Clockwork devices were the semiconductors of the Second World War. Both Germany and the Allies relied on Swiss jewel bearings to automate weapons such as bomb fuses and magnetic mines. Switzerland’s position in the 1940s was a bit like Taiwan’s situation today: a high-tech economy that produces crucial components and is very close to a dangerous neighbor. In this game, you must use Switzerland’s economy, banking sector, and forbidding terrain to deter both Axis and Allied invasions. Good luck!

The parallels between Switzerland in the 1940s and Taiwan in the 2020s are striking.

Both countries operated high-tech economies that produced components at the heart of state-of-the-art weaponry. Taiwan dominates the production of high-end microprocessors in modern smart weapons. Similarly, the Swiss manufactured most of the world's jewel bearings. Jewel bearings kept the tiny gears inside clockwork devices running smoothly. All of the high-end weapons of the Second World War used clockwork devices to add a primitive level of intelligence. For instance, cutting-edge WWII anti-aircraft guns used AAA shells with clockwork timers in their fuses. A calculation device (not quite a computer!) connected to a radar would calculate the number of seconds to set for each fuse to ensure that the shell detonated at the altitude of the target aircraft. You can see an illustration of one of these fuses in the game. Both the Allies and the Germans used these kinds of timer fuses in their anti-aircraft shells. Both got the jewel bearings they needed from Switzerland.

Switzerland, like Taiwan, also had a neighbor that talked a lot about invading and annexing it. Switzerland was just another Austria to Hitler: a country of ethnic Germans that belonged inside the Reich. In response, both countries pursued variations on a national redoubt strategy. For instance, both the Swiss and the Taiwanese have built air bases inside mountains. This strategy is partly an attempt to mitigate China and Germany’s massive military superiority. However, it also reflects the diplomatic isolation of both countries. Switzerland needed to uphold its tradition of neutrality, while Taiwan cannot enter into formal alliances without declaring independence and triggering a war with China. Neither country is close enough to a powerful friendly country that could help it in the event of invasion.