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The Erna Raid (Template:Lang-et) is an annual international military exercise and competition, one of the longest and most difficult in the world, held every August since 1995 in Estonia. It is organised by the Erna Society and commemorates the actions of the Erna long-range recce group in the summer of 1941.

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.

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 People's Republic of China have been traditionally successful in the competition and took 1st and 2nd place in 2002. Other successful teams have come from Finland and Norway.

History

The competition is named after the Erna long-range recce group (Template:Lang-et) and themed after its activities in the summer of 1941.

Erna long-range recce group

The group's task was to perform reconnaissance deep behind enemy lines for the Finnish Army, but it turned to saving thousands of civilians hiding in the Kautla woods by allowing them to escape while the outnumbered Erna force engaged Soviet NKVD Destruction Battalions in fierce battles in the summer of 1941 . The majority of the unit were killed in this action.

The group was originally formed from volunteer Estonian veterans of the Winter War 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 the summer of 1941 until the end of World War II on Estonian territory and in Leningrad Oblast. The 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 311th 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 fractions continued guerrilla activities, becoming Forest Brothers (Baltic partisans).

Erna Society

In 1993, a group of enthusiasts followed the historical route of the Erna group of 1941, and came up with the idea of organizing a commemorative competition. A first try with only Estonian participants was held in 1994. In the autumn of 1994, the Erna society was founded, and in 1995, the first international competition was held, and has been so annually since then, growing in extent and number of participants over time.

Controversy in 2007

In 2007, the Russian government expressed the view that the activities of the Erna group were acts of collaboration with the Nazi regime, and that commemoration of it today is part of alleged efforts by the Estonian authorities to glorify Nazi past (other parts of it being relocation of war graves and an official greeting from the Minister of Defence to the participants of a World War 2 veterans memorial event). Some analysts conclude that 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. Estonia's Minister of Defence, Jaak Aaviksoo, found the accusations regrettable and said that the Erna group's task was to protect civilians and save lives.

The chairman of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), René van der Linden, warned in July 2007 against holding the annual Erna competition. If held, he said, "We can introduce this issue to the PACE agenda in October, apply political pressure, draw greater attention in the Council of Europe." However, some other members of PACE have noted that van der Linden has shown clear sympathy toward Russia’s positions in the last few years and query whether his stance is influenced by his family’s reported economic interests in Russia..

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

References

1. British Embassy in Tallinn August 5, 2006: ERNA RAID 2006 1–5 August
2. p16, Mart Laar: War in the Woods: Estonia's Struggle for Survival, 1944-1953. Howells House, 1991, ISBN 0929590082
3. C. Jurando, N Thomas PhD: Germany's Eastern Front Allies(2): Baltic Force, page 5. Osprey Publishing, 2002, ISBN 1841761931
4. ^ Jõgi, Ülo. "Birth of the ERNA-organization and its operations in 1941". ERNA Society. Retrieved 2007-08-10.
5. p147, Mart Laar: War in the Woods: Estonia's Struggle for Survival, 1944-1953. Howells House, 1991, ISBN 0929590082
6. "Поход Эрна-2007". Часть истории или популяризация нацизма? Template:Ru icon
7. ^ "PACE Chairman bending to the Kremlin wind against Estonia". Jamestown Foundation. 2007-08-03. Retrieved 2007-08-09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
8. "Erna Raid and NKVD Destruction Battalions". Estonian Ministry of Defence. 2007-08-09. Retrieved 2007-08-10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
9. "Aaviksoo: Erna retk ei möödunud ilma Venemaa laimukampaaniata". Postimees. 2007-08-09. Retrieved 2007-08-09. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) Template:Et icon

External links

• Erna Society — Official webpage in English

• 1995 establishments
• Military exercises and wargames
• Russian accusations of Nazism in Estonia