Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Total Resistance: Swiss Army Guide to Guerilla Warfare And Underground Operations by H. Von Dach

Total Resistance: Swiss Army Guide to Guerilla Warfare And Underground Operations by H. Von Dach is an unofficial manual on guerrilla warfare produced originally by the Swiss veterans Association back in the 1970s. The book contains a massive material everything from basic organizational structure through the nuts and bolts of sabotage techniques [including homemade explosives]. There isn't just material on guerrillas but on the general resistance and what average members of the population who aren't willing to pick up a gun can do. Basically waste time and money for the occupier.

Funny to go through an entire book on insurgency without hearing Mao mentioned once but this is clearly aimed at the threat of Soviet invasion. There are multiple references to the KGB and MKVD.

There's also material on how to counteract the counterinsurgency strategy of the opposition. Basically maintain group solidarity as much as possible. Breakout of sweep operations as late in the game as possible when soldiers are getting tired and sloppy and at night.

I cannot recommend this more highly. Even looking at it from the perspective of a counterinsurgency policy there's so much food for thought here.

For reviews take a look at My Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Partisan and Guerrilla Warfare bookshelf.

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