The summer of 1943 became a kind of moment of truth in the Great Patriotic War. The Nazis suffered painful defeats at Moscow and Stalingrad, but the German war machine continued to function, and the Nazis hoped to seize the initiative near Kursk.

Thanks to the coordinated actions of the special services, the Soviet command was well informed about the plans of the Wehrmacht. Therefore, it was not a surprise for Moscow that the Nazis concentrated about 900 thousand manpower in the Kursk area, as well as large volumes of armored vehicles, artillery and aviation. In response, the Soviet side built eight lines of defense, and also put about 1.3 million soldiers and officers on alert.

At the same time, there was a chance that, having failed to cope with the task of breaking through the Soviet defense, the Nazis would try to transfer reserves to the Eastern Front, which would allow them, if not to achieve an advantage at Kursk, then at least to stop a potential counter-offensive of the Red Army. Each extra regiment redeployed from Europe in the summer and autumn of 1943 could have cost the Soviet troops dearly. In order to make rail transportation across the USSR as difficult as possible for the Wehrmacht, the command decided to mobilize partisans.

By that time they already had some experience in attacking enemy railway communications, but in 1943 such attacks began to occur systematically. The idea of ​​massive destruction of enemy trains and thus blocking transport communications was supported by Colonel Ilya Starinov.

Ilya Starinov was born in 1900 in the village of Voinovo, Oryol province. In 1918 he was drafted into the Red Army, was captured, escaped, and was wounded. After recovery, he was transferred to a sapper company of an engineering battalion, in which he took part in the defeat of the Whites in the Crimea. This appointment largely determined Starinov's future fate. In 1921, the young Red Army soldier entered the Voronezh School of Military Railway Technicians and a year later became the head of the demolition team of the 4th Korosten Red Banner Railway Regiment. After training at the Leningrad School of Military Railway Technicians, Starinov was promoted to company commander.

In the 1920-1930s, as a military expert in subversive affairs, he trained specialists in the installation of mine-explosive barriers, and then future saboteurs. In 1933, he was transferred to serve in the Main Intelligence Directorate under the General Staff, and then entered the Military Transport Academy. After graduation, he became deputy military commandant of the Leningrad-Moskovskaya station.

However, Starinov did not like administrative work. In 1936, he was sent to Spain, where he personally prepared large-scale sabotage operations against the Francoists and conducted mine-explosive training for Republican fighters. Upon returning to his homeland, Starinov became the head of the central scientific testing site of the railway troops, and then took part in the Soviet-Finnish war. In 1940, he was appointed to the post of head of the mining and barriers department of the Main Military Engineering Directorate.

• Ilya Starinov
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With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Starinov led the work on constructing barriers and mining, first on the Western and then on the Southwestern Front. Thanks to the “surprises” left by Starinov and his subordinates in Kharkov, a number of high-ranking German officers were eliminated. In November 1941, Ilya Starinov was appointed deputy chief of staff of the engineering troops of the Red Army, and then, having changed several more “sabotage” posts, including command of an engineering special forces brigade, in May 1943 he became deputy chief of the Ukrainian headquarters of the partisan movement.

Over the years of service, Starinov accumulated the richest personal experience sabotage work using explosives. In addition, he summarized and analyzed all the key episodes of the activities of his subordinates. Starinov constantly advocated increasing the supply of mines and explosives to the partisans to organize large-scale sabotage in railways Oh.

"Rail War"

In the summer of 1943, on the eve of Battle of Kursk, Starinov’s ideas were accepted for consideration by the country’s top military leadership. However, some adjustments were made to them, which, as Starinov later noted in his memoirs, he perceived negatively. Thus, in the course of organizing sabotage on the railway tracks, it was decided to focus on destroying the rails, while Starinov himself believed that the enemy’s trains should be derailed and bridges blown up first.

In June 1943, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus adopted a resolution “On the destruction of enemy railway communications using the method of rail warfare.” The document proposed inflicting a massive sabotage strike on the enemy.

On July 14, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command decided to conduct Operation Rail War, and on August 3, the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement began to implement it. 167 partisan brigades and individual detachments with a total number of about 100 thousand people were involved in the operation. It was carried out on the territory of the BSSR, Ukrainian SSR and the occupied regions of the RSFSR.

On the very first night of the operation, 42 thousand rails were blown up, and during the entire period of its implementation - about 215 thousand out of 11 million located in the occupied territories. In addition, on the lands of Belarus alone, the partisans derailed 836 Nazi trains and 3 armored trains. By the fall, the volume of enemy transportation had decreased by 40%. The capacity of the railways decreased, and the Nazi command had to send additional forces to their defense, which never made it to the front.

“The actions of the partisans seriously complicated the life of the German command. So, in the rear of Army Group Center from August 3 to 6 (at the height of the Soviet... RT) railway communication was completely stopped. General Kurt von Tippelskirch, who at that time headed the 12th Corps of Army Group Center, later recalled that the actions of the partisans were one of the key factors that disrupted the interaction between Army Groups South and Center, especially in Section 2 th Army,” Sergei Belov, scientific secretary of the Victory Museum, candidate of historical sciences, told RT.

"Concert" and "Bagration"

Already on August 11, 1943, Hitler’s headquarters gave the order to create a system defensive structures in the Dnieper region. On August 26, Soviet troops began implementing a set of interconnected strategic operations known as the Battle of the Dnieper. The Nazis struggled to stop the Soviet advance on the Ukrainian Left Bank and give their engineering units time to prepare new defensive lines on the Dnieper.

The first stage of the "Rail War" ended on September 15. But giving a break to German transport workers was unacceptable. The second stage of the operation was called “Concert”. Already 193 partisan units, numbering about 120 thousand people, took part in it. The rail “Concert” was supposed to begin on September 19, but the delivery of explosives was complicated by bad weather conditions, and the start of the operation was postponed to the 25th.

The “concert” covered almost the entire front, with the exception of Karelia and Crimea. The partisans sought to provide Soviet troops with conditions for an offensive in Belarus and in the battle for the Dnieper. During September-October 1943, the partisans managed to destroy another 150 thousand rails. In Belarus alone they derailed over a thousand trains. However, the operation was then stopped due to a shortage of explosives.

• Demoman places explosives under the rails
• RIA News

They decided to return to the practice of rail warfare in the summer of 1944. In June, one of the largest military operations in the history of mankind was planned - Bagration. On the night of June 19-20, the partisans began to take active action. According to the German command, fighters of Soviet partisan detachments simultaneously carried out over 10 thousand explosions of enemy communications.

“On the night before the general Russian offensive in the sector of Army Group Center, at the end of June 1944, a powerful distracting partisan raid on all important roads deprived the German troops of any control for several days. During this one night, the partisans laid about 10.5 thousand mines and charges, of which only 3.5 thousand were detected and neutralized. Communication along many highways, due to partisan raids, could only be carried out during the day and only accompanied by an armed convoy,” - Colonel Hermann Teske, the head of rear communications of Army Group Center, subsequently stated.

Large-scale offensive operations Soviet troops allowed the liberation of the USSR territory to be completed by the end of 1944.

“Although it was at one time mythologized in a certain way, it can be stated that they played a huge role during the Battle of Kursk and Operation Bagration,” explained writer and historian Alexander Kolpakidi in an interview with RT.

According to him, today the history of this issue, as well as the history of the partisan movement as a whole, has not been sufficiently studied.

“We know little about the partisans. On some issues we are still captive of myths and misconceptions. For example, many perceive all the actions of partisans behind enemy lines as some kind of initiative. But this is not true at all. The partisan detachments operated under the leadership of the headquarters of the partisan movement, the NKVD and the GRU. Moreover, these three systems did not intersect. Due to the secrecy regime in force since then, the public still does not even know how many headquarters and departments involved in the partisan movement were operating at the same time, and who led them,” Kolpakidi emphasized in an interview with RT.

“It was difficult to verify this. There were postscripts. For example, they liked to record every destroyed enemy as a German, although in fact a significant part of them were police collaborators, who were still much easier to eliminate. On the other hand, the partisans themselves did not even know about part of their great merits: after all, no one counted how many opponents were destroyed as a result of the attack on the column,” Kolpakidi noted.

As an example, the expert cited the liquidation of a number of influential Nazi functionaries, for example, SS Brigadeführer Walter Stalker, who was killed in 1942 by partisans near Leningrad, but who exactly and how is still unknown.

• In Soviet Ukraine, liberated from the German occupiers, during the Great Patriotic War
• RIA News

According to Kolpakidi, the so-called Soviet factor was of great importance at that time.

“People went into the forest not just to beat the Germans, but to join the Soviet detachments. Even the Poles who were killed by Bandera’s followers in Volyn, for the most part, fled not to the Home Army, whose fighters many of them considered traitors, but to the detachments of the USSR. In general, in Ukraine, approximately six times more people fought in the ranks of Soviet partisan forces. more people than was included in the nationalist formations. The contribution of the partisans both to the rail war and to the victory in general was very significant,” the expert noted.

A similar point of view is shared by the writer, candidate of historical sciences Aleksey Isaev.

“It’s difficult to overestimate. As for the rail war, the effect would have been greater if the leadership had directed the partisans to destroy not rails, but trains and locomotives. The Nazis had rails, and they, although with difficulty, changed them and restored them, but there weren’t enough locomotives.

The best evidence of the effectiveness of the partisans’ actions is the admissions of the Germans themselves, who wrote that the actions of their transport workers were significantly hampered,” Isaev concluded.

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Guerrilla operation "Concert"

The year 1943 went down in the history of partisan warfare as the year of massive attacks on the railway communications of the Nazi troops. The partisans actively participated in major operations on enemy communications - “Rail War” and “Concert”. “Concert” is the conventional name of the operation carried out during the Great Patriotic War by Soviet partisans from September 19 to the end of October 1943.

The positive results of Operation Rail War provided the basis for the development of subsequent operations of a similar type. At the beginning of September 1943, the Chief (TsShPD) at the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command approved the Operation Plan for the destruction of enemy railways (Operation “Concert”). Each partisan formation received a specific combat mission, which included blowing up rails, organizing the collapse of enemy military trains, destroying road structures, disabling communications, water supply systems, etc. Detailed combat plans were developed and mass training of partisans in demolition work was organized.

Head of the Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement at the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command lieutenant general PC. Ponomarenko

The purpose of the operation was to massively disable large sections of railways in the rear of the eastern front of the Nazi troops from Karelia to Crimea and to complicate the operational transportation of troops, military equipment and other material assets of the enemy. As a continuation of Operation Rail War, Operation Concert was carried out under the leadership of the TsShPD and was closely connected with the upcoming offensive of Soviet troops in the Smolensk and Gomel directions and during the Battle of the Dnieper. 193 partisan formations from Belarus, the Baltic states, Karelia, Crimea, Leningrad, Kalinin, Smolensk and Oryol regions with a total number of 120,615 people were involved in the operation, which were supposed to undermine more than 272 thousand rails. On the territory of Belarus, about 92 thousand partisans took part in the operation; they had to blow up 140 thousand rails. The central headquarters of the partisan movement planned to throw 120 tons of explosives and other cargo to the Belarusian partisans, and 20 tons to the Kalinin and Leningrad partisans.

Due to the sharp deterioration of weather conditions, by the start of the operation it was possible to transfer only about half of the planned amount of cargo to the partisans, so it was decided to begin mass sabotage on September 25. However, some of the detachments that had already reached their starting lines could not take into account the changes in the timing of the operation, and on the night of September 19, when the Red Army, liberating the Oryol, Smolensk regions and Left Bank Ukraine, was approaching the Dnieper, it began to implement it. The partisans of Belarus alone blew up 19,903 rails on the night of September 19.

Partisans of the “People's Avenger” detachment of the Temkinsky district are mining the railway track. Smolensk region. September 1943

Already at 6 o'clock in the morning of this date, the directorate of the German State Railways in Minsk reported with alarm: “The situation is very tense! The partisan activities are increasing unbearably. All junction stations are overcrowded due to the impossibility of using the lines...”

The bulk of the partisan formations began fighting on the night of September 25. Having defeated the enemy guards and captured the railway tracks, they began massive destruction and mining of the railway track. Simultaneous actions were carried out according to the Operation Concert plan at a front of about 900 km (excluding Karelia and Crimea) and in depth over 400 km. On the territory of Belarus alone, another 15,809 rails were blown up that night.

The fascist German command made desperate efforts to restore traffic on the railways. The Nazis hastily transferred new railway restoration battalions from Germany and even from the front line, and the local population was rounded up for repair work.

Guerrillas are preparing to mine the railway track

Sabotage on the railways continued in October. In total, over 148,500 rails were undermined. At this point, Operation Concert was effectively terminated due to lack of supplies of explosives. Despite the fact that the objectives of the operation were not fully accomplished, its results were significant. The roads that were located not only in the east of the occupied territory, as was the case in the “Rail War,” were subjected to massive attacks, but also in the west of Belarus, in the Baltic states and Karelia.

results guerrilla operations they were very effective in massively undermining rails. During the first two operations alone (“Rail War” and “Concert”) from July 22 to October 1943, partisans on the railways behind enemy lines blew up 363,262 rails, which corresponded to 2,270 km of single-track railway track. Especially many rails were destroyed in such sections as Luninets - Kalinkovichi (41,781), Pskov - Dno (23,887), Polotsk - Molodechno (21,243), Leningrad - Pskov (17,659), Mogilev - Zhlobin (15,074), Krichev - Unecha (12,204), Orsha - Minsk (7982), Bryansk - Unecha (7031). The Nazis tried to make up for the deficit that arose in rails by altering double-track sections of the track into single-track ones, welding broken rails, and even importing them from Poland, Czechoslovakia and Germany. However, the partisans again disabled the repaired areas. This further increased the tension in the work of the enemy’s railway transport. According to Colonel A.I. Bryukhanov, head of the operations department of the Belarusian headquarters of the partisan movement, in August alone, 5 thousand two-axle platforms and hundreds of locomotives were used for this purpose.

According to military experts, the actions of the partisans in the “Rail War” and “Concert” operations were more than 11 times more effective than all the raids of the Nazi aviation, which dropped more than 10 thousand aerial bombs on the railways in the Soviet rear during approximately the same period. .

Moreover, the result of partisan operations such as “Rail War” and “Concert” was not only a huge number of broken rails. They included a large complex of sabotage actions on all enemy communications - railway, road, water and air, supported by attacks on garrisons and other important objects in the enemy rear.

At the same time as the rails were being blown up, the partisans derailed trains, destroyed bridges, railway stations, disabled other elements of the track facilities. During the same period, as a result of the actions of Ukrainian and Moldavian partisans, hundreds of enemy military trains crashed. The capacity of the enemy's railways in the occupied territory of the USSR in September-October 1943, as a result of the actions of the partisans, decreased significantly. According to some estimates, it decreased by 35-40%, which significantly complicated the regrouping of fascist troops and provided great assistance to the advancing Red Army.

Ultimately, the transportation of Wehrmacht units and formations by rail, as well as transportation and evacuation, were significantly difficult. Operation Concert intensified the struggle of the Soviet people against the Nazi invaders in the occupied territory. During the war, the influx of local population into partisan formations increased.

Each new generation of Russian people will have its own point of view about that armed conflict that will remain in history and our memory as the Second World War (Great Patriotic War). Dates such as the beginning and end of this bloody and senselessly cruel war will never be erased from the memory of the Russian people. And one of the most important parts that shackled the victory of the fraternal peoples of the USSR over the Nazi invaders is the partisan movement.

In the territories occupied by German troops, the Nazis established the so-called new order. And this new regime led to massive and brutal resistance by the indigenous inhabitants of the occupied territories. In all territories occupied by the enemy, guerrilla and sabotage war grew.

The struggle of partisan detachments and formations captured by Nazi troops became an integral part of the Great Patriotic War. The actions of the partisans in the occupied territories depressed the German troops morally and physically; they felt that they were in constant anticipation of sabotage. And these sabotages were not fictional, but a real danger; because of them, the Germans suffered numerous casualties and a huge loss of military equipment.

On the scale of guerrilla warfare, there is a lot of evidence of complex and dangerous operations with the participation of the Soviet army. One of these operations was carried out from August to September 1943 on the enemy-occupied lands of Ukraine and Belarus. The purpose of this operation was to destroy part of the railway communications. The operation received the classified name “Rail War”. Leningrad, Smolensk, and Oryol partisans were involved in this operation.

The order to begin Operation Rail War was signed by the TsShPD (Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement) on June 14, 1943. All areas falling under the operation of the TsShPD were divided between partisan groups. Partisan reconnaissance regularly conducted surveillance of objects where sabotage was to be carried out. The “rail war” began from the second to the third of August and lasted almost until the end of September. Sabotage and forays behind enemy lines unfolded throughout the entire territory of the ongoing operation, which is about one thousand eight hundred kilometers. There were almost one hundred thousand people involved in the operation, with massive support from local residents.

The sabotage attacks inflicted by the partisans on the railways, railway bridges and stations were unexpected for Hitler's troops. After committing acts of sabotage, the fascist occupiers for a very long time could not come to their senses and organize systematic and effective counter-guerrilla actions. During Operation Rail War, a huge number of railway tracks (about two hundred and fifteen thousand rails), bridges, and trains with equipment and personnel were derailed. Also, sabotage reduced the frequency of train movements by almost forty percent, which greatly slowed down the movement of the Germans.

Operation Concert pursued similar goals and was, as it were, the second part of Operation Rail War. It was necessary to destroy as many railway communications as possible under German control in a short period of time, since a large-scale offensive of Soviet troops on the Dnieper was planned. More than one hundred and ninety-three partisan groups and sabotage detachments, and more than one hundred and twenty thousand people were involved in it. Operation Concert was scheduled to begin on September 19 and last until November 1, 1943. But due to the fact that weather conditions had worsened, it was decided to postpone the start of the operation to September 25. And Soviet aviation simply did not have time to transport all the explosives, but only transported half. However, some of the sabotage groups had already moved to the points, and were unable to receive an order to postpone the start of the operation, and began sabotage on September 19.

On the night of September 24-25, railway tracks and bridges over a distance of nine hundred kilometers were simultaneously blown up. During the sabotage operation, about one thousand trains were derailed, seventy bridges were blown up, and sixty German outposts were destroyed. The operation had to be ended due to mistakes by the developers of the operation itself, since the partisan groups ran out of prepared explosives. Nazi invaders Sparing no effort, they carried out repair work continuously, in several shifts, but still did not have time. You can also name one disadvantage of the operation, which is that the railway itself was sabotaged, which subsequently also slowed down the advance of the Soviet troops. It was much more effective to disable the enemy echelons themselves.

The objectives of Operation Concert were similar to those of Operation Rail War, to reduce the speed of movement of enemy echelons, and this goal was achieved. The partisan units flawlessly completed the task assigned to them, and all shortcomings remained on the conscience of the headquarters authorities. Which provided all possible assistance in the defeat of the Nazi occupiers in Ukraine, Belarus, Karelia and Crimea.

Hitler’s troops could not erase this “concert” from their memory for a long time, shown by Russian partisan formations.

Guerrilla operation "Concert"

Partisans are people who voluntarily fight as part of armed, organized partisan forces in territory occupied by the enemy - sabotage brigades behind enemy lines. Russian partisans have terrified invaders at all times. During the Great Patriotic War, mass resistance of the population to the fascists, combat and sabotage actions of partisans had important: partisans destroyed large fascist garrisons, mined rails and blew up bridges and warehouses of the fascists.

The year 1943 went down in the history of partisan warfare as the year of massive attacks on the railway communications of the Nazi troops.

The partisans actively participated in major operations on enemy communications - “Rail War” and “Concert”.
“Concert” is the code name for the operation of the Soviet partisans in the fall of 1943.
193 partisan formations (brigades and separate detachments, more than 120 thousand people in total) took part in the operation. The leadership was carried out by the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement.
The objective of Operation Concert was to disable large sections of railway lines in order to disrupt enemy military transport.
193 partisan formations took part in the “Concert” - in total over 120 thousand people! The leadership was carried out by the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement.

Each partisan unit received a specific combat mission, which included blowing up rails, organizing the collapse of enemy military trains, destroying road structures, disabling communications, water supply systems, etc.
Detailed combat plans were developed and mass training of partisans in demolition work was organized.

In the fall of 1943, partisan formations literally attacked the enemy’s railway communications.
The bulk of the partisan formations began hostilities on the night of September 25, defeating the enemy guards and taking possession of the railway tracks, they began mass destruction and mining of the railway track.
The command of the German troops, shocked by the scale of the partisan operation "Concert", made enormous efforts to restore traffic on the railways.
The Nazis hastily transferred new railway restoration battalions from Germany and even from the front line, and the local population was rounded up for repair work. Rails and sleepers were delivered from Poland, Czechoslovakia and Germany, but the partisans again and again undermined the repaired sections.

During Operation Concert, in the Belarusian direction alone, partisans blew up about 90 thousand rails and derailedmore than 1000 enemy trains, destroyed 72 railway bridges. All this caused serious complications in the transportation of Nazi troops.

By the end of 1942, the heroic struggle of the Soviet people behind enemy lines acquired a massive character and became truly national. Hundreds of thousands of patriots fought the invaders as part of partisan formations, underground organizations and groups, and actively participated in disrupting the economic, political and military activities of the occupiers. Communications, especially railways, became the main object of partisan combat activity, which in its scope acquired strategic importance.

For the first time in the history of wars, partisans carried out, according to a single plan, a number of large operations to disable enemy railway communications over a large territory, which were closely related in time and objects to the actions of the Red Army and reduced the capacity of railways by 35 - 40% Drobov M.A. . Small war (partisanship and sabotage). - M., publishing house "Enlightenment", 1996, p. 133.

In the winter of 1942 - 1943, when the Red Army was crushing Hitler’s troops in the Volga, Caucasus, Middle and Upper Don, they attacked the railways along which the enemy was throwing up reserves to the front. In February 1943, in the Bryansk-Karachev, Bryansk-Gomel sections, they blew up several railway bridges, including the bridge across the Desna, along which 25 to 40 trains passed daily to the front and the same number of trains back - with broken military units, equipment and stolen property.

Strong blows to enemy communications were inflicted during the summer-autumn campaign. This made it difficult for the enemy to regroup and transport reserves and military equipment, which was a huge help to the Red Army.

The partisan operation, which went down in history under the name “Rail War,” was grandiose in its scale, in the number of forces involved and in the results achieved. It was planned by the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement, was prepared for a long time and comprehensively and was designed to assist the Red Army’s offensive on Kursk Bulge. The main goal of the operation was to paralyze the Nazis' transportation by rail by simultaneously massively undermining the rails. Partisans from the Leningrad, Kalinin, Smolensk, Oryol regions, Belarus and part of Ukraine were involved in this operation.

Operation Rail War began on the night of August 3, 1943. To transport explosives and other means behind enemy lines, 2 air transport divisions, 12 separate air regiments, and several long-range aviation regiments operated. Reconnaissance was actively carried out.

On the first night, 42 thousand rails were blown up. Massive explosions continued throughout August and the first half of September. As a result of the operation, about 215 thousand rails and many enemy military trains were undermined (see Appendix 2, Photos 6 and 7); in some areas, the movement of enemy trains was paralyzed for 3-15 days. Balashov A.I., Rudakov G.P. History of the Great Patriotic War. - St. Petersburg, publishing house “Peter”, 2006, p.407.

On September 19, a new operation began, codenamed “Concert”. This operation was closely connected with the Soviet offensive in Ukraine. Partisans from Karelia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Crimea joined the operation. Even stronger blows followed. So, if 170 partisan brigades, detachments and groups, numbering about 100 thousand people, took part in Operation Rail War, then in Operation Concert there were already 193 brigades and detachments numbering more than 120 thousand people. Balashov A.I., Rudakov G.P. History of the Great Patriotic War. - St. Petersburg, publishing house "Peter", 2006, p.408

Attacks on railways were combined with attacks on individual garrisons and enemy units, with ambushes on highways and dirt roads, as well as with disruption of river transport by the Nazis. During 1943, about 11 thousand enemy trains were blown up, 6 thousand locomotives, about 40 thousand cars and platforms were disabled and damaged, over 22 thousand cars were destroyed, and more than 900 railway bridges were destroyed. Drobov M.A. Small war (partisanship and sabotage). - M., publishing house "Enlightenment", 1996, p. 153

The powerful attacks of the partisans along the entire line of the Soviet-German front shocked the enemy. Soviet patriots not only caused great damage to the enemy, disorganized and paralyzed railway traffic, but also demoralized the occupation apparatus.

The main significance of the partisans' fighting on the routes of communication was that the Nazis were forced to divert large forces to guard communications. In areas of active partisan operations, the Nazis were forced to provide each 100-kilometer section of the railway track with up to two regiments. If we consider that in the spring of 1943 the enemy exploited 3 thousand km of railways on occupied Soviet territory, it becomes quite obvious what enormous difficulties the partisans created for him.

During September - November 1943, a special operation "Desert" was carried out to destroy the water supply system on railway communications. As a result, 43 water pumping stations were disabled. But due to a lack of mine-explosive weapons, it was not possible to completely paralyze the work of the enemy’s railway communications.

A striking example of interaction between the army and partisans is the Belarusian operation of 1944 (see Appendix 2, Map 2). The goal of the operation was the defeat of Army Group Center and the liberation of Belarus. 49 detachments with a total number of over 143 thousand people took part in the operation. The majority of the reserves of the fascist Army Group Center were constrained by the fight against them.

On the night of June 20, the partisans carried out a massive attack on all the most important communications. As a result, traffic on some sections of the railway completely stopped. The enemy was never able to restore many of them. During the offensive, the partisans continued to attack communications and blew up 147 trains on June 26-28 alone.