Henn-Ants Kurg

In 1916–1917, he took part in the First World War, where he graduated from the Vladimir Artillery School in 1916. In December 1916, Kurg served in the Estonian Army in the 1st Estonian Infantry Division, the Estonian Reserve Infantry Battalion and the 3rd Estonian Infantry Regiment. Prior to the German occupation, he fled to Russia, where he was in the Slavic-British Legion in Murmansk during the Russian Civil War in 1918–1919.

He returned to Estonia in 1919 and was an adjunct to the Artillery Inspector of the Armored Trains Division during the Estonian War of Independence (1919–1920) from October 1919. Following the War of Independence, he was an adjutant of the 3rd Artillery Regiment and commander of the No. 3 field battery of 1920–1923. From 1921 to 1922, he studied at the courses of permanent officers.

From 1923 to 1924, he was the commander of the training team of the 1st Artillery Regiment and the commander of the 1st battery of the 1st Artillery Group, and he also studied at the Faculty of Law at the University of Tartu.

From August 1924 to June 1925, he served as an adjunct to the State Elder, and was promoted to captain in November 1924.

From 1925 to 1927, he studied at an artillery school in France and then was the battery commander of a military school from 1927 to 1930. In 1928 he was promoted to major.

In 1930–1931, he was a senior artillery officer of the United Educational Institutions of the Army, 1st Assistant Commander of the Artillery Group 1931–1938. Commander of the Artillery Group and at the same time studied at the Higher Military School in 1936–1938. On February 24, 1935, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

From 1938 he was the commanding officer of the Army Headquarters, from 1 September 1938, to 1939, he was the assistant director of the Institute of National Defense of the University of Tartu.

In 1939 and 1940 he was a representative of the Estonian army in France, he was promoted to colonel on 24 February 1940.

At the beginning of the Second World War, he was in Germany, from where he went to Finland in 1941. In Finland, he was appointed commander of the Erna long-range reconnaissance group; a Finnish Army unit of Estonian volunteers, that fulfilled reconnaissance duties in Estonia behind Red Army lines during World War II. After Erna's intelligence group crossed the front line, he left the battalion leadership and later joined the 3rd Estonian SS Volunteer Brigade, where he was commander of the 42nd SS Volunteer Regiment of the 1st Regiment of the Legion and the Estonian SS Volunteer Regiment in July–August 1943. While the brigade of volunteers was on the front of Nevel, in November 1943 the car that Kurg was in was hit by a landmine.

Later, after an unsuccessful operation in Tallinn, he died in a military hospital[1] on 28 December 1943. He was buried on 4 January 1944, in Metsakalmistu, Tallinn.[1][2]