Partisan (military)

A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation. The term can apply to the field element of resistance movements that opposed Nazi domination in several countries during World War II, or those who after the war fought the Soviet Union's Communist rule in eastern Europe.

The term "partisan" was first used in Johann von Ewald's "Treatise on Partisan Warfare" (1789). Von Ewald was a veteran of the Hessian forces that fought in the American Revolutionary War, and faced what would be called "irregular" warfare in the 19th and 20th centuries. The initial concept of partisan warfare was the use of trained adjuncts to regular forces that would operate behind enemy lines to disrupt communications, raid logistical stockpiles, and draw enemy forces from the front lines. It was this concept of partisan warfare that would later form the basis of the "partisan rangers" of the American Civil War. In that conflict, Confederate partisan leaders, such as John S. Mosby, operated along the lines described by Von Ewald (and later by both Jomini and Clausewitz). Partisans in the mid-19th century were substantially different from raiding cavalry, or from unorganized/semiorganized guerrilla forces.

In essence, 19th century partisans were closer to Commando or Ranger forces raised during World War II than the "partisan" forces operating in occupied Europe. It was during World War II that the current definition of "partisan" became the dominant one--focusing on irregular forces in opposition to an attacking or occupying power. While an occupier or attacker may call partisans "guerrillas" or "terrorists," the fact is that, unlike terrorists, partisans are still legally considered uniformed members of a nation's armed forces, who fight to liberate their nation from an external attacker (in contrast to the use of the term "guerrillas," which is usually reserved for internal insurgencies, where the legitimate government is being attacked from inside). A prime example of the term "guerrillas" would be the pro-communist Viet Cong (also, People's Liberation Armed Forces (PLA) of the Vietnam War, who battled the colonial French regime and later the US-backed Republic of Vietnam.

See also

• Resistance movement
• Partisans (Yugoslavia)
• Polish resistance movement in World War II
• Soviet partisans
• Forest Brothers
• Werwolf
• Jewish partisans