You, Too, May Be A Guerrilla

You, Too, May Be A Guerrilla

Anyone who thinks his country might be invaded-which means anyone now alive-would do well to read "Yank" Levy's Guerrilla Warfare-for instructions on how to harass invaders. Author Levy, 44, a Canadian-born soldier of fortune, now instructor of British Home Guards, has compiled a civilian's manual of mayhem and informal murder. His book is a brief, businesslike discussion of contemporary strategy, tactics and tricks for people caught in an invasion, with dozens of helpful hints on hamstringing, backstabbing, sniping and other dust-biting dodges. Author Levy urges householders to organize right away, study the neighborhood topography, spend pre-invasion days learning how to be "a sinister shadow."

Sinister Shadow. The guerrilla should wear clothes of neutral color, should festoon himself with twigs, barks, leaves for camouflage. He may signal his colleagues with bird whistles, remembering always to use the calls of birds in season. He never raises his face to airplanes, because a white face may be detected from the air.

Methods of ambush are important. A wire cable strung across a road at an angle will slide a motorcycle off into the ditch, where the cyclist can be slugged and searched. "Messages may be glued to the soles of the feet. Comb the hair; look between the toes." All kinds of decoys may be used to stop cyclists and staff cars or to make them swerve and crash: a couple of baby carriages covered with sacking, a pair of old auto headlamps, operated on batteries, set in the middle of the road. "To attract the closest attention of enemy car drivers or guards, prop up a dead Nazi where they will see him."

Destruction is one aim. A guerrilla learns how to derail and wreck trains, blow up tanks, destroy planes on the ground, dynamite bridges. He steals at night into the middle of an enemy motor lorry park, removes sparkplugs, drops an iron bolt into the engine, puts the plug back and steals away with the satisfaction of knowing that the engine will be ruined when someone tries to start it in the morning. Or he drops sugar lumps or pours linseed oil into a gas tank, which will immobilize a car by the time it has run four miles.

In taking sentries, advises Mr. Levy, the back is the best approach. If that is not possible, the guerrilla covers the sentry with his revolver, steps on his foot, unbuttons his tunic and jerks it down over his arms to lock them. "You may slap his ears with the revolver barrel, to intimidate him. . . . You should also drop his trousers to lock his feet."

Invisible weapons might include: a six-inch lady's hatpin, or a wrist knife strapped to the wrist with the hilt downwards; a knife hung around the neck; a small revolver held up the sleeve by rubber bands; a stiletto with a nine-inch blade. Other useful weapons : a hammer, cheese-cutters (wires with wooden handles, handy for garroting) ; a handkerchief with a fistful of sand in it. Besides blankets, extra socks, binoculars, rifles, burnt cork to blacken the face, etc., an important part of the equipment is 25 to 30 yards of fishline. This has many uses: to tie up an enemy, to set off a booby trap. The booby trap is a guerrilla's stock in trade. "You can exercise your schoolboy malice and ingenuity," suggests Mr. Levy. "Hang Mills bombs on doors so that they explode when the doors are opened. Put one in the refrigerator. . . ." In Tillamook, Ore., last week, residents were organizing a Guerrilla Club. Chief organizer: Stewart P. Arnold, blind vet eran of World War I.

*Published jointly by the Infantry Journal and Penguin Books, Inc. Available from the Infantry Journal are one to ten copies: 25-c- each; eleven to 50 copies: 20-c-each. Fifty-one or more would-be guerrillas can get copies at 17-c- each.

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