The Finnish 27th Jäger Battalion was an elite light infantry

Light infantry

Traditionally light infantry were soldiers whose job was to provide a skirmishing screen ahead of the main body of infantry, harassing and delaying the enemy advance. Light infantry was distinct from medium, heavy or line infantry. Heavy infantry were dedicated primarily to fighting in tight...

 unit in German Army

German Army (German Empire)

The German Army was the name given the combined land forces of the German Empire, also known as the National Army , Imperial Army or Imperial German Army. The term "Deutsches Heer" is also used for the modern German Army, the land component of the German Bundeswehr...

 1915–1918 which consisted mainly of volunteers of Finnish Jäger troops

Finnish Jäger troops

The Jäger Movement were volunteers from Finland trained in Germany as Jägers during World War I. Supported by Germany to enable a Finnish sovereign state, it was one of many means by which Germany intended to weaken Russia and to cause Russia's loss of western provinces and...

.

The recruitment of the Jäger volunteers from the Russian

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

 Grand Duchy of Finland

Grand Duchy of Finland

The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed 1809–1917 as part of the Russian Empire and was ruled by the Russian czar as Grand Prince.- History :...

 had to be secret, and was dominated by German-influenced circles, such as university students and the upper middle class. The recruitment was however in no way exclusive. The recruits were transported across Finland's western border via Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 to Germany

German Empire

The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...

, where the volunteers were formed into the Royal Prussian 27th Jäger Battalion. It was a continuation and expansion of the "Boy Scout

Boy Scout

A Scout is a boy or a girl, usually 11 to 18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement. Because of the large age and development span, many Scouting associations have split this age group into a junior and a senior section...

 Training" (Pfadfinderkursus).

Scout course and permanent training group

Later the Pfadfinderkursus received more permanent forms and the course was changed into a permanent training group in Lockstedt

Lockstedt

Lockstedt is a municipality in the district of Steinburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany....

, Ausbildungs-Truppe-Lockstedt, which had given military training to Finnish volunteers eager to fight for independence

Independence

Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....

.

More than 200 university students had participated in the so-called Boy Scout training – they dressed in Boy Scout uniforms during the training, and they became the officers

Officer (armed forces)

An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...

 of Finnish Jäger Troops. This group was expanded by extensive recruitment autumn 1915 and spring 1916. Goal was to grow the unit to 1,200 men, including artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

 and pioneers. As the new recruits included working class young men and farmers as well as sailors, not so many of them knew German. So it was necessary to create military guide books in Finnish

Finnish language

Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...

, and the commanding vocabulary was created.

On the 9th May, 1916, the Lockstedt

Lockstedt

Lockstedt is a municipality in the district of Steinburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany....

 training group (Ausbildungs-Truppe-Lockstedt) was named as the Royal Prussian Jaeger Battalion number 27 (Königlich Preussisches Jägerbataillon Nr. 27) and received new, green German Jaeger uniforms. Some of the soldiers to be trained stayed in Ausbildungs-Truppe-Lockstedt and their unit preserved its name. If the number of the recruits had increased enough Ausbildungs-Truppe-Lockstedt would have been formed again as a Jaeger battalion, but with the number 28 (i.e. ). This did not happen as there were no political initiatives for this in Finland or in Germany, which were preparing for the separate peace with the Russian Empire in order to fight more effectively on the Western front against France and the United Kingdom.

Permanent battalion

To achieve experience from war-faring the main part of the Ausbildungs-Truppe-Lockstedt became a regular Jaeger battalion, the Royal Prussian Jaeger battalion number 27 , which was used with relatively modest losses to achieve experience, but also re-trained for the more technical demanding duties of artillery, engineers, supplies, etc. in order to establish this expertise in the future national army of the independent state of Finland.

The Jaeger Battalion participated in the ranks of the 8th German Army from 1916 in the battles of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 on the northern flank of the eastern front. After the outbreak of the Civil War in Finland

Finnish Civil War

The Finnish Civil War was a part of the national, political and social turmoil caused by World War I in Europe. The Civil War concerned control and leadership of The Grand Duchy of Finland as it achieved independence from Russia after the October Revolution in Petrograd...

 Jaegers who intended to engage on the "White

Whites (Finland)

The Whites is the name used to the refugee government and forces under Pehr Evind Svinhufvud's first senate during the Finnish civil war. The forces were initially formed by the paramilitary White Guard and other recruitees and draftees...

" (anti-communist) side in the war were released.

Pfadfinder-Kursus Lockstedter Lager

Pfadfinderkursus - the pathfinder course - was the beginning of the new Finnish military training as it had been abolished in the Grand Duchy of Finland

Grand Duchy of Finland

The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed 1809–1917 as part of the Russian Empire and was ruled by the Russian czar as Grand Prince.- History :...

 due to the political schism in Finland between the Finns and the Russian imperial government. There were 189 Finns, one Norwegian Swede (Gösta af Geijerstam) and one Balt, altogether 191.

In 26th January, 1917, the representatives of the German ministries for foreign affairs and also war, general headquarters and navy headquarters had made a decision for providing military training for 200 Finns. The commander was major Maximillian Bayer, who was a war veteran from German African colony and the chairman of the German scout league, Deutsche Pfadfinderbund, which he established in 1907 and served it as the chairman, Reichsfeldmeister. In WW1 he had served in the Regiment Prinz Louis-Ferninand, the 27th Infantry Regiment and took part in the attack against Liege

Liege

Liège is a municipality and a city of Belgium. The term Liège or Liege may also refer to:* Liege, a party to the oath of allegiance in feudalism .* Liège Island, in the Antarctic...

in Belgium. Since that ha had served in the non-combatant duties as the German commandant of Liege since 5th January, 1915. The original idea was to nominate the commander, one infantry captain and one pioneer captain, but the decision was to nominate four captains: Knaths, Hans Bade, Walter Just and Karld Heldt. They all went to the German ministry for War in 13th February for the instructions. In April for the machine gun training an Offiziersverstellvertreter Hans Eller also was ordered to the pathfinder course. From 12 to 13 non-commissioned officers were ordered to the course and also 6 pioneers. Master sergeants (Fäbel) were Perper and Steinmuller and non-commissioned officers in lower ranks, Unteroffiziers, were Claussen, Huyssen, Hoden and Toeppel. Hoden and Toeppel were ordered to the other duties later. The pioneer non-commissioned officer Claussen and machine gun trainer Huyssen server still during the 27th battalion period and became lieutenants.
The very first pathfinders became to the Lockstedt military training camp in 25th February, 1915. The oldest member of the course was Alma Fabritius, who stayed for four months. Another old participant, doctor Marcus Kjöllerfeld stayed six weeks from the 25th February to April.

Month	Finland	Germany	Denmark	Norway	USA	Total	Accumulated	Resigned
February	63					63	63
March	66	9	1			76	139
April	8	3				11	150	-1
May	2	1	1			5	155
June	3					3	158
July	3					3	161
August	3	2			1	6	167

Later as already Jaegers, two ex-pathfinders resigned and two died from disease, Runar Appelberg and Urho Kalsko. Already in the service of the Guards majors Friedel Jacobson, Olof Lagus and Armas Ståhlberg were killed in action in the Finnish Civil War 1918 like Rittmeister (Cavalry captain) Paul Ljungberg and captain Bertel Paulig. Also six other ex-pathfinders died in the civil war. Two of them were master sergeants (faebel) and and third sergeant. The last three did not have in Finland a military rank at all for the unknown reason.

Captain Toivo Kuisma died in the Aunus attack 1919 and major Sven Weckström in 1921 having being wounded in Maaninkajärvi 1921.

Later the ex-pathfinders achieved high military ranks

Rank
infantry general	3	A. E. Heinrich, A. Sihvo, A. Sundman
lieutenant-general	10
major-general	12
colonel	30
lieutenant-colonel	26
major	38
captain and rittmeister (cavalry captain)	29
lieutenant	14
2nd lieutenant	3
Total	165

External links