Total Resistance (1965) By Major H. von Dach Bern
 
Total Resistance, originally published in German as Der totale Widerstand: Eine Kleinkriegsanleitung für Jedermann ("Total Resistance: A Guerrilla Warfare Manual for Everyone") is a guerilla warfare manual.
 
It was written in 1957 by the Swiss army officer Hans von Dach to prepare the Swiss population for an occupation of Switzerland by Warsaw Pact forces, an eventuality then considered possible in the context of the Cold War. The book has been republished as pirated translations in dozens of languages in numerous countries abroad, and notably found use by left-wing terror groups in the 1960s and 70s.
 
The book is a manual for irregular warfare against an occupying force, intended to be used by civilians rather than by soldiers. It presumes a form of irregular resistance involving no arms heavier than light infantry arms: rifles, hand grenades and mines.
The topics covered in the first volume include:
the operative, tactical, technical and psychological basics of guerrilla warfare, such as sabotage, assassination and conduct under torture,
the establishment, organization and command of guerrilla warfare units and civilian resistance movements,
enemy methods of suppressing and combating guerrilla warfare.
The other volumes describe the manufacture and use of basic weapons: chemical weapons (vol. 2), the Partisan 9mm submachine gun (vol. 3), the TARN pistol (vol. 4), improvised explosive devices (vol. 5), the TELL noise suppressor (vol. 6) and hand grenades (vol. 7).It concludes with the words: "Better die standing than live kneeling!".
 
Because the book is based on the conduct of World War II occupying forces (Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union), most of its contents are politically and technically no longer applicable to the early 21st century. Some of von Dach's instructions remain relevant, however, to current conflicts, such as about how to sabotage infrastructure, construct roadblocks, make and use incendiary devices or hide weapons and ammunition.
 
Hard Cover
173 pages
In Good Condition