Leśni

Leśni (short for "leśni ludzie", Polish for "forest people") is an informal name applied to some anti-German partisan groups that operated in occupied Poland during World War II.

The "forest people" groups comprised mostly people who for various reasons could not operate from the communities they lived in and had to retreat into the forests.

Unlike most organized resistance groups, such as the Home Army, the "forest people" formed a sort of standing army, as opposed to regular partisan units that gathered shortly before an operation and afterward returned to their homes.

After the 1939 fall of Poland

The first such groups were formed in 1939, shortly after the invasion of Poland, mostly by marauders from the Polish Army and other people who evaded being arrested by the new Nazi or Soviet authorities. In March 1940 partisan unit of the first guerrilla commanders in the Second World War in Europe - Henryk Dobrzański "Hubal" completely destroyed a battalion of German infantry in a skirmish near the village of Huciska. A few days later in an ambush near the village of Szałasy it inflicted heavy casualties upon another German unit. To counter this threat the German authorities formed a special 1,000 men strong anti-partisan unit of combined SS-Wehrmacht forces, including a Panzer group. Although the unit of maj. Dobrzański never exceeded 300 men, the Germans fielded at least 8,000 men in the area to secure it. (the most famous was the group of Henryk Dobrzański).