Guerilla Campaigns

German campaigns and battles 1919-1945.

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PaulJ
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Guerilla Campaigns

Post by PaulJ »

How much effort did the Allies [Anglo-American and Soviet] put into guerrilla warfare behind Axis lines?

Now, Churchill did famously call for SOE to "set Europe ablaze", and they were subsequently joined in due course by the OSS, and those organizations did indeed work behind the lines with resistance movements. But how much of an effect did this really have? The trend in recent scholarship examining resistance movements has been to debunk views of any significant resistance [until the very end and it was clear which way the chips were going to fall], and to stress that for most of the war, the Germans experienced very few difficulties controlling their occupied territories (in the West at least). So perhaps the effect of the Anglo-Americans efforts at irregular warfare behind the lines was minimal at best (thoughts?), but there is another question as well -- aside from how effective it may or may not have been, and notwithstanding Churchill's rhetoric, how much effort did the Western Allies really put into guerrilla warfare in Western Europe? (Compared against the effort that they perhaps, could in principle have made?)

Two points of comparison come to mind. The first and most obvious is the Soviet effort (usually termed partisan warfare rather than guerrilla). This is generally considered to have been a major effort with significant effects. Is that really true? I've never seen a definitive scholarly examination of this. (I'm not saying that such a thing hasn't been produced, the Eastern Front isn't my area.)

But perhaps a more pertinent point of comparison is the Pacific theatre, from the British "Chindits" to the US guerrillas infiltrated into places like the Philippines, the Western Allies seem to have put far more effort into sponsoring a guerrilla campaign behind Japanese lines in the Pacific than behind German lines in Europe?

Is that accurate? If so, what would account for that?

As a final confession, I add that I find myself musing about this after seeing Inglourious Basterds for the first time. Not to try and freight that work with any deeper meanings than it perhaps possesses, but the "basterds" purported mission, which was to spread a form of guerrilla war behind German lines, prompted me to reflect upon this.

Thoughts?

Happy New Year.
Paul Johnston
Per Ardua ad Astra
http://tactical-airpower.tripod.com
John Kilmartin
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Re: Guerilla Campaigns

Post by John Kilmartin »

Happy New Year Paul,
Ivan's War is a fairly detailed look at the life of Soviet combatants and it talks about the partisan war as well. The impression I came away with was that yes assymetrical warfare was much bigger in the East than the West but it was not getting much support from the government (if in the West you were getting a cup in a gallon in Russia you were getting three cups in an oil barrel) but rather more interference ie target lists with dates attatched decided by "Moscow" rather than targets of oppurtunity. I also took away the sense that if you were a Soviet soldier who had to choose between living in the woods as a 'partisan' and surender it was better for you and your family if you took to the woods as Comrade Stalin considered you a deserter otherwise.
Cheers,
John K
' Strip war of the mantle of its glories and excitement, and it will disclose a gibbering ghost of pain , grief, dissappointment and despair'
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