Partisan Warfare On The Eastern Front 1941 - 1944 (Images Of War - Rare Photographs From Wartime Archives)
Nik CornishPublishers Warning: THIS BOOK CONTAINS IMAGES THAT SOME PEOPLE MAY FIND DISTURBING.
Partisan Warfare as its known in the East has a long and honourable lineage in Russian and Ukrainian military history that can be traced back to as far as the Napoleonic Wars. During The Great War Partisan operations were undertaken behind the German and Austrian frontlines to carry out disruptive attacks such as blowing up railway lines, gathering intelligence and kidnapping. Following the revolution of March 1917, Russia’s armed forces began to go into a state of gradual decline and as that fateful year drew to a close the Bolshevik coup of November led to open civil war that spread out all across the former empire now turned into a 'workers republic'. Over the next four years partisan formations were active all across the vastness of Russia from the mountains of the Caucasus, across the steppes of The Ukraine, the tundra and forests of Siberia to the coastlines of the Pacific Ocean. After the Invasion by The Third Reich many of these experienced Partisans who were now in many cases trapped inside of occupied territories, turned their generations of experience against their occupiers with varying degrees of success at first. However, over time and with better weapons and training, these men and women became one of the most potent branches of the Russian Military Forces fighting against the Reich.