by David Thompson on 01 Dec 2004 19:54 DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY PAMPHLET 20-244
THE SOVIET PARTISAN MOVEMENT 1941-1944
By Edgar M. Howell
DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY AUGUST 1956
DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
WASHINGTON 25, D. C., 30 August 1956
DA Pam 20—244 is published for the information and use of all concerned. [AG 385 (30 Mar 56) ]
By Order of Wilber M. Brucker, Secretary of the Army:
MAXWELL D. TAYLOR,
General, United States Army,
Chief of Staff.
Official :
JOHN A. KLEIN,
Major General, United States Army,
The Adjutant General.
Distribution : Active Army:
Gen Staff, DA (5) except MD W (1)
ACSI (10)
Armies (5)
SS, DA (5)
Corps (3)
PSYWAR (25)
Div (1)
CMH (50)
Gen & Br Svc Sch (5)
TPMG (5)
ASA Sch (5)
CINFO (5)
Army Intel Sch (5)
TIG (5)
PSYWAR Sch (25)
Tec Svc, DA (5)
Strategic Intel Sch (5)
Admin & Tec Svc Bd (1)
PMST (1)
Hq CONARC (25)
PSYWAR Cen (5)
OS Maj Comd (10)
Mil Dist (1) NG: State AG (2) ;
Div (1).
USAR : Div (1) .
For explanation of abbreviations used, see SR 320—50—1.
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C. - Price $2.25
ii
FOREWORD
Unconventional warfare has gained in importance along with the increase in range and destructiveness of weapons. It was a particularly potent factor in several theaters of operations during World War II, but in none did it play a more significant role than on the Eastern front during that conflict. There the guerrilla movement behind the Axis forces gained in importance as the Soviet Army withdrew deeper and deeper into its homeland, trading space for time until mobilization could be completed and winter act as an ally.
If The Soviet Partisan Movement, 1941—1944 is studied in connection with operational studies of the war on the east European front during World War II, it should prove to be of great value to students of that conflict. It should also prove of particular value to the Army staff and schools and colleges as a reference work in partisan warfare.
iii
PREFACE
The purpose of this text is to provide the Army with a factual account of the organization and operations of the Soviet resistance movement behind the German forces on the Eastern Front during World War II. This movement offers a particularly valuable case study, for it can be viewed both in relation to the German occupation in the Soviet Union and to the offensive and defensive operations of the Wehrmacht and the Red Army.
The scope of the study includes an over-all picture of a quasi-military organization in relation to a larger conflict between two regular armies. It is not a study in partisan tactics, nor is it intended to be. German measures taken to combat the partisan movement are sketched in, but the story in large part remains that of an organization and how it operated. The German planning for the invasion of Russia is treated at some length because many of the circumstances which favored the rise and development of the movement had their bases in errors the Germans made in their initial planning. The operations of the Wehrmacht and the Red Army are likewise described in considerable detail as the backdrop against which the operations of the partisan units are projected.
Because of the lack of reliable Soviet sources, the story has been told much as the Germans recorded it. German documents written during the course of World War II constitute the principal sources, but many survivors who had experience in Russia have made important contributions based upon their personal experience.
The study was prepared in the Special Studies Division, Office of the Chief of Military History, under the supervision and direction of the chief of that Division. Maj. Edgar M. Howell, AUS-Ret., initiated the project and carried it through to completion. He was assisted in his research in the German records by Lt. Larry Wolff, Lt. William Klepper, Jr., and Miss Leopoldina Novak.
v
CONTENTS
PART ONE.
GERMAN PLANNING FOR THE INVASION AND OCCUPATION OF RUSSIA Page
Chapter 1. Background 1
European Russia 1
Topography 2
Climate 3
Population 3
The Great Russians 3
The White Russians 4
The Ukrainians 4
The Balts 4
The Transportation Net 5
Railroads 5
Roads 6
Rivers 7
The Transportation Net and Irregular Resistance 7
2. Preinvasion Planning 8
The Decision To Attack Russia 8
German Occupation Policy and Practice 9
Military Occupation 10
Organization 10
The Security Commands 12
Training 14
Summary 15
Political Occupation 15
Preparation for the Economic Exploitation 20
Propaganda for Russia 22
Invasion Planning 24
The German Lineup 24
PART TWO. 1941—1942: THE PERIOD OF GERMAN ADVANCES
Chapter 3. German Operations to the Stalingrad Debacle 26
The Attack Through White Russia 26
The Drive to Leningrad 27
Clearing the Dnepr Bend 28
The Diversion to the South 30
Von Rundstedt's Fall Offensive 31
The Battle for Moscow 32
The Winter of 1941—42 34
The German Summer Offensive, 1942 36
The Drive to the Caucasus 38
Stalingrad and the Soviet Counterblow 39
vii
viii CONTENTS
PART TWO. 1941-1942: THE PERIOD OF GERMAN ADVANCES—Continued
Chapter 4. Early Russian Resistance and German Counter measures 42
The First Resistance 42
Bypassed Red Army Units 42
Parachutists 43
Communist-Led Units 44
Annihilation Battalions 44
The Soviets Organize the Movement 45
Establishment of Partisan Combat Battalions
and Diversionary Units 47
Local Partisan Units 48
Early Partisan Operations 49
German Counteractions 52
The Security Commands 52
Laxity in the Rear 55
Passive Measures by the Army 56
Prisoner of War Status of the Partisans 57
OKH Directives 57
The OKW Approach 59
5. German Occupation Policies in Operation 61
Russian Reaction 61
General Conditions 61
Russian Propaganda 63
The Partisan Movement Becomes Independent 65
Change in German Tactics 66
The New Tactics in Operation 69
Antipartisan Directives 71
Effect of the Manpower Shortage in the Rear 72
The Partisan Picture Begins To Change 75
The Beginning of Partisan Cooperation With the
Red Army 77
Early Use of the Bands as Intelligence Organs 79
Reorganization Within the Movement 80
The Bands and Soviet Strategy 82
Morale and Discipline in the Bands 83
Armament and Supply 84
The German Manpower Shortage, Spring, 1942 85
The Rear Areas and the 1942 Offensive 90
German Preparation in the Rear 90
Passive Measures 92
Partisan Reaction to the Offensive 93
6. The Occupation Falters 97
Political Aspects 97
Land Reform 99
Religion 103
Education 104
Food Shortages 104
Suppression of Indigenous Administrations 105
The Forced Labor Program and Its Effect on the
Partisan Movement 107
Treatment of Prisoners of War 109
ix
CONTENTS
PART TWO. 1941-1942: THE PERIOD OF GERMAN ADVANCE
Chapter 6.–Continued Page
The Failure of the German Propaganda Effort 111
The Partisans and the German Economic Program 113
7. The Germans Change Their Tactics 116
The New OKW Antipartisan Policy 116
Too Little Too Late 121
PART THREE. 1943-1944: THE PERIOD OF SOVIET OFFENSIVES
Chapter 8. German-Russian Operations Following the Fall of Stalingrad 123
The Soviet Offensive, Early 1943 123
The Red Army in 1943 125
German Strategy in 1943 125
The Battle for Kursk and Kharkov 127
The Drive Across the Dnepr 129
The Winter Battles 131
The Final Drives 133
9. The Partisan Movement Reaches Maturity 137
Completion of the Reorganization 137
Leadership and Personnel 140
Targets 141
The Bands as Intelligence Organs 142
Partisan Propaganda 144
Reestablishment of the Communist Party in the Rear 145
10. The Partisans and the Campaign of 1943 147
The Winter Period, January to May 147
Partisan Forces 147
German Forces 148
Partisan Activities 149
German Countermeasures 152
Preliminary Operations, May—June 154
Partisan Concentration Areas and the Rail Lines 154
Strategic Significance of the Concentrations 156
Soviet Plans 157
German Counteraction 157
The Summer Battles in the Central Sector 161
The Northern and Southern Sectors During the
Summer and Fall 169
The Central Sector, October—December 171
Partisan Concentrations 171
The Security Commands 172
Sabotage in October 173
The Pressure Eases Momentarily 175
Cooperation With the Red Army Again 176
Sabotage Continues 177
German Attempts To Curb the Sabotage 178
The Long-Range Partisan Strategy 179
x
CONTENTS
PART THREE. 1943—1944: THE PERIOD OF SOVIET OFFENSIVES—Continued Page
Chapter 11. The Decisive Months: January–June 1944 181
The Northern Sector 181
The Offensive Against the Eighteenth Army 182
The Baltic States, March June 189
The Southern Sector 192
The Final Blow—The Central Sector 194
The Realignment of Partisan Strength 194
The Soviet Plan 196
Operations During the Winter and Spring Months 197
German Counteraction 198
The Final Blow 201
12. Summary and Conclusions 203
Summary : 203
Conclusions 209
Lessons Learned 211
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 215
CHARTS
No.
1. Organization of the German Theater of War (Kriegsgebiet) as of
1 August 1939, showing a Typical Army Sector 11
2. Organization of the Partisan Movement 138
3. Organization of the Partisan Brigade 139
4. The Partisans and Soviet Intelligence 143
MAPS
1. General Reference Map inside cover
2. Principal Rail Lines in European Russia, 1941–1944 inside cover
3. Period of German Offensives, 1941–1942 facing 27
4. Period of Soviet Offensives, 1943–1944 facing 123
5. German Antipartisan Operations in the Bryansk Area, May June 1943 facing 157
6. Partisan Concentrations in Sector of Army Group Center as of 1 July 1943 facing 161
7. Partisan Situation in Rear of Army Group Center, 1 October 1943 facing 171
8. Situation in the Eighteenth Army Sector, 14 January 1944 183
9. Army Group Center Rear Area, Winter-Spring 1944 facing 195
10. Operations REGENSCHAUER, FRUEHLINGSFEST, and KORMORON, April–June 1944 200
PART ONE
GERMAN PLANNING FOR THE INVASION AND OCCUPATION OF RUSSIA
CHAPTER 1
BACKGROUND
In the military history of few countries of the world have topography, climate, and population played such decisive roles as in Russia. The sheer size of the land, its formidable array of natural obstacles, the violent seasonal variations of climate, and the single-mindedness of the Russian populace in the face of alien pressure are unmatched. Time and again great powers have invaded Russia with powerful military machines, winning striking victory after victory, only to be ultimately defeated and driven out.
The USSR, which comprises the eastern half of Europe and the northern and central part of Asia, is the largest continuous political unit in the world. Occupying some 8,400,000 square miles, roughly one-sixth of the habitable land surface of the earth, it is nearly three times the size of the United States, and larger than all of North America. It extends from Romania, Poland, the Baltic Sea, and Finland in the west to China, Manchuria, and the Pacific Ocean in the east, a distance of some 6,000 miles. From north to south it stretches from the Arctic Circle to Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan, and Mongolia, a maximum distance of some 3,000 miles.
In this huge area are something over 200 million people, about one-tenth of the world's population, including 174 races, nationalities, and tribes, speaking 125 different languages or dialects, and professing faith to some 40 different religions. Of the 174 ethnic groups, however, only 93 are composed of more than 10,000 people. Of the total population, over 153,000,000 are of Slavic origin, divided roughly as follows: Great Russians, 105 millions; Ukrainians, 37 millions; and White Russians, 8 1/2 millions, with a scattering of Poles, Bulgars, and Czechs. The Slavs are chiefly of the Greek Orthodox faith. In addition, there are some 21 million Turko-Tartars, predominantly Mohammedan.
European Russia
European Russia—with which this study is primarily concerned—may be considered that portion of the USSR lying between Central
2 THE SOVIET PARTISAN MOVEMENT
Europe and the Ural Mountains. Although it represents but a fraction of the entire country, by European standards it encompasses a tremendous expanse of territory. The distance from the 1941 Polish border to Moscow is some 600 miles, to Leningrad, nearly 500; to Stalingrad far to the east on the Volga River, 900; to the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains, 950. Laterally, the distance from Leningrad to the north to Odessa on the Black Sea is 900 miles.
Topography
Almost all European Russia is taken up by the East European Plain. This plain, which is actually a series of low plateaus, has an average elevation of some 500 feet, reaching a maximum of 800–900 feet in the Valday Hills. In a broad, general sense, the land is of very low relief with no abrupt geographical changes. Despite this topographic monotony, however, the land offers a series of natural obstacles as protection for the heart of the country that is matched by no other area of comparable size.
The greatest single natural barrier in the country is the Pripyat Marshes which lie between White Russia and the western Ukraine and comprise more than 150,000 square miles of densely forested swamps. Other than for a few man-made routes they are impassable except when frozen. Adjoining them on the north is a wide belt of forests and swamps which covers western White Russia. This belt together with the deep woodlands in the Gomel and Bryansk areas and between Vyazma and Moscow forms a succession of natural defenses against any thrust toward Moscow. The topography of the Baltic States and north-west Russia is similar, with forests, swamps, and numerous small lakes predominating. In the south are the broad, treeless steppes of the Ukraine.
Completing this natural defensive network are the rivers. The principal ones, the Dnestr, the Bug, the Niemen, the Dvina, the Dnepr, and the Don, do not provide ready routes of access into the interior but cut across the paths of invasion and, together with their tributaries and swampy watersheds, form in themselves an excellent defense system. Not only do they require innumerable crossings, but due to the low relief of the country and resultant periodic floodings both banks tend toward marshiness and make the construction of approach roads a more difficult engineering feat than the actual bridging. Only between the headwaters of the Dnepr and Dvina in the "dry" Vitebsk-Orsha-Smolensk triangle, or Orsha Corridor, is the defensive value of the river net minimized. But this corridor with its paramount strategic importance is protected by the belt of forests and swamps running north from the Pripyat Marsh. However, in a normal winter all the rivers freeze and, for a period at least, are virtually eliminated as natural barriers.
BACKGROUND 3
Climate
The climate is as much an obstacle to extensive military operations as the physical barriers, and at certain seasons is even more effective. The bulk of the land lies in the same latitudes as Canada; the southern Caucasus is on the same parallel as Philadelphia, central Crimea as Bangor, Maine, and Moscow as Hudson Bay, with Leningrad nearly 300 miles farther north. In winter the entire country, with the exception of the southern Crimea, suffers from extremely low temperatures, often far below zero. The climate of the northwest, influenced by the warm Atlantic drift coming across Scandinavia is rather humid and somewhat less rigorous in the winter, but the northeast and central regions and the steppes of the south, being unprotected in the east since the Urals are too low to form an effective climatic barrier, are swept by the prevailing frigid northeast winds from Siberia. Stalingrad, lying along the 48th parallel, has an average January temperature of 15°, while Leningrad, some 950 miles to the north, has a January mean of 18°. Cold weather sets in suddenly and lasts five to six months. Snows are extremely heavy. The spring thaws and the fall rainy season bring heavy flooding and deep mud. The majority of the roads become bottomless and travel across country impossible, throwing excessive weight on the rail lines.
Population
Of the roughly 200 million peoples in the USSR, better than 80 percent are concentrated in European Russia in three well-defined regions, Great Russia, White Russia, and the Ukraine. Although the inhabitants of all three areas are predominantly of Slavic origin, they have kept their separate identities despite invasions and migrations. The division is still reflected today in the three basic dialects generally confined to the three geographical regions. Great Russia is that area generally centering around Moscow lying east of the line Smolensk-Lake Peipus and north of the line Gomel-Orel, as opposed to White Russia bounded by the Pripyat Marshes, Great Russia, Lithuania, and Poland, and the great steppe area of the Ukraine to the south.
The Great Russians
The Great Russians, concentrated as they are in the old Muscovite kingdom, are perhaps more truly Russian in the general acceptance of the term than those to the west and south. Certainly they are more communistic, concentrated as they have been about the center of Bolshevism since the fall of the Imperial government. They have been dominant over the rest of the Russian peoples since the second partition of Poland in 1793 which ceded them the western Ukraine and White
4 THE SOVIET PARTISAN MOVEMENT
The White Russians
The White Russians have lived alternately under Polish, Lithuanian, and Russian rule for centuries, plagued throughout history with perpetual invasions. This combined with unproductive soil has kept the standard of living low and the level of illiteracy high. They possess no semblance of a national homogeneity or feeling, and only the language has kept their name alive.
The Ukrainians
The Ukrainians are perhaps the least Russian of all the Russian peoples. Historically they have had little sympathy with the Great Russians. The whole of their area which is the richest agricultural land in the Eurasian land mass, was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Empire until 1667 when the portion east of the Dnepr River fell to the Tsar. The remainder was ceded to the Imperial government in 1793. Those inhabiting the western and northern regions are descended from the Kievan Russians, while the eastern and southern portions were populated by Ruthenes who came down from the north to escape the Polish and Lithuanian invasions and from whom evolved the Cossacks. Individually they have always exhibited a marked degree of independence; as a mass, however, beyond a certain consciousness of their history as Ukrainians due to their language and way of life, they have shown only a desultory sort of national consciousness. Despite efforts of the middle-class intelligentsia in the middle of the 19th century to unite all Ruthenes into a Ukrainian nation and the actual creation of a Ukrainian state for a short time during the Revolution, there is little evidence that except in very limited circles there was any real desire for political separation. A restoration of local autonomy and a settlement of the land tenure question would have satisfied any and all demands of the people. At the time of the German invasion in 1941, despite the claims of the separatists as to the national aspirations of the populace, the people sought only a release from the collectivist system and demonstrated only vague and apathetic ideas about the future political configuration of the Ukraine.
The Balts
The inhabitants of the Baltic States, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, are not historically or ethnically Russians. Predominantly Indo-European rather than Slavic, they came under Russian rule only with the disintegration of the Lithuanian and Polish kingdoms and the de-feat of Charles XII of Sweden by Peter the Great. All three states gained their independence in 1918, but were occupied by the USSR in 1940.
BACKGROUND 5
Taken together they comprise some 6,000,000 people of whom better than 80 percent are pure Baits. The Lithuanians, once a powerful people in their own right, never seem to have lost their sense of nationality. But the Letts and Estonians for centuries were subject peoples, serfs and small holders, under the heavy hand of the great German land-owning class descended from the Teutonic Knights.
The Transportation Net
The tremendous territorial extent of Russia and its low industrial capacity, capping the natural difficulties of its terrain and climate, have been a great handicap to the development of an adequate transportation system. As a result, compared to central and especially western Europe, Russian rail and highway nets are extremely deficient both quantity and quality-wise. European Russia is a land of rivers, and while these streams provide a ready means of transportation at least part of the year, at the same time they sharply limit the expansion of the railroad and highway systems because of the necessity for innumerable bridges. Since most of the country lies in the northern latitudes, both construction and maintenance are hampered by extremes of weather with alternate freezing and thawing, frozen subsoil and consequent lack of drainage, and deep mud during the spring thaw and the autumn rainy period. In addition, because of a lack of hard, granite-like rock for foundation work, the subgrade has to be limited generally to river gravels, with a consequent deterioration under heavy use and extremes of weather. This is especially true of the road net.
The most extensive portions of the transportation net were north of the Pripyat Marshes, running from Poland and Lithuania through White Russia to Moscow. In the Ukraine the net was much more sparse, although, militarily speaking, this was compensated for to some degree by the open, flat terrain which was highly suitable for mobile warfare. In the northwest and the Baltic States the net was equally limited, but unlike the Ukraine the terrain was unsuitable for cross-country maneuver and the few roads and rail lines had to carry the bulk of all movement.
Railroads
In 1941 the USSR had for its 8,400,000 square miles of territory only 52,000 miles of railroads, the greatest portion of which lay in European Russia. Of this trackage, less than 15 percent could be classed as heavy capacity, as opposed to medium and light. As a means of comparison, the density of the rail lines was 17.6 miles per 1,000 square
6 THE SOVIET PARTISAN MOVEMENT
miles for European Russia as against 155 miles per 1,000 square miles for Germany.[1] The gauge differed from the standard European gauge,[2] necessitating transshipment at the western border.
The three major geographical areas—the Ukraine, White and Great Russia, and the Baltic States—were each served by one heavy-capacity double track rail line. In the Ukraine this was the line Krakow-Lwow-Kiev-Kursk or Dnepropetrovsk. Only to a small extent could it be supplemented by the tortuous and winding medium-, and often low-, capacity line Przemysl-Stanislaw-Cernauti-Odessa on the southern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains. Through White Russia to the east the primary trunk was the Warsaw-Brest-Litovsk-Minsk-Smolensk-Moscow. This was paralleled on the south by the low- and medium-capacity line through the Pripyat, Brest-Litovsk, Pinsk-Gomel-Bryansk-Moscow. Several lateral lines of medium capacity, however, and one diagonal route from Kovno in Lithuania southeast through Minsk and Bobruysk to Gomel offered possibilities for alternate routes. To the north the one trunk was the Warsaw-Bialystok-Vilna-Dvinsk-Pskov-Leningrad line. With the exception of the stretch Dvinsk-Ostrov, it was double track. The few alternate lines, for the most part to the north of Pskov, were all of low capacity.
Roads
The road net was generally poor, comprising some 60,500 miles of all types of surfacing, from plain unimproved dirt track to asphalt and concrete highways, for the whole of the USSR.[3] The majority of this net was in European Russia. Generally the paved arteries paralleled the rail lines. Of the entire net, only the stretch westward from Moscow through Smolensk to Minsk, where it terminated could be classed as a superhighway in the American sense of the term. All but the few hundred miles of concrete and asphalt deteriorated rapidly under heavy use and became bottomless during the spring and fall muddy seasons, thus throwing an added burden on the rail system.
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[1] Militaergeographische Angaben ueber das europaeische Russland, Allgemeiner Ueberblick, 1.IX.41., Gen. St.d.H. Abt. fuer Kriegskarten and Vermessungswesen (IV. Mil.-Geo.), pp. 38-40. 29/IDZ.11. Postwar estimates of the 1940 trackage total have raised this estimate to just over 60,000 miles, of which 16,000 were double-track. See: P. E. Garbutt, The Russian Railroads (London, 1949), p. 12; Nikolae A. Voznesensky, The Economy of the USSR During World War II (Washington, 1948), p. 59.
[2] Standard European gauge: 4 feet 8 1/2 inches; Russian gauge: 5 feet.
[3] Militaergeographische Angaben ueber das europaeische Russland, Allgemeiner Ueberblick, 1.IX.41., GenStdH. Abt. fuer Kriegskarten and Vermessungswesen (IV. Mil.-Geo.), pp. 38-40. 29/IDZ.11. A 1938 American estimate placed the total at 64,200 miles, of which some 2,400 miles were believed to be asphalted. See: E. J. Simmons, USSR, A Concise Handbook (Ithaca, 1947), ch. XIV.
BACKGROUND 7
Rivers
Despite the fact that rapids were few in the Russian rivers and that canals connected several of the major streams, their extensive use as an aid to invasion was limited by their general north-south courses and by their freezing in the cold months and heavy flooding in the spring. Prior to World War II, less than 8 percent of Russian freight traffic moved over these inland waterways.[4]
The Transportation Net and Irregular Resistance
The difficulties of Russian terrain and climate pose an added problem to an invader should any determined guerrilla resistance develop, that is, the protection of the lines of communication against organized armed attack. Whereas in the Ukraine the general absence of cover virtually precludes the chance of irregular raiding, in the central and northern sectors the danger is a very real one. From the southern edges of the Pripyat to the Gulf of Finland all orderly movement is channeled by the terrain into a few narrow corridors where for long stretches it is exposed to easy interdiction. This also is true of the heavy forests about Gomel and Bryansk and before Moscow. Not only does the terrain offer the attackers protection in the execution of their raids, but secures their movements and hides and protects their bases. The many rivers add to this problem, for the bridges and culverts are very ready targets for sabotage. The climate too exercises a very real effect in this respect. The heavy snows during the winter and the mud in the spring and fall sharply limit the value of the road net which in turn places an added load on the rail system and a few good highways and makes any interruption of them doubly effective.
[4] Garbutt, op. cit., p. 12.
388413—56—2
CHAPTER 2
PREINVASION PLANNING
The Decision To Attack Russia
After the swift and successful conclusion of the French campaign in June 1940, Hitler thought he was invincible. France was completely in his grasp and it seemed impossible that Britain, with its army shattered, would attempt to hold out in the face of the German threat. But when Britain showed it had no idea of admitting defeat and intended to fight to the finish, Hitler started preparations for an invasion of the island kingdom in the event he could not bomb it into submission.
Actually he did not favor such an operation. Not only was he well aware of the risks involved in such an amphibious attack in view of Germany's undeniable inferiority at sea—and he was seconded in this by his naval leaders[1]—but also he disliked the political implications which he believed an actual military defeat of Britain would entail. He wanted surrender not destruction, for in destruction he saw a collapse of the Empire which in the long run would benefit Japan and the United States rather than the Reich. He and his advisors concluded that Britain's intransigency stemmed from the hope of Soviet Russia's entering the picture, since the latter obviously had every reason not to want a powerful Germany on its western border.[2] As he cast about for alternatives, Hitler saw the possibilities inherent in confronting his enemies with a solid political front from the North Cape to Morocco. An international bloc including Spain, Italy, and Russia, he thought, would demonstrate to the British the futility of continued resistance.[3]
On 21 July 1940 at a conference between Hitler, Grossadmiral Erich Raeder, Commander in Chief of the Navy, and Generalfeldmarschall Walther von Brauchitsch, Commander in Chief of the Army, all the skepticism relative to the invasion, Operation SEELOEWE, was aired.[4]
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[1] See: Memo, Raeder to OKW, 11 Jul 40. Cited in Brassey's Naval Annual, 1948 (New York, 1948), pp. 113–15, 117–18.
[2] Ibid., "The Private War Journal of Generaloberst Franz Halder" (hereafter cited as "Halder's Journal"), IV, pp. 115-17. Copy in Foreign Studies Br., OCMH. Halder was chief of the German General Staff from 1938 to Sep 1942.
[3] "Halder's Journal," op. cit., IV, pp. 115-16. Negotiations for some sort of an alliance with Spain continued fitfully throughout the fall of 1940.
[4] There are two accounts of this conference extant, one by Raeder and the other, much more detailed, by Halder who had been briefed on the meeting by Von Brauchitsch. See "Halder's Journal," op. cit. IV, pp. 126-28; Brassey's Naval Annual 1948, op. cit., p. 119.
8
PREINVASION PLANNING 9
Still doubting the feasibility of the attack, Hitler believed that it should be made only if all other means of bringing Britain to terms failed. Britain was sustained, he insisted, by the hope of assistance from Soviet Russia and a change of attitude on the part of the United States. For this reason Germany's attention had to be turned to the Russian aspect of the picture. The Army should study the problem in the light of a possible operation against the Soviet Union and should begin planning.
Although this conference was mainly concerned with Operation SEELOEWE Hitler had previously been briefed on the broad operational and political aspects of a campaign in the East. Among these was the idea that the political objectives of such an operation should include the creation of a Ukrainian state and a confederation of Baltic States under German domination.[5]
On 31 July, at another conference of his leaders, Hitler, reiterating that the British were hanging on only because they hoped the Russians would enter the war on the side of the Allies, declared that Germany would have to attack and destroy the Soviet Union the following spring. The Communist state had to be eliminated from the European scene. He would shatter it in one rapid, driving campaign and then break it up along ethnic and geographic lines, absorbing some parts bodily into the Reich and making puppet states of others. The Army (Oberkommando des Heeres—OKH) was to immediately initiate preparations for such an attack, later named Operation BARBAROSSA.[6]
This was no random speculation on the part of the Fuehrer. Rather, it was a clear-cut military and political decision to wage war on two fronts simultaneously. As such it might well be taken as the turning point of World War II.
German Occupation Policy and Practice
In planning a campaign of the scope of BARBAROSSA and with its sweeping military and political objectives, the preparations had to go far beyond purely operational aspects, for during the interim between the launching of the initial attack and the actual end of hostilities, as well as during the transition period between the attainment of military victory and the final political goal, the land would have to be occupied by military or political agencies, or both.
To the Germans, theoretically, all territory in their possession in which military operations might take place was a theater of war (Kriegsgebiet) . This theater of war consisted of a zone of operations (Operationsgebiet),
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[5] "Halder's Journal," op. cit., IV, p. 128.
[6] Ibid., pp. 144-45: The directive for Operation BARBAROSSA is contained in OKW/WFSt/Abt. L (1), Nr. 33408/40g.K.Chefs., 18.XII.40. in "Fuehrer Directives and Other Top-Level Directives of the German Armed Forces, . . . 1939–1945" (hereafter cited as "Fuehrer Directives"), tr. by Office of Naval Intelligence, I, pp. 127–30.
10 THE SOVIET PARTISAN MOVEMENT
that portion of the theater of war where the armed forces operated against the enemy, and a zone of the interior (Heimat-Kriegsgebiet). The zone of operations was always under a German military administration (Deutsche Militaer-Verwaltung).[7] Upon the cessation of operations the newly seized territory was placed under either a military or a civilian political administration according to the particular ethnic, geographic, and strategic considerations of the area occupied. The early occupation administrations had followed no specific pattern and were the products of no particular pre-formed plans. In each case it had been Hitler who determined the method.[8] The Soviet Union was another case presenting new problems.
Military Occupation Organization
According to German standing operating procedure, the executive power in the zone of operations was vested in the military. This zone of operations was divided into a combat zone (Gefechtsgebiet) and a number of army rear area commands (Rueckwaertige Armeegebiete) or Koruecke one behind each army operating at the front.[9] [See chart 1.]
The Koruecke were in charge of supply and administration and were responsible for military security in their particular zones.[10] To carry out these duties they were given special security units. For purposes of administration and local control, they had several gradations of subordinate headquarters: Feldkommandanturen, regional military government offices, Kreiskommandanturen, district offices in rural areas, and Ortskommandanturen in the smaller urban areas and towns. For normal police work and security of lines of communication they were assigned units of military police (Feldgendarmerie).[11]
These Koruecke corresponded in effect to the communictions zone of the American Army, and, although nominally agencies of their respective armies, were under the direct control of the Army Chief of Supply and Administration (Generalquartiermeister-GenQu). GenQu had as his province all the functions of the supply and administration of the
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[7] "Handbuch fuer den Generalstab im Krieg, 1.VIII.39." pts. 1, 4. Copy in CRS, TAG.
[8] See: Directive No. 5, 30.IX.39., OKW, Nr. 171/39 g.K.Chefs., WFA/L I, in "Fuehrer Directives," op. cit., I, p. 55; Berlin den 20. Oktober 1939, Besprechung des Fuehrers Mit Chef OKW ueber die kuenftige Gestaltung der polnischen Verhaeltnisse zu Deutschland (Vom 17.X.39. abds.) in Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, (hereafter cited is I.M.T.). (Nuremberg, 1947), XXVI, pp. 378—83.
[9] "Handbuch fuer den Generalstab im Krieg, 1.VIII.39.", op. cit. I, p. 4.
[10] Ob.d.H., 6. Abt. (IV), Gen.St.d.H., "Versorgung des Feldheeres (V.d.F.)", (Berlin, 1940), pp. 21—25. Copy in H.Dv.90/40.
[11] Ibid., pp. 29—30, 33—34; WD MID, "Order of Battle of the German Army" (Feb 44), pp. 49-50.
12 THE SOVIET PARTISAN MOVEMENT
field army. Besides the planning and organization of supply in the field, he was responsible for the establishment and security of all lines of communication and supply installations and for military government control of the areas behind the operating armies.[12]
By the time detailed planning for BARBAROSSA was well under way following the December publication of the actual directive for the attack, the Armed Forces High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht—OKW) had made it clear that the occupation of the Soviet Union was to be civilian and political, not military, and had placed definite limitations on the extent to which a strictly military jurisdiction was to be exercised. The area under the control of the Army was to be kept as shallow as possible, and as the campaign moved farther and farther to the east the forward boundary of the political administration zone, which was to be established behind the Army's zone of operations, was to be progressively advanced. With the termination of hostilities the entire area was to go under a political occupation.[13] In other words, a planned administration was to be put into effect in the occupied portions of the USSR only after they had left the jurisdiction of the military.
With the policy thus set, GenQu made his preparations accordingly, planning only those security measures necessary to guarantee the unimpeded progress of the armies and the exploitation of the land for their immediate use.[14]
The Security Commands
In March GenQu received his allotment of staffs and troop units. These comprised three army group rear headquarters (Rueckwaertige Heeresgebiete) and nine security divisions (Sicherungs Divisionen) activated from three regular infantry divisions. These security divisions were units "specially created," as OKH described them, to handle the "security, exploitation, and military administration" behind the front lines. One army group rear area headquarters and three security di-
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[12] TM E 30-351, "Handbook on German Military Forces" (1945) ; "Versorgung des Feldheeres," op. cit., pp. 12-15. The information in these sources was corrected and brought up to date by Gen Maj Alfred Toppe, GenQu during 1944-45, in interview in Aug 52.
[13] See: Helmuth Greiner, "Draft Entries in the War Diary of Def Br [Definite Branch] of Wehrmacht Operations (Dec 40-Mar 21)" (MS 065k, Hist Div, EUCOM), pp. 102–04. Copy in Foreign Studies Br, OCMH. Supplement to Directive 21, "Directive for Special Areas (Operation BARBAROSSA)," OKW/ WFSt/Abt. L (IV/Qu), Nr. 44125/41 g.K.Chefs., 13.111.41., in Fuehrer Directives," op. cit., I, pp. 158–60.
[14] "Special Directives for the Supply," 3 Apr 41, in Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals (hereafter cited as N.M.T.), V, U.S. vs Wilhelm von Leeb, et al (Case 12), von Roques 2. Copy in CRS, TAG.
PREINVASION PLANNING 13
visions were assigned to each of the three army groups set up for the operation.[15]
In the initial phases of the campaign, the Koruecke were to be responsible for security, with the security divisions assigned to them. As soon as the tactical situation permitted, however, the army group rear area commands would take over, committing the security units laterally according to the army sectors. As in the case of the Koruecke, these commands, although subordinated to their respective army groups, were to receive their operational directives from and report directly to GenQu.[16]
Each security division received one infantry regiment and an artillery battalion from the cannibalized formations. At least six of these infantry regiments, which were to constitute the "alert units" (Eingreif - gruppen) of the security divisions, had had front line experience in the Polish or French campaigns. The remainder was made up of Landesschuetzen battalions, formed into regiments, and field and local administrative headquarters, with small complements of signal, engineer, and similar troops. In addition to the strictly army units, each division was assigned one motorized police battalion from the Ordnungspolizei.[17]
The staffing and equipping of the security divisions reflected the quality of the troop units they comprised. In general they were staffed with retired or overaged officers and inexperienced reservists. The G--4's were inadequately trained and the G–2's were admittedly inept in intelligence matters and generally had no knowledge of counterintelligence methodology.[18] The alert regiments for the most part were well armed and equipped, as were the motorized police battalions, but in the Landesschuetzen battalions and the field and local administrative head-quarters much organic equipment was lacking and many weapons were
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[15] OKH, Chef der Heeresruestung and BdE, AHA: Ia (II) Nr. 591/41 g. Kdos., 3.III.41., in Befh. rueckw. H. Geb. 103, la, Taetigkeitsbericht, 13.11I.41. 21.VI.41. 16407/1.
[16] N.M.T., op. cit., V, U.S. vs. Wilhelm von Leeb, et al (Case 12), pp. 5012–13; "Special Directives for the Supply," Von Roques 2 in ibid.
[17] There is no adequate English equivalent for Landesschuetzen or Ordnungspolizei. The Landesschuetzen were troops of poor quality generally drawn from the Landwehr classifications, the 35- to 45-year-old classes. The Ordnungspolizei were German regular or uniformed police formed into troop units. They included the municipal, rural, river, and building inspection police, the firefighting police, and the air raid protection services. They should not be confused with the Sicherheitspolizei, or security police. See: TM 30-451, "Handbook on German Military Forces" (1945), II–8, 11–31; "Order of Battle of the German Army," op. cit., pp. 102–06; Anl. z OKH 1600, Kriegsgliederung des Feldheeres, 15.V.41. H1/93b; Befehl RFSS, 21.V.41. NOKW 2079.
[18] Notes of CG of Rear Area at Stargard on G–2 conf at Hq, 9 May 41 (indexed under No. 22, H 3/482) ; KTB, Ib, 281 Sich. Div., 1.V.41. 15954/6.
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