‘It’s a swamp, why do you want to go there?’
‘There’s a memorial, to a battle. A pretty famous one, can you tell me where it is?’
And so I end up searching the google map for a village called Ardu, a name that deserves to have a whisky christened after it, and down some pretty basic roads is the Kautla war memorial. An important place. In 1941, an Estonian unit of the Finnish army, called Erna. had snuck into the country on reconnaisance and discovered the area surrounded by Destroyer batallions. Not only did the 60 people fight their way in, but rescued some 2000 locals who were in danger and fought their way back out of the encirclement. In anyone’s book, that feat is an accomplishment worth remembering. And yet so difficult to find the place!
I am currently trundling down google maps and in a few weeks, i hope to be there to smell the air and taste the atmosphere. I wish I could find an English language translation of events – can anyone help?
