in Bavaria, Ge ...

in Germany. The firing positions were connected by of tunnels, linking them to two observation posts. The fort was manned by up to 200 soldiers, and included underground barracks, ammunition magazines, cisterns and utility facilities. The fort is built into an east-facing slope of the Heldsberg massif. The surface components, running roughly from west to east, include: * Mg1/Boeb1: Machine gun/observation block. * BK1: 75mm gun block. * BK2: 75mm gun block. * Mg2/Mg3: Machine gun block. * Entry: Facing to the rear, close to the underground utility plant and barracks. * BK4: 75mm gun block. * BK3/Mg4: 75mm gun, machine gun block. * Mg5/Boeb2: Machine gun/observation block. * Emergency exit: Facing the rear. * Mg7: Machine gun block. * Mg6: Machine gun block. The fort commands the rail crossing of the Rhine. The tracks at the Swiss end of the bridge featured a turnout that would send an enemy

armored train An armoured train is a railway train protected with armour. Armoured trains usually include railway wagons armed with artillery, machine guns and autocannons. Some also had slits used to fire small arms from the inside of the train, a facilit ...

off the tracks and down an embankment, to be fired upon by the machine gun in Block 4. On 14 May 1940 a false alarm caused the switch to be activated, nearly derailing an innocent coal train. A number of unconnected satellite bunkers support the main fort and provide covering fire for anti-tank barriers.

Present situation

Heldsberg was decommissioned as obsolete in 1992. Heldsberg was sold out of Swiss military service to the town of St. Margrethen, which operates it as a museum. The museum opened in 1993.

References

*Kauffmann, J.E., Jurga, R., ''Fortress Europe: European Fortifications of World War II'', Da Capo Press, USA, 2002, .

External links

Festung Heldsberg
(in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Heldsberg, Fort Border Line fortifications of Switzerland Cold War museums in Switzerland World War II museums in Switzerland Museums in the canton of St. Gallen 20th-century architecture in Switzerland