Thursday, September 21, 1944. A sort of Estonian civil war.

Estonians, some in the Red Army, and some in German Estonian units, others in Waffen SS units fought each other at Porkuni.

The Red Army units prevailed.

This presents the complicated picture of the war in the Baltics.  The Soviets were widely disposed by most residents of the Baltic States, but there were, and always had been, Baltic communists who saw the Soviet Union as an ally.  Estonian resistance to Soviet occupation, on the other hand, had started with the pre World War Two Soviet invasion and continued on after World War Two in the form of the Estonian Forest Brothers.

The Germans had never desired any sort of independence for Estonia and had not supported it in any sense.  

Interestingly, during the war, Finland never came into play in this even though the Estonians are a Baltic Finnic people and in the 1920s there had been serious considerations given to an Estonian Finnish union, with such efforts being committedly opposed by the Soviets.   The East Karelian Uprising of 1921-22 fit into this, as that territory lay between the two nations to some degree and was occupied by Finnic people as well.

The Battle of Rimini ended in a Canadian, Greek and New Zealander victory.

The Satsuki was sunk by US aircraft in Manila Bay.

The Cardinals took the National League Pennant for the third time in a row, defeating the Boston Braves.

Pfc. Calvin Stempien, Monroe, Mich., levels covering fire from his foxhole while members of his engineer unit construct a bridge over the Meurthe river, under enemy fire. 21 September, 1944.

Last edition:

Wednesday, September 20, 1944 Nijmegen liberated.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, Battle of Arnhem, Battle of Peleliu, British Army, France, Italy, Nijmegen Netherlands, Operation Market Garden, Paratroopers, Red Army

Sunday November 6, 1921. The East Karelian Uprising commences.

Ethnic Finns and volunteers from Finland started the East Karelian Uprising in an attempt to wrest East Karelia from the USSR and join it to Finland.  While initially successful, the uprising was defeated by the USSR in February, 1922.

One of the Finnish Kindred Nations Wars, the war would have expanded Finland to the White Sea had it been successful and have brought in territory occupied by ethnic Finns, but Finns who had never been part of the Grand Duchy of Finland.  It would have been a significant expansion of Finland.

It's an interesting example of nationalist hopes in the post Great War era.