100 stories from the hiking route

1919 – Vetla Battle

Information

Topic

Wars and occupations

Coordinates

Long-Lat WGS 84

Latitude: 59.2193944

Longitude: 25.44888611

L-EST 97

x: 6565448.1
y: 582736.6

Location

Peraküla-Aegviidu Hiking route

Vetla Battle was one of the deciding battles of the Estonian War of Independence, as it was the beginning of the counterattack by Estonian armed forces. The most important locations of these battles have been marked by memorials. The Valkla, Priske, Kehra, Vetla, Voose and Ardu memorials denote the boundary from which Soviet forces were forced back. “This far and no further,” declares the memorial stone in Valkla, the place from which enemy troops could go no further on 3 January 1919.
The memorial for Vetla Battle was opened on 26 June 1932.
The text on the memorial stated, “Stall your step, uncover your head. This is from where the enemy, who wanted to take Estonia’s independence and freedom, was forced back on 5–6 January 1919.”
The memorial erected in Vetla in 1932 was destroyed in October 1940. Most of the pieces of the broken memorial were thrown down the hillside into the river below. The local militia reopened the statue on 25 October 1941. Original details were used for the restoration. The statue was destroyed again after the war but thanks to the joint efforts of the Kose heritage conservation society and the Alavere collective, the 71st anniversary of the Vetla Battle was celebrated by reopening the memorial.