Anti - partisan operations in World War II Anti - partisan operations during World War II were counter - insurgency operations against the various partisan resistance movement s . During World War II those operations were primarily carried out by the invading and occupying Axis powers , although with changing fortune of the wars , the Soviet Union and the Allied powers also had to deal with partisans . Resistance movements and corresponding anti - partisan operations by occupying authorities were a common occurrence during the war , particularly in the territories occupied by the Nazi Germany . Overall policy . Allies . As most of the war consisted of Axis occupying Allied territories , and not the other way around , much less material exists regarding the Allied anti - partisan operations . In the end , the Axis powers were unable to implement any serious plans for the resistance movement , hence the Allies never needed to devote significant resources to developing and implementing anti partisan policies . Allies based much of their anti - partisan policies ( often untested ) on harsh German policies ; for example , in early 1945 , Allied policy in the light of a potential German uprising on occupied German territories was to shoot captured German partisans on the spot . However , the Allies never considered collective punishment of the local populace to deprive partisans of potential support , as was the German policy . A separate issue involves anti - Soviet resistance in territories occupied by the Soviet Union at the end of the war . Such resistance groups formed in the Baltic states , Poland ( a former Allied country ) and Romania . Such groups were active in the first post - war decade , and were eventually destroyed by the Soviets and their local communist puppet state - allies . Axis . The forms of resistance varied depending on place and time , and so did the Germans ' countermeasures . Both the scale of resistance and the severity of German reprisals were much more limited in the West than in the East . While Germans were much more likely to treat the entire local populace as enemies in the East , they were much less ideologically driven in the West , where , for example , women and children were only rarely killed by SS troops ( while being a much more common target in the East ) . In the East , some scholars noted that the anti - partisan operations gave Germans a pretext for ideologically motivated ethnic cleansing . The Germans concentrated on short - term victories against the partisans and were able , in some cases , to defeat the partisans militarily , but on the whole their atrocities against civilians in the East resulted in a continuous flow of volunteers joining the partisan ranks . The first resistance movements were created as early as in late 1939 in occupied Poland . As the war progressed and the number of Nazi - occupied territories grew , so did the number and strength of resistance movements . Throughout the war , regular formations of German army , auxiliary police formations ( Ordnungspolizei ) and their helpers ( Schutzmannschaft or Hilfspolizei ) would be used in anti - partisan operations . Overall , the Germans were able to achieve military successes but were never able to end the partisan threat ; the struggle of Germans versus the partisans can be described as a stalemate – eventually ended by the German military defeat in the regular war . After the war , brutal German tactics used against the partisans were one of the charges presented at the Nuremberg Trials ( see legality of the Commando Order and Hostages Trial ) . Against the Polish partisans . The Polish resistance movement was formed soon after the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 and quickly grew in response to the brutal methods of the German occupation . Polish resistance had operatives in the urban areas , as well as in the forests ( " leśni " ) . Throughout the war , the Polish resistance grew in numbers , and increased the scale of its operations , requiring the Germans to devote an increasing amount of resources ( personnel , equipment and time ) to deal with the partisan threat . Polish partisans were particularly active in the Zamość region ( see the Zamość Uprising ) . " Sturmwind I " and " Sturmwind II " ( " Hurricane " ) in June 1944 were the largest German operations against the Polish " leśni " partisans , based on the " cauldron operation s " Germans developed to deal with the Soviet partisans ( see also battle of Osuchy ) . Soon afterwards , the Polish resistance launched a series of major operations against the Germans ( Operation Tempest ) , of which the Warsaw Uprising was the best known . In Operation Tempest , Polish partisans challenged the Germans in a series of open battles for the control of vital strategic areas . The Germans were not prepared for the vast scale of the Polish operation , but had the advantage of numbers and better equipment ; further , when the Polish partisans operated without the support of the advancing Red Army , they were significantly less effective . In areas where the Soviets cooperated with the Poles , the Germans were much less able to suppress the partisans , but where the Soviets did not advance to aid the Poles , as was the case with the Warsaw Uprising , the Germans were able to concentrate enough regular army and anti - partisan units to defeat the Polish insurgents . The tactics and policies the Germans developed in Poland would serve as a template for similar operations against the Soviet partisans . Against the Soviet partisans . In early 1941 Germans set up special units – Wehrmacht Security Divisions – to deal with securing the rear and carrying out the anti - partisan duties . Those formations would also be involved in the suppression of civilians ( including participation in The Holocaust by rounding up Jews ) . The policies the Germans employed in the occupied Soviet territories were the extension of the brutal policies they had developed over the past two years in occupied Poland . At first , the Germans tried to cow the local populace with violence . The policies of 1941 were aimed more at a potential than a real threat , as the Soviet partisans were only just organizing in the aftermath of the German invasion of the Soviet Union . It was on the Eastern Front ( including the Balkans ) that German terror directed against the local populace was the greatest . To a certain degree , it is hard to distinguish pure military anti - partisan operations from ethnic cleansing actions . With the German failure to topple the Soviet Union in the first year of the war , the German anti - partisan policy changed , switching from short term to a more long term view . Nazi propaganda and similar tactics were employed in order to influence the local populace and make them more friendly towards the Germans ( and less towards the partisans ) . It was at that time that Germans started to support the creation of local auxiliary units that were to be used against the partisans . The anti - partisan operations also became more professional and better organized . By late 1942 , the " hearts and minds " policy had already weakened . Around 1942 – 1943 , large - scale " encirclement operations " were employed , which involved the use of regular army units , detached from the frontline , against the partisans . Such operations often involved the destruction of local settlements ( villages ) that were seen as potentially supporting the partisans , that meant both the physical destruction of the buildings and the massacres of local inhabitants . Those " encirclement operations " resulted in antagonizing the local populace , contributing to the growth , not shrinking , of the Soviet partisans . Major " encirclement operations " included : Operation München and Operation Bamberg ( March – April 1942 ) , Operation Hannover ( May – June 1942 ) , Operation Vogelsang ( June – July 1942 ) and Operation Zigeunerbaron ( " Gypsy Baron " , May – June 1943 ) . In 1944 , a new policy was introduced : creation of " Wehrdoerfer " , or fortified villages . This project , seen by Germans as one of the most successful German anti - partisan policies ( and later imitated by other armies , for example French in Algiers or United States in Vietnam , ( Strategic Hamlet Program ) ) involved the creation of autonomous and well - armed villages , in collaboration with local Nazi sympathisers . The advance of the Red Army and liberation of the remaining Soviet territories from under the German occupation prevented the full implementation of this policy . Against the Yugoslav partisans . After the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia , the Yugoslav resistance forces consisted of two factions : the Partisans and the Chetniks . The Partisans were a communist - led movement propagating pan - Yugoslav tolerance ( " brotherhood and unity " ) and incorporating republican , left - wing , and liberal elements of Yugoslav politics . The Chetniks were a conservative royalist and nationalist force , enjoying support almost exclusively from the Serbian population in occupied Yugoslavia . The Chetniks organized soon after the Axis invasion and received recognition from the western Allies . The Partisans organized after the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union and were initially supported by the Soviets . The Partisans received universal Allied recognition in place of the Chetniks after the Tehran conference in 1943 . By the time of this conference , the degree of Chetnik - Axis collaboration was indicated to have increased greatly . During the war , the Axis forces mounted a number of operations against the partisans . Former Yugoslav historiography recognized seven major offensives , of which the fourth and the fifth came close to defeating the partisan forces , and the seventh almost captured their headquarters . Against the French Resistance . In France , as the rest of occupied Western Europe , Germans used different , milder policies than in the East . Part of that reason was that the scale of resistance facing German authorities was much smaller . A large part of France remained under autonomous Vichy regime . Hence from the very beginning of the occupation , much of the police duties were carried out by local ( French ) forces . Around 1943 , as the French Resistance grew in size ( due to the Vichy regime accepting the deportation of Frenchmen for forced labor in Germany ) , German anti - partisan operations in France became more serious . In response , Germans deployed military units against the resistance groups . Further , Germans managed to create a large and successful counter - network of covert collaborators , which succeeded in infiltrating many cells of the French resistance . The first major German military operation against the French Resistance took place in early 1944 in the mountainous region of the French Alps and French Jura . The French resistance forces went to ground and reorganized soon after the German operation ended . Soon afterward , another operation where the French Resistance challenged the Germans to a battle at Plateau de Glieres in Savoy ended in a German victory . Despite this defeat and London ' s advice to avoid head - on confrontation , in the aftermath of the Allied invasion of France ( D - Day ) the French Resistance openly challenged German forces in several areas . After several early Resistance successes , German countermeasures became particularly harsh . Once seriously threatened , German forces resorted to brutality and terror that had been mostly unheard of previously in the Western front ( but commonplace on the Eastern ) . The largest atrocity occurred in Oradour - sur - Glane , where the Germans massacred 642 local inhabitants and burned the village . German terror tactics proved successful in the short term , as the shocked Resistance pulled back . Around July and August , Germans launched their largest operations against the French partisans ( Maquis du Vercors ) . Similar to the " cauldron operations " employed in the Soviet Union , 10 , 000 German troops encircled and destroyed a 4 , 000 strong local partisan force , also committing atrocities against the local civilian population , in order to terrorize the locals and to prevent the surviving partisans from regrouping in the villages . Against Slovak Partisans . " see also : "