Chronology 1944 - 1958
The following pages will give you an overview of the various aspects and occurrences in relation to the P-51 Mustang in Switzerland:
- During World War 2, Switzerland's airspace repeatedly was violated by USAAF P-51 Mustangs, and sometimes Swiss railway installations and trains in the vicinity of the borders were shot at. Within one week in Septermber 1944, two aerial combats between USAAF P-51's and Swiss Air Force Fighter planes took place. And three USAAF P-51's and their pilots were interned in Switzerland in 1944 and 1945, whereof one P-51 crashed, and two performed emergency landings.
- After the War, in November 1946, two P-51's of the USAAF Occupational Forces in Germany landed at Meiringen Airfield, from where the Rescue Operation on Gauli glacier took place. A Douglas C-53 'Skytrooper' had crashed on this remote glacier in the Swiss Mountains a few days earlier, and the Swiss Army and Air Force managed to rescue the stranded Passengers and Crew by flying by using Fieseler FI-156 Storch aircraft to fly them out.
- In October 1947, an International Airshow was held at Geneva-Cointrin Airport, where among many other modern aircraft types of the Allied Forces in Europe, also four P-51 Mustangs of the USAAF in Germany participated.
- During December 1947, a Swiss delegation visited various airfields and storage deports in Southern Germany, to take a look at the stored P-51 Mustangs offered for sale to Switzerland, plus various equipment. The information and impressions gathered there led to the immediate purchase of 130 P-51 Mustangs for the Swiss AIr Force.
- The Years 1948 through 1958 saw the P-51 Mustang as an important component of the Swiss Defense during the Cold War, at first in the Fighter rôle, then, from 1951 as a potent fighter bomber.
