8. Partisans and Scorched Earth, 1941-44

SUMMARY

If there were any weaknesses of the blitzkrieg strategy is that it left many strongpoints and able-bodied soldiers behind the frontlines.  On July 3, 1941, Stalin addressed his nation by radio: “In the occupied regions,” he said, “the enemy and all his accomplices must be hounded and annihilated at every step and their measures frustrated.”  By the summer of 1942, there were 150,000 freedom fighters, or Partisans, combating the Nazi army behind enemy lines.  They were, in effect, guerrillas and terrorists whose main goal was to kill German and disrupt their war-making abilities.

The partisans were concentrated mainly in the forests of Byelorussia, bordering on Poland and the Ukraine.  From their hideouts, they made forays against German rear lines, gathering intelligence of troop movements, blowing up bridges, derailing trains, slashing telephone and telegraph lines, pouncing upon small enemy forces and setting fire to supply depots.  Stealth, deception and surprise were the hallmarks of their operations.  It was a dangerous lifestyle of hit-and-run.  The Germans reserved a special hatred for the partisans, and for these bold comrades, capture was tantamount to death—or worse.  Public hanging was merciful compared to the torture according to some captives.  The Germans broke their finger, burned the soles of their feet, and even amputated women’s breasts, before finishing off the maimed and dying with a bullet or noose.  Despite the danger, many signed up and were crucial parts damaging the Nazi war effort.

Another crucial strategy set out by Stalin was the “Scorched Earth” policy.  Stalin asked the soldiers and citizens of the Soviet Union to burn everything behind them as they retreated deeper into Russia.  Anything that could be used by the invaders was to be destroyed.  As the Soviet army retreated, they would leave a wake of disaster behind them—railroad tracks were cut, crops on farms were destroyed, cattle were slaughtered, and people even burned their own homes as to leave nothing for the Nazi army.  Both the “scorched earth” policy and the Russian partisans were important pieces in the Soviet Union’s survival against Nazi Germany.