The types, quantities, and availability of necessary supplies play an intrinsic part in the capabilities and limitations of resistance forces, as well as the types of missions a given resistance element can successfully perform. Further, an adequate availability of re-supply plays a critical role in the maintenance of all three aspects of a successful resistance. For the active, fighting elements—the paramilitary guerrilla force and the subversive underground—each successful re-supply represents encouragement and reassurance that others are sharing in their struggles and actively supporting their efforts. For the auxiliary and supporting elements of the civilian population, it offers moral encouragement that they are, in fact, actively “doing their part” to assist the movement (thus my constant harping on the logistics support role of the auxiliary).
Historically, many claim that guerrillas “lived off the land.” While true to a degree, it was not in the typical sense most consider when they use the term. Guerrillas didn't historically spend all of their time hunting for meat and foraging for edible wild plants, although both have certainly played a part in the logistics plans of some historical guerrilla resistance movements. Instead, resistance forces have typically, when outside support was unavailable, relied on “taxation” of the civilian population and battlefield recovery. The resources of the country, represented by how well these demands can be filled through these methods, has limited the size of guerrilla bands that could be successfully organized and maintained in a given unconventional warfare operational area (UWOA). Guerrillas have historically had no choice other than to rely on these indigenous resources for re-supply of critical needs.
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