Guerrilla and underground movement behind enemy lines

Guerrilla and underground movement behind enemy lines.

The partisan and underground movement in the Orel region was the most striking manifestation of patriotism and made a huge contribution to the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. Already in the summer of 1941, 72 partisan detachments, 91 partisan groups, 330 groups of subversive saboteurs were formed in the region. All this made it possible to turn the Orel region into a partisan region, giving a massive rebuff to the fascist occupiers.

One of the most famous Komsomol underground groups operating in the city of Orel was the group of V. E. Sechkin. The group scouted of military facilities and enemy troops in Orel and its environs, stole weapons and ammunition from the Germans, medicines and bandages for the partisans, as well as uniforms of German officers. All this was transported to the partisans. The members of the group were preparing a major sabotage on the instructions of the command of the partisan brigade, but were betrayed by a traitor to the Gestapo, arrested and almost all shot.

Doctors and medical staff of the underground hospital, which operated during 1941-1943 in the city of Orel, made a worthy contribution to the patriotic struggle of the Orel people.

The growth of the underground and partisan movement caused panic terror to the German aggressors. As the commander of the 35th Army Corps of the 2nd German Tank Army, Colonel-General L. Rendulich, later admitted, "...The economic damage inflicted by the partisans was very serious everywhere... The methods of struggle of the Soviet partisans were characterized by such ferocity, which was not observed in any other theater of military operations...".

During the period from August 1941 to September 1943, the partisans destroyed 148 thousand Hitlerite soldiers and officers, killed 3 German generals, derailed 850 military echelons with manpower and equipment, undermined and destroyed 284 km of railway track, 81 railway and 169 wooden bridges, destroyed 164 guns, 175 tanks, 70 aircraft and many other enemy military equipment. The words of Marshal G. K. Zhukov sound very convincing. He said: "the command of the enemy troops had to practically create a second front in their rear to fight the partisans, which distracted large forces of troops. This seriously affected the general state of the German front and, ultimately, the outcome of the war.