When uploading Friday’s press releases about additional Lithuanian air defence I realised our coverage on NATO BG LTU has been a bit sparse, writes Bob Morrison.
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- Carl Schulze and myself have worked with the NATO enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroup in Lithuania (eFP BG LTU) since its activation, both on Lithuanian soil and while elements were deployed on exercise elsewhere in the Baltic region. However as my initial visit to the country to cover Exercises SABER STRIKE and IRON WOLF in 2017 was the year before we created JOINT-FORCES, I have delved back into my archives to resurrect, and slightly edit, an article I penned for the now sadly gone COMBAT & SURVIVAL Magazine shortly after the exercises:-
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Lithuania, unlike the neighbouring Baltic States of Estonia and Latvia, does not share its eastern border with the Russian Federation, though it does abut Belarus which is closely aligned with the Moscow government. To Lithuania’s south-west, however, is the 15,000 square kilometre Kaliningrad Oblast, an exclave of Russia on the Baltic Coast, which has a population of just under one million of mostly Russian extraction.
Until the end of World War II, when it fell under Soviet rule, the area now known as the Kaliningrad Oblast was part of East Prussia and was German-speaking. The city of Kaliningrad, formerly known by its German name of Königsberg or Koenigsberg, is a port on that part of the Baltic Sea which does not freeze in winter and consequently since WWII it has been the headquarters of the Russian Navy’s Baltic Fleet. Between the Russian exclave and Belarus the land in southern Lithuania, the part of the North European Plain known as the Suwalki Gap, is flat and generally quite well-suited for a rapid armoured advance should Russia once again decide to either re-annexe the Baltic States or even just occupy a ‘land bridge’ between its ally and its annexed Baltic port.
To hopefully deter the Russians from attempting to physically link up Kaliningrad with Belarus through military action, an act which would effectively cut off Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia from the European Union and NATO and something which cannot be ruled out following Russia’s excursions into Georgia in 2008 and The Crimea / Eastern Ukraine in 2014 (followedby its full-on invasion of Nothern & Eastern Ukraine in 2022) the Alliance has stationed one of its four eFP (enhanced Forward Presence) battlegroups in this area. In June 2017 I headed off to the Suwalki Gap during Exercises GELEŽINIS VILKAS (IRON WOLF) ’17 and SABER STRIKE ’17 to document BG LTU (Battle Group Lithuania) in the field.
¤ One of a platoon of well-camouflaged MARDERS providing close security to the German HQ complex [©BM]
This Centre South forward presence, which at the time was assigned to Lithuania’s Iron Wolf Mechanised Infantry Brigade, is German-led with The Netherlands, Norway, Belgium and Luxembourg all providing additional troops and equipment in 2017. In 2018 Croatia joined the multinational battlegroup to bring it up to full strength. The Headquarters and all major BG LTU assets already deployed in-theatre were validated during Ex. IRON WOLF ’17, which also saw BG POL (the US-led, Polish-based multinational eFP battlegroup) conduct a Passage of Lines through its Lithuanian equivalent after a British-led multinational Air Assault Task Force flew in from Latvia to clear Yellow Forces invaders from key points along their route through the Suwalki Gap.
As Germany is the Framework Nation leading BG LTU it supplied both the battlegroup headquarters and the largest contingent. For the first roulement Panzergrenadier Battalion 122, normally based in Eastern Bavaria as part of 12th Panzer Brigade, provided the bulk of the German mechanised infantry component and Panzer Battalion 104 from the same parent brigade provided the supporting LEOPARD 2A6 main battle tanks. In addition, Artillery Battalion 131 provided the PzH 2000 self-propelled artillery component, Panzer Pioneer Battalion 4 supplied the combat engineer component and Supply Battalion 4 provided logistic support; all three are 12th Panzer Brigade assets.
¤ Norway’s all-professional Telemark Battalion mechanised infantry are transported in CV9030N AIFV [©BM]
The Norwegian Army contribution was a mixed armoured company group drawn from the Telemark Battalion and comprised both mechanised infantry, transported in CV9030N Armoured Infantry Fighting Vehicles, and LEOPARD 2A4NO main battle tanks. The Royal Netherlands Army contingent comprises a mechanised infantry company from 44th ‘Johan Willem Friso’ Armoured Infantry Battalion, transported in CV9035NL armoured infantry fighting vehicles. The Belgian Army provided a 100-strong composite Logistics Company, drawn primarily from the 18th and 29th Logistics Battalion with attached military police and medical units plus a small detachment from the Luxembourg Army.
¤ A FENNEK 4×4 serving with the Netherlands contingent as a Light Armoured Reconnaissance Vehicle [©BM]
At the height of IRON WOLF ’17 a composite German and British amphibious engineer unit established a crossing on the Neris River close to the town of Jonava to allow BG LTU to withdraw to defensive positions along a line running to the north of Vilnius and Kaunas, the capital and second cities of Lithuania. The German-led battlegroup’s Tactical Headquarters was temporarily set up south of the river crossing and I grabbed the opportunity to photograph it externally (naturally, photography inside the TAC HQ was prohibited).
¤ An artillery HQ cell ~ look closely and you may spot a German M113 and a Lithuanian Geländewagen [©BM]
The accompanying BG LTU photographs were taken over a six day period in mid-June 2017 at locations ranging from the Forward Edge of Battle Area north of the Neris, to transit locations just north and south of the river crossing, to the artillery locations some 20 kilometres to the south. Hopefully they will give readers a flavour of the initial battlegroup deployed in Lithuania.
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