Valdo Praust: 80 years ago, 10 July 1941, the main unit of Erna from Finland landed at Salmistu Beach.
“The night’s dark, and the boat cuts the foaming sea, the coast of Finland disappears from the horizon.”
Even less, than 1944 defensive battles of Narva and battles of Sinimäed, is among the Estonians known the landing of 1941 Erna reconnaissance group and its activities in Estonia. There have indeed been published some pieces here and there, but this has not led to such a national and official commemoration campaign. In an attempt to make an impact, we are publishing a post from Valdo Praust, about the landing of Erna main reconnaissance unit, that is our attempt to bring back the memories to us and to the newer generation, that which, for some reason, we haven’t been eager to commemorate during the last 30 years of regaining the independence, not commemorating nationally and not making a firm place of the events in the memory of Estonians.
* – Finnish boys / Soomepoisid were Estonians who joined Finnish Army during the 1939 Winter Waer of defected to Finland later and joined the Finnish Armed Forces.
** – On the picture above are Erna unit airborne parachutists who were send into by a plane. They have on the belt Finnish knife (puukko) that they left on their missions as token of proof of their involvement to spare the wrath of the Reds on the civilians and left the lingering fear of the arrived “Finns”.
Valdo Praust – https://www.facebook.com/valdo.praust/posts/4537865479559599
Eighty years ago, on the night before, July 10, 1941, the main group of Erna reconnaissance unit from Finland landed at Salmistu Beach, a total of 42 men to fight the Bolsheviks here in the Summer War. Erna unit was, in fact, a joint project between Finnish and German Military Intelligence in order to collect data on what is happening in the Bolsheviks rear and sabotage their activities. It materialized as such due to Estonians (Finnish boys / Soomepoisid)* were trained in Finland and then sent to homeland, the main group, 80 years ago today. In addition to gathering intelligence, they helped enormously in the fight against the Bolsheviks. After landing at the homeland, the Erna unit formed its base camp in the middle of the forests near Kautla, where on 31 July a serious battle was also fought with the Bolsheviks. Later, an Erna battalion was formed on the basis of the Erna unit (which had received a great deal of addition in form of the local volunteers) which helped the Germans to remove the Bolsheviks from the western part of the mainland and then from the islands. On October 10, 1941 the Germans abolished the Erna battalion. In particular, the occupying Estonia Nazis, on the conquered lands, had no plans for neither the restoration of the nation states nor the formation of the national troops, which the Erna group/battalion was in essence. Obviously, in the event of the alternative development of history, the Erna unit would have become the core of Estonia’s restored army, which did not happen. On picture – The memorial pillar of the Erna group near Salmistu on Muuksi town hill (granite barrels on the right). In order to commemorate the activities of the Erna unit, a military-sports competition “Erna Raid” was held between 1994 and 2011, which was one of the most difficult of its kind in the world and also began with a mass beach landing at Salmistu Beach.
