Bert "Yank" Levy (October 5, 1897 – September 2, 1965)[2][3][4] was a Canadian soldier, socialist, and military instructor who was the author/pamphleteer of one of the first manuals on guerrilla warfare, which was widely circulated with more than a half million published.

[3][8] Similar combat training was provided to forces in the United States and Canada, and he was an itinerant lecturer and provocateur on the subject.

In September 1918, his unit traversed the Egyptian desert and entered the Jordan River valley, taking control of Es-Salt in a campaign against the Turks.

The scouts invited them to tea, and told them stories of amazing feats, resulting in Levy pursuing "a lifelong career in guerrilla warfare.

[5][11] In Nicaragua, he outfitted a ship with sandbagged Lewis gun "emplacements in case of a surprise en route by U.S. patrol vessels."

His service with the Sandinistas was cut short when the United States and U.S. Marines appeared, as "he had no desire to fight his fellow countrymen.

"[4] Another scenario is that the Sandinistas deemed the continued reliability of Americans to be dubious as a force opposing the Marines, and they were involuntarily retired.

[5] Levy also claimed to have participated in "troubles" in countries south of Mexico, once being sentenced to thirty years imprisonment for gun running.

[4] During the Spanish Civil War, Levy served with the International Brigade as an officer in the British Battalion, under Tom Wintringham, from 1937.

[3][16][17][7] He spent six months in a Francoist prison,[18] being released after the Canadian government exchanged him for two Italian officers – something he characterized as "a fair deal.

[9] At the outbreak of World War II, Levy tried to enlist with the Canadian Army, but was refused due to his flat feet and hammer toes.

Levy advocated guerrilla warfare as a democratic means of combating fascism, frequently attacking the military establishment who overlooked the lessons of such commanders as T. E. Lawrence and their experience in irregular war.

He also suggested fictional accounts of guerrilla warfare could provide valuable insights, referencing Ernie O'Malley's On Another Man's Wound, Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, and Edgar Snow's Scorched Earth.

A guerrilla learns how to derail and wreck trains, blow up tanks, destroy planes on the ground, and dynamite bridges.

If that is impossible, the guerrilla covers the sentry with his revolver, steps on his foot, unbuttons his tunic, and jerks it down over his arms to lock them.

Besides blankets, extra socks, binoculars, rifles, burnt cork to blacken the face, etc., an important part of the equipment is 25 to 30 yards of fishline.

And therefore we should not think of guerrilla warfare only in terms of the present heroism of the Soviet Union or a possible future resistance to invasion in this country.

[9] Under the direction of General Sherman Miles, who was commanding the First Corps, Levy taught 30 Regular Army and 76 National Guard soldiers, training them to act as partisans in Concord, Massachusetts.

The location, "by the rude bridge that arched the flood", was not accidental but was intended to be a call to arms and to invoke the mystique of the Minutemen.

While still teaching the methods he had at Osterley Park, he began to advocate the scorched earth policies used in the Soviet Union against the Nazi invasion, developing an opportunistic conception of homeland defense.

Utilizing this knowledge of the countryside and employing guerrilla tactics, Home Guard units have defeated the Regular Army troops in war games in Britain.

"[15]Throughout World War II, he continued to proselytize the need for a home guard in America, Canada and Great Britain, and to teach that guerrilla warfare was a key ingredient of an effective defense.

[2][4][27] Subsequently, he returned to lecture in America[28] as an advance party when Wintringham was invited to start an Osterley style school in San Bernardino.

The Harvard Crimson noted: ""Yank" expects to leave this country within a few days to return to Britain, where Goebbels has promised that he will be among the first to be shot when the Germans capture England.

His request was denied ostensibly because of potential diplomatic problems associated with his championing guerrilla warfare and "dirty tricks" that he taught to the Home Guard.

His lawyer invoked Levy's chronic arthritis and penury, his law-abiding conduct with his wife and daughter in Los Angeles, and his list of good works in contributing to the war effort.

He was represented by Hanley Rubensohn, a Philadelphia attorney, who said that Levy wanted to wipe out the only blot on his record, so that he could live in peace.

[13] Levy suffered a heart attack in 1965 which led to his death and the derailment of a planned biography based on his memorabilia and correspondence, with writer Don Dwiggins; as of 2014, this source material survives in Los Angeles.

[4] In 2006, it was announced that an American writer, Todd Winer, was conducting research for a biography promising "fascinating reading, with Levy as a latter day Stephen Crane or Jack London.

"[7] Levy was also covered in Liberty Magazine, November 21, 1942; American Rifleman, May 1942; Coronet, October 1942; and The Christian Science Monitor, June 17, 1942.