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(, "forest people") is an informal name applied to some anti-German
partisan Partisan may refer to: Military * Partisan (weapon), a pole weapon * Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line Films * ''Partisan'' (film), a 2015 Australian film * ''Hell River'', a 1974 Yugoslavian film also know ...
groups that operated in occupied
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, being a part of Polish resistance movement. The "forest people" groups comprised mostly people who for various reasons could not operate from the communities they lived in and had to retreat into the forests. Unlike most organized resistance groups, such as the
Home Army The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) esta ...
, the "forest people" formed a sort of
standing army A standing army is a permanent, often professional, army. It is composed of full-time soldiers who may be either career soldiers or conscripts. It differs from army reserves, who are enrolled for the long term, but activated only during wars or n ...
, as opposed to regular partisan units that gathered shortly before an operation and afterward returned to their homes.


After the 1939 fall of Poland

The first such groups formed in 1939, shortly after the
invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...
. Membership comprised mostly marauders from the
Polish Army The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stret ...
and other people who evaded arrest by the new
Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
or
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
authorities. In March 1940 the partisan unit of the first guerrilla commander in the Second World War in Europe - Henryk Dobrzański "Hubal" - completely destroyed a
battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...
of German infantry in a skirmish near the village of Huciska. A few days later in an ambush near the village of Szałasy it inflicted heavy casualties upon another German unit. To counter this threat the German authorities formed a special 1,000-strong anti-partisan unit of combined SS and Wehrmacht forces, including a
Panzer This article deals with the tanks (german: panzer) serving in the German Army (''Deutsches Heer'') throughout history, such as the World War I tanks of the Imperial German Army, the interwar and World War II tanks of the Nazi German Wehrmacht, ...
group. Although Major Dobrzański's unit never exceeded 300 men, the Germans fielded at least 8,000 men in the area to secure it.
Aleksandra Ziolkowska-Boehm Alexandra () is the feminine form of the given name Alexander (, ). Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; GEN , ; meaning 'man'). Thus it may be roughly translated as "defender of man" or "prot ...
: ''Polish Hero Roman Rodziewicz Fate of a Hubal Soldier in Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Postwar England, Lexington Books, 2013,


Under German occupation 1939-1945

Although most of the groups accepted the overall command of
ZWZ Związek Walki Zbrojnej ( abbreviation: ''ZWZ''; Union of Armed Struggle;Thus rendered in Norman Davies, ''God's Playground: A History of Poland'', vol. II, p. 464. also translated as ''Union for Armed Struggle'', ''Association of Armed Strug ...
and then of the
Home Army The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) esta ...
, different realities made them remain largely independent. In early 1943 the strength of the ''leśni'' groups can be estimated at about 40 groups numbering in total 1,200 to 4,000 fighters, but the numbers grew significantly during
Operation Tempest file:Akcja_burza_1944.png, 210px, right Operation Tempest ( pl, akcja „Burza”, sometimes referred to in English as "Operation Storm") was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II against occupying German forces by the Polish Home ...
in 1944. Roy Francis Leslie, ''The History of Poland Since 1863'', Cambridge University Press, 1983,
Google Print, p.234235


Uprisings, operations and battles

*
Czortków Uprising Chortkiv ( uk, Чортків; pl, Czortków; yi, ''Chortkov'') is a city in Chortkiv Raion, Ternopil Oblast (province) in western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Chortkiv Raion (district), housing the district's local admin ...
*
Zamość Uprising The Zamość uprising comprised World War II partisan operations, 1942–1944, by the Polish resistance (primarily the Home Army and Peasant Battalions) against Germany's '' Generalplan-Ost'' forced expulsion of Poles from the Zamość region ...
* Operation Wieniec *
Operation Arsenal The Operation Arsenal, code name: "Meksyk II" ( pl, Akcja pod Arsenałem) was the first major operation by the Gray Ranks, Polish Underground formation during the Nazi German occupation of Poland. It took place on March 26, 1943 in Warsaw. Its n ...
* Warsaw Ghetto Rising *
Operation Belt Operation Belt ( pl, Akcja Taśma) was one of the large-scale anti-Nazi Germany operations of the Armia Krajowa Kedyw during World War II. In August 1943, the headquarters of the Armia Krajowa ordered Kedyw to prepare an armed action against Germa ...
*
Operation Heads Operation Heads ( pl, Operacja Główki) was the code name for a series of assassinations of Nazi officials by the World War II Polish Resistance. Those targeted for assassination had been sentenced to death by Polish Underground Special Courts ...
*
Operation Bürkl Operation Bürkl (''operacja Bürkl''), or the special combat action Bürkl (''specjalna akcja bojowa Bürkl''), was an operation by the Polish resistance conducted on 7 September 1943. It was the second action of Operation Heads, a series of a ...
*
Operation Most III Operation Most III ( Polish for ''Bridge III'') or Operation Wildhorn III (in British documents) was a World War II operation in which Poland's ''Armia Krajowa'' provided the Allies with crucial intelligence on the German V-2 rocket. Ba ...
*
Operation Kutschera Operation Kutschera was the code name for the successful execution of Franz Kutschera, SS and Reich's Police Chief in German-occupied Warsaw, who was shot on 1 February 1944 by a combat sabotage unit of Kedyw of the Home Army (predecessor o ...
*
Battle of Murowana Oszmianka The Battle of Murowana Oszmianka of 13–14 May 1944 was the largest clash between the Polish resistance movement organization Home Army (Armia Krajowa, AK) and the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force (LTDF); a Lithuanian volunteer security for ...
*
Battle of Porytowe Wzgórze The Battle of Porytowe Wzgórze (Porytowe Hill) took place on June 14, 1944, between Polish and Russian partisans and Nazi German forces. It was the largest battle between underground anti-Nazi resistance and German occupation forces in occupied ...
*
Battle of Osuchy The Battle of Osuchy ( pl, Bitwa pod Osuchami; sometimes referred to as the Battle at Sopot River, pl, Bitwa nad Sopotem ) was one of the largest battles between the Polish resistance and Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II, ...
*
Operation Tempest file:Akcja_burza_1944.png, 210px, right Operation Tempest ( pl, akcja „Burza”, sometimes referred to in English as "Operation Storm") was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II against occupying German forces by the Polish Home ...
*
Operation Ostra Brama Operation Ostra Brama (lit. Operation Gate of Dawn, Sharp Gate) was an attempt by the Home Army, Polish Home Army to take over Vilnius ( pl, Wilno) from Nazi Germany's evacuating troops ahead of the approaching Soviet Vilnius Offensive. A part o ...
*
Lwów Uprising Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in Western Ukraine, western Ukraine, and the List of cities in Ukraine, seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is o ...
*
Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occ ...
* Attack on the NKVD Camp in Rembertów * Battle of Kuryłówka * Augustów chase 1945


Notes


See also

*
Belarusian partisans The Belarusian resistance during World War II opposed Nazi Germany from 1941 until 1944. Belarus was one of the Soviet republics occupied during Operation Barbarossa. The term Belarusian partisans may refer to Soviet-formed irregular military ...
*
Estonian partisans Estonian Partisans or the Forest Brothers in Estonia ( et, Metsavennad) were partisan (military), partisans who waged guerrilla warfare against the Government of the Soviet Union, Soviet forces in Estonia from 1940 to 1941 and 1944–1978. As so ...
*
Italian partisans The Italian resistance movement (the ''Resistenza italiana'' and ''la Resistenza'') is an umbrella term for the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social ...
*
Jewish partisans Jewish partisans were fighters in irregular military groups participating in the Jewish resistance movement against Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. A number of Jewish partisan groups operated across Nazi-occupied Europ ...
*
Latvian partisans Latvian national partisans were Latvian pro-independence partisans who waged guerrilla warfare against Soviet rule during and after the Second World War. Aftermath of World War I The decisions of the 1917 congresses and the declaration of ind ...
*
Lithuanian partisans The Lithuanian partisans () were partisans who waged a guerrilla warfare in Lithuania against the Soviet Union in 1944–1953. Similar anti-Soviet resistance groups, also known as Forest Brothers and cursed soldiers, fought against Soviet rule ...
*
Polish resistance movement in World War II The Polish resistance movement in World War II (''Polski ruch oporu w czasie II wojny światowej''), with the Polish Home Army at its forefront, was the largest underground resistance movement in all of occupied Europe, covering both German a ...
*
Soviet partisans Soviet partisans were members of resistance movements that fought a guerrilla war against Axis forces during World War II in the Soviet Union, the previously Soviet-occupied territories of interwar Poland in 1941–45 and eastern Finland. The ...
*
Yugoslav Partisans The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene: , or the National Liberation Army, sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska (NOV), Народноослободилачка војска (НОВ); mk, Народноослобод ...
*
Armia Krajowa The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) esta ...
*
Kresy Eastern Borderlands ( pl, Kresy Wschodnie) or simply Borderlands ( pl, Kresy, ) was a term coined for the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic during the interwar period (1918–1939). Largely agricultural and extensively multi-ethnic, it ...
*
Narodowe Siły Zbrojne National Armed Forces (NSZ; '' Polish:'' Narodowe Siły Zbrojne) was a Polish right-wing underground military organization of the National Democracy operating from 1942. During World War II, NSZ troops fought against Nazi Germany and communist p ...
* Polish resistance *
Cursed soldiers The "cursed soldiers" (also known as "doomed soldiers", "accursed soldiers" or "damned soldiers"; pl, żołnierze wyklęci) or "indomitable soldiers" ( pl, żołnierze niezłomni) is a term applied to a variety of anti-Soviet and anti-communist ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lesni Military history of Poland during World War II Polish underground organisations during World War II Polish resistance during World War II