RESISTANCE

After the conclusion of a non-aggression pact on August 23, 1939 by the Soviet Union and Germany, about 21,000 persons, mostly of German extraction, left Estonia as resettlers in two waves – during 1939 and 1940, and also during the period of January to April 1941. During the Soviet occupation of 1940 and 1941, at least 7,000 persons were arrested. They were either taken to Soviet labor camps or executed in Estonia. In June and July of 1941, more than 10,000 persons were deported. In July and August of 1941, 32,000 men received mobilization orders as draftees or as reservists, were gathered together and removed to Russia, where the majority of them were assigned to labor battalions. In addition to these, at least 25,000 persons were evacuated from Estonia. Most of these were Party officials and functionaries in Councils (Soviets) and their family members, and employees of key industries and institutions. A substantial number of these left Estonia voluntarily. From June to October 1941, members of NKVD Destroyer Battalions and retreating Red Army units killed more than 2,000 persons. More than 5,000 Estonian soldiers were sent to the front in July 1941 within the ranks of the 22nd Estonian Territorial Corps, where the majority of them were either taken prisoner by German forces or they simply defected to the German side. By the end of the year, most of them were allowed to return home. From the summer of 1941 to the summer of 1942, the German Security Police had at least 5,500 Estonian citizens and residents executed, and an equal number were sent to prison camps.
With the exception of the deportations, the repressions of the Soviet period struck men of military age the hardest. The Estonian officer corps sustained severe losses. The majority of the generals and other senior officers on active duty were either imprisoned or carted off to Russia to do service in the Red Army. The number of men fit for military duty on the territory of Estonia shrank nearly by half during the years of 1939–1941.
On December 1, 1941, 1,017,145 persons were registered as living on the territory of the German Commissariat General in Estonia, consisting of 450,601 men and 566,874 women.
At the beginning of the war, the political leaders of Germany had an aversion to distributing weapons in the occupied territories to persons willing to serve as volunteers. The war was Germany’s war, and it was intended that the Wehrmacht should reap the full honors of victory. In addition to this, the Hague Conventions were in force by then, and these prohibit the conscription of residents of occupied territories into the armed forces of the occupying power. During the war between the Soviet Union and Germany, the opposing sides did not adhere to the Fourth Hague Convention “Concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land”, but documents and the memories of contemporaries indicate that the Wehrmacht tended to adhere to these principles in Estonia.
In the fall of 1941, the attitude of the top-ranking members of the Wehrmacht command began to change. To begin with, residents of the occupied territories indicated a willingness to participate in combat against the Soviet Union. In addition, there were a number of needs to fulfill. Combat had taken its toll on manpower, and there was a huge area to the rear of the front that had to be secured against partisans. Prisoners had to be guarded and sentries were needed to secure many objects. All of these considerations compelled the military leadership to begin forming security battalions made up of local volunteers. In the beginning, the German political leadership continued to oppose the idea of co-opting members of the local population, but the reversals they experienced during the winter of 1942 made them assent to the formation of volunteer units.
During 1940–1941, the first volunteers from the countries of Western Europe were admitted to the ranks of the Waffen SS. On August 28, 1942 – the first anniversary of the conquest of the Estonian capital of Tallinn by the Germans – the formation of the Estonian Legion of the Combat SS was announced. The Combat SS was not a part of the Wehrmacht (the German Regular Army), but took its orders instead directly from Heinrich Himmler – the Reich leader of the SS. When at the front, Combat SS Divisions and Corps were subordinated to the operative command of larger military formations. It is possible that the Foreign Volunteer Legions of the Combat SS were modeled after the idea of the French Foreign Legion.
The German leadership was set against the inclusion of non-Germans in Wehrmacht units, although exceptions were made to this rule.
During 1943 and 1944, the situation of the German military on the Eastern Front deteriorated, and the Germans began to explore options for replacing losses with men pressed into service from the occupied territories. This took place in Estonia as well. In February 1943, men born between the years of 1919–1924 were mobilized. After the introduction of compulsory service, men were able to choose between National Labor Service, the so-called Military Auxiliary Service (men in these units were called Hiwis, shortened from Hilfswilliger, which means “those ready to help”) and the Estonian SS Legion. Influence was applied to get most of the men to serve in the Legion. This boosted the manpower of the Legion by 5,000 men. In October 1943, compulsory service was also introduced for men born in 1925. Even though hundreds of members of this group escaped to Finland to evade mobilization, this action managed to provide the Germans with an additional 4,000 men, who were sent as replacements to Estonian SS units, the so-called “Eastern battalions” and the police battalions. In December 1943, nearly 1,000 men born in 1924 who had not been called into service in the spring received notification that they had to report for duty.
At the beginning of 1944, when it became apparent that the Red Army (which had gone on the offensive in the Leningrad area) was about to make a push onto Estonian territory, the German political leadership authorized Friedrich Jeckeln, the top ranking SS and police functionary of the “Ostland” Reichskommissariat to carry out a general mobilization in Estonia and Latvia. Hjalmar Mäe, the head of the Estonian Local Administration, proclaimed the mobilization in Estonia on January 30, 1944. The impending danger of an onslaught by the Red Army also forced Estonian nationally minded circles to lend their support to the mobilization effort. In a radio interview on February 7, 1944, the last Prime Minister of pre-war independent Estonia Jüri Uluots called on the nation to take up arms against the encroaching Red Army. All men born between 1904–1923 were mobilized into service during February and March of 1944. Some of the men were sent as replacements to Combat SS units and police battalions, while the remainder were formed into six border defense regiments and a reserve regiment. All other men who had not been called to arms yet continued to be called up until August, when young men born in 1926 were also conscripted.
On August 2, 1944, boys born in 1927 were summoned to duty in the auxiliary units of the German Air Force on the basis of the mandatory labor service law. Boys of an even more tender age joined as volunteers. A total of nearly 40,000 men were mobilized in 1944.
In addition to the other means described here, people were made to serve in the military on other grounds, such as the need to fill certain vocational slots. Estonians who had defected to the Germans from the Red Army were freed from prisoner of war camps on the condition that they serve on the Eastern Front as volunteers. During the winter of 1942–1943, units of the Self Defense Forces (Selbstschutz, Omakaitse) that had been in regular service were reorganized as front and sentry battalions and removed from the operative control of the Self Defense Forces. In 1943, the 286th Police Battalion was formed of Estonian policemen, which took part in combat on the front until February 1944. Thereafter its members were returned to service in the locations they had been summoned from. The SS Legion experienced difficulties in keeping all of its Estonian officer and NCO slots filled, and Hjalmar Mäe responded to this in March 1943 by ordering all officers and NCOs serving in the Estonian Local Administration to join the Estonian Legion. An agreement was reached with Martin Sandberger – the commander of all Security Police and SD units in Estonia – for all Estonians officers and NCOs serving in the Security Police and SD to also fulfill their obligation to serve with the Estonian SS Legion under the basis of the call up.
At times when they were not subordinated directly to front commanders, Estonian units answered administratively to various headquarters and staffs. The Eastern Battalions were under the command of the rear area commanders of the 16th and 18th Armies; the security and police battalions received orders from the Security Division of the Army Group North as well as the Commandant of the Security Police, who was a member of the staff of the SS and Police Commander in Estonia; the SS units were under the control of the command of the Combat SS. The Border Defense Regiments were subordinated to the Commanding Officer of the SS and Police in Ostland. When the German military retreated from Estonia towards the end of 1944, most of these institutions and units ceased to exist. Heinrich Himmler demanded that all non-German units and forces be brought under his command. As a consequence of this, all Estonian soldiers who had arrived in Germany were consolidated in the fall of 1944 into the 20th Estonian SS Division at the Neuhammer Training Camp. That unit would see combat until the war was finally over.

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.

The first German military unit that Estonian citizens served in was the SS and Police Battalion “Ostland”. Formation of the Battalion began on July 6, 1941 near Berlin. Constituted of resettlers to Germany from Estonia and Latvia, the unit was under the command of the German Order Police. The Battalion Commander was the Latvian Colonel Branschnewitz, who was also the Commander of the 1st Company of the unit, which consisted of Latvians. The remaining two companies were made up of men from Estonia. In 1941, the Battalion was sent to Ukraine. During summer and fall of 1942, one part of the men received orders for the Heidelager camp in Debica, Poland, where they were used as the core of the future SS Legion “Estonian”. The remainder of the men was also sent to the Heidelager camp in 1943, where they formed the nucleus of the Narva Battalion. The “Ostland” Battalion was subsequently deactivated.

During the period from July to October 1941, the German Wehrmacht conquered Estonia. The German troops were assisted by members of the Estonian resistance (the so-called “Forest Brethren”) who had seized power in southeastern Estonia (which the Red Army abandoned without a fight) and other parts of Estonia before the arrival of German troops. When combat ended in Estonia, the Germans disbanded the volunteer and “Omakaitse” (Self-Defense) units, which had fought under the command of Wehrmacht units.

Based conceptually on the example of the Home Guard of pre-war independent Estonia, the voluntary Estonian Omakaitse militia organization began to be formed in July of 1941. Territorial units of the Omakaitse were responsible for providing security on the local level. Some salaried Omakaitse units were also billeted in various locations. In the beginning, the Omakaitse was under the command of the Commandant of the Order Police Colonel Wilhelm von Thaden, attached to the staff of the Commandant of SS and Police in occupied Estonia. After October 1, 1942, the Omakaitse took orders from Infantry General Franz von Roques, who was the Military Governor of the area to the rear of the “Nord” Group of Armies. The units of the Omakaitse that had been on garrison duty remained under the command of the Order Police, but were removed from the chain of command of the Omakaitse, and were reorganized as Security Battalions.
Respect the system of proxy administration installed in Estonia by the Germans (the Omavalitsus), the Omakaitse received orders from the Police and Omakaitse Administration, which answered to the Director of the Interior. This Administration was later renamed the Police High Administration, which was headed by Lieutenant Colonel Eduard Reissaar. The officer in command of the Omakaitse was Colonel Jaan Maide. In March of 1943, a separate High Administration of the Omakaitse was set up under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Arnold Sinka. In 1944, the Omakaitse was under the administrative control of the Inspector General Johannes Soodla. Locally the “malevs” (a specific traditional Estonian name for a certain size of unit, which the Germans gave regimental status) of the Omakaitse were under the command of regional police prefects. Malev commanders were simultaneously assistants to the police prefects.
On July 23, 1942, there were 43,347 men in the Omakaitse – 38,890 of them in territorial units, with a further 4,457 stationed in garrisons. As late as May and June of 1943, 38,000 men (282 companies) continued to serve in the Omakaitse. Unit armorers had enough rifles on hand for approximately 60% of them. When compulsory military service was introduced, the fighting potential of the Omakaitse went into progressive decline, since younger men were inducted directly into active-duty units. On August 12, 1944, Artillery General Herbert Loch – the Commander of the 18th Army – ordered all Omakaitse units in the area assigned to the Army to report to the front. The battalions of the Viljandi, Pärnu, Valga, Lääne and Järva Malev fought in southern Estonia under the command of the 28th Army Corps. These units did not measure up to the standards of contemporary warfare because of the age of the men serving in them, but also because of inadequacies in their equipment and training.

In August 1941, recruitment of volunteers for the Security Groups (“Sicherungsgruppe”) for the areas to the rear of the 18th and 16th Armies began in German-occupied Estonia. Members of these units signed a one-year enlistment agreement. During 1941 and 1942, six security groups were formed of Estonian subjects (Groups 181–186) along with a Reserve and Training Security Group. Security Groups were responsible for guarding roads, railways and other objects of military significance, and they also guarded prisoners, tracked down Red Army stragglers who had remained in the woods, and fought against Soviet partisans. As time went by, more and more troops of the Security Groups began to be sent to the front. Administratively, the Security Groups were subordinated to commanders of the areas to the rear of the battle lines (Kommandeur des rückwärtigen Armeegebiets, referred to by the Germans in shorthand as the Korück), and operatively to the divisions of the Wehrmacht. In January of 1942, four more Security Groups began to be recruited in Estonia for the 18th Army, but the inclusion of units formed of Baltic subjects in the Wehrmacht was brought to a halt in February on Hitler’s orders.

On May 1, 1942, 4,050 men were being carried on the rosters of the Security Groups. The commanders of the security groups were officers of Estonian extraction, each of whom had a German liaison officer assigned to him.
Part of the men returned to civilian life on September 1, 1942, when their one-year service contracts expired, but others joined the SS Legion “Estonian” voluntarily during the fall of 1942. Simultaneously, administrative changes were carried out in regard to the “Eastern units” of the Wehrmacht, which resulted in the Security Groups being reorganized as “Eastern Battalions”. Three Eastern battalions were formed (Battalions 658–660) of the remaining men of the Security Groups in Estonia, as well as a detached “Eastern Company”. Each Army Headquarters had a Commander for so-called “Eastern units”. The commandant of this structure had administrative responsibility for the Eastern battalions. Operatively, on the other hand, the units were part of the chain of command of either Wehrmacht divisions or larger groups of forces. The last commanders of the Eastern battalions were Majors Alfons Rebane, Georg Sooden and Heinrich Ellram.
The Estonian Eastern battalions acquitted themselves well on the Leningrad Front, particularly during the retreat that took place during January and February of 1944. On January 10, 1944, there were 246 men in the 658th Battalion, 275 in the 659th, and 205 in the Reserve Battalion. There are no figures available for the 660th Battalion.
On August 1, 1943, Heinrich Himmler ordered that the Eastern battalions recruited in Estonia be placed under the command of the Waffen SS. Despite this, the battalions continued actually to receive orders from the 18th and 16thArmies until the beginning of 1944. In April of 1944, the battalions of the 20th SS Division “Estonian” began to be formed on the basis of these Eastern battalions. The 658th and 659th Battalions were turned into the two battalions of the 47th SS Regiment, and while the 3rd Battalion of the 46th SS Regiment was formed on the basis of the 660th Eastern Battalion.

The official term used for security units constituted from residents of occupied areas was the “Schutzmannschaft” (literally “Protective Teams or Groups”). Schutzmannschafts created on the basis of Estonians were battalion-sized, and in Estonian, the term “kaitsepataljon” – “defense battalion” came to be applied to them. At the end of 1943 and beginning of 1944, they were given a new name and began to be called police battalions. The ranks used in the Schutzmannschafts (which in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had been practically identical to the ranks of the Wehrmacht) were now replaced with the ranks used in police structures.

In August, 1941, recruitment began for volunteers willing to serve in the defense battalions being formed under the command of Franz von Roques, Chief of Staff of the area to the rear of the “Nord” Group of Forces. Contracts were signed with the volunteers that stipulated that their enlistment would continue until cessation of hostilities on the Eastern Front. The Chief of Staff of the area to the rear of the “Nord” Group of Forces commanded three security divisions responsible for providing security in this area. Initially, four Estonian security battalions were created – one in Tartu to be sent to the 207th Security Division, one in Viljandi for the 285th Security Division, one in Põltsamaa for the 281st Security Division, and one Security Battalion recruited in Southern Estonia, to be sent to the Pskov area to provide security functions. Two more battalions were formed in October – a Training and Reserve Battalion in Tartu, and an Engineer Battalion. In March of 1942, the battalions were assigned the numbers 37–42, (in the order that they have been listed here). The authorized strength of a defense battalion was 507 men, with 975 men assigned to the Training and Reserve battalion, and 588 to the Engineer Battalion. During 1941 and 1942, the battalions answered administratively to the senior officer in charge of the Order Police assigned to the SS and police troop (who was attached to the Headquarters of the “Nord” Group of Forces), and operatively to the reserve police battalions attached to the security divisions. In July 1942, the defense battalions comprised of Estonians were placed administratively under the command of the officer in charge of the Order Police attached to the Office of the Commander of the SS and Police Forces in Estonia, and operatively under the command of the staffs of the Security Divisions.
From 1941 to 1944, the defense battalions were assigned to operations outside Estonia, in an area that stretched approximately from where the Latvian, Lithuanian and Byelorussian borders meet in the south, up to the area on the far side (the Russian side) of Lake Peipus in the north. The Staff of the Reserve and Training Battalion (No. 41) was based in Tartu throughout this period, with units of the Battalion being deployed to Russia in company and platoon sized groups. In 1943, the 39th Battalion was deactivated, and its men were sent to other battalions as reinforcements. In 1944, the 37th, 38th and 40th battalions were engaged in combat to the south of Pskov, from whence they retreated onto Estonian territory. On February 28, 1944, these battalions consisted of 312, 236 and 139 men respectively. In August of 1944, the 40th Battalion was deactivated and its men received orders posting them to the 38th Battalion and to the 20th SS Division “Estonian”. During August and September of 1944, the 37th, 38th and 42nd battalions were in defensive positions along the banks of the Emajõgi River. At the end of August, the 87th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht (under the command of Major General Baron Mauritz von Strachwitz) and the 37th and 38th Police Battalions along with the “Finnish boys” Battalion succeeded in eradicating the Kärevere bridgehead of the Red Army, with the units receiving citations for this in the official Reports from the Front by the Wehrmacht. After Estonia was abandoned, the men of the 37th and 38th Battalions were sent to serve in the 20th SS Division “Estonian”. The 42nd Battalion remained behind in Estonia. Various officers served as battalion commanders. Major Friedrich Kurg was the Commander of the 37th Battalion for an extended period, the 38th Battalion was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Johannes Raudmäe, and after him by Major Jaan Pärn, and the Commander of the 39th Battalion was Major Aleksander Sobolev. Captain Karl Nortmaa commanded the 40th Battalion. The 41st Battalion was initially headed by Lieutenant Colonel Oskar Särev and then by Lieutenant Colonel Juhan Vermet. Major August Schiller (Siller) was in command of the 42nd Battalion.

In February of 1943, the First Battalion of the Legion swore its oath. The next month, it was transferred from the Legion and subordinated to the command of the SS Armored Division “Viking” as the “Narva” battalion of SS volunteers (consisting of 776 Estonians and 197 Germans), replacing that unit’s battalion of Finnish volunteers, and was sent to the front in Ukraine in April. The Battalion fought in Ukraine until February 1944, when it managed to break out of the Cherkassy pocket. In March, the surviving members of the Battalion were sent to Estonia, where they were used to create the core of the Fusilier Battalion (separate infantry recon battalion) of the 20th SS Division “Estonia”. The first commanding officer of the Battalion was SS-Sturmbannführer Georg Eberhardt, who was killed in action and would be followed by four other German officers. In 1944, the battalion was commanded by SS-Obersturmführer Oskar Ruut, who was followed by the last commanding officer of the unit, SS-Hauptsturmführer Hando Ruus.
A disguised mobilization carried out during the winter and spring of 1943 provided the Legion with more manpower – some 5,000 men born during the years 1919–1924. Officers and NCOs from the Estonian puppet administration and the police were also sent to serve in the Legion. On May 5, 1943, the SS Legion “Estonia” was renamed the 3rd Estonian SS Volunteer Brigade. After a period of training, the Brigade was sent to the Nevel Front on October 24, 1943. The Brigade consisted of two regiments, each made up of two battalions, an artillery detachment, a reserve and training battalion and auxiliary units. On December 31, 1943, 5,099 men were being carried on the muster roll of the Brigade.
On January 24, 1944, the Brigade was renamed the 20th SS Volunteer Division, “Estonian”. On February 8, it was called back from the Nevel Front and redeployed to Estonia, where it participated in defensive battles near Narva in February and March, and also helped to foil and mop up an attempted Soviet landing at Meerapalu. The Division then began to be reformed. Its regiments acquired an additional third battalion, and an additional regiment was created. Conscripts were sent to man these units, and additional manpower was provided by troops who had served in deactivated Eastern battalions. The Reserve and Training Battalion was formed into a Reserve and Training Regiment, which came to based in Klooga. The Artillery Detachment was reformed as the unit’s Artillery Regiment. On 17 April, 7,760 men of an authorized strength of 16,135 had taken their places in the Division, and by June 30, 1944, it had attained strength of 13,423 men. On June 26, 1944, the Division was renamed the 20th Combat Grenadier Division SS (Estonian No. 1) [20. Waffen-Grenadier-Division-SS (estnische Nr. 1)]. In July of 1944, the Division was deployed to the Narva Front as part of the 3rd Germanic Armored Corps of the SS, and took part in combat at Narva, the Sinimäe Hills (the Blue Hills) and on the Emajõgi River Front (the Wagner Group), until it was withdrawn from Estonia in September 1944. The 3rd Battalion of the Division’s 46th Regiment – which had been decimated in the fighting for Narva – was replaced by the “Finnish boys” Battalion in August, just before the fighting on the Emajõe River line of defense.
From Estonia, the Division was redeployed to the Neuhammer Training Camp in Poland, where it was built back up and given refresher training. The Division received replacements drawn from other units composed of Estonians that had been withdrawn from Estonia to Germany. On October 1, 1944, there were 11,000 men in the Division. When the training period came to an end, the Division was sent to the front once again, this time in Silesia, where it remained until March. The Division was then redeployed to Czechoslovakia, where it saw action until the end of the war. Most of the men were captured by either Czech partisans or the Red Army. The Reserve Regiment of the Division was deployed to Denmark in February of 1945. The men of the Reserve Regiment surrendered to British troops in Northern Germany at the end of the war.
The Commander of the SS Legion “Estonia”, the 3rd Estonian SS Brigade and the 20th SS Division “Estonian” was SS-Brigadeführer Franz Augsberger. SS-Oberführer Berthold Maack took over as the commanding officer after Augsberger was killed in action in March 1945. The commanding officers of the 45th (42nd) Regiment were SS-Oberführer Johannes Soodla, who was succeeded by SS-Standartenführers Henn-Ants Kurg, Paul Vent and Harald Riipalu. The 46th (43rd) Regiment was commanded by SS-Standartenführer Juhan Tuuling, followed by Alfons Rebane, and SS-Standartenführer Paul Vent led the 47th Regiment. Aleksander Sobolev was the Commanding Officer of the Artillery Detachment (which later became the Artillery Regiment). Later, SS-Obersturmbannführer August Võhma assumed command of that unit. The Commander of the Reserve Regiment was SS-Obersturmbannführer Georg Ahlemann.

The Border Defense Regiments were formed in 1944 of conscripts who had been born during the 1904–1923 period. The mobilization orders were issued by Friedrich Jeckeln, the Officer in Command of the SS and Police in the Reichskommisariat “Ostland”, which was subordinated to Heinrich Himmler. The mobilization orders were made public by Hjalmar Mäe, and the Inspector General of the SS Units made up of Estonians, Johannes Soodla, was responsible for seeing that the mobilization was carried out.

The Border Defense Regiments were under the administrative command of the senior officer in charge of the SS and Police in the “Ostland” area (subordinated to him was Hinrich Möller, the commander of the SS and Police in Estonia). Operatively, the Border Defense Regiments were under the command of the 18th Army of the “Nord” Group of Forces and the divisions and other large formations of the “Narva” Group of Armies. At the outset, the regiments were officially referred to as “Estonian Border Defense Regiments”, but later they would formally be called “Estonian SS Border Defense Regiments” (Estnische SS-Grenzschutz-Regiment), even though the men wore Wehrmacht uniforms and also were assigned ranks used by the Wehrmacht. The regiments were formed on the basis of the Table of Organization and Equipment of security units as 2,500-man units. They had less firepower available than ordinary infantry regiments.
The first of these units to be sent to the front in February 1944 was the “Tallinn” Regiment, which consisted of the conscripts who had reported for duty first. The Regiment was sent to the Narva Front, where its battalions were distributed among divisions of the Wehrmacht. When the intensity of combat died down during the summer, the members of the Regiment were mostly transferred to the 20th SS Division “Estonian”. During February and March, six more border defense regiments and a Reserve Regiment were formed. The border defense regiments guarded the flanks of combat units along the Narva River, the northern banks of Lake Peipus, and along the littorals of Lake Pskov. During the summer of 1944, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th Regiments were combined as the 300th Special Purpose Division. The Headquarters element of the Division was composed of the remnants of the staff of the 13th Luftwaffe Field Division, which had sustained severe losses. During August and September of 1944, the regiments of the 300th Division were deployed along the right flank of the Narva Front on the northern coast of Lake Peipus, while the 1st and 5th regiments were in position along the Emajõgi River Front, and the Reserve Regiment was situated in Viljandi. During September 1944, the regiments of the 300th Division were sent to the Emajõgi Front as reinforcements, but they never reached their intended destinations, because of a lack of means of transportation. These units remained behind in Estonia. The 1st Border Defense Regiment was simply wiped as the Red Army began its advance on September 17, while some of the men of the 5th Border Defense Regiment and the Reserve Regiment succeeded in escaping from Estonia.
Major Richard Rubach was the commanding officer of the “Tallinn” Regiment. Major Jaan Tamm commanded the 1st Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Juhan Vermet was in charge of the 2nd Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Mart Kaerma was the Commanding Officer of the 3rd Regiment, Major Valter Pedak commanded the 4th Regiment, Lieutenenat Colonel Johannes Raudmäe was the Commanding Officer of the 5th Regiment, and Major Paul Lilleleht commanded the 6th Regiment. At the beginning, the Reserve Regiment was commanded by August Tomander. Beginning in August, Major August Vask assumed command of the Reserve Regiment. The commanding officer of the 300th Special Purpose Division was Major General Richard Höfer.

At the end of January 1944, the Red Army reached the Narva River. The 8th and 59th Army and several Rifle Corps of the 2nd Shock Army carried the offensive towards the Estonian border city of Narva. Thereby, a wedge was driven into the front that the Wehrmacht’s 18th Army had been maintaining. The main force of the 18th Army remained on the other side of Lakes Peipus and Pskov on Russian territory. On February 2nd, a detached German Army Group was formed on the basis of the LIV Army Corps on Estonian territory at the Narva section of the front. Infantry General Johannes Friessner took command, and on February 23rd, it was named the Army Group “Narva”. In July, Infantry General Anton Grasser took over command of the Narva Group.
In the beginning, the Army Group consisted of units of the right wing of the 18th Army that had previously sustained losses: the 61st, 170th, 225th and 227th Infantry Divisions and the Luftwaffe’s 9th and 10th Field Divisions. In February, additional forces were deployed on the Narva section: the 11th and 214th Infantry Divisions, the Armored Infantry Division Feldherrnhalle and two units of the III (Germanic SS) Armored Corps: the 11th SS Division Nordland and the SS Brigade Nederland. The 20th Estonian SS Division was also placed under the command of the Armored Corps. Other Estonian units were also sent to the Narva front: Police Battalions 29–32, Eastern Battalions 658 and 659 and the “Tallinn” Border Guard Regiment, followed in short order by the 2nd and 3rd Border Guard Regiments.

During the second half of July, the German High Command intended to abandon Narva and draw back in an orderly fashion to the Tannenberg line of defense established in the Sinimäed area (literal translation of place name from the Estonian: the Blue Hills) in order to straighten out the front line, which had become convoluted at the time that the Red Army had secured the Auvere bridgehead. On July 24th, the Red Army went on the offensive: the 2nd Shock Force tried to encircle Narva from the north, and the 8th Army attacked from the Auvere bridgehead. While engaged in heavy combat, the 20th Estonian SS Division, the 11th SS Division Nordland and the 4th SS Brigade Nederland then retreated from their defensive positions to the Blue Hills. Narva was abandoned on July 26th. The Red Army sustained heavy casualties, but the German side also suffered losses: the 48th Regiment of the Nederland Brigade was encircled and totally eliminated. The 46th Regiment of the Estonian SS Division also lost many men, since its 3rd Battalion was reduced to fragments. Bloody battles continued in the Blue Hills until August 9th. The 109th and 122nd Rifle Corps of the Red Army were destroyed, and the 110th and 124th Rifle Corps sent to replace them also sustained heavy losses. The German side also sustained serious losses. Of the senior officers, the Norwegian, Danish and Dutch regimental commanders were killed, as was SS Gruppenführer Fritz von Scholz, the Commander of the Nordland Division. The Estonians lost two battalion commanders: Georg Sooden, the Commander of the 1st Battalion of the 47th SS Regiment died, as did Oskar Ruut, the Acting Commander of the 20th Fusilier Battalion (the former “Narva” Battalion). The Red Army did not succeed in breaking through the German lines in the Blue Hills.
At the same time, the 3rd Baltic Front of the Red Army attacked the positions of the Wehrmacht’s 18th Army in southern Estonia and northern Latvia. On August 10th, they broke through the Marienburg Aluksne line of defense on the Peipus-Pechori-Aluksne tangent. On August 13th, the city of Võru fell to the Red Army. In southern Estonia, 6 divisions of the German XXVIII and XXXVIII Army Corps had assumed defensive positions, along with smaller units. The 207th Security Division, whose headquarters had been situated in Tartu since the summer of 1941, was located behind the lines. The Estonian 1st and 5th Border Guard Regiments and the 42nd Estonian Police-Engineer Battalion were also under the command of the 207th. On August 12th, the 18th Army also sent the battalions of the Self Defense forces of Viljandi, Pärnu, Valga, Lääne and Järva counties into battle. The Red Army attacked with the units of the 1st Shock Army and 67th and 54th Armies.
On August 14th, the German High Command moved the II Army Corps into Estonia (under the command of Infantry General Wilhelm Hasse), to which the 31st Grenadier Division, the 87th Infantry Division and some smaller units were subordinated. These units fought in the Karula-Sangaste area. Commencing on August 21st, the Red Army concentrated 10 rifle divisions and 5 armored formations in the Karula-Sangaste area, which went on an offensive in the direction of Tartu. A counterattack of the armored formation commanded by Count Hyazinth von Strachwitz against Red Army armored forces at Tamsa near Elva was unsuccessful. On August 25th, the Red Army forced its way into Tartu. On the same day, the Army Group “Narva” was placed under the command of the II Army Corps, and ordered to hold the front on the Emajõgi River from Lake Võrtsjärv to Lake Peipus.
On August 14th, the Jürgen Wagner Battle Group was dispatched to the front along the Emajõgi River. The largest units of this group consisted of the 23rd Regiment of the 11th Infantry Division, the 5th SS Assault Brigade Wallonien (commanded by Léon Degrelle) and the Artillery Division of the 11th SS Division Nordland. The 207th Security Division together with its subordinate units, the Paul Vent Battle Group (made up of the 1st Battalion of the 45th Estonian SS Regiment and the remnants of the 46th Estonian SS Regiment), the 37th and 38th Estonian Police Battalions and the Alfons Rebane Battle Group (consisting of the 2nd battalion of the 47th Estonian SS Regiment, and the Light Artillery Division and the Fusilier Battalion of the 11th Infantry Division) were also brought up to the Emajõgi River front. On August 26th, the so-called “Finnish boys” Battalion was also sent to the Emajõgi River front, where it was assigned to the 46th Estonian SS Regiment as its 3rd Battalion before combat was commenced.
After conquering Tartu, the Red Army succeeded in crossing the Emajõgi River at Kärevere. On August 28th to the 30th, the 87th Infantry Division together with the “Finnish boys” Battalion and the 37th and 38th Estonian Police Battalions eliminated the Kärevere bridgehead. The units were cited in the Report on Front Activity of the German High Command for this action. Despite this, German attempts to recapture Tartu were unsuccessful. Hostilities on the Emajõgi River front then abated for two weeks.
The Red Army military command then replaced the units of the 3rd Baltic Front on the Emajõgi River line with the 2nd Shock Army of the Leningrad Front, which included the 8th Estonian Rifle Corps of the Red Army and the 108th, 116th and 118th Rifle Corps. The German command, on the other hand, dispatched the 563rd People’s Grenadier Division from Germany to the Emajõgi River front, which took over defensive positions along the upper reaches of the Emajõgi River. On September 14th, an offensive by the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Baltic Fronts of the Red Army was launched in the direction of Riga in Latvia, with the goal of cutting off the “Nord” Group of Armies from its German mother country.
On September 17th, an offensive of the Soviet 2nd Shock Force was initiated at the Emajõgi River. The 1st Estonian Border Guard Regiment, which was positioned at the location of the assault, took the brunt of the attack and was totally obliterated. On the same day, the 90th Rifle Division of the Red Army destroyed the headquarters unit of the German 207th Security Division, at which time the Division Commander Bogislaus Count von Schwerin was killed. The German units then retreated to the northwest. Of the German 300th Division that was dispatched to reinforce on the Emajõgi River front, (the Division also exercised command over the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th Estonian Border Guard Regiments), only the headquarters element arrived, and then also took over command of the 207th Security Division. On September 18th, Major General Paul Gallas, who commanded the Battle Group made up of the 1st and 5th Estonian Border Guard Regiments was killed in Mustvee by the fire of Red Army gunboats. The remains of the Wagner Battle Group, the 87th Infantry Division, the 563rd People’s Grenadier Division and the 207th Security Division then retreated around Lake Võrtsjärv and left Estonia. The Red Army continued its push toward Tallinn and into western Estonia.
On September 16th, Hitler consented to the evacuation of the Estonian mainland (on the basis of a plan code-named “Aster”). On September 18th, the German forces began to abandon their positions. The Red Army continued to press upwards from the Emajõgi line. Unable to retreat, the Border Guard Regiments, which were made up of Estonians, some of the battalions of the 20th Estonian SS Division, as well as some smaller German units on the Narva front, engaged the Red Army forces in battle. On September 20th, they clashed in Avinurme with the 45th Detached Armored Regiment of 8th Estonian Rifle Corps of the Red Army. The cut-off units on the German side were unable to retreat. About 50 seriously wounded Estonian soldiers in German uniform were left in the Avinurme church, where Red Army troops killed them with grenades. On September 21st, Estonian soldiers in German uniform trying to retreat near Porkuni made contact with units of the Red Army’s 249th Estonian Rifle Division. About 400 Estonians in German uniforms were killed and 700 were taken prisoner.
On September 22nd, the Germans abandoned Tallinn. Estonian soldiers, in particular men from the 2nd Battalion of the “Finnish boys” and members of the Estonian Johan Pitka Battle Group attacked the retreating Germans in order to capture weapons from them and to be able to continue to engage in resistance. The September 26th issue of the Finnish “Uusi Suomi” newspaper reported that the blue-black-and-white flag of independent Estonia was fluttering above the seat of government at Toompea castle in Tallinn on September 21st and 22nd. Clashes continued in the port of Tallinn until the early morning of September 22nd. The Commander of the German 531st Coastal Artillery Detachment reported clashes with Estonian “terrorists”. 25 Estonians were killed, while 150 were disarmed and taken to Germany. On September 22nd, advance units of the Red Army’s 8th Estonian Rifle Corps entered Tallinn, which had been abandoned by the Germans by then. After the departure of the Germans from Tallinn, small groups of Estonian combatants continued to engage the Red Army in combat in Pääsküla and Keila on the Western fringes of Tallinn and elsewhere.
On September 24th, the Germans abandoned Haapsalu, a city on the northwestern coast of the Estonian mainland. Armed clashes also occurred there between Estonian soldiers and a shore patrol unit of the German Navy. Two Estonians taken hostage by the Germans were shot. Two Turkestan Ost-units were left by the Germans at the Rohuküla bridgehead to cover the retreat. On September 29–30, the Red Army conquered Muhu Island in the northwest of Estonia and on October 2–3, their units took Hiiumaa, without encountering much resistance.
On October 5th, the 8th Estonian Rifle Corps together with the 109th Rifle Corps launched a landing from Muhu Island to Saaremaa Island, where the 23rd and the 218th Infantry Divisions of the German 16th Army, the 12th Luftwaffe Field Division, some Navy units and various smaller units faced them. The German command considered the defense of the Sõrve peninsula in the southern part of Saaremaa to be important, in order to gain time for reinforcing the coast of Courland in Latvia. On October 7th, the German forces abandoned Kuressaare (the capital of Saaremaa). With 16,000 German troops there, the Sõrve peninsula now became a battlefield. The Red Army’s 8th Estonian Rifle Corps was involved in two major battles on Saaremaa. In the Tehumardi night battle of October 8th, the 67th German Infantry Regiment and the 249th Estonian Rifle Division clashed. On October 12th, during an abortive landing at Vintri, hundreds of soldiers from the 300th Regiment of the 7th Estonian Rifle Division of the Red Army were killed and 215 were taken prisoner. On November 16th, more than 10,000 German troops were still in place on Sõrve. On November 20th, Corvette Captain Hossfeld, bearer of the Knight’s Cross and Commander of the Coastal Artillery Division was killed. His Division had secured the evacuation of all of the most important German strongholds in Estonia. The last German troops were evacuated from Sõrve during the early morning hours of November 24th.

The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) had authority over the camps and was responsible for the maintenance costs. Estonians lived together with Latvians, Lithuanians, Poles, Ukrainians and other nationalities, and there were few camps with only Estonians. One of these, with over five thousand Estonians, was located in Geislingen. Directors appointed by UNRRA managed the camps, but nationality-based committees were formed in the camps and these organized the internal life.
Estonians formed choirs, theater groups and folk dance groups; schools, kindergartens, Girl and Boy Scout troops came into existence. On Sundays, church services were held. Parties, concerts, handicraft and art exhibitions were organized; sports events were held. In August of 1947, a song festival for Estonians in Germany took place in Augsburg, with over 5,000 Estonians participating. Of Estonian musicians, the most famous was violinist Hubert Aumere, who worked as concertmaster with the Orchestra of the Munich National Theater, but also gave violin concerts in DP camps.
For vocational training, workshops were established in the camps and courses were organized in locksmith work, driving, electro-technology, photography, sewing, handicraft, etc. In the beginning camp newsletters were issued for disseminating information, later, newspapers were published, the largest being “Eesti Rada” in Augsburg and “Eesti Post” in Geislingen. The magazine “Kauge Kodu” was published in Kempten. Estonian-language books were also printed in Germany.

In 1947 UNRRA completed its work and the DP camps were transferred to the authority of the International Refugee Organization (IRO). IRO organized the resettlement of the refugees in other countries. At the end of the 1940’s and beginning of the 1950’s the majority of Estonian refugees left Germany. The first countries that accepted unlimited numbers of refugees were Great Britain and Belgium, but most Estonians settled in the United States, Canada and Australia. In 1951 the DP camps discontinued their activities.