GRANITE

ˈGranite

Code name for the offensive of Belarusian partisans to outcommission the transport lines of the invaders in the spring and summer of 1943 during the Great Patriotic War.

It was elaborated in the winter of 1942–1943. The operation plan was approved on April 21, 1943, by head of the Belarusian Headquarters of Partisan Movement (BHPM, BSPR) P. Z. Kalinin, however, they started preparing it in February — March 1943. The partisans were tasked to disrupt the enemy’s transport to the front by coordinated actions and to inflict maximum losses in it. Certain sections of railways and highways were secured under the control of partisan detachments and brigades.

To prepare and conduct the operation, BHPM representatives, i.e. signal officers and miner instructors, were sent to the enemy’s rear. In partisan commands, combat soldiers and commanders were trained in demolition techniques, new sabotage groups, platoons, companies were formed, some detachments switched over largely to sabotage. Partisans’ connections and interaction with the underground members were strengthened. The operation was set to be started on May 10, 1943. From March, the BHPM began to transport arms, ammunition, and explosives to partisans with the help of long-range aircraft and glider pilot units. By June 6, 1943, a total of 555 tons of cargo had been delivered, i.e. 125.5 tons of TNT (trinitrotoluene), about 30,000 mines, 6,430 assault rifles, 1,064 light machine guns, 10,630 rifles and carbines, 465 anti-tank rifles, and 68,400 cartridges to them, about 55 thousand hand and anti-tank grenades, more than 8 million rifle and assault rifles cartridges, etc.

During the operation, the partisans, according to incomplete data, derailed 1,806 echelons, 8 armoured trains, exploded 66 railway bridges, destroyed 167 km of railway tracks, 619 km of telephone and telegraph communications, defeated 6 railway stations and 164 Nazi garrisons and police stations, annihilated more than 71 thousand and injured about 18 thousand enemy servicemen and police officers. Partisans conducted military operations to destroy the railway track. Partisans reserve combat soldiers and inhabitants of nearby villages participated pervasively in these operations. By the summer of 1943, the partisans had decommissioned almost all narrow-gauge railways.

Partisans’ sabotages forced the Hitlerites to take additional railway safety measures, i.e. from May, night train traffic was stopped, and the speed on a number of sections was reduced to 10–15 km per hour.

The growth of partisan combat operations on the enemy’s communications in the spring and summer of 1943 was associated with the implementation of the Granite offensive, but it was conducted on a limited scale. The BHPM failed to provide all partisan commands with explosives. At that time, many detachments and brigades repelled punitive operations of the Hitlerites and could not actively participate in the offensive. However, the offensive played a positive role in the development of subversive activities of Belarusian partisans. Its experience was used by the BHPM in planning and implementing new, larger-scale offensive operations to decommission enemy communications, including the Rail War operation.