Hans von Dach

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Swiss army Major Hans von Dach is the author of the army manual Der totale Widerstand: Eine Kriegsanleitung für Jedermann ("Total Resistance: A War Manual for Everyone"), which first appeared 1957. There are various editions that have between 64 and 287 pages.

The book contains advice on how to defend the homeland in case of an enemy invasion through guerrilla warfare. Detailed information on how to organize minor "armies" and resistance groups is given; the readers are also taught on how to build explosives (which earned the book a ban in several countries, including Germany).

Summarized in a few words, the book explains:

  • the operative, tactical, technical and psychological basics of guerilla warfare
  • how to build-up, organize and command a guerilla warfare
  • how to build-up and command a civilian resistance movement
  • the enemy's methods of suppressing and combating guerilla warfare
  • explosives techniques, with the focus on placing the charges, optimizing the effects, and knowledge of the various types of explosives

This work, although legendary, is obsolete by today's technological standards, as it studies old cases like the German Wehrmacht occupying Warsaw and the Soviet intrusion into Prague and Budapest. Phrases like "A photocopier is as worthy as a machine gun" seem rustical in view of today's internet and readily available message encryption like PGP; and the book does not cover newer weapons and army tactics. Another points are that this combat manual only addresses how to organize the resistance locally, but not how to deter the occupation of a whole country. Then, in terms of geography, the book focuses on the situation that prevails in Switzerland (hilly and mountainous landscape; with many of the inhabitants living in villages) – a fact which dictates the possibilities of guerilla warfare; so the lessons of this book can not be readily transplanted to other countries.

Other works of von Dach are titled Gefechtstechnik ("Combat technique", various editions from 1958 to 1957), Kampfbeispiele ("Examples of Combat", 1977) and Kampfverfahren der Verteidigung ("Combat procedures of the Defense", 1959).

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