A Territorial Unit () was a type of
Lithuanian partisan military unit
Military organization or military organisation is the structuring of the armed forces of a state so as to offer such military capability as a national defense policy may require. In some countries paramilitary forces are included in a nation' ...
that existed from the end of 1944 to 1954, who fought against the
second Soviet occupation of Lithuania. Instead of destroyed or disintegrated units, new ones were founded, often with different names.
Due to the difficulties of
guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or Irregular military, irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, Raid (military), raids ...
, as well as for
tactical
Tactic(s) or Tactical may refer to:
* Tactic (method), a conceptual action implemented as one or more specific tasks
** Military tactics, the disposition and maneuver of units on a particular sea or battlefield
** Chess tactics
** Political tacti ...
reasons, the territorial units' boundaries changed, so, depending on the case, they operated in one county, a part of thereof, or several neighboring counties. Sometimes territorial units were transferred from one military district to another. Territorial units, thought not all, published their own press.
Beginning
The first territorial units were formed in Southern and Eastern Lithuania at the end of 1944. At the beginning of the partisan war in Lithuania, some territorial units formed and operated independently (e.g.
Perkūnas,
Deer,
Vytautas in the
Tauras military district
Tauras military district (also Tauras partisans military district) is a military district of Lithuanian partisans which operated in 1945–1951 in the Suvalkija ethnographic region – counties of Marijampolė, Šakiai, Vilkaviškis and in the l ...
).
Composition
A territorial unit was made up of several
squad
In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and US doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while US Army do ...
s,
companies,
battalions,
districts. Most frequently, it included several companies. In turn, several territorial units made up a
military district (). After the founding of the
Lithuanian Freedom Fighters Union in 1949, a territorial unit was composed of several homelands ().
Territorial units differed in the number of fighters (from roughly 50 to about 200 people). Sometimes, they were 700-strong. They were active anywhere from several to 8 years.
Command
The military district's commander appointed the territorial unit's commander. The people chosen were either staff officers or distinguished commanders of companies or other formations. Generally, these were Lithuanian army officers and school teachers.
List of territorial units
The following territorial units were active at various times:
Notes
Footnotes
Citations
Bibliography
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''Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia''
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* {{Cite web , last=Gaškaitė-Žemaitienė , first=Nijolė , date=2018c , title=Butigeidžio rinktinė , url=https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/butigeidzio-rinktine/ , website=
vle.lt , language=lt
Lithuanian partisans