Partisan warfare

“ This order also contained the provision that in anti-partisan warfare no prisoners except the above-named be taken. That anti-partisan warfare was carried on by army troops mercilessly and to every extreme, I know as the result of discussions with army troop leaders, for instance with General Herzog, Commander of the 38th Army Corps, and with his Chief of Staff, Colonel Pamberg, in the General Staff, both of whom support my opinion. Today it is clear to me that anti-partisan warfare gradually became an excuse for the systematic annihilation of Jewry and Slavism. ”

“ Is there not some extenuation for the man whose "pal" has been ambushed and butchered, when he gleefully places a match to the murderer's byre or dwelling? Place yourselves in the position of the fighting man before you consider actions which are inseparable from partisan warfare, and bear in mind that if the leaders of the enemy had capitulated when it was first evident that they were a beaten people, there would not have been a tithe of the brutality and suffering which marked the final phases of the struggle. ”

“ That is a terrible order, is it not?
JODL: No, it is not at all terrible for it is established by international law that the inhabitants of an occupied territory must follow the orders and instructions of the occupying power, and any uprising, any resistance against the army occupying the country is forbidden; it is, in fact, partisan warfare, and international law does not lay down means of combating partisans. ”

“ Seldom has an election been contested with such prodigality of partisan fury. The rhetoric of abuse was vigorous and unrestrained; the campaign lie active and ingenious; the arraignment of class against class sedulous and adroit, and the excitement most violent and memorable. If a weapon of political warfare failed to be handled with craft and with courage, its skilful use was unknown. ”

“ Many of them joined the British army; others organized companies that mercilessly robbed and murdered their whig neighbors. On the other hand there were patriot bands which rendezvoused (ren-da-vood) in swamps, and sallied out as occasion offered. These partisan corps kept the country in continual terror. Marion, Sumter, Pickens, and Lee, were noted patriot leaders. Their bands were strong enough to cut off British detachments, and even successfully attack small garrisons. The cruel treatment which the whigs received from the British drove many to this partisan warfare. ”

“ Along with work in warfare, conduct political work amongst the population: clarify the truth about the Soviet Union, the merciless struggle of the Red Army and the entire Soviet people against the fascist invaders, and about the inevitable death of bloodthirsty invaders. ”

“ They have too much good sense to strike or kill any of their own people to benefit their enemies, and in this case the peace party being the most numerous, and consequently the richer, would pay the partisan, or leader of the party, to remain at home and a collection of horses, guns, and other property made among them for that purpose, which being handed the partisan and by him divided among his warriors, stops the expedition. ”

“ The Red Army defeated the interventionist armies on all fronts and defended the young, in mortal danger, Soviet Republic, thanks to the armed struggle of the whole people who organized the partisan movement in the rear of the enemy armies. ”

“ It will be represented to him that no party can live without public plunder, and that the abolition of the spoils system will lead to the downfall of the Republic. From flattery to threats, from private appeals to open demonstrations of hostility in Congress, every means will be employed to induce him to break his word. And that opposition will be directed by able leaders, experienced in all the resources of political warfare. ”

“ At this moment of greatest danger to all the peoples of the Soviet Union: to every citizen at the front and rear, in the occupied territory, and in the partisan detachment, there is only one task - to defend their homeland, protect freedom, independence, and honor, and to defeat the hated German invaders.
The Red Army heroically reflects the onslaught of the enemy and inflicts crushing blows on it. She exhausts his strength, inflicting huge damage on him. ”

“ When to this singularly embarrassing position, those other difficulties which have been passed in review are added, such as an exhausted and ravaged country; an unfed, unclothed, unpaid and deserting army; [FN-3] extensive disaffection among the people immediately at home; continual irruptions of hostile partisan bands in every quarter; mobs of insurgents setting the laws at defiance in one direction; the militia regiments in the district thus lawless, more than half disposed to join the disorganizers; with an actual and somewhat formidable invasion from the west ”

“ The triumphant party now sought out such of their fellow-citizens who had most distinguished themselves by their hostility to their progress during the late warfare; and they who did not succeed in escaping were persecuted and exterminated in every way that vengeance could devise. Blood continued to flow, and hatred and strife still existed. The leading men among them had scarcely settled themselves in their authority, before they began to differ concerning their notions of government. ”

“ Then, under Roman Numeral III:
“...the tasks and fighting methods of the various partisan groups have become known ... partly from the captured combat directives of the partisans themselves. This statement of a captured partisan ... is significant: ‘A partisan must destroy everything that he can reach...’ ”
And then, in one of the “Combat Directives for Partisan Groups” received by us from the commander of the army, rear area North, we find stated:
“Unbearable conditions are to be created for the enemy and his allies in territories occupied by him. ”

“ The political party which shall refuse to allow the people to determine for themselves at the ballot-box the issue between revolution and war on the one side, and obstinate adherence to a party platform on the other, will assume a fearful responsibility. A war upon a political issue, waged by the people of eighteen States against the people and domestic institutions of fifteen sister-States, is a fearful and revolting thought. ”

“ The arts of party warfare were more insidious than the arts of savage treachery, and its arms more ruthless than the tomahawk or the scalping knife. Calumny and falsehood were the usual resources of the most violent partisans, and the only weapons that they never for a moment laid aside. The brave soldier was described as a malignant savage, and the experienced statesman as a man who had purchased by intrigue a position that he was determined to maintain by corruption. ”

“ If the troops took their counter measures without being specially trained and without exact knowledge of this concept of “partisan,” then they would conclude from the fact that they had been fired on from a village, that all the inhabitants were partisans. In my view, a partisan can be considered as such only if he is encountered or captured with a weapon in his hand. If he has no weapon, he cannot be considered a partisan. ”

“ It is not the less a civil war, with belligerent parties in hostile array, because it may be called an "insurrection" by one side, and the insurgents be considered as rebels or traitors. It is not necessary that the independence of the revolted province or State be acknowledged in order to constitute it a party belligerent in a war according to the law of nations. ”

“ As events turned out, it has proved a blessing, for it stands as a beacon, warning all leaders of party factions of their fate, who, in national distress, cripple the government, and, by their hostility, help the enemy to inflict sorer evils and deeper disgrace upon a common country. ”

“ I dare any one of their public men, I dare their candidate, I dare the most bellicose of their partisans—I dare them to say that they will not do so. And the consequences? With one hand they will deplete and weaken the army, and with the other they will throw away the means of filling it up and strengthening it. ”

“ The politicians and their fermentations are, in France, the bugbears of the army officers. This feeling of aversion and contempt extends, so far as I could make out, down through the rank and file. They feel that when a nation is at death-grips with its enemy even the most beautiful of democratic theories should be safely locked away with other luxuries; that the politicians should confine their activities to voting the funds necessary for the successful prosecution of the war, and should leave the conduct of the war severely alone. ”

“ The suggestion that the man at the Front knows less of how to run wars than M.P.s who have, in all probability, never seen a drop of blood shed or a gun fired in anger in their lives, is, on the face of it, ludicrous. We have heard a lot about the Army not interfering in politics. Well and good; but let the politicians cease to meddle with military affairs, unless, of course, it is manifest that the most sacred civil rights of the people are being sacrificed to a caucus of officers, like those who tried to hold up the Home Rule Bill. ”

“ For if our offer of peace is rejected, and if we fail even to procure an armistice we shall become desperate "defensists," we shall put ourselves at the head of the military parties, we shall become the most military party of all, we shall conduct the war in a really revolutionary manner. ”

“ And so, taught by the crowd, the politicians continue to settle matters first, and to manufacture the causes of war in private, knowing that the people will be willing to fight when the enemy is on the march. What is the alternative it may still be asked. How can we do other than defeat the Germans by helping our government, even though we may know that the latter is composed of the politicians who, tomorrow will send the army to shoot us? ”

“ The victorious party, just because it is victorious, has no other authority over the defeated aggressor than to recognize him as an equal in rights, privileges and powers, just because that aggressor is defeated. Is not this absurd on its very face? Is it possible that the Government of this Republic should, after a war, have no right to provide for its future safety by imposing terms of peace upon a defeated aggressor? True, this may not be, in so many words, stated in the Constitution, neither is the right of the Government to coerce seceding States granted there in express terms. ”

“ The insurgent party is not to be decried for the mere act of resistance, nor the loyal and governmental party for the mere act of self-conservation and repression of its opponents; each stands the hazard of the die, and commits its cause to a supreme trial of strength. ”

“ You remember the glorious time of the great uprising. But if the war was a holy war then, why are you opposed to it now? Is not the cause of the rebels as damnable to-day as it was then? Are not our enemies the same? Has the restoration of the Union become less desirable, less necessary? Why, then, your opposition?
Your Democratic Convention at Chicago, which may be said to have represented all elements of the opposition party, has given us a reason. By a unanimous vote it declares that the war is a failure, and that, therefore, hostilities must be stopped. ”

“ Use the amorphous united front to attack opposition political forces too large or too powerful for you to take over; then fragment their leadership, using terror if necessary, and drown their followers in the front organization. ”

“ A general who makes it his sole job to win a war will infallibly defeat an opponent who, by choice or constraint, must offend no voters of enemy ancestry, destroy no cultural or religious shrines highly regarded by the press, show leniency when leniency is fashionable at home, display condign firmness when the voters demand it (though it cause his zone of communications to blaze up into a fury of guerrilla clashes) , choose his invasion routes to please a state department apprehensive of potential future ententes. ”

“ A political party raises, once in four years, drilled armies, more numerous than any war ever called forth. If the battalions wear no uniform but red shirt and cap, and carry no more deadly weapon than the flaming torch, they are, nevertheless, as numerous, as well drilled, and as powerful as the glistening ranks of Gettysburg or Chickamauga. They, too, fight for the government—or against it. A political party has its official chief, its national legislature or “committee,” its state, county, township, ward, and precinct organizations. ”

“ We merely restore to power those that have rebelled, to subjugate the North by the old coalition to abide their time till undying hate, still fostered and kept alive by the perpetuation of political power, shall awake amid some great national collision from abroad; to leave our ranks in the day of battle, to lift the banner of rebellion in the midst of national disaster, with combined armies tear in pieces the republic that they are now vainly struggling to overthrow. ”

“ In my opinion a distinction should be drawn between partisans and partisan suspects. The troops did not always make this distinction. A partisan was a man carefully selected and trained by the enemy. He was also very well armed. I always insisted that this concept was not vague, but concrete. If fire is opened from a wood, a house, or a village, it is not correct to say that everyone in the wood, house, or village is a partisan; for this reason: The tactics of the partisans were to disappear rapidly after a successful action ”

“ In times of insurrection, or invasion, it would be natural and proper that the militia of a neighboring State should be marched into another, to resist a common enemy, or to guard the republic against the violence of faction or sedition. ”

“ However, the immediate business of the nation is to win the war, and there is evident in the West no disposition to suffer this predominating issue to be obscured by partisanship. Indeed since America took up arms nothing has been more marked in the Western States than the sinking of partisanship in a whole-hearted support of the government and a generous response to all the demands of the war. In meetings called in aid of war causes Democrats and Republicans have vied with each other in protestations of loyalty to the government. ”