Partisan warfare

Otto Heilbrunn is an established historian of irregular fighting, and this book examines why that subject remains pressing. Since the arrival of nuclear weapons, all-out war between the major powers has looked unlikely, which leaves small, localised conflicts as the form of combat the world is most likely to face. Heilbrunn argues that such fighting, in places like Malaya, Vietnam, Algeria, Cyprus, Cuba and Laos, can be backed or abandoned by outside powers as their interests shift, and that it is likely to recur.

The author traces the lineage of this warfare from the Spanish resistance against Napoleon, which gave the English language the word guerrilla, through the Arab Revolt of 1917 led by Lawrence and others. In those earlier campaigns the irregular forces were sideshows to a larger conventional war. After 1945 they became the main or only armed struggles in their own conflicts, with the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1938 as the clearest model. Heilbrunn shows how these forces grew more professional, developed strategic thinking beyond tactics, and in the Balkans and southern Europe even adopted the titles of regular armies.

The book will interest readers who fought with the resistance movements of the Second World War, since it places their experiences within the longer development of partisan warfare and draws on their wartime accounts. It is presented as perhaps the first comprehensive study in English of the theory behind partisan warfare, and it is grounded in actual campaigns.