This study may serve to create an enhanced awareness of the impact of partisan operations on modern warfare. Indeed, the systematic use of partisans in conjunction with regular forces has had the effect of addition another dimension to war: that of depth. One of the lessons of the German-Russian struggle lies in the serious contribution made by Russian partisan forces to the defeat of the German Army.
General der Flieger a.D. Karl Drum was born in 1893. He entered military service with the German Army in 1913, and in 1916 he was assigned to the Air Force. At the beginning of World War II General Drum was Chief of Staff to the Luftwaffe General with Commander-in-Chief, Army. During 1941-42 he was Chief, Air Support Command, Army Group South (Russia). After this assignment and until the end of the war, General Drum held a series of Luftwaffe administrative positions in Holland, Greece, Belgium, and Northern France, and, finally, in Western France where he was Commanding General and Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe Administrative Command, Western France.