I'm going to focus on the Nazi partisan movement known as Werewolf.

Werewolf was developed in 1944, a year which saw Germany retreat on the Eastern Front from the gates of Leningrad and Kiev to Warsaw and Kaunas; not to mention the execution of Operation Overlord and the Anglo-American advance on the Western Front.

It could be argued that while 1943 saw the destruction of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad and the destruction of Army Group Center at Kursk, 1944 was the year of realization of the advantage the Soviets now held.

These advances achieved by the allies on both fronts caused massive concern among the German army, and as such, a plan was created for partisan operations.

The plan incorporated some aspects of partisan operations as carried out by Soviet and Yugoslav partisans, with one of the key organizers of the operation, Hans Adolf Prutzmann, having studied the tactics of Soviet partisans.

However, the initial conception of Werewolf bore more similarity to an elite, behind-the-lines force, involving well trained soldiers who would use small group activities to disrupt key operations in enemy occupied territory. However, the way that these operations would be carried out was more reminiscent to special forces or commando operations, rather than the partisan operations that consisted of ordinary people taking up arms.

Werewolf was initiated late in the summer of 1944, and its reputation was enhanced by speeches given by Goebbels, which created a fear and belief among American soldiers that there was a massive underground resistance movement. Recruits were drawn from Hitler Youth and SS, trained in guerrilla tactics.

But it is important to note that Werewolf was not planned as an underground partisan movement to continue the war in perpetuity following the collapse of the German government. Rather, it was intended to be a method to slow and impede encroaching allied forces, allowing the Wehrmacht to more easily make progress against the allies. This makes sense, given Hitler's hatred of what he viewed as defeatism.

However, the broad consensus is that the efforts of Werewolf guerrillas amounted to little, with only the occasionally terroristic action, such as the assassination of Franz Oppenhoff, an allied appointed mayor or the sabotage of factories.