How much of an issue would partisans be if the Nazis won in the East?

How much of an issue would partisans be if the Nazis won in the East?


  • Total voters
    45
  • Poll closed .

Wendigo

Banned
If the Nazis defeated the USSR and occupied everything up to the Urals while achieving an indefinite peace with the WAllies (Like CalBear's AANW TL) how much of an issue would partisans be for the Nazis in the East?

Would Nazi reprisals and brutality force the locals to stop supporting the partisans? Essentially turning them into starving scavengers?

Would the Wehrmacht/Waffen SS be capable of making the partisan threat a non issue?

Would partisans make carrying out their plans of enslavement/extermination impractical?
 

Deleted member 1487

I chose little to no problem because most people would be more concerned about trying to eat, rather than fight. No guerrilla movement has ever succeeded without external sources of major support, so if the USSR collapses then there is little supply, reinforcement, or training that could sustain a movement like that. IOTL it was really not a movement until it was clear the Soviet government would survive and Moscow began organizing, directing, and supplying and sending reinforcements to resistance behind the lines. If the Soviets collapse then all the necessary elements to make the partisans a significant issue are gone. The Wallies are too far away to sustain them and once Moscow goes the major staging base for getting resistance going falls apart. At that point various groups will try and make deals with the Nazis to survive and if that fails they will just flee to the forests and try to scrape out a living, because all resistance does is call down the Nazis and their brutality down on them. IOTL the Soviet partisans at least have something to fight for beyond day to day survival: victory. They fought in support of the front lines further East, but here ITTL it wouldn't exist, so it falls apart, with bandits doing what they can to stay low and survive.
 
Major nuisance but ultimately hopeless for them.
Nazi backing lots of their new subjects into a "fight and you're probably going to die, don't fight and you're also as good as dead" corner will mean prolonged and wide resistance. However - and that's a big however - there's a reason why when talking military we use the expression "collapse of organized resistance", as Partisan bands, no matter how hard they may be to root out lack the capacity to project power outside their area of operations. When it comes down to it, once the USSR government throws the towel or collapses the occupation forces can afford to cede vast swathes of land to de-facto Partisan control while focusing on holding the cities and railroads connecting them, then "pacify" the countryside piece by piece.
 

tenthring

Banned
The worse they treat them, the less resistance they will get. Dead men don't fight, and starving men don't fight well. I hate to break it to you, but guerrilla fighters rarely win if their opponent is committed to total war/genocide, especially if you don't have outside help.

I think the biggest problem the Nazi's have in the East is convincing German colonists to relocate there.
 

CalBear

Moderator
Donor
Monthly Donor
Part of the key is if they are getting ANY support. If they have no major power support (as was the overall case in AANW) they are not going to be any threat. Food, weapons, even clothing will run out quickly. In a Generalplan Ost scenario the insurgents also lose what Mao famously called "the sea" namely the civilian support infrastructure. Nazi repression efforts were so severe that few would dare to face them, all that allowed it IOTL was the very real chance, even when things were going badly for the Red Army, that Stalin's influence would return, and people were often more frightened of a potential NKVD than of an actual SS (which says a lot).
 
Initially, partisans will be a significant problem especially in areas that are heavily forested, major hills/mountains, etc. As many posters have noted, absent any external support they will begin to fade rapidly having to scavenge rations and weapons from the Germans and any other occupiers. Again, as noted, the local population is going to be struggling to survive and won't have much if anything they can give to the partisans. If the partisans take food from the locals, the locals may very well decide to curry favor with the Germans by turning in the partisans to extend their lifespan. Of course the Germans will pursue a policy like OTL, and kill off any villages within a certain distance of a partisan attack. Partisan units close to the new borders with the rump USSR, and possibly near Iran or Afghanistan may be able to get enough supplies to continue for a long time and use terrain to hide out, but the bulk of the USSR west of the Urals will be cleared of the majority of partisans relatively quickly. "Banditry" may continue to be a problem for many years, but this will be more of a nuisance than anything else.
 
Mountains and sea coasts favour guerillas because they offer a variety of routes for smuggling in arms, rations, etc.
Sea coasts often harbour (apologies for the pun) families and tribes with many centuries of experience smuggling. Fishermen especially along marginal coasts (sorry for the second pun) have many years experience trawling for fish on a Monday ( yes sir, we have a license), poaching lobsters on Tuesday, rum-running on Wednesday, taking tourists whale-watching on Thursday, transporting fleeing political refugees on Friday, poaching sheep on Friday, smuggling guns to guerillas on Saturday, praying in church on Sunday (leaving behind a bottle of rum for the priest) .....
"What are we doing on Monday?"
"Working for Uncle Sam on Monday."
Hijacking oil tankers on Tuesday, boarding luxury yachts on Wednesday, showing TV crews around on Thursday, smuggling prostitutes on Friday, .....
 
Top