'Brauner Bär' was a German special command created in an attempt to establish operational links between the many small groups of German forces which had been isolated in the area to the north-west of Minsk behind the Soviet front line on the one hand and the leadership, under Stepan Andreivich Bandera, of Ukrainian anti-Soviet guerrilla forces in the area on the other hand with a view to locating and attacking the lines of communication supporting Soviet front-line formations (December 1944).