Page:On Guerrilla Warfare (United States Marine Corps translation).djvu/112

Yu Chi Chan (Guerrilla Warfare) mission and improve the degree of cooperation, guerrilla units must be equipped with some means of rapid communication. For this purpose, two-way radio sets are recommended.

Guerrilla forces in the immediate battle area are responsible for close cooperation with regular forces. Their principal functions are to hinder enemy transport, to gather information, and to act as outposts and sentinels. Even without precise instructions from the commander of the regular forces, these missions, as well as any others that contribute to the general success, should be assumed.

The problem of establishment of bases is of particular importance. This is so because this war is a cruel and protracted struggle. The lost territories can be restored only by a strategical counterattack, and this we cannot carry out until the enemy is well into China. Consequently, some part of our country—or, indeed, most of it—may be captured by the enemy and become his rear area. It is our task to develop intensive guerrilla warfare over this vast area and convert the enemy's rear into an additional front. Thus the enemy will never be able to stop fighting. In order to subdue the occupied territory, the enemy will have to become increasingly severe and oppressive.

A guerrilla base may be defined as an area, strategically located, in which the guerrillas can carry out their duties of training, self-preservation and development. Ability to fight a war without a rear area is a fundamental characteristic of guerrilla action, but this does not mean that guerrillas can exist and function over a long period of time without the development of base areas. History shows us