Editing Projekt-26 (section)

==Structure and Operations==
	•	Formation: P-26 was established around 1948–1949, inspired by Switzerland’s WWII resistance planning and the broader Western stay-behind model initiated by the Western Union and later NATO. It was housed within the Untergruppe Nachrichtendienst und Abwehr (UNA), the Swiss military intelligence service, and led by figures like Efrem Cattelan, a civilian known to British intelligence. 

	•	Membership and Training: P-26 had approximately 400 members, primarily experts in weapons, telecommunications, and psychological warfare. Recruits, often civilians or military personnel, were trained in guerrilla warfare, sabotage, and covert communications. Training occurred in Switzerland and abroad, notably in the UK, where P-26 operatives worked with MI6 and possibly SAS advisors. Swiss instructor Alois Hürlimann claimed participation in a UK training exercise involving an assault on an IRA arms depot, resulting in at least one death, though this remains unverified. 

	•	Arms Caches and Equipment: P-26 maintained a network of underground installations and weapons caches across Switzerland, stocked with explosives, machine guns, and specialized firearms like the Präzisionsgewehr G150, a .41 Magnum silent rifle. The group used Harpoon radios, a NATO-supplied encrypted communication system purchased from AEG Telefunken in the 1980s, enabling long-range (6,000 km) secure communications incompatible with standard Swiss military systems. 

	•	Mandate and Secrecy: P-26’s primary mission was to resist Soviet occupation, but it also had a controversial mandate to counter “domestic subversion,” potentially targeting left-wing groups if they gained political power. Its operations were so secretive that even the Swiss government and parliament were unaware, with command vested in a private citizen who could activate the force independently. 

	•	Key Incidents: P-26’s existence surfaced during the 1989 Fichenaffäre (secret files scandal), when it was revealed that Swiss security services had monitored 900,000 citizens, prompting a parliamentary probe. In 1990, Colonel Herbert Alboth, a former P-26 commander, offered to reveal “the whole truth” in a confidential letter, escalating scrutiny. 
Connections to Operation Gladio Operation Gladio, the codename for Italy’s stay-behind network, is often used to describe NATO’s broader clandestine anti-communist networks across Western Europe. While P-26 was not formally part of NATO’s stay-behind structure due to Switzerland’s neutrality, it had significant connections to Gladio and its supporting intelligence networks, particularly through MI6 and, to a lesser extent, the CIA.