From conquered Europe came a spate of stories of sabotage and revolt. In themselves these acts did not threaten the Nazi regime, but they did demonstrate that Allied armies will not fight alone when Europe is invaded.
Yugoslavia. A German correspondent with Axis forces fighting against the Partisans wrote:
“Then came the long expected new attack. The hell we had been hearing from the right flank broke loose all along the front. From all sides the murderous rebels were leading their freebooters into the bayonet attack. Among them we could see many women with rifles in their hands. . . . We were strained to the utmost. Our nerves were breaking … the situation was critical, hopeless . . . then came the Stukas bringing ammunition, but the enemy is far superior, many times superior. In the end it is no longer possible to prevent them from capturing all our positions in the southern part of the town. . . . They are shelling the fortress which is still in Italian hands.”
A German news picture testified to the respect in which the Nazis hold the guerrillas: it showed eight Germans guarding one captured Yugoslav.
Poland. Armed bands in eastern and central Poland derailed 17 trains, destroyed or damaged hundreds of railroad cars and 116 locomotives, burned 60 gasoline storage tanks and seven oil wells. Among Nazis recently assassinated were Hugo Dietz, German labor-exchange official, and Bruno Kurtz, head of the Warsaw German Social Assistance Office.
Holland. Underground tribunals sentenced 47 collaborationists to death; by week’s end 17 had been executed. Desperate Nazi officials ordered the internment of 450,000 demobilized Dutch soldiers, declared martial law throughout Holland. The Netherlands Government in Exile radioed instructions to stalwart Hollanders to resist the internment order by every possible means, but 18,500 Dutch veterans were soon rounded up and in concentration camps.
France. Thirty German soldiers were killed, 100 seriously injured when francs-tireurs derailed a Berlin-Paris troop train. Elsewhere in France, ten military trains were wrecked. In Caen all rail connections with the port were cut by well-placed bombs. In Lyon a pitched battle with francs-tireurs cost the Germans 25 casualties. At Annamasse two bombs exploded in a Nazi office building.
Norway. Explosions in Oslo harbor sank two ships, damaged two more. The powerful Norsk hydroelectric plant at Rjukan was blown up. German occupation forces used planes to hunt down and strafe civilians who daily fled over the rocky frontier into Sweden. Two more leading quislings were killed.
Denmark. All nine bishops of Danish churches addressed a letter of warning to the Minister of Justice: “Serious tension . . . involves the danger of a violent explosion which would seriously endanger the Danish people. . . .” In many towns schoolchildren formed Churchill Clubs, organized sabotage, filched rifles and other military equipment from German arsenals, distributed illegal newspapers.
Austria. Since last September 125 Austrians have been executed for “political reasons.” Belgium. Francs-tireurs killed the Nazi guards at a railroad station near Liège, destroyed 15 locomotives and a power station.
Greece. Guerrillas drove Axis occupation troops from several villages in the Olympus area. A punitive expedition of Germans and Italians was repulsed. Axis authorities executed 15 hostages after an other fight with Partisans.
Bulgaria. Riots, mass arrests, assassinations of three pro-Nazi politicos in as many months embroiled the uneasy kingdom of Boris. Probably responsible for the systematic extermination of pro-Nazi leaders were Communists (especially strong in Macedonia) who were also skilled terrorists. Boris’ Government declared a state of siege in and near Sofia, but the only solution for the Nazi overlords seemed to be complete occupation of the country before Allied invasion comes.
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