WW2 Russian Partisan Warfare against Germans similar to the Rhodesian Bush War

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I was reading the Austrian General Raus’s assessments of Partisan Warfare on the Eastern Front in WW2. I have never actually studied this aspect of the war. (There are many aspects of WW2 that I’ve never studied). I was aware the Partisans were operating deep behind German lines.

General Raus described the tactics of the Partisans and I must tell you, the similarity to the Rhodesian Bush war is quite amazing actually. It’s not perfectly identical, but there is a hell of a lot of similarity to it, especially when the Partisans were functioning in heavily wooded areas.

I found the tactics of the Germans, in dealing with the Partisans to be very similar to what Rhodesians discovered after years of war.

Now keep in mind the Blacks fighting the Whites in Rhodesia were sponsored, trained, armed and advised by the Russians and the Chinese. There were big differences between the Chinese and Russian approaches – which I won’t go into here.

But it bears a big similarity to the partisan warfare on the Eastern front including the cruelty to their own civilians. The Partisans were absolutely brutal to Russians and other civilians who did not support them fully. Even the slightest suspicion of collaborating with the Germans was punished with great brutality. I must also add that the brutality of the Partisans itself should be highlighted, but like most things these days, it is hidden.

I was very surprised to find that in the end, the Germans adopted a method of fighting against the partisans that was very similar to that which the Rhodesians discovered from their cross border raids. In the end, the Germans discovered, as the Rhodesians were to rediscover themselves, that you need to get to the base camps and smash them. The Germans found this is the only method that delivered real results.

The Partisans were so well hidden in some areas that the Germans were unable to use air power against them.

General Raus concluded that the Partisans were NOT DECISIVE in the war. They caused problems, but they alone could not destroy the German army’s ability to fight.

I should add that by the rules of modern war, if you fight behind enemy lines it is allowed for them to execute you. I think the Germans shot lots of Partisans on this basis.

I was quite surprised by this find that Partisan warfare really was amazingly similar to what we experienced in Rhodesia.

I will add, as a separate topic, that I have serious problems with the way we Whites fought in Africa. But I do understand that our leaders were trying to not inflame a world where Jews and commies had already turned the entire world against us.

If our political situation and will had been different, we could have fought much more effectively.

But that is a discussion for another day and worthy of videos.

jlamprecht