The Erna long-range reconnaissance group ( et, Erna luuregrupp) was a

Finnish Army The Finnish Army (Finnish: ''Maavoimat'', Swedish: ''Armén'') is the land forces branch of the Finnish Defence Forces. The Finnish Army is divided into six branches: the infantry (which includes armoured units), field artillery, anti-aircraft ...

unit of Estonian volunteers, that fulfilled reconnaissance duties in Estonia behind

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

lines during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The unit was formed by Finnish military intelligence with the assistance of German military intelligence for reconnaissance operations.Estonian Citizens in the German Armed Forces. Volunteers, Conscripts and Commandeered Troops

Formation of the Erna platoon

After the

Soviet occupation of Estonia The Estonian SSR,, russian: Эстонская ССР officially the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic,, russian: Эстонская Советская Социалистическая Республика was an ethnically based adminis ...

in 1940 hundreds of Estonian men fled to Finland rather than accept Soviet rule. The Estonian

military attaché A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission, often an embassy. This type of attaché post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer, who retains a commission while serving with an embassy. Opport ...

in Finland, Major Aksel Kristian, in the spring of 1941 had compiled a list of Estonians in Finland who wanted to liberate their homeland. Finnish intelligence subsequently recruited 15 volunteers and began training them on the island of Staffan in

Soukka Soukka (Finnish) or Sökö (Swedish) is district number 33 of Espoo, Finland, located in southwestern Espoo in the main district of Suur-Espoonlahti. Early history Soukka is part of the oldest area in Espoo. The oldest discovered signs of habitati ...

Espoo Espoo (, ; sv, Esbo) is a city and municipality in the region of Uusimaa in the Republic of Finland. It is located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordering the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, Kirkkonummi, Vihti and Nurmijärvi ...

. On 22 June 1941

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

invaded the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. Finland entered the war on the German side and Estonians, living in Finland were assembled in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

to establish a voluntary unit to go to Estonia. The platoon commander was

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

Henn-Ants Kurg of the Estonian Army, who had been the last Estonian Military Attaché to France. The Germans gave the group the name "Erna", and two German liaison officers - Oberleutnant Reinhardt and

Sonderführer ''Sonderführer'' (; "special leader"; in full: , "special leader with military command power"), abbreviated Sdf or Sf, was a specialist role introduced in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany in 1937 for the mobilization plan of the German armed for ...

Schwarze - had also joined the group. Erna was armed by and wearing the uniform of the Finnish army. The two Germans in charge wanted Erna to pledge allegiance to the

Führer ( ; , spelled or ''Fuhrer'' when the Umlaut (diacritic), umlaut is not available) is a German word meaning "leader" or "guide". As a political title, it is strongly associated with the Nazi Germany, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Nazi Germany ...

. However, Colonel Kurg strongly opposed this; he insisted that they were not Germans but Estonian volunteers, ready to co-operate, but without any commitments to

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...

. An agreement was reached that being in the service of the Finnish army, Erna should give the oath of loyalty to Finland. Accordingly, on 24 July 1941, the 15 specially trained men and 52 volunteers took an oath of allegiance to Finland.

Action

On the night of 10 July the platoon made a seaborne landing on the northern coast of

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

with 42 men arriving onshore and hiding in the Kautla Marshes 60 km south east of

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

. Another 17 team members were parachuted in on 28 July. The group's task was to perform

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...

deep behind Red Army lines for the

but it turned to saving around 2,000 civilians hiding in the Kautla woods by allowing them to escape while the outnumbered Erna force engaged Soviet NKVD Destruction Battalions in a fierce battle on 31 July to 1 August 1941. On 4 August, the platoon was ordered to cross the frontline and terminate their activities. A total of 32 men were lost, either killed or missing in action.

Aftermath

A battalion (attached to 311 Infantry regiment of German army) was formed from the remnants of the original Erna platoon, with an additional 400 men, and dubbed "Erna II", but was disbanded on 10 October 1941. With the end of the war a number of the original members of Erna continued guerrilla activities against Soviet forces, becoming

Forest Brothers The Guerrilla war in the Baltic states was an armed struggle which was waged by the Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian partisans, called the Forest Brothers (also: the "Brothers of the Wood" and the "Forest Friars"; et, metsavennad, lv, mež ...

. The

Erna Raid Erna Raid ( et, Erna retk) was an annual international military exercise and competition, one of the longest and most difficult in the world, held every August from 1995 to 2011 in Estonia. It was organised by the Erna Society and commemorates t ...

(Estonian: ''Erna retk'') was an annual international military exercise and competition, commemorating the action of 1941 and held from 1995.

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Embassy in Tallinn; August 5, 2006
ERNA RAID 2006 1–5 August
Soviet propagandists claimed the original Erna team participated in the mass murder of Soviet political activists. These claims were revived in the 1980s as a way of distracting historians analysing the

Kautla massacre The Battle of Kautla ( et, Kautla lahing, ''Kautla veresaun'' or ''Kautla veretöö'') was a battle between Soviet destruction battalions and Estonian Forest Brothers in Kautla, Estonia in July 1941. It included series of murders of civilians ...

, and have been repeated in

Russian media Television, magazines, and newspapers have all been operated by both state-owned and for-profit corporations which depend on advertising, subscription, and other sales-related revenues. Even though the Constitution of Russia guarantees freedom ...

in 2000s. Russian authorities regard the commemorative Erna Raid as "heroizing

fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

".Russian MFA Information and Press Department Commentary Regarding New Facts of Heroization of Nazism in Estonia
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, July 30, 2007

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Erna Long-Range Reconnaissance Group Military units and formations of Finland in World War II Military history of Finland during World War II Military history of Estonia during World War II Military units and formations established in 1941 Special forces

Formation of the Erna platoon

Action

Aftermath

See also

References