Estonian Auxiliary Police


Estonian Auxiliary Police were Estonian collaborationist police units during World War II.

Formation

Estonian units were first established on 25 August 1941, when under the order of Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, commander of the Army Group North, Baltic citizens were permitted to be recruited into Wehrmacht service and grouped into volunteer battalions for security duties. In this context, General Georg von Küchler, commander of the 18th Army, formed six Estonian volunteer guard units on the basis of the Omakaitse squads.
After September 1941, the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht started to establish the Estonian Auxiliary Police Battalions in addition to the aforementioned units for rear-security duties in the Army Group North Rear Area. During the war, 26 "Schuma" battalions were formed in Estonia, numbered from 29th to 45th, 50th, and from the 286th to 293rd. Unlike similar units deployed in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine and White Ruthenia, which were controlled by the Germans, the Estonian Police battalions were made up of national staff and included only one German monitoring officer. As of 1 October 1942, the Estonian police forces comprised 10,400 men, with 591 Germans attached to them.

Operational history

The police battalions were mostly engaged in the Wehrmacht Army Group Rear Areas. The 37th and 40th battalions were employed on rear-security duties in the Pskov Oblast, as was the 38th battalion in the Luga-Pskov-Gdov region. The 288th battalion was engaged in the suppression of the Ronson's Partisan Republic. Police Battalions 29, 31 and 32 fought in the Battle for Narva Bridgehead.
From 22 November to 31 December 1942 the 36th Estonian Police Battalion took part of the Battle of Stalingrad. On August 29, 1944 Police Battalions 37 and 38 participated in the fighting against the Soviet Tartu Offensive. As their largest operation, supported by the 3rd Battalion of the Estonian Waffen Grenadier Regiment 45, they destroyed the Kärevere bridgehead of two Soviet divisions west from Tartu and recaptured the Tallinn highway bridge over the Emajõgi by 30 August. The operation shifted the entire front back to the southern bank of the Emajõgi. This encouraged the II Army Corps to launch an operation attempting to recapture Tartu on 4 September.

Police battalions