In a stay-back operation, a country organizes secret employees or organizations in its own area, in case the area is occupied by an enemy. In that case, employees would be the basis of a resistance movement, or spying behind enemy lines.
In the Second World War there were several stay-back organizations; in the United Kingdom the Auxiliary Units. During the Cold War, NATO and the CIA supported back-call troops in many European countries, with the aim of activating them if that country were taken over by the Warsaw Pact or if the Communist Party came to power in a democratic election. During the same period, Ilya Starinov founded the still-existing Spetsnaz in the USSR, special elite units that belonged to the Russian military intelligence service.
In Italy, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and other countries, many weapons were found available from these "secret armies". The best known of these NATO operations was Operation Gladio. List of stay-back plans Nihtilä-Haahti plan (Finland) Project-26 (P-26, Switzerland) Weerwolven (Nazi Germany) Regional Force Surveillance Units (Australië) Information Office ('IB') in Sweden, probably.
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