need pictures of Estonian volunteers

Discussions on the foreigners (volunteers as well as conscripts) fighting in the German Wehrmacht, those collaborating with the Axis and other period Far Right organizations. Hosted by George Lepre.
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Alexander Zöller
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#61

Post by Alexander Zöller » 11 Jan 2004, 21:29

Askold, there are no photos of Ukrainian or Galician volunteers in this collection. The photographer only took photos in Estonia, and later in Germany after the war.

As far as I can tell the photographs have not been added to the website's online database so far. The only way to access them is by directly typing in the URL of an image and then working your way through by replacing the image file name,... which I would suggest not to abuse as it may not be in the interest of the institute. It should be preferable to wait until they are made available to the public in a proper way; the site mentions scanning will be completed in 2004.

The images seem to range from http://www.herder-institut.de/bilder_hintzer/150001.jpg to
http://www.herder-institut.de/bilder_hintzer/155286.jpg. There are some gaps, but overall there are several thousand images online, with about four times as many yet to be scanned. From the samples I have seen only about 10% appear to be military related.

This is not an archive of volunteer photos but the estate of a photographer who happened to snap a number of pictures from that area. It definitely wasn't his primary field of interest as the many civilian and rural photos show.

Alexander

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Toivo
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#62

Post by Toivo » 11 Jan 2004, 22:20

Overall pictures are good and I don't doubt in originality as I have seen several of them before, in books given out after war for exsample.

Just those series which were about troops near lake Peipus looked funny. Explanation that these were purely propaganda photos with rear units sounds believable because seriously, those soldiers nor place hadn't seen combat for a looooong time... :/


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Askold
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#63

Post by Askold » 13 Jan 2004, 22:47

Thanks Alexander! I'll have to look somewhere else - its almost impossible to find pictures of Ukrainians.

Bjösha
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estonian regiment JR200

#64

Post by Bjösha » 17 Jan 2006, 11:14

Does anyone have information about the estonian regiment JR200 (Suomen Pojat)?
My father was serving the finnish army in this regiment and I would like to know as much as possible about it. My father doesn´t want to tell me anything about the war. So maybe someone at this forum have something to tell me.

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nublu
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Re: estonian regiment JR200

#65

Post by nublu » 17 Jan 2006, 16:18

Bjösha wrote:Does anyone have information about the estonian regiment JR200 (Suomen Pojat)?
My father was serving the finnish army in this regiment and I would like to know as much as possible about it. My father doesn´t want to tell me anything about the war. So maybe someone at this forum have something to tell me.
Do you read some Finnish?
http://www.suomenpojat.fi/

Perhaps can find also some material in Internet in Estonian, but not sure about English...

Edit: Never say never :wink:
Estonian Citizens in the Finnish Armed Forces During World War II



As early as during the winter of 1939–1940, after the entry of Soviet troops into Estonia, a number of Estonians fled to Finland to serve as volunteers in the Winter War. There was also a community of Estonians who had been living in Finland even before that. About 60 Estonians who were formed into a company participated in the Winter War under the command of the international “Sisu” Brigade. The Brigade was in training at the end of the Winter War and was never sent to the front. In May and June, 10 Estonians who had been in the “Sisu” Brigade fought in the Alta battalion against the Germans in northern Norway.

In 1940–1941, about 70 additional Estonians succeeded in escaping to Finland. In March of 1941, Major Aksel Kristian, the last Estonian military representative in Finland, arranged radio telegraph courses there for 18 Estonian men. On June 23, 1941, after the beginning of the war between Germany and the Soviet Union, the Estonian volunteers were assembled and they received training as an long-range reconnaissance unit known as “Erna”. The commander of the unit was Colonel Henn-Ants Kurg, the last Estonian military attaché in France. The unit was formed to work in cooperation with Finnish and German military intelligence for reconnaissance operations in the rear of the Red Army. At the beginning of July, a combined sea and air landing was carried out to deploy the 65-man unit to Estonia. The unit established a base on the Kautla bog island. The unit engaged in combat operations against Destroyer Battalion units and the 22nd NKVD Division. On August 6, 1941, the Erna troops crossed over the front and made contact with German troops. An Estonian battalion of volunteers with the same name was later formed on the basis of the “Erna” unit, which took part in the conquest of Vormsi, Muhu and Saaremaa islands as part of the Wehrmacht’s 217th Infantry Division, and was disbanded on October 10, 1941.
After the landing on Muhu, which took place from Finnish military speedboats, some of the “Erna” members went to Finland along with the Finns and participated in the taking of Hanko. In the spring of 1942, the German Abwehr intelligence and counterintelligence representative in Finland, Cellarius, constituted a 13-member long-range reconnaissance unit of the “Erna” men, which was deployed to the rear of the Red Army. All of the members of that unit were killed. Estonians also served in Finnish long-range reconnaissance units.
During spring of 1943, a broader-scale underground exodus began to Finland. Even prior to that, more than 400 Estonian refugees had fled to Finland. The main reason so many fled in 1943 was that a large group of men born between 1919 to 1924 wanted to evade being drafted into the State Labor Service, the military auxiliary services and the Estonian SS Legion. In April and May, 300 to 400 men reached Finland. By the end of the year, at least 2,500 additional men had arrived.
The Estonian volunteers who arrived in Finland from 1941–1943 received orders for service in the Third Battalion of 47th Infantry Regiment, also known as the Vallila Battalion. Most of the Estonians served in the 10th Company of that unit and were at the front from 1942–1944. The Estonian volunteers who had arrived during the spring of 1943 were gathered at the Jalkala training camp, were trained by the fall, and were sent to the front as part of the Vallila Battalion, which – by then – consisted mostly of Estonians.
On February 8, 1944, Marshal Mannerheim, the Finnish Commander in Chief, ordered that the Estonian volunteers be formed into the 200th Infantry Regiment (JR 200). By this time, there were several thousand Estonian men of military age in Finland. On February 26, 1944, the Vallila Battalion became the first battalion of Infantry Regiment 200. The second battalion was formed from the latest arrivals. The regiment consisted of two four-company infantry battalions (Companies 1–8 ), the 13th Mortar Company and the 14th Anti-Tank Company. On May 4, 1944, there were 1,973 Estonians and 361 Finns in Infantry Regiment 200, including 67 officers and 165 non-commissioned officers. On June 10th, the 1st Battalion was sent to the front as part of the 10th Division. At the beginning of July, the 2nd Battalion was also sent to the front on the coast of the Bay of Viborg. In July, JR 200 was assigned to its own designated section of the front on the coast of the Bay of Viborg, and operated as a full-fledged regiment from then on.
As the situation on the Estonian front grew more dire in 1944, some of the JR 200 men expressed the desire to go back to Estonia, in order to be able to fight there against the Red Army. A truce was pending between Finland and the Soviet Union, and it was possible that the conditions of that truce could have held risks for the Estonian volunteers fighting in the Finnish Army. Infantry Regiment 200 was recalled from the front, the unit was decommissioned from the Finnish Army, and the men who wished to go back to Estonia (1,752 men) were sent from Hanko to Paldiski on August 19, 1944. On September 2nd, 49 men who had served in the Finnish Navy followed them. Almost 400 Estonians had served in the Finnish Navy.
The majority of the Estonian volunteers who remained in Finland left for Sweden after the truce was signed. The few who remained in Finland were kept under surveillance at the demand of Soviet representatives, and some men were handed over to the Soviet Union after the end of the war.
In Estonia, the 1st Battalion of these “Finnish boys”, as they were called, were sent to the front at the Emajõgi River, where – on the 26th of August – it was designated the 3rd Battalion of the 46th Regiment of the 20th Estonian SS Division, to replace the previous 3rd Battalion, which had been decimated in fighting at the Narva front. The 2nd Battalion was sent to a training camp in Kehra (where the Field Reserve Battalion of the 20th Estonian SS Division was located). Another 600 men went sent to various 20th Estonian SS Division units. The 114 officers who arrived from Finland were sent to the 20th Estonian SS Division Reserve Training Regiment in Klooga. Some of them, primarily men who had received artillery and anti-tank training, were sent to the Narva front to the Nordland SS Division and the Nederland SS Brigade. In September of 1944, the 1st Battalion of the “Finnish boys” began their retreat from the front at the Emajõgi River – a retreat that entailed leaving Estonia. Some of the “Finnish boys” serving in Kehra, Klooga and in SS-units were also sent to assignments outside of Estonia. Others decided to join the resistance movement in Estonia, and a number of them served in the Johan Pitka Assault Force. The troops who provided security for the short-lived Estonian government of Otto Tief that was inaugurated on September 18th also consisted of “Finnish boys”.
At least 180 “Finnish boys” died in combat in Finland (32 were killed by an accidental explosion in the Jalkala training camp on April 17th). 62 were killed in action in August and September in Estonia.
The Commander of the 200th Infantry Regiment was Finnish Lieutenant Colonel Eino Kuusela. In July of 1944, Estonians were appointed as the battalion commanders – Captain Voldemar Pärlin and Major Johann Peiker, respectively. After the death of Pärlin in September 1944, Lieutenant Karl Pärnoja was appointed to take his place.
Source: http://www.okupatsioon.ee/english/overv ... ISTAN.html

Bjösha
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estonian volunteers

#66

Post by Bjösha » 18 Jan 2006, 13:34

Thanks! I don´t know finnish but I think I can find someone who does.

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Orlov
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#67

Post by Orlov » 19 Jan 2006, 18:57

Some more Estonians at typical propaganda photos

Bestreg

Orlov
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Juha Tompuri
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#68

Post by Juha Tompuri » 21 Jan 2006, 23:51

Tere,

Do you read Estonian?
Soomepoisid
Ülevaade eesti vabatahtlike liikumisest ning sõjateest Soomes ja kodumaal Teise maailmasõja päevil

by Evald Uustalu and Rein Moora
1st print 1973 Toronto (Stockholm/Göteborg ?)
2nd print 1993 Tallin
ISBN 5-460-00017-3

Regards, Juha

Animal
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#69

Post by Animal » 31 Jan 2006, 05:30

UnterKroon wrote:#8
Those are Estonian uniforms, right?

Deine-Zukunft
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#70

Post by Deine-Zukunft » 31 Jan 2006, 16:57

Great pictures.

Some of those looked like Reenactment photos for being so sharp quality.

Absolutely great

Reinuvader
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#71

Post by Reinuvader » 14 Jan 2007, 05:22

In this pic estonan soldiers are in Narva front. Think it is 1944
Image

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kaapkass
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Re: need pictures of Estonian volunteers

#72

Post by kaapkass » 25 Oct 2009, 09:32

I wanted to add here the video. but something was with the script. A medal of "thank you" to SS-Unterscharführer Harald Nugiseks. Nugiseks (born October 22 1922 Järvamaa Estonia) was in World War II serving 20th Waffen Grenadier Division the SS (1st Estonian) SS. is also one four Estonian soldiers who received Knight's Cross Iron Cross. He it for leading capture Vaasa- Siivertsi- Vepsküla bridgehead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeE3yV_4QUc
Alles für Heimatland

jcps
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Re: need pictures of Estonian volunteers

#73

Post by jcps » 19 Aug 2010, 19:32

Hi,
I don't know who owns the picture entitled Estonians.jpg but I'd be interested in gaining permission to use it in our publication. Kindly let me know if you're interested.
Best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Campbell
Editor, Diplomat Magazine
P.O. Box 1173, Station B
Ottawa, ON
K1P 5R2
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.diplomatonline.com

veiko
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Re: need pictures of Estonian volunteers

#74

Post by veiko » 23 Sep 2010, 12:24

Could anyone recommend a few "must-read" books on the Estonians in WW2? Preferable in English...

PK
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Re: need pictures of Estonian volunteers

#75

Post by PK » 23 Sep 2010, 18:25

I can recommend the two books: "Estonian Freedom Fighters in World War Two", published 25 years ago or so by Vöitleja in Canada and "Estonia 1940-44", published 4 years ago in Estonia by the Estonian History Commission.

There are quite some books written in Estonian on this subject.

Best regards
PK

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