War in the Wild East: The German Army and Soviet Partisans

327 Pages·2004·0.89 MB·English

by  Ben Shepherd

WAR IN THE WILD EAST

WAR
IN THE
WILD
EAST
The German Army
and Soviet Partisans
BEN SHEPHERD
harvard university press
Cambridge,Massachusetts
London,England
2004
Copyright©2004bythePresidentandFellowsofHarvardCollege
Allrightsreserved
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Shepherd,Ben(BenjaminV.)
WarinthewildEast : theGermanArmyandSovietpartisans /
BenShepherd.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-674-01296-8(alk.paper)
1.WorldWar,1939–1945—Destructionandpillage. 2.WorldWar,
1939–1945—Destructionandpillage—SovietUnion. 3.WorldWar,
1939–1945—Atrocities. 4.WorldWar,1939–1945—Atrocities—
SovietUnion. 5.Germany.Heer.SecurityDivision,221st.
6.Germany.Heer—History—WorldWar,1939–1945. 7.Germany.
Heer—Officers—Attitudes. 8.SovietUnion—History—German
occupation,1941–1944. I.Title.
D804.G4S49 2004
940.54′05′0947—dc22 2004047268
Contents
Introduction:TowardaWarofExtermination 1
1 “SuccessComesOnlythroughTerror”:TheGerman
ExperienceofAntiguerrillaWarfare 34
2 “Jew-Bolsheviks,”Civilians,andPartisans:The
OpeningPhase,1941 58
3 BloodshedMushrooms:TheEscalatingSecurity
Campaign,1941 84
4 TheRulesChange:PartisanSurgeandGerman
Response,1942 108
5 MoreoftheSugar,LessoftheWhip:TheBattlefor
PopularSupport,1942 129
6 LocustsinFieldGray:TheDeadZones
Campaign,1943 166
7 FearintheForest:TheWaratCloseQuarters,1942
and1943 188
Conclusion:ReapasYouSow,1943and1944 219
AppendixA.LargerAntipartisanOperationsCarried
Outbythe221stSecurityDivision,December1942–
April1943 237
vi Contents
AppendixB.AtrocitiesCommittedbythe221st
SecurityDivision’sSubordinateUnits,March1942–
August1943 240
Acknowledgments 243
AbbreviationsandTranslations 245
Notes 247
BibliographyofPrimarySources 295
Index 296
Mapsandphotographsfollowpage128
WAR IN THE WILD EAST

Introduction
toward a war of extermination
TheGermanArmy,orWehrmacht,ofWorldWarIIenjoysarepu-
tationasprobablythemostproficient,dogged,andeffectivefighting
forceevertohavetakenthefieldofmoderncombat.1Atthepeakof
its efficacy it combined the en masse assembly of first-rate man-
power,trainedtomatchlessstandards,withathen-unchallengedex-
pertiseinarmoredwarfare.Alongwiththedevastatinglyeffectiveair
supportoftheGermanLuftwaffe,itachievedasequenceofsuccesses
intheBlitzkriegcampaignsthatinthreeyearsachievedtheconquest
ofalmosttheentirelandmassbetweenEgyptandtheArctic,thePyr-
eneesandtheCaucasus.
ThepinnacleoftheWehrmacht’striumphswereitssix-weekcon-
quest of the Low Countries and France in spring 1940 and its sei-
zure,inthefaceofmassivelogisticalproblemsandanumericallysu-
perior enemy, of an enormous tract of European Russia during its
eastern campaign of the second half of 1941. From 1943, with the
vastsize,fearfulenvironmentalconditions,andseeminglyinexhaust-
iblemanpoweroftheSovietUnionrangedagainstitintheeast,and
the economic and military might of the United States increasingly
beingbroughttobearintheAnglo-Americanwareffortinthewest,
the Wehrmacht executed a fighting retreat of unparalleled tenacity
lastinguptothefinalweeksofthewarin1945.Itisscarcelysurpris-
ing that, even today, the ranks of Wehrmacht veterans, thinning by