Otto Tief's Government of 1944 and Estonian independence

During the several days between the retreat of German forces and the arrival of the Red Army, acting President Jüri Uluots appointed Otto Tief as Prime Minister and asked him to form a government on 18 September 1944. Tief then published a proclamation declaring re-independence and unsuccessfully attempted to organise a defence of Tallinn against the invading Red Army, which arrived on 22 September 1944.

On 22 September 1944, several days after the withdrawal of Nazi Germany's occupying forces, is the day invading Red Army took over the administrative centres of Tallinn tore down the Estonian national flag and replaced it with the Red Flag, a symbol of Soviet occupation.


Tief has immense symbolic and legal significance, as his proclaiming the restoration of Republic of Estonia, and the accompanying raising of the Estonian flag in the tower of Pikk Hermann significantly reduced the feasibility of Soviet historiography's claims regarding the 1944 Red Army invasion of Estonia constituting "liberation of Estonia"

In February 2007, Riigikogu decided to commemorate Tief's government as the Day of Resistance on 22 September of every year.

Otto Tief - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Some ostfront pics....

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Winter war memories

BBC - WW2 People's War - Memories of the "Winter War" and the "Continuation War" between Finland and the Soviet Union 1939-1944

BBC - WW2 People's War - A Cold Day on the Russian-Finnish Front

Also interesting load of names:

Newspaper correspondents in the Winter War, 1939-40

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The remarkable fortresses of Northwest Russia and Finland (lots of pics )

Northern Fortress

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Interview of a Finnish veteran ( translated in English ) on many things of WW2

An interview of Mr. Hyry

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Amazon.co.uk: From Barbarossa to Odessa: The Luftwaffe Strikes South East June - October 1941: Denes Bernad, John Louis Roba, Dmitriy Karlenko: Books

The Strategic surprise was not fully realized here because of the VVS ( Military Air force, Soviet ) Air Fleet´s last minute dispersion to secondary landing grounds, just hours before the Axis onslaught. In this area, Moscow´s order was largely executed in time, despite some initial objections by local commanders. Most of the axis bombs fell on generally empty airfields.As a result only 28 aircraft was destroyed on the ground during the first day of war, against hundreds of Soviet aircraft destroyed by luftwaffe elsewhere.

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Think if the order had been followed elsewhere as well not only the AGS area.

I personally considered the so-called "Stalin order of the 22nd June night" a fairy tale but now I must believe it as the Soviet planes in the AGS area followed it successfully.

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SS Nord in Finland

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Great stuff Kai, keep em coming

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Where do you get these photos?!

Great stuff.

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

From the local net auction site. I usually try to buy the pics but sometimes somebody wants them "more"....

Lucky enough to have succeeded in buying two photo albums last week.

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Page from a Finnish site with pics of warfare, prisoners, burnt houses, personal papers of dead soldiers, etc etc from Winter War.

Talvisodan Monumentti

I pick two of those pics. The first is a pic of a record the Red Army had with them already made beforehand to celebrate the victory (?!). I am not sure if this is the actual record but I know the song was made. The other is the armor plate the Red Army soldiers used during the early phase of WW2.

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Paulus and Stalingrad

YouTube - Von Paulus catturato

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Although the Luftwaffe had amassed more than 2,500 frontline aircraft for the coming assault, Oberstleutnant Schalk´s 51 serviceable Bf 110s provided the sole Zerstörer presence at the launch of operation Barbarossa. Representing just two percent of Göring´s total aerial armada, nothing better illustrates the sad decline of Göring´s once seemingly invincible "ironsides".

Me bf 110 Zerstörer aces of WW2 by John Weal

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Rudolf "Rudi" Müller

“Rudi” Müller was credited with 92 victories. All his victories were recorded over the Eastern front and included at least 35 Hurricane fighters.

Awards : Ehrenpokal (1 July 1942)
Deutsches Kreuz in Gold (27 May 1942)
Ritterkreuz (19 June 1942)
Units : JG 77, JG 5

In March 1942, 1./JG 77 was redesignated 6./JG 5. On 23 April, he shot down five Russian Hurricane fighters to record his 11th through 15th victories. Müller was to be particularly successful against Hurricane fighters supplied to the Russians under lend-lease by Britain. He recorded 15 victories in April, of which 12 were Hurricanes. In May, Müller claimed 13 victories, including 12 Hurricanes, to raise his victory total to 38. Some sources indicate that it was Müller who shot down and killed the Russian ace Podpolkovnik Boris Safanov (15 +14 shared victories) over the Allied supply convoy PQ-16 on 30 May.

Aces of the Luftwaffe - Rudolf Müller

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Sorry, failed to spot this till now... Amazing stuff Kai, and best of luck in the future.

Keep em' comin'!!!!

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

Want some more? Here you go!

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And some more....

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Original press photos....

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Soviet female tankers

Approximately one million women served in the Red Army from 1941-45, but fewer than ten percent served in combat roles. A few female volunteers served as tank drivers early in 1942, but it was not until women were sent as cadres in tank training regiments in January 1943 that their presence became more widespread. By the summer of 1943 the pool of Soviet manpower was beginning to run dry and a number of women who had served in the training units were sent as individual replacements, usually to Guards tank brigades. While the total number of female T-34 tank crew members is unknown, it was not large, although Communist propaganda tended to focus on these individuals. A few women that survived their initial combat rose to become tank commanders, but most served innocuously as drivers, who tended to have a low survival rate in combat. In one action near Fastov on November 8th 1943 SS Leibstandarte engaged two T-34's from the 3 GTA and discovered afterwards that both the tanks had female tank members.
Mariya Oktyyabrskya was the first female tank driver to become a Heroine of the Soviet Union, the most prestigious award for bravery. A widow of a soldier killed defending the Motherland, she sold all her possessions to raise money to donate a tank to the military. Her only stipulation was that she would be it's driver. She was posted to the 26th Guards Tank Brigade in September 1943 and saw repeated action throughout the Eastern Front, in particular serving courageously in the fighting around the Vitebsk region in November 1943. Sr/Sgt Mariya Oktyabrskaya was eventually mortally wounded in combat in March 1944.
Robert Forczyk

Strong Woman !

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There's one way to find out if a man is honest-ask him. If he says "Yes", you know he's a crook. Groucho Marx

Finnish propaganda to the Red Army

English Russia » Finnish Propaganda to Russian Soldiers During WW2

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" The losses suffered by von Paulus´ 6th Army at Stalingrad are well known, and ZG 1´s casualties were proportionately just as grievous. By year-end, the two Gruppen could muster but a handful of serviceable Bf 110´s between them.But still they were thrown into the battle. Reprieve did not come until 28 january 1943. On that date, six Bf 109´s and five Bf 110´s - the only aircraft available - were scheduled to fly long-range fighter patrols over the beleaguered city. But Major Wilcke, Geschwaderkommodore of JG 3, who was co-ordinating fighter operations, demurred. The Zerstörer, he protested, were simply not suitable for such a task. He was overruled by no lesser an individual than Generalfeldmarschall Erhard Milch.

" I will brook no opposition. The credibility of the Luftwaffe, and the fighters in particular, is on the line."

The mission was flown as ordered and the Zerstörer suffered the inevitable losses."

From Me Bf 110 Zerstörer aces of WW2 by John Weal

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Good morning Kai;
So what is your read on just why Stalin did not take Finland?
Here is a link to Stalin's 1948 toast to the Finnish Army;
Suomi m/1931
It would seem that there was a respect there that was wholly absent on the Russo/German Front.
JeffinMNUSA

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Hello JeffinMNUSA,

Stalin could have taken Finland if he had wanted to, really, but the losses in summer 1944 in the Karelian front and also the fact he had to continue attacking Germany were the reasons why he stopped by Aug 1944. I think Stalin would have been forced to take troops from Bagration ( early July 1944 ) to keep on pushing the Finnish lines and that was out-of-question. By making peace with Finland he also got Finland fighting the Germans, a new ally and a morale blow to Hitler.

Actually I´d love to know Stalin´s comments after Tali-Ihantala....

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"Never again!" or words to that effect

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Early Barbarossa phase:

" Because of the greater distances likely to be covered in the early stages of Army Group South´s offensive, the bomber element of General Löhr´s supporting Luftlotte 4 comprised mainly of Ju 88s; Stukas would be redeployed to this sector once the initial objectives had been achieved. "

Hitler´s Stuka squadrons by John Ward

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Perhaps against the many Soviet tanks they would have liked the Stukas more...

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