Lithuania vs. U.S.S.R.: A Secret Hot Fight in the Cold War

World War II is supposed to have ended in Europe on May 8, 1945, when German representatives signed the act of military surrender in Berlin. Isolated German units held out a little longer, and there remained sporadic instances of unrest elsewhere. Greece was in a state of turmoil—civil war would break out there in March 1946 and last until 1949. A new "cold war" loomed between the Soviet Union and the United States. Yet for the most part the guns seemed to have fallen silent.

But in at least one part of the continent the guns had not stopped firing. In a remote forest in southern Lithuania, on the afternoon of May 26, 1946, partisans of the Iron Wolf Regiment leapt to action as Soviet troops advanced cautiously through the woods. Hiding their valuables, including printing equipment they had used to produce subversive literature, the partisans abandoned their log bunkers and fled several hundred yards into the forest to await developments.

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