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

192 THE SOVIET PARTISAN MOVEMENT
During June continued small-scale antipartisan operations in the area
about Opochka and north of Polotsk kept some of the bands on the move,
hut because of their restricted scope they achieved no permanent results.
Further north the sector remained quiet with only scattered small bands
in evidence. 33 The Southern Sector 34
Following the shattering of the German front along the Dnepr in the
late fall of 1943, the Soviets for the first time began making an effort
to build up a partisan front behind the retreating German divisions in
the western Ukraine. This effort never assumed sizeable proportions
and it never exercised any real effect on what was left of the German
occupation or on the main course of Wehrmacht operations. But the
manner in which it was done and the varied missions given the bands in
the attempt are interesting.
The rapid Soviet advances in the lower Pripyat area during December,
January, and February freed considerable numbers of partisans who
were concentrated in the area south of the Pripyat River as far west as
Brest-Litovsk for activity in other areas. Some of these moved directly
to the west along the line Kovel-Lublin, even into Poland, in what was
obviously an attempt to build up an irregular ring about the Brest-
Litovsk rail huh, while others, under the leadership of several experienced
commanders including Sidor Kolpak, Fedorov, and Naumov 35 moved
to the south and southwest. The majority of these latter concentrated
in the Lwow-Kovel-Vinnitsa sector behind the Fourth Panzer Army
rather than farther south where they had much less maneuver room
and stood the chance of being pinned against the Carpathians.
Communication between these bands and the Soviet rear was consistently
good, and their varied operations took form along ordered lines.
Kolpak, who was one of the most experienced and successful of the
partisan commanders 36 and whom the Germans had identified as the
leader of several large irregular units, kept his command generally
behind Von Manstein's left flank in the Kovel-Dubno area. He com­
33 See entries for period 6 May-19 Jun 44 in KTB, H. Gr. Nord 1V.-31.V.44.,
1.VI.-15.VI.44. 75128/44a, 75128/45h; AOK 18, KTB, Teil Ag, Zusammenfassungen
1.I.-15.VII.44. 52614/1.
34 Unless otherwise noted, the material in this section is taken from notes compiled
and translated by 1st Lt. Larry Wolff, “The Partisan Situation in Army Group South, 1
January to 30 June 1944." OCMH files.
35
These three partisan commanders had been known to the Germans for some
time, although the record gives no details of their previous operations. See: Pz AOK, la,
KTB 2, Teil 5, 1.X.-31.X11.42. 28499/5; Bandenlage im Monat Februar 1944,
Pz .40K 4, 1.111.44. 52981/28.
36 According to Soviet sources, Sidor Kolpak (Kovpak) was a major general and
twice a Hero of the Soviet Union. See: USSR Information Bulletin (Washington, D. C.)
9 Dec 49. He was frequently mentioned in German situation reports.