estonians in western forces

[cyberdaemon]

theres alots of writings about estonians in red army and german army alongside with finnish army.
but i cant find anything about estonians who fought in western allied side.
however i found a note from waffen-ss published diary that the author , whos friend was in waffen-ss too , had brother in RAF.
i forgot the names offcource.but any availible source is good.

[nublu]

There were 4 Estonian pilots who served in RAF. They were Peeter Olt, Endel Susi, Ants Liblikmaa and Mihkel Kristiani.

All 4 were arrested by Soviets, and were in prison camps. As Soviet Union also started war with Germans they started to gather Polish soldiers and officers in prison camps to Anders army. As Estonian pilots had good relations with Polish - with some help from Poles they also pretended to be Polish and were included in Anders army, and left with it Soviet Union.

Peeter Olt was oldest of them, and didn't serve in any frontline unit. He was ferry pilot and survived the war. Died in Engalnd on 1970.

Endel Susi was flying on Mosquito fighters in one Polish regiment. Don't remember now exactly the number of it, but about him is mentioned in one Polish book, about what i got some information from one guy in Poland. He also survived the war, earned severeal British and Polish war medals, moved after war to Canada, and also died there somewhere in 1970'ies.

Ants Liblikmaa used in Polish squadron also another first name - Jan (as Ants have some other meening in English than in Estonian )
He was killed in flying accident in some reserve unit where he was after his first battle tour also in one Polish squadron and also on Mosquitos. He is buried on Astwood cemetary near Worchester.

Mihkel Kristiani finished his advanced training to fly Mosquitos, but died before he started his battle tour because of some serious illness.

In RAF served also 2 Estonian women - Raja Tamm and Lea Lintrop-Hughes. Both were studying in England when war broke out. And they volunteered for military service. About Raja Tamm is known only that she served all the war in RAF, married some Englishman, and moved with him To South Africa after war.

Lea Lintrop-Hughes was killed in flight accident in 1944.

Thats briefly all what i found at the moment. Somewhere i might have also those units where did Susi and Liblikmaa serve...

rgds

Toomas

[Tapani K.]

Karl Nurk, born in Tallinn 1904 worked as a gamekeeper in Kenya(?) in 1939. He joined the British volunteers destined for the Finnish Winter War and served with the Detachment Sisu in Lapua as a platoon commander. After the peace-treaty he and other Britis volunteers were demobilized. Nurk joined the British Army and apparently won the Military Cross.

If anyone has more info on Nurk I would be very interested to here some details.

And, of course, there were the ten Estonians who fought in Norway against the Germans. There was some Estonian-language discussion about them recently in militaar.net.

regards,
Tapani K.

[pegleg]

I knew a fellow named Bernhard (Harri) Nurmsen in Los Angeles. He had emigrated to the US either during the 20's or 30's, probably the latter. He died in California a number of years ago. He gained some notoriety in his youth by traveling the length of the Mississipi in a kayak, which he wrote a book about in Estonian. He was active in the LA Estonian community.
When WW II arrived, he either volunteered or was drafted and served somewhere in Europe as an NCO in an American armor unit.
There were probably many more of these "old Estonians" (from the Estonian emigration of the period of interwar independence, as opposed to the later wave of 1944 refugees) who served in the US armed forces during WW II.

[pegleg]

I have heard a story about a unit of the 20th SS Division "Estonian" which was making its way towards British or American lines to surrender in May 1945 in Germany or possibly Denmark. The story goes that they were flying a large Estonian flag and were spared from being fired upon from the air because one of the fighter pilots who flew over them was of Estonian birth. Story told to me during Sinimäed memorial ceremony at end of July 2004. I had heard this account before somewhere. No idea if it is a legend or the truth.

[nublu]

Funny, just yesterday looked new documentary about estonian film director Jüri Müür. There was this myth also mentioned. With name of the pilot even.

Pilot's name was ofcourse Endel Susi, who flew on Mosquito on those days. And his unit was actually also fighter-bomber unit. Mistakenly in the film there was said that he was Squadron Commander, but he wasn't.

And anyways - i still think that it's more myth than truth...

rgrds

Toomas

[Tapani K.]

Karl Nurk, born in Tallinn 1904 worked as a gamekeeper in Kenya(?) in 1939. He joined the British volunteers destined for the Finnish Winter War and served with the Detachment Sisu in Lapua as a platoon commander. After the peace-treaty he and other Britis volunteers were demobilized. Nurk joined the British Army and apparently won the Military Cross.

If anyone has more info on Nurk I would be very interested to here some details.

For those interested, here is a link on Karl Nurk http://www.militaar.net/viewtopic.php?t=1654&highlight=
OTOH, I suspect those interested already know this link and site.

regards,
Tapani K.

[eestiman]

In response to the post from "pegleg" about Nurmsen. He is mixing info about 2 different Nurmsen brothers. I know this bacause they were my uncles. Bernhard Nurmsen served in Europe as an NCO with Patton's army. Hardy Nurmsen was the one who made the kayak trip and wrote about it in a book. Hardy was not in the service during the war, but did work as a civilian for the US Navy in Hawaii during the war as a sheet metal worker. (In addition, my father Evald left Estonia just as the war was beginning in Europe, and served in the US Army during the war at the Panama Canal defense base off the west coast of Ecuador in the Galapagos Islands.)

[Juha Tompuri]

Hi eestiman,

And welcome to the Forum.
Here a couple of threads about same places as your fathers war-time career:
A Day That Nobody Bombed Panama !: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=155358&p=1284972&hilits#p1284972
Galapagos Islands Air Base in Nov 1941?: viewtopic.php?f=113&t=150312

Regards, Juha