Wednesday 23 May 2012

Training Manual

The Red Army's Do-It-Yourself Nazi-Bashing Guerrilla Warfare Manual: The Partisan's Companion, 1942

I saw this in a book shop window last week and couldn't resist it. Of course, given that there was no copyright in the former USSR, then it is readily available on the internet for free, but I enjoyed David Glantz's foreword and it's nice to have a professionally bound copy.


It's relevance to War for Slow Readers is that this manual was a set text at Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, and it was used to train cadre in the principles of centrally controlled guerrilla warfare. As such it was used in wars of liberation across Africa and the rest of the third world. We can be confident that FAPLA and SWAPO adopted the doctrine described herein in the War of Independence in Angola and the subsequent civil war and also during the bush war against South Africa.


There is plenty of practical advice for the aspiring partisan covering such topics as tactics, explosives and demolition, weapon handling, fieldcraft and first aid.


Strongly recommended for the 1970s soldier heading into the bush with an AK and a couple of magazines...published by Casemate , Havertown PA and Newbury UK.


Who knows, maybe a copy or two found it's way into the hands of the Free Taffs over at winterof79@blogspot.co.uk ?

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