camstewart96

Who do you think had the best resistance in WWII? This can include German groups like the Edelweiss Pirates, White Rose Group, Swing Kids, etc.

rehabnonono

Greek, Balkans or Soviet (Ukraine, Russian)

Lucius

I read somewhere that Denmark tied down more German troops per capita than any other occupied country(followed by Yugoslavia).

Mangekyou

Polish resistance and Greek.

Polish resistance was responsible for a huge amount of information and operations to the allies, including information on Auschwitz.

In Greece, more specifically Crete, the Brtish wanted to capture the notorious General Muller, but he evacuated before they could, so they abducted General Kreipe instead. I have the actual book on this operation.

The most S.O.E operations were probably in occupid France though.

camstewart96

Never thought about the Greeks. The Greek Campaign is so quiet and forgotten, even more so than the Italian Campaign.

Mangekyou

It just means they did their job that well, haha!

The capture of General Kreipe was the definite highlight (albeit it was a British operation), but they pinned down German troops indefinitely.

Edward

That will be strange as Denmark almost had no armed resistance during Nazi occupation.

Lucius

Yeah, it's just math. Check it out -

http://ww2total.com/WW2/History/Orde...ember-1943.htm

By 1943, Denmark's population was about 3,844,000 and it was occupied by these German divisions -

416 Infantry Division
233 Reserve Panzer Division
20 Luftwaffen Field Division (only brigade strength)
166 Reserve Division
160 Reserve Division

That is to say, 768,800 Danes kept one German division away from the main fighting fronts.

In 1943, 15.5 million people lived in Yugoslavia and it was occupied by -

371 Infantry Division
1 Russian Cossak Division (bulk)
373 Croatian Infantry Division
114 Jager Division
264 Fortress Division
Division Brandenburg (elements)
181 Infantry Division
369 Croatian Infantry Division
118 Jager Division
7 SS Mountain Division Prinz Eugen
1 Mountain Division
+ 4 regiments
297 Infantry Division
100 Jager Division
367 Infantry Division (under preparation)
173 Reserve Infantry Division
187 Reserve Infantry Division
1 Russian Cossak Division (elements)

That is to say, 861,111 Yugoslavians kept one German division away from the main fighting fronts.

Obviously, the Yugoslavs don't need me or anyone else to stick up for them. Their deeds will forever echo down the Halls of Glory. I'm just talking about the per capita math.

Nemowork

I'd hardly call the Edelweiss pirates a resistance group, more a bunch of non-conformists with musical taste.

Yes some of their members helped allied war efforts but that had very little to do with the movement as a whole, their main interests where basically listening to music that annoyed their parents, dressing strangely and not getting conscripted, apart from the war thing that describes every teenage fad from jazz to the sex pistols.

tjadams

The French resistance and help to Allied soldiers cannot be overlooked.