Erna Raid

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The Erna Raid (Estonian: Erna retk) is an annual international military exercise and competition, one of the longest and most difficult in the world, held every August since 1995 in Estonia. It is organised by the Erna Society and commemorates the actions of the long-range recce group Erna in the summer of 1941.^[1]

Contents 1 Composition 2 Participation 3 History 3.1 Erna Society 4 Recent official Russian accusations of glorifying Nazism. 5 Past competitions 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Composition

The traditional parts of the competition are:

• landing, in rubber boats, to a "hostile" shore;
• cross-country tactical movement and navigation, without night 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.

[edit] 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, a British Territorial Army team in 2006) but will only be observing in 2007. A team from Cyprus will also be observing. Teams from People's Republic of China have been traditionally successful in the competition and took 1st and 2nd place in 2002. Other successful teams have come from Finland and Norway.

[edit] History

Main article: Erna long-range recce group

The competition is named after the Erna long-range recce group (Estonian: Erna luuregrupp) and themed after its activities in the summer of 1941.

[edit] Erna Society

In 1993, a group of enthusiasts followed the historical route of the Erna group of 1941, and came up with the idea of organizing a commemorative competition. A first try with only Estonian participants was held in 1994. In the autumn of 1994, the Erna society was founded, and in 1995, the first international competition was held, and has been so annually since then, growing in extent and number of participants over time.

[edit] Recent official Russian accusations of glorifying Nazism.

See also: Erna long-range recce group#Soviet historigraphy

Since the competition's initiation, sectors of the Russian media claimed the competition's namesake was an attempt to glorify collaboration with the Nazi Germany^[2][3][4][5]. In 2007, high-ranking government officials sharply criticized the competition, generally calling it "glamorization of Nazism" and expressing outrage over NATO members participating in the competition.^[6][7][8]. Estonian officials attribute this recent development to the ongoing campaign for Russian presidential election, 2008^[9]. Russian officials claim that commemoration of the Erna group today is part of alleged efforts by the Estonian authorities to glorify Nazi past (other parts of it being relocation of war graves and an official greeting from the Minister of Defence to the participants of a gathering of Waffen SS veterans)^[6].

Analyst of the US based think tank Jamestown Foundation believes this view follows Soviet and post-Soviet Russia's official logic on two counts: first, that resistance to the Red Army was inherently illegitimate and conflatable with "fascism" in an occupied country or one targeted for occupation; second, that Estonia should be criticized for remembering an act of national resistance and its casualties^[10].

Estonia's Minister of Defence, Jaak Aaviksoo called the accusations "regrettable" and recalled that the Erna group saved the lives of many civilians from the vengeful Soviet paramilitary units, and specifically pointed out cases of burning farmers alive along with their farms in Kautla. ^[11][12]

[edit] Past competitions

The table below records the final results for the year's competition. DL is the acronym for the Defence League.

Position	2007	2006	2005	2004	2003	2002	2001	2000	1999
1st	Reserve Officers	Reserve Officers	Scouts Bat. 1	Scouts Bat. 2	Finland 2	China 2	DL Järva	Border Guard	Border Guard
2nd	DL Tartu	Scouts Bat. 1	Recce Bat.	Reserve Officers	Scouts Bat.	China 1	Finland 2	Norway	Kalev Inf. Bat.
3rd	Finland 2	Military Academy	Military Academy	Scouts Bat. 1	DL Järva	DL Harju	Border Guard	DL Harju	DL Pärnu
4th	Police	DL Järva	Finland 1	Military School	Recce Bat.	Security Police	Logistics Bat.	AA Battery	China 2
5th	DL Järva	Scouts Bat. 2	China 2	DL Pärnu	China 2	Military Academy	China 2	Logistics Bat.	Finland 1
6th	Border Guard	DL Tartu	China 1	DL Järva	Military Academy	DL Järva	Reserve Officers	Finland 1	Guard Bat.
7th	Viru Bat.	Police	Air Defence Div.	Denmark 1	Border Guard	DL Tallinn	AA Battery	Reserve Officers	DL Võru
8th	DL Tallinn / Reserve Officers	DL Tallinn	Sweden	Finland 2	China 1	Lithuania	China 1	Kalev Inf. Bat.	Denmark
9th	Pärnu Bat.	Germany	Germany	Lithuania	Denmark	Reserve Officers	Guard Bat.	EDF HQ	DL Järva
10th	Finland 1	Border Guard	Reserve Officers	Recce Bat.	DL Harju 2	Scout Bat.	Security Police	Security Police	Norway 1
11th	Germany	EDF HQ	DL Järva	Logistic Bat.	DL Tallinn 2	Border Guard	Rescue Service	Finland 2	Military Academy
12th	DL Harju	Canada	Guard Bat.	China 2	DL Tallinn 1	Finland	DL Tallinn	Military Academy	Reserve Officers
13th	Scouts Bat.	Guard Bat.	DL Tartu	Air Defence Bat.	DL Võrumaa	Military School	Norway 1	Sweden	DL Põlva
14th	Guard Bat.	Finland 1	Denmark 2	Military Academy	DL Pärnumaa	DL Võrumaa	Norway 2	Norway 2	China 1
15th	USA	Viru Bat.	DL Tallinn	Denmark 2	DL Harju 1	Norway 1	Signal Bat.	DL Võru	Sweden
16th	Denmark	Finland 2	Finland 2	China 1	Reserve Officers	Norway 2	Military Academy	Germany	Scotland
17th	Military Academy	DL Valgamaa	Scouts Bat.	DL Võru	Austria	Romania	DL Põlva	DL Tallinn	Norway 2
18th	Norway 1	USA	DL Võru	Finland 1	Engineering School	AA Battalion	Finland 1	Denmark 1	Italy 2
19th	Sweden	Denmark 1	Denmark 1	Sweden	Military School	Denmark 1	Sweden	China 1	Women's DL
20th	Women's DL	Great Britain	Pärnu Bat.	Germany	Finland 1	Finland 2	DL Harju	DL Järva	UK
21st	DL Võru	Belgium	USA	Guard Bat.	Lithuania	Sweden	EDF HQ	China 2
22nd	Norway 2	Artillery Group	DL Pärnu	Belgium	Police	text	Denmark	Rescue Service
23rd	Portugal	Women's DL Võru	Belgium	DL Tallinn	Rescue Service	Italy	USA Maryland	Italy 1
24th		Denmark 3	Women's DL Võru	Romania	Sweden	EDF HQ	Scotland	United Kingdom
25th		Latvia	Italy	Turkey	Guard Bat.	Rescue Service	Women's DL	Women's DL
26th		Denmark 2		Women's DL	United Kingdom	Women's DL	Lithuania	Italy 1
27th				USA	Poland	Scotland	Recce Battalion
28th				United Kingdom		United Kingdom

[edit] References

1. ^ British Embassy in Tallinn August 5, 2006: ERNA RAID 2006 1–5 August
2. ^ Хоть кровь из носу, но до цели дойдем (Russian)
3. ^ Эстонские власти вновь признались в любви к Гитлеру (Russian)
4. ^ В Эстонии играют в гитлеровцев (Russian)
5. ^ Об участии эстонского легиона СС в военных преступлениях в 1941-1945 гг. и попытках пересмотра в Эстонии приговора Нюрнбергского трибунала (Russian)
6. ^ ^{a b} "Поход Эрна-2007". Часть истории или популяризация нацизма? (Russian)
7. ^ Russia’s FM: Countries participating in Erna Raid taint cherished memory of their own soldiers
8. ^ Russia complains about military competition
9. ^ Eesti Päevaleht 7 August 2007: Paet: süüdistused on osa Vene valimiskampaaniast
10. ^ PACE Chairman bending to the Kremlin wind against Estonia. Jamestown Foundation (2007-08-03). Retrieved on 2007-08-09.
11. ^ Erna Raid and NKVD Destruction Battalions. Estonian Ministry of Defence (2007-08-09). Retrieved on 2007-08-10.
12. ^ "Aaviksoo: Erna retk ei möödunud ilma Venemaa laimukampaaniata", Postimees, 2007-08-09. Retrieved on 2007-08-09.  (Estonian)

[edit] External links

• Erna Society — Official webpage in English