SOVIET GUERILLAS DITCH GERMAN TRAINS

These groups embraced servicemen who were encircled by German forces, who lost their units or fled from captivity and patriots who failed to join the army but desired to fight the enemy.

Partisan groups were very often set up on the basis of units that carried out surveillance and committed sabotage. The task of these units was to gather information about enemy forces and launched attacks on military facilities and communications. Such units joined partisan movement and grew up to large groups and even formations.

The famous writer Alexander Fadeev in his article in the daily Pravda said: “Guerrilla warfare is the exclusive display of people’s daring, smartness, cleverness, uncontrollable bravery and ability to conspire. This is not only a matter of fighting by using weapons and by guerilla units. It is a war for each garden, house and bush, a war involving every man and women and entire population against intruders and robbers who forced into our homeland. This is a war that does not and must not know show mercy to enemy, everything he posses and every thing that strengthens it”.           

In fact, enemy also showed no mercy to partisans. Unlike partisans soldiers who were captured can hope that they will be survived after humiliations and losses. A Nazi order said: ”All people involved in guerilla activity, independent of their sex or dress they will be publicly hanged to death…”

And the battle for death rather than life started. Germans tortured cruelly partisans captured and executed. And Partisans also treated Nazis in a similar way. In addition, there was a need to punish Nazis who for brutal crimes committed in the country. Generally, war is a cruel thing, of course.

By the end of 1941 partisan units strengthened and their activity was gaining momentum. Early next year, guerrilla warfare was well organized and the groups had many members and they had established contacts with the Soviet organizations that coordinated their attacks.

Air force helped partisans successfully. In 1943 alone warplanes carried out 12 thousand flights in the rear of enemy. In half of the flights plans landed on the partisan airstrips and in the rest they dropped payloads by parachutes.

Every formation had well-organized surveillance groups which maintained underground organizations in cities and villages. Partisans always leaned on local people who helped them as much as they can, supported them, hid them, shared food, clothes and foot wear and warned about possible threats.

One of the tasks before partisans was the destroying of enemy communications without which no army can fight successfully.

Everyday partisans destroyed railroads and bridges and derailed trains. This not only disrupted supply of goods and deployment of forces but also forced Germans to send forces to guard railroads. At least one battalion or even a regiment was needed to guard a one-hundred-kilometer railroad. This means 370 battalions or almost 30 divisions had to be removed from the front to guard 37 000 kilometers of railroads. Truly, Germans used for this purpose local police, death squads and extremists, especially in the Baltic republics and Western Ukraine. But they had to control these people.

Partisans displayed their strength in 1943 when operations code-named “Railroad War” and “Kontsert” were launched to assist in fulfilling the targets set by the Soviet armed forces at the time.

On the 14th of July 1943 partisan units were ordered to carry out systematic attacks with other groups engaged in subversive activity to destroy railroads on all territory occupied by the enemy. The first attacks were expected to launch simultaneously on the territory.

At the time by orders of the military headquarters the Soviet forces launched a large-scale offensive near Kursk and the enemy had to deploy its reserves from one front to another. To paralyze the transport of German forces by train 167 partisan units launched the operation code named “Railroad War” simultaneously on the 3rd of August.

About one hundred thousand partisans and many thousands of Soviet people who did not involve in these groups took part in the operation. On the first day alone they destroyed 42 thousand rails and carried out several attacks in enemy communications.

Alexander Anisimov who involved in a partisan group recollects:

“We carried out 19 large-scale subversive attacks on railroads and derailed 12 trains that moved toward the front. We destroyed six railway bridges. Nazis had to spend from two to four days to rebuild them.”

About one million partisans were operating in the enemy rear during the Second World War. Dozens of millions of patriots helped them. This people’s army killed, injured and captured about one million Nazis and their accomplices, destroyed more than 4 000 tanks, destroyed or damaged 1 600 railway bridges and derailed 20 000 special trains. 

The partisan movement was of significance as a second front for the Soviet army and the country, which our allies promised long ago to open but did so only in summer 1944.