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Baltic Military Forces

Last modified: 2014-05-29 by zoltán horváth
Keywords: baltics | estonia | latvia | lithuania | baltron |
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Baltic Battalion


obverse
by Željko Heimer, 7 December 2003


reverse
by Željko Heimer, 7 December 2003

"The Baltic Battalion shall have its own flag, emblem and seal"
Pascal Vagnat , 10 November 1998

Baltic Battalion as part of UNO Peacekeeping forces in BiH.
Obverse- as presented.
Reverse - UN peacekeeping flag with inscriptions BALTIC / BATTALION on top and bottom of the UN Coat of Arms
Gvido Pētersons, 15 November 1998

The full text of the Baltic Battalion Agreementcan be found on the website of the Lithuanian
Parliament, using the search engine at <www3.lrs.lt>.
I am copying below only the most relevant parts of the text.
A G R E E M E N T
BETWEEN
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ESTONIA,
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF LATVIA AND
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA
C O N C E R N I N G
THE BALTIC BATTALION

PREAMBLE

Following the Agreement between the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Estonia and the Republic of Lithuania concerning the establishment and formation of a joint Peacekeeping Unit, signed in Riga on 13 September, 1994, in the following referred as the Agreement of 1994;
[...]
The Government of the Republic of Latvia, the Government of the Republic of Estonia and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, in the following referred to as the Contracting Parties, have agreed on the following principles concerning the formation, training, application and deployment of the Baltic Battalion:

PART I. GENERAL
ARTICLE I

1. In the following the expression "Baltic Battalion" means the combined infantry battalion, established by the Contracting Parties in accordance with the Agreement, eligible for peace support operations and operations contributing to regional stability, mandated by international organisations and conducted in accordance with the United Nations Charter.
[..]
ARTICLE II
1. The Baltic Battalion shall have its own identity cards.
2. The Baltic Battalion shall have its own flag, emblem and seal.
[...]
5. The official language of the Baltic Battalion is English.

PART II. ORGANIZATION AND AUTHORIZATION
[...]
ARTICLE IV
1. The Contracting Parties agree to establish a combined control mechanism in order to direct, supervise and audit the operations of the Baltic Battalion. This mechanism shall comprise the following:
a) Ministerial Committee (MC) consisting of Ministers of Defence of the Contracting Parties;
b) Baltic Military Committee (BMC) consisting of the Chiefs of Defence of the Contracting Parties;
[...]
2. The MC embodies the highest political authority over the Baltic Battalion and shall among other things:
[...]
j) approve the form of the identification card and seal of the Baltic Battalion.
3. The BMC embodies the highest military command authority over the Baltic Battalion as the CHOD's will retain Full Command over all their national personnel assigned to the Baltic Battalion. BMC shall among other things:
[...]
b) approve the form and use of the flag and the emblem of the Baltic Battalion;
[...]
Done in Talin on 10 December 1997 in three original copies, each drawn up in the English, Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian languages, all texts being equally authentic. In case of different interpretation the English version will prevail.
FOR THE REPUBLIC OF LATVIA
FOR THE REPUBLIC OF ESTONIA
FOR THE REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA
Ivan Sache, 23 November 2001

According to the French Navy Album, issue 2000 [pay00] - Baltic Battalion as part of the UN peace keeping operation in B&H. The reverse being UN flag with inscription BALTIC BATTALION above and below the UN elmblem (in stright line?).
According to this description (by Guido), I would assume that this is a colour of the unit, while the national flag were presumably hoisted in the barraks etc. (i.e. this tricolour did not superseed the national flags).
Željko Heimer, 7 December 2003


Baltron (Baltic Squadron)


by Željko Heimer , 7 December 2003

Yesterday, I had here three navy officers from Estonia, Latvia & Lituania. These gentlemen had a look of approval at my pages on their country in the "Album" (French Navy flagbook) and told me that existed a "Baltron", Baltic Squadron, with ships from the three countries. Each ship show her own country ensign, plus a Baltron mark, three horizontal bands, blue (eston) over red (latv) over yellow (litu), rect 11 / 7 with two swallow tails. the commanding officer of this naval force shows a distinguishing flag, triangle with the same three horizontal bands
Armand Noel du Payrat, 10 November 1998

According to the French Navy Album, issue 2000 [pay00] - Baltic Squadron Vessels (BALTRON) (7:11) - A swallow-tailed flag of three stripes light blue over drak red over yellow. The construction details given in Album are (7+7+7):(21+12), i.e. the length from hoist to the innermost point of the swallow-tail is equal to the hoist size.
As explained, this "Baltron Mark" is hoisted on the ships belonging to this multinational force in addition to the appropriate national ensign (probably on the main mast?).
Željko Heimer , 7 December 2003

Baltron Commanding Officer


by Željko Heimer , 7 December 2003

According to the French Navy Album, issue 2000 [pay00] - Baltic Squadron Commander (COMBALTRON) (7:11) - A triangular pennnat of the BALTRON mark is used by the Commander. The colours match the colours typical for the nationa flags, i.e. blue is the Estonian blue, red is the Latvian red and yellow is Lithuanian yellow.
Željko Heimer , 7 December 2003


Baltic Defence College


by Gvido Pētersons, 29 May 2000

In front of Baltic Defence Academy in Tartu (military university for military education for officers from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with English language education and NATO(?) support), I saw 5 flagpoles with flags of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Baltic Assembly and BDA flag
Gvido Pētersons, 29 May 2000

According to <www.bdcol.ee>, this is not Baltic Defence Academy but Baltic Defence College.
Valerijus Serelis, 16 August 2006


Baltic Legion

I'we heard that by the end of WWII, Lithuanian. Latvian and Estonian soldiers, who managed to escape to Sweeden when the terrytories were already occupied by Soviets, formed there Baltic Legion, to get back in to the battle, and they have created the flag of the unit. Do you have any information about this?
Valerijus Serelis, 16 August 2006

I don't have much knowledge on this, but I do know that there were many Baltic soldiers and civilians who fled to Sweden at the end of the war. Many of the soldiers were forcefully deported back to the Soviet Union, on demand from the Soviet government, to "surrender on the last battle ground they were on". The Swedish government believed these soldiers were to be treated as prisoners of war by the Soviet Union and that they soon would be repatriated, but most of them were immediately deported to Siberia on their arrival to the Soviet occupied Baltic states. This is something many Swedes still think is a rather embarassing story for Sweden. See <sv.wikipedia.org> (in Swedish).
Many of the Baltic soldiers who did remain in Sweden were recruited by the Swedish secret service and used as agents infiltrating their own homelands, which by then had been made parts of the Soviet Union. (I do not know if they went by some special name, like the Baltic Legion.) In the 1950's, this led to good intelligence in Sweden regarding the state of political and military forces in the Baltics, but later the Swedish groups were infiltrated by people loyal to the Soviet regime (loyal either for ideological reasons or because they were forced to it) and the net of Swedish informants were broken up.
Elias Granqvist, 19 August 2006