the soviet partisan movement 1941-1944 by edgar m. howell

174 THE SOVIET PARTISAN MOVEMENT
facilities become that before the end of the year the copper requirements
to rebuild lines destroyed by the partisans had risen 700 percent over
those of 1942. 110
They also continued to mine the roads, both primary and secondary,
although with much less success than in the case of the rail lines. The
Second Army, whose rear was particularly harassed, reported that it
was able to locate and disarm two-thirds of the charges, so poorly were
they laid, and recommended to its security command that details of
civilians drafted from nearby villages be forced to plow and grade the
roads with their own horses in an effort to neutralize the remainder of
the mines. 111
The focus of these raids hit much deeper into the German rear than
ever before, spilling well over into the extreme western portions of the
political occupation zone, which heretofore had suffered little damage,
and even on occasion across the Polish border. Raids on the Brest-
Litovsk-Baranowicze line increased 50 percent, on the Volkovsk-Lida
200 percent; the Gomel-Luninets-Brest-Litovsk link bisecting the Pripyat
suffered 1,600 demolitions during the month, over 1,200 west of Luninets.
Conversely, attacks on the much assaulted Gomel-Zhlobin-Minsk
line, now close to the front, dropped more than 300 percent. 112
Much of this rise in sabotage in the Generalkommissariat was attributed
by the political occupation authorities to the vicious methods
of the police and SS units securing the sector. Villages were burned without
cause; cattle were ruthlessly shot lest they fall into the hands of the
partisans; and in many cases adults were forcibly evacuated and their
children left to fend for themselves. The natives became so antagonized
that Organization Todt 113 found itself unable to operate due to an almost
complete refusal of the people to work. 114
110
Entwicklung der Bandenlage, Bandentaetigkeit u. Auswirkungen auf die Wirtschaft,1.IX.43.
H 3/519.
111
Monatsbericht Okt. 43, Korueck 580, Ic. Nr. 4307/43 geh., KTB 28a, Korueck
580, 16.X.-31.X.43. 41217/2; Befehl, AOK 2, 0. Qu/Qu 2, 29.IX.43., Anl. z.
KTB Russland, AOK 2, Ia. 21.VI.-29.X.43. 60311/21.
112 Bandenlage, Okt. 43. H. Gr. Mitte, Ia. Nr. 13097/43 g. Kdos., 9.XI.43., Anl. z.
KTB. H. Gr. Mitte, Fuehrungsabt., Akte XXIII, Heft 12, 1.X.-31.XII.43.
65002/24; Eisienbahnsprengungen, Monat Sept. 43, Anl. z. Fde. H. Ost (I/Bd.),
Nr. 2488/43 g. Kdos., 4.X.43. H 3/193; Bandenanschlaege im Monat Sept., Okt.
43, Anl. z. KTB, H. Cr. Mitte, Ia. Nr. 11822/43 g. Kdos. I7.X.43. 65002/24.
113 The Organization Todt was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party
Auxiliary to the Wehrmacht. Named after its founder, Dr. Todt, it comprised a
cadre of engineers and was expanded as necessary by the use of hired, conscript, or
foreign labor.
114 Sit rpt, Reichskommissar Ostland to Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern
Territory, 14 Oct 43. EAP 99/62; Oral testimony of Von dem Bach-Zolewski in
I.M.T., op. cit., IV, pp. 475-96.