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Revision as of 05:28, 7 August 2007 by Digwuren (talk | contribs) (→History: Wink liaison officer.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)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 the summer of 1941.
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, an UK Territorial Army team in 2006) but will only be observing in 2007. A team from Cyprus will also be observing.
Composition
The traditional parts of the competition are:
- landing, in rubber boats, to a "hostile" shore;
- cross-country tactical movement and navigation, without nith 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.
The group was originally formed from (largely ethnic Estonian) volunteers in Finland. Armed and uniformed by Finnish army, the Germans originally intended it to be a unit of the German army. However, colonel 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 unit 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. With the end of the war, it was officially demobilised; however, a number of factions continued guerrilla activities, becoming Forest Brothers (Baltic partisans).
Soviet revisionism
The Soviet Union's official treatment of history considers the original Erna group "bandits", along with the Forest Brothers.
References
- British Embassy in Tallinn August 5, 2006: ERNA RAID 2006 1–5 August
External links
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