Partisan and Anti-Partisan Warfare in German-Occupied Europe, 1939–1945: Views from Above and Lessons for the Present

Abstract

This introductory article begins by sketching the general historical background of partisan and anti-partisan warfare in German-occupied Europe. It then briefly outlines the state of available primary sources, and the often heated, controversial character of the historiographical debates which are taking place within this area. It then considers, at some length, the lessons which the five articles presented, offer for the present-day conduct of counter-insurgency warfare – lessons relating to the effects of higher-level strategic perceptions; to the potential, then as now, for directing a policy of ‘disaggregation’ against insurgents; to the importance of situating counter-insurgency warfare within the context of wider policies which are receptive to the needs of the occupied population and its social and cultural characteristics; and to the necessity of fielding counter-insurgency forces which not only are well-resourced, but which also, in stark contrast to the anti-partisan formations which the Germans so often deployed, conduct themselves in ways that cultivate the population rather than alienate it.

Key Words:

• Partisan Warfare
• Anti-partisan Warfare
• Grand Strategy
• Occupation

Acknowledgements

The articles for this special edition of The Journal of Strategic Studies are based on papers presented at the conference ‘Partisan and Anti-Partisan Warfare in German-Occupied Europe, 1939–1945’. The conference was held at Glasgow Caledonian University in June 2007, in association with the University of Strathclyde, Scotland and the German Historical Institute London. Grateful thanks are due to the anonymous referee of the articles for this special edition. Grateful thanks are also due to the following individuals and institutions for generously provided funding to the conference:

Glasgow Caledonian University

Professor Elaine McFarland, Head of History@Caledonian subject group

University of Strathclyde

Professor Richard Finlay, Head of Department of History

Professor Neil Hutton, Dean of Law, Arts and Social Sciences Faculty

Interdisciplinary Studies of Conflict and Resolution Collaboration

External

Association for the Study of Modern Italy

German Historical Institute London

German History Society

Notes

¹This article employs the term ‘partisan warfare’ and ‘anti-partisan warfare’ as ‘catch-all’ terms for insurgency and counter-insurgency warfare in the specific context of German-occupied Europe. It thus distinguishes that specific context from insurgency and counter-insurgency warfare more generally. Some authors in this special issue have chosen to use different definitions.

²Prominent English-language overviews include Matthew Cooper, The Phantom War: The German Struggle against Soviet Partisans 1941–1944 (London: MacDonald and Jane's 1979); M.R.D. Foot, Resistance: An Analysis of European Resistance to Nazism, 1940–1945 (London: Eyre Methuen 1976); Jørgen Hæstrup, Europe Ablaze: An Analysis of the History of the European Resistance Movements, 1939–45 (Odense UP 1978); Tony Judt (ed.), Resistance and Revolution in Mediterranean Europe 1939–1948 (London: Routledge 1989); Henry Michel, The Shadow War: European Resistance, 1939–1945 (New York: Harper & Row 1972); Bob Moore (ed.), Resistance in Western Europe (Oxford: Berg 2000). For a major new overview of German-occupied Europe, published at the time this article was submitted, see Mark Mazower, Hitler's Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe (London: Allen Lane 2008).

³Prominent English-language contributions of the past decade include Philip W. Blood, Hitler's Bandit Hunters: The SS and the Nazi Occupation of Europe (Dulles, VA: Potomac 2006); Patrick Gallo, For Love and Country: The Italian Resistance (Lanham, MD: UP of America 2003); Alexander Hill, The War Behind the Eastern Front: The Soviet Partisan Movement in North-West Russia 1941–44 (London: Frank Cass 2005); Moore, Resistance in Western Europe; Juliette Pattinson, Behind Enemy Lines: Gender, Passing and the Special Operations Executive in the Second World War (Manchester: Manchester UP 2007); Ben Shepherd, War in the Wild East: The German Army and Soviet Partisans (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP 2004); Kenneth Slepyan, Stalin's Guerrillas: Soviet Partisans in World War II (Lawrence: UP of Kansas 2006); Edward B. Westermann, Hitler's Police Battalions: Enforcing Racial War in the East (Lawrence: UP of Kansas 2005).

⁴See individual articles for more detail on sources and specialist historiography.

⁵Prominent overview works of the past decade include Christian Hartmann, Johannes Hürter and Ulrike Jureit (eds.), Verbrechen der Wehrmacht: Bilanz einer Debatte (Munich: C.H. Beck 2005); Hannes Heer and Klaus Naumann (eds.), War of Extermination: The German Military in World War II, 1941–1944 (New York: Berghahn Books 2000); Rolf-Dieter Müller and Hans-Erich Volkmann (eds.), Die Wehrmacht: Mythos und Realität (Hamburg: Oldenbourg 1999).

⁶See for example Christian Hartmann, ‘Verbrecherischer Krieg – verbrecherische Wehrmacht? Überlegungen zur Struktur des deutschen Ostheeres 1941–1944', Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte 52 (Jan. 2004), 1–75; Peter Lieb, ‘Täter aus Überzeugung? Oberst Carl von Andrian und die Judenmorde der 707. Infanteriedivision 1941/42’, Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte 50 (Jan. 2002), 523–57; Müller and Volkmann, Die Wehrmacht; Shepherd, War in the Wild East.

⁷David Kilcullen, ‘Countering Global Insurgency’, Journal of Strategic Studies 28/4 (Aug. 2005), 597–617.

⁸Robert M. Cassidy, Counterinsurgency and the Global War on Terror: Military Culture and Irregular War (Westport, CT: Praeger 2006); Richard Lock-Pullan, US Intervention and Army Innovation from Vietnam to Iraq (New York: Routledge 2006).

⁹Beatrice Heuser, ‘The Cultural Revolution in Counter-Insurgency’, Journal of Strategic Studies 30/1 (Feb. 2007), 153–71, here 155. Prominent works of ‘classic’ counter-insurgency theory include David Galula, Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice (Westport, CT: Praeger 2006; first published 1964); Frank Kitson, Low Intensity Operations: Subversion, Insurgency, Peace-keeping (London: Faber 1971); Sir Robert Thompson, Defeating Communist Insurgency: The Lessons of Malaya and Vietnam (London: Chatto 1967); Roger Trinquier, Modern Warfare: A French View on Counter-insurgency (Westport, CT: Praeger 2006 1961).

¹⁰Galula, Counterinsurgency Warfare, Chs. 4 and 7.

¹¹Ibid., 8.

¹²Kilcullen, ‘Countering Global Insurgency’; John Nagl, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Experiences of Malaya and Vietnam (Univ. of Chicago Press 2002); Richard H. Shultz and Andrea J. Dew, Insurgents, Terrorists and Militias: The Warriors of Contemporary Combat (New York: Columbia UP 2006). For an overview of the recent evolution of counter-insurgency theory, see Heuser, ‘Cultural Revolution’.

¹³Cassidy, Counterinsurgency; Frédéric Guelton, ‘The French Army “Centre for Training and Preparation in Counter-Guerrilla Warfare” (CIPCG) at Arzew’, Journal of Strategic Studies 25/2 (June 2002), 35–53; Thompson, Defeating Communist Insurgency.

¹⁴US Army and US Marine Corps, Counterinsurgency FM 3-24, MCWP 3-33.5 (15 Dec. 2006).

¹⁵Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, ‘Learning Counterinsurgency: Observations from Soldiering in Iraq’, Military Review (Jan.–Feb. 2006), 2–12.

¹⁶Galula, Counterinsurgency Warfare, Ch. 2.

¹⁷Michael C. Fowler, Amateur Soldiers, Global Wars: Insurgency and Modern Conflict (Westport, CT: Praeger 2005); Kilcullen, ‘Countering Global Insurgency’.

¹⁸Kilcullen, ‘Countering Global Insurgency’, 610.

¹⁹Fowler, Amateur Soldiers.

²⁰Ian Kershaw, Hitler: Nemesis, 1936–1945 (London: Penguin 2001), 356.

²¹Galula, Counterinsurgency Warfare, 8.

²²John Horne and Alan Kramer, German Atrocities 1914 : A History of Denial (New Haven, CT: Yale UP 2001).

²³Shepherd, War in the Wild East, Ch. 2.

²⁴Cassidy, Counterinsurgency; Lock-Pullan, US Intervention.

²⁵H. R. Kedward, In Search of the Maquis: Rural Resistance in Southern France, 1942–1944 (Oxford: OUP 1993); David Schoenbrun, Maquis: Soldiers of the Night: The Story of the French Resistance (London: Robert Hale 1980).

²⁶Max Hastings, Das Reich: The March of the 2nd SS Panzer Division through France, June 1944, 3rd edn. (London: Papermac 1993).