The Singing Pilots – and a Village in an Uproar

Tellenburg Open-Air Theater, 3714 Frutigen

The first B-17 emergency landing in Switzerland that did not take place at an airfield occurred in a potato field in Utzensdorf near Bern. The crew was among the first to be interned in Adelboden. Engineer John Scott later married the love of his life in Adelboden; she emigrated with him to America after the war. In the spring of 1943, the village of Adelboden is in a “state of war”: Swiss men of military age are stationed at the border, all the hotels stand empty, and there have been no tourists since the outbreak of the war. Many hotel employees lost their jobs; numerous hotels were forced to close and some even went bankrupt. Retail and commerce also suffered as a result; unemployment rose, money became scarce, and poverty spread. The municipality had a population of 2,700. And suddenly, in addition to 700 Englishmen, around 600 Americans “flood” the tranquil village as interned soldiers. The Americans are crews from long-range bombers that crashed or were shot down in Switzerland. They are exclusively officers and noncommissioned officers, quartered in empty hotels and vacation apartments and, in some cases, poorly looked after by the Swiss Army. The U.S. legation in Bern provided the internees with ample pay and the necessary equipment. These military personnel are allowed to move about freely in Adelboden, but they are ordered to remain there until the end of the war. How does the Adelboden population cope with this situation? What fears and emotions does it trigger in this mountain village? What problems must be overcome with a resident population that has doubled in size? What potential do people suddenly see in the Americans’ pockets, now filled with money? With this entertaining, interesting, thrilling, humorous, and emotional story about the bomber pilots and the village turned upside down, we take you back to Adelboden from 1943 to 1945 in a grand open-air production. The

Author: Ueli Bichsel

Trailer: Martin Dängeli, dmd-productions.ch

Trailer