Estonian volunteers at Norway April(?) 1940

[Juha Tompuri]

Hi!

Found the following pic at "Viron Kunniaksi" (In Honour of Estonia, Eesti Auks) by Jaakko Korjus. After Winter War ( originally the men came to Finland to help us against USSR) the ten men went to Norway (Narvik region), where they got one week training, Norwegian uniforms and weapons. One of them was killed and two wounded in action against the Germans. Later they came "back" to Finland.

Regards, Juha

P.S. sorry about the low quality of the pic. Just learning to use scanner.

[Tapani K.]

This is a very interesting episode, since I have never found anything about it in Finnish books; apart from Korjus’ book, which is here based on Estonian material. Another interesting thing is that, according to Estonian sources, there were Finnish volunteers with the Estonians. According to some sources the Estonians fought under a Finnish officer in the fighting against the Germans after the loss of Narvik. This Finnish officer was vänrikki Martikainen and with him there were some more Finns, but I have not been able to find any numbers or names although my sources have the list of names for all the Estonians.

BTW, it might be noted here that at least two of the Estonians who fought in Norway took part in the well-known long-range patrol mission where all the members of the patrol were killed. This patrol was organized by the Germans in August 1942 and all the 13 members were Estonians serving in the Finnish army.



regards,
Tapani K.

[Arensburger]

http://www.feldgrau.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20763
There is something about Estonians in the Norwegian Army 1940.
http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/hod/do ... ?id=375470