3. ERNA
The Winter War in Finland
When the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union began, Estonia was still independent, but had Soviet troops based in its soil in accordance with the Soviet-Estonian treaty which also forced the Estonian government to refrain from any criticism or action otherwise unfriendly towards the Soviets. This meant that Estonia adopted a policy of strict neutrality in the conflict between its neighbours. Opposed to this, general feeling in the country was very sympathetic towards Finland. Thousands of people moved to Finland or Sweden, away from the Soviet threat and all in all 56 Estonian men joined the Finnish army as volunteers.
The volunteers were sent to Lapua for training in Osasto Sisu ( Finnish: "Detachment Sisu" ). Finnish government gathered to this unit all foreign volunteers apart from a Swedish battalion, which was sent to the front and some individual volunteers from various countries, e.g. qualified pilots, who were sent to the Air Force.
When the war ended in Marh 1940, most of the volunteers stayed in Finland and many more Estonians came over especially after the farcical elections and annexation of Estonia in the summer of 1940. This was done with a considerable risk; it is not known how many refugees perished during the hazardous journey over the Gulf and how many were captured by the Soviets, never to be heard again. It should be stressed that the Soviets arrested or shot people even in the time when Estonia was formally independent.
It might be noted here that after the armistice about a dozen Estonian volunteers took their way to Norway and joined the Norwegian army in their fight against the German invader. The men managed to take part in one battle before they were forced to retreat to Finland. One Estonian was killed in action in Norway.
Erna Group
Soon after the war the the Finnish army intelligence recruited some Estonians. In addition to former Sisu volunteers there were some civilian Estonians workin for the Finnish intelligence so that the the total amount of these Estonian agents was about ten. Some of these men were sent to Estonia and at least five were either killed or captured.
In the winter of 1940/41 the Finnish army intelligence and some Estonian officers comtinued recruiting suitable young Estonian men to be trained for intelligence gathering missions in the rear of the Red army. Initially there were fifteen men who were trained as radio operators. The men received also training in the use of explosives.
When Finland joined the war, about fifty more Estonians, some of them volunteers from detachment Sisu, who had enlisted in the Finnish army were joined with the radio operators. The new unit was intended for operations in occupied Estonia. Since it was the Germans who were to operate in Estonia, the operation was to be a joined Estonian-Finnish-German operation. The Germans gave the group a code name, Erna, which was to become a semi-official name for this force. The group's commander was colonel Henn-Ants Kurg, an Estonian career officer.
Both Kurg and major Kristjan, who had been active in recruiting Estonians to the Finnish army had avoided the fate other senior Estonian officers by having been posted as military attaches in Estonians embassies abroad: Kurg in Paris and Kristjan in Helsinki.
Erna in Estonia
In July 1941 the Erna group was sent to Estonia. It was intended that all men would land by boat and operate as a single unit, but due to Soviet Naval activity, only a part of the boats managed to land with 38 men on board, including colonel Kurg. The rest returned to Finland and some of them, mainly trained radio operators, were later parachuted to Estonia in groups of two or four men. These groups operated with local Brethren of the Forest and radioed information to Finland.
The troops successfully in Estonia were soon discovered and clashed with the Red Army. By the end of the month the group had been joined by local Brethren of the Forest and also some unarmed civilians. This gathering of people was surrounded in a swamp area but the local guerillas led by major Hindpere guided the people out of reach of the enemy. This was taken rather badly by the Soviets who avenged their frustration by murdering civilians and burning their houses in surrounding villages.
The Erna Group was relatively poorly armed from the beginning as it was not intended to actively engage the Red Army. This was even more pronounced after men even more poorly armed or altogether unarmed joined in. Luckily, also the Soviet units set against them were largely lightly armed security units, although numerically superior. This numerical disparity was countered by better motivation and familiarity with local circumstances.
In August the 6th the Erna group met with the advancing Germans and joined the 311. infantry regiment towards Tallinn. From now on, the main group of Erna men plus those Estonians joined in was no longer an independent unit, but a part of the German regiment. This group, all in all 62 men, was known as Erna I. Nearly 200 Estonians joined this battalion between contact with the Germans and liberation of Tallinn. At this last the battalion was formed in three companies.
Erna II
As soon as the Germans reached Tallinn, some of the Erna men returned to Finland whereas some were used by the Germans as a basis for an infantry battalion which was used in the invasion of the Estonian islands on the Baltic Sea. This battalion was known as Erna II. This new battalion was commanded by major Hindpere, an Estonian career officer whose guerilla unit had joined forces with the Erna group. Colonel Kurg would have been a logical choice to command also Erna II, but he and the German liaison officer assigned to the group from the beginning were no longer able to cooperate. Kurg had been wounded so he could use this as pretext for resigning.
After the island of Saaremaa was liberated, Erna II returned to Tallinn, where it was officially disbanded on September 29th 1941. Many of the local volunteers joined the Estonian battalions within the German armed forces whereas those from Finland returned there. All in all, there were 445 Estonians involved with different Erna formations and 28 men killed in action.
Finally, it should be stressed that the Erna men who came from Finland did so in Finnish army uniforms and served as members of the Finnish army, though under German operational command. This subordination to Germans was for practical reasons, since it was the Germans who operated in Estonia. The fact that the first Estonian soldiers to fight did so, not in German uniform, but in Finnish, was an important boost for Estonian morale in the years to come.
