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Revision as of 18:41, 9 August 2007

The Erna Raid (Template:Lang-et) is an annual international military exercise and competition held since 1995 every August in Estonia and organised by the Erna Society founded for this purpose. It commemorates the actions of Erna long-range recce group (Template:Lang-et) in saving thousands of civilians hiding in the Kautla woods by allowing them to escape while the outnumbered ERNA force engaged Soviet forces in fierce battles in the summer of 1941. Most of the Estonian volunteers were killed during that action.

Participation

Foreign teams have always been welcome to partake in the competition. In 2007 28 teams from 9 different countries are scheduled for participation: Estonia (18 teams), Czech Republic (1), Denmark (1), Finland (2), Germany (1), Norway (2), Portugal (1), Sweden (1) and USA (1), of which Portugal and Czech Republic are newcomers. Teams from United Kingdom have participated in earlier years (most recently, a British Territorial Army team in 2006) but will only be observing in 2007. A team from Cyprus will also be observing. Teams from Communist China have been traditionally successful in the competition and took 1st and 2nd place in 2002.

Composition

The traditional parts of the competition are:

landing, in rubber boats, to a "hostile" shore;
cross-country tactical movement and navigation, without night campdown, over a distance of around 150 kilometres while avoiding and escaping from "hostile" security forces;
various (and varying over years) minigames during the course. These may involve grenade throwing, combat first aid and other military skills.

History

The competition is named and themed after summer 1941 activities of the Erna long-range recce group. Group's task was to perform reconnaissance duty behind Soviet lines for the German army advancing in Estonia after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.

The group was originally formed from (largely ethnic Estonian) volunteers in Finland. Armed and wearing the uniform of the Finnish army, the Germans originally intended it to be a unit of the German army. However, colonel of Estonian Army Henn Ants Kurg, in charge of the newly formed unit, strongly opposed this position. Accordingly, a compromise was reached, and on July 24, 1941, the core unit of 68 men took an oath of allegiance to Finland, not to Adolf Hitler as the Oberleutnant Reinhardt and Sonderführer Schwarz, German liaison officers, had originally insisted.

The group was active from summer of 1941 up to end of World War II on Estonian territory and Leningrad Oblast. Group operated behind Soviet lines until August 6, 1941. Remnants of the group broke through to the German lines and were subsequently attached to the Wehrmacht 311. Infantry regiment as the Erna battalion till the end of the war. 445 Estonian volunteers participated in units known by the name Erna.

With the end of the war, it was officially demobilised; however, a number of factions continued guerrilla activities, becoming Forest Brothers (Baltic partisans).

Controversy

While the ERNA raid has been held annually since 1993, for the first time in 2007 the Russian government has expressed the view that the activities of the Erna group were acts of collaboration with the Nazi regime and part of recent efforts by the Estonian authorities to glorify Nazi past in line with the relocation of war graves and an official greeting from the Minister of Defence to the participants of Waffen SS veterans. Some analysts say this view follows Soviet and post-Soviet Russia's official logic on two counts. First, that resistance to the Red Army was inherently illegitimate and conflatable with “fascism” in an occupied country or one targeted for occupation. Second, that Estonia should be criticized for remembering an act of national resistance and its casualties.

Past Competitions

The table below records the final results for the year's competition. DL is the acronym for the Defence League.

Position	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
1st	Border Guard	Border Guard	DL Järva	China 2	Finland 2	Scouts Bat. 2	Scouts Bat. 1	Reserve Officers
2nd	Kalev Inf. Bat.	Norway	Finland 2	China 1	Scouts Bat.	Reserve Officers	Recce Bat.	Scouts Bat. 1
3rd	DL Pärnu	DL Harju	Border Guard	DL Harju	DL Järva	Scouts Bat. 1	Military Academy	Military Academy
4th	China 2	AA Battery	Logistics Bat.	Security Police	Recce Bat.	Military School	Finland 1	DL Järva
5th	Finland 1	Logistics Bat.	China 2	Military Academy	China 2	DL Pärnu	China 2	Scouts Bat. 2
6th	Guard Bat.	Finland 1	Reserve Officers	DL Järva	Military Academy	DL Järva	China 1	DL Tartu
7th	DL Võru	Reserve Officers	AA Battery	DL Tallinn	Border Guard	Denmark 1	Air Defence Div.	Police
8th	Denmark	Kalev Inf. Bat.	China 1	Lithuania	China 1	Finland 2	Sweden	DL Tallinn
9th	DL Järva	EDF HQ	Guard Bat.	Reserve Officers	Denmark	Lithuania	Germany	Germany
10th	Norway 1	Security Police	Security Police	Scout Bat.	DL Harju 2	Recce Bat.	Reserve Officers	Border Guard
11th	Military Academy	Finland 2	Rescue Service	Border Guard	DL Tallinn 2	Logistic Bat.	DL Järva	EDF HQ
12th	Reserve Officers	Military Academy	DL Tallinn	Finland	DL Tallinn 1	China 2	Guard Bat.	Canada
13th	DL Põlva	Sweden	Norway 1	Military School	DL Võrumaa	Air Defence Bat.	DL Tartu	Guard Bat.
14th	China 1	Norway 2	Norway 2	DL Võrumaa	DL Pärnumaa	Military Academy	Denmark 2	Finland 1
15th	Sweden	DL Võru	Signal Bat.	Norway 1	DL Harju 1	Denmark 2	DL Tallinn	Viru Bat.
16th	Scotland	Germany	Military Academy	Norway 2	Reserve Officers	China 1	Finland 2	Finland 2
17th	Norway 2	DL Tallinn	DL Põlva	Romania	Austria	DL Võru	Scouts Bat.	DL Valgamaa
18th	Italy 2	Denmark 1	Finland 1	AA Battalion	Engineering School	Finland 1	DL Võru	USA
19th	Womens DL	China 1	Sweden	Denmark 1	Military School	Sweden	Denmark 1	Denmark 1
20th	UK	DL Järva	DL Harju	Finland 2	Finland 1	Germany	Pärnu Bat.	Great Britain
21st		China 2	EDF HQ	Sweden	Lithuania	Guard Bat.	USA	Belgium
22nd		Rescue Service	Denmark	text	Police	Belgium	DL Pärnu	Artillery Group
23rd		Italy 1	USA Maryland	Italy	Rescue Service	DL Tallinn	Belgium	Womens DL Võru
24th		United Kingdom	Scotland	EDF HQ	Sweden	Romania	Womens DL Võru	Denmark 3
25th		Womens DL	Womens DL	Rescue Service	Guard Bat.	Turkey	Italy	Latvia
26th		Italy 1	Lithuania	Womens DL	United Kingdom	Womens DL		Denmark 2
27th			Recce Batalion	Scotland	Poland	USA
28th				United Kingdom		United Kingdom