Baltic Defence Review No. 3 Volume 2000

The Defence League and Defence Districts

By Ants Laaneots, of the

The experience of the defense wars in the last century has shown that the stable force in every place of the country success of military activities does not depend only on the fighting ability and securing the rear area. It is important to bravery of the units waging war on the front but more and more on what is done know that organized resistance will be put to ward off the enemy on the whole territory of the country. Next to the units up everywhere the enemy has appeared with the main intensity of the regular combat activities, the numerous complex including the territory seized by the en- of military units and establishments carry out all kinds of tasks in forming war emy. The system of territorial defense is time units, providing all the necessary supplies for the fighting units, securing the instrument used to solve these prob- and supporting the fighting units and protecting citizens from the dangers and lems. hardships of war all over the country. In a majority of the European coun- tries, particularly in those that do not Nowadays an aggressor will use numer- is very difficult to predict in which part belong to any military alliances, the armed ous special forces in an attack: land- and of the country the enemy may suddenly forces are divided into; general-purpose marine assault, air- and rocket impacts in appear therefore the means and readiness forces and territorial units. Such classifi- order to neutralize power- and command to face him must be evenly distributed all cation is used in the armies in Finland, structures, destroy or seize important over the country. To preserve the defen- Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, objects and economy, and to quickly sup- sive will of the fighting units and of the Poland, Latvia, Lithuania etc. press resistance and the defense ability of whole population warding off the aggres- As a rule, general-purpose forces com- the population of the victim country. It sion it is particularly important to have a pose a more battle efficient and mobile

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part of the armed forces. They are desig- territorialism. Total defense embraces the In one or the other way we have both nated to solve the major combat tasks of idea that military defense of a small coun- of the mentioned components. the national defense in the core of aggres- try is able to achieve its goals only when Peacetime units of the armed forces sion in any part of the country. They are the entire population participates in it prepare and form general-purpose forces not permanently assigned to any area of with all available means. The territorial necessary for the wartime. responsibility. structure serves this purpose and allows Territorial units are located all over the achieving it. Territorial defense is based on the country and they have certain areas of Today has achieved the cor- Defense League responsibility. In a way they form a na- rect solution of the national defense that tionwide “security cover” and fill various needs only further detailing and consist- Also we do not have to start creating tasks both in own rear and in the terri- ent implementing. Both the Scandinavian territorial units from the scrap. When our tory occupied by the enemy. experts and the experts from NATO have neighbors in Finland form their territo- declared our general defense conception rial units only while declaring mobiliza- Territorial defense in Estonia fitted for the purpose. It provides decen- tion, we have already in peacetime a na- The conception of Estonian national tralizing the national defense in time of tionwide territorial defense structure in defense has gone through a development war and creating regional military-terri- the form of the units of the Defense League of eight years. The purpose was to estab- torial body of troops – defense regions that are well suited for the establishment lish a system of defense forces that is as with vast authority and responsibility. The of wartime territorial defense. Addition- easy, practical and effective as possible, defense region consists of general-purpose ally the areas of responsibility of the that would guarantee completing the military- and territorial defense units. It Defense League units coincide with the mobilization task and resistance in every has a fixed area of responsibility where it country’s administrative divisional units case no matter what the situation. The is fully responsible for preparing and suc- – counties, which makes it considerably national defense models of the Nordic cessfully conducting defensive activities easier to connect the military side of the countries served as a good example. also in the situation where the central national defense with civilian society and The basic principles of our national command of the national defense in no to establish and implement the total defense are of a total nature and based on longer operational. defense system as a whole.

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However the Defense League law does principle of its members being volunteers • Preparing the defense district’s area not determine wartime tasks for the or- and it becomes a specific part of the of responsibility for defense activities; ganization, but regulates the activities of defense forces – territorial force, it units • Securing and reinforcing the bor- the Defense League. These are established become defense districts. der guards (in frontier defense districts); in the mobilization plan, in the overall • Helping local municipal govern- plan of national defense and in other le- Tasks of the defense districts ments, government establishments and the gal documents concerning national defense police in guaranteeing the public order that are ratified by the Commander of The tasks, structure and order of for- according to legislation; the Defense Forces (in wartime supreme mation are determined by the order of • Organizing guarding and protection commander). However, in peacetime the the Commander of Defense Forces from of important national and military ob- Defense League is not capable of carrying December 1998. jects, material supplies; out all tasks of wartime territorial defense. Being three to four times larger than • Manning observation posts and com- The calculations show that the minimum the peacetime unit the defense district mand points that belong to the close-air staff necessary to carry out the tasks of (DD) is a tactical unit of territorial defense surveillance system (CASS) of air defense territorial defense is 30 000 people. The with a structure and set area of responsi- and making sure the observation tasks are voluntary national defense organization bility adjusted for it. completed constantly; Defense League incorporates a relatively The tasks that a defense district must • Organizing the take-over of military small amount (8 200 people) of members complete in their area of responsibility quarters and other objects on the depar- of different background and age which is are wide and various. More important of ture of the units and their purposeful use simply not enough. Defense League units these tasks are: and care; must become the framework that is go- • Carrying out tasks of raising the • Combat with the enemy reconnais- ing to be the basis of forming wartime defense readiness and in case of mobiliza- sance-diversion groups and the air- and territorial units – defense districts. The tion forming the units that are both per- marine assaults; missing personnel will be formed out of manent staff and the units appointed for • Protecting the area of responsibility the reserves by mobilization. Thus the the task; either independently or together with Defense League changes its nature in war- • Helping the National Defense Depart- other military units in case the enemy time, as it cannot be based only on the ments and units conduct mobilization; attempt to conquer it;

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• Calculating and preparing military veillance system (CASS) of air defense, to need to complete tasks characteristic to reserves according to the tasks set by the complete tasks of internal security and these arms; commander of the defense district; guerilla activities in own area of respon- • Engineer sub-units – to obstruct the • Providing supplies to the military, sibility; enemy movement, to destroy objects and evacuation of the injured and the sick from • Combat sub-units – to complete un- demination, to do ground work, to re- the battle area and securing the rear ac- expected general military, guerilla and pair bridges and roads, to guarantee cross- cording to the tasks set by the commander other combat tasks in own DD and in ing over bodies of water. It is practical to of the defense district; areas of responsibility of other defense make use of peacetime road- and bridge • Organizing and commanding guerilla districts within the defense region; construction organizations in forming activities resistance movement in case the • Anti-tank, air defense and artillery engineer sub-units; enemy has seized the area of responsibility sub-units – are formed according to the • Training sub-units – to form new units • Helping the local authorities imple- ment civil defense. The structure and composition of every DEFENCE DISTRICT COMBAT FORMATION defense department depends on its location Borderline of a Guard and wartime tasks. For example, one of the Company area of tasks of a DD that is situated on the coast responsibility Borderline of a Guard or on islands may be protecting the coast. Platoon area of It means that coastal defense units must be responsibility a part of that DD. A DD with an open Air Observation Post area that has a danger of enemy attacks by Enemy tanks may need anti-tank sub-units etc. The typical structure of a defense dis- trict has: • Internal defense sub-units – to Main HQ - Main Command Post Rear HQ - Rear Command Post guard and protect important objects and Rifle Coy - Rifle Company material supplies, to man the close-air sur- DD - Defence District

96 Baltic Defence Review No. 3 Volume 2000 and to quickly prepare necessary reserves first be limited to one in each company. League, will be mobilized other military to supplement the combating units; Various tasks of a defense district also al- units. Therefore the commanders of units • Logistics sub-units – determined by lows maximum use of female volunteers and defense districts should, already in own defense district sub-units and the and the members of the Women Home peacetime take into account this fact. Sepa- headquarters of the defense region to pro- Guard who are sure to manage with some rate sub-units should be formed for the vide supplies and services for the mili- tasks better than men, at the same time al- activities of the Defense League that are tary units. lowing to use the latter in combat units. not going to be included in the DD and In course of military activities also the does not influence its readiness and com- Defense districts are established border guard sub-units are given under bat ability. In case a crisis breaks out, step by step the command of the commander of the forming and implementing the defense defense district in case the former have districts is conducted according to the At the beginning of establishing and withdrawn from the border sectors un- corresponding orders of the general staff developing the defense districts it is prac- der attack into the defense district. of the defense forces that are passed on to tical at first to form one battle company In planning mobilization of defense the units and establishments via opera- in every defense district (Tallinn Special forces practical distribution and designa- tional communication network of the Defense District organization will need tion of reserves between general-purpose defense forces. In case of a direct assault special consideration) and the amount of units and the defense district is impor- on a defense region or a defense district, internal defense companies that corre- tant. Of course the units of general-pur- also in case the centralized command is sponds to the amount of tasks given to pose forces are a priority here. Reservists lost, defense districts are formed independ- them (in Tallinn the internal defense com- of age 20 to 45 who have completed tech- ently according to the orders of the com- panies may be joined into internal defense nical or military service or received cor- manders of defense regions or defense battalions if necessary), also one engineer responding military training, and are not districts corresponding to the regula- company, logistics company, heavy arms figured into defense forces wartime gen- tions of the commander of defense sub-units according to the weapons at use eral-purpose units, are appointed to form forces that has been established already and tactical need. In order to gain experi- defense districts. in peacetime. ence also the number of battle platoons in In peacetime some of the people who A commander of a defense district is the internal defense companies should at participate in the activities of the Defense fully subordinate to a commander of his

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defense region. Depending on the com- several of the present chiefs of units have The rear command point that is com- bat situation and needs, the commander paid little attention to personal profes- manded by the Chief of Logistics of DD of a defense region may make a defense sional development and for a long time has two important tasks: logistical servic- district temporarily subordinate to a com- have been distant from any kind of learn- ing of own units and providing neces- mander of a general force brigade or tac- ing processes. Today’s units and wartime sary material supplies that are available in tical group fighting in the area or vice defense district need energetic, experi- civilian society for the fighting general- versa – in the best interest of successfully enced leaders. It is the task of the General purpose units according to the orders of solving a task some general force unit may Staff of the Defense Forces to conduct the defense region headquarters. be made subordinate to the commander the necessary rotation of officers in the At the beginning of military activities of the defense district. Defense League and appointing such peo- the command points of the defense dis- ple who manage their tasks well. tricts are situated in hidden and if possi- Responsibilities of the It is easier and more practical to form ble - protected – locations. Locations are Defense League increase the headquarters of defense districts based changed according to need. Prior to com- on the unit headquarters including addi- bat activities and sometimes also in war In our present situation where quali- tional reserve officers chosen and appointed situations if there is no direct danger, the fied officers are in permanent need it is for it. Local bureaus of regional national peacetime headquarters building and com- most practical to appoint the chiefs of defense departments may be included in munication systems of the Defense League the Defense league units to be the com- the headquarters of DDs as a part of the may be used as a stationary command manders of the corresponding defense headquarters personnel department. point (SCP). districts. Receiving two tasks of very big In order to command the defense dis- responsibility and work- load the com- trict in wartime a DD main command To protect one’s own shed manders must be highly professional. point and rear command point are estab- They must possess the qualities of a good lished on its basis. The Main command A somewhat funny problem has ap- leader and the ability to carry out one’s point should be where the commander peared in the exercises of the first defense peacetime tasks as a chief of the unit, and of the defense district and headquarters districts. Some headquarters have included at the same time prepare wartime activi- main operation personnel are situated and all objects in their area of responsibility ties of the defense district. Unfortunately lead the whole activity of the DD. in the lists of objects that need guarding

98 Baltic Defence Review No. 3 Volume 2000 and protection, oftentimes including small • Hospitals for the personnel of the fact that we have almost all the necessary shops, storehouses and other minor ob- defense forces; weapons and partially also the equipment, jects that belong to the planners them- • Road junctions, railway stations. create real preconditions to the situation, selves or to their relatives. Here a prag- This list is by far complete. where a large and important part of the matic approach is needed, important ob- To make establishing procedures faster national defense – the system of territo- jects and places of storing supplies are and easier, the commanders of the Defense rial defense – may get on its feet fairly placed under guard and protection, and League should, based on the initial infor- soon. Also our present government’s firm there are simply not enough soldiers to mation, already in the first half of 1999- budget policy that is directed towards guard everything. The following should 2000 conduct necessary organizational developing national defense and under- be under the protection of internal and territorial changes to join units’ peace- standing of the extraordinary importance defense companies of defense districts: time and defense districts’ wartime inter- of fast completion of mobilization infra- • State, county and commune (munici- nal defense structures, divide defense dis- structure gives reason for optimism. pal) government establishments; tricts’ areas of responsibility into areas of • Radio, television, communication responsibility of internal defense compa- and information communication centers; nies and those again into areas of respon- • Water supply systems; sibility of internal defense platoons. It will • Airports and marine ports; be the concern of the units’ headquarters • More important bridges, embank- to determine wartime structure of defense ments and hydro-technical establishments; districts as exactly and practically as pos- • Storehouses and terminals of food, sible and in cooperation with the general fuel and other materials important in staff of the defense forces to compose and completing national defense tasks; ratify initial personnel tables, and that • Power stations and other important could be the beginning of real coopera- objects of power system; tion in mobilization with national defense • Industrial establishments important departments. from the point of view of the state and Good work of the General Staff and national defense; the units of the Defense League, and the

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