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

EARLY RUSSIAN RESISTANCE AND GERMAN COUNTERMEASURES 43
as early as the third day of the campaign Army Group Center reported
that Red Army "stragglers and guerrillas" were attacking supply
routes and field hospitals and striking at elements of the security divisions.
2 And before the first of July infantry unit of Army Group North
were harassed from all sides by bypassed Red elements. Numbers of
Soviet troops were still roaming the swamps and forests, von Leeb reported
to OKH, many in peasant clothes, and effective countermeasures
were frustrated by the expanse and difficulty of the country and by manpower
limitations. 3 Even though this activity was sporadic and unorganized
OKH became seriously concerned 6 and OKW worried to the
extent of ordering captured French tanks transferred to the security
divisions in the east for use against the "bandits." 7
Parachutists
Adding to the diversion caused by the Red Army groups were small
units of parachutists dropped behind Army Group South on sabotage,
espionage, and terrorist missions. (There were no reports of similar
groups being parachuted in behind Army Groups Center or North.)
Interrogation of prisoners indicated that they had been assigned tasks
ranging from the collection of information on German and Romanian
troop units and the reconnaissance of airfields and destruction of rail lines,
bridges, highways, cable lines, and pipelines at strategic spots to
terrorization designed to create panic in the rear and the marking of
targets for bombing raids. The groups normally comprised six to eight
men, almost all of whom were former natives of the districts into which
they were dropped. They had been given short periods of training in
schools at Odessa, Cuipaiov, Nikolayev, or Moscow, and had received
rudimentary parachute schooling consisting of one jump from a training
tower. 8 On several occasions they succeeded in blasting sections of
trackage, but the manner in which they executed the demolitions indi-
2
"Halder's Journal," op. cit., VI, pp. 204, 208, 239, 246; KTB, 221 Sich. Div.
24. VI.41. 16748/9.
3
"Halder's Journal," op. cit., VI, p. 208; Pugatslov Interrogation Meldung 23,
Einsatzgruppe B, 12.VII.42. 62 4. /
4
Anl. z. KTB 403 Sich. Div. 24.VI.41. 15701/3; KTB 221 Sich. Div., 24.VI.41.
16728/9.
5
“Halder's Journal,” op. cit., VI, pp. 181, 183.
6
Ibid., p. 190.
7
Auszugsweise Abschrift, 5.VII.41. (signed by Keitel). OKW/1938.
8
“Paratroopers and Sabotage Agents, Terrorists, and Soviet Partisans and Their
Activities," Anl. z. KTB, LIV Corps, 24.VII.41. (Canadian trans. ).15420/5.