The Wehrmacht: Inside Hitler's Military Elite
German Anti-Partisan Warfare in the Balkans: General Gustav Fehn
11m
On 1 September 1939, Nazi Germany invades Poland, beginning the Second World War. Among the rising Wehrmacht officers is Gustav Fehn, a disciplined career soldier shaped by the First World War and the Reichswehr.
After campaigns in Poland and France, Fehn is sent to the Balkans, where he commands German forces in anti-partisan warfare against resistance fighters led by Josip Broz Tito. These operations go beyond conventional combat—villages are burned, hostages executed, and civilians targeted in reprisals.
Following service in North Africa and a return to the Balkans, Fehn remains a loyal officer until Germany’s collapse. Captured in May 1945, he is handed over to Yugoslav partisans, where he ultimately faced his final reckoning for the actions carried out under his command.
His story reflects the brutality of German anti-partisan warfare in the Balkans.
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