Danish-Baltic Auxiliary Corps

Danish-Baltic Auxiliary Corps
Dansk-Baltisk Auxiliær Corps
The insignia of Borgelin Company
Active	26 March 1919
Country	Denmark
Allegiance	Estonia  Latvia
Type	Infantry
Size	213 volunteers
Part of	2nd Division
Garrison/HQ	Tartu
Nickname(s)	Det Danske Frivillige Korps
Colors	Gray and White
March	"March of the Pori"
Mascot(s)	Røv (Corps Dog)
Disbanded	1 September 1919
Commanders
Corps Commander	Iver de Hemmer Gudme
Company Commander	Richard Gustav Borgelin
Insignia
War flag

Danish-Baltic Auxiliary Corps (Danish: Dansk-Baltisk Auxiliær Corps, DBAC) was a Danish company of military volunteers, established 1919 as a non-governmental initiative to help in the Estonian and Latvian war of independence. It was originally planned to send several companies to help, but due to the success of war, only one company was sent, Compagnie Borgelin. The company consisted of approximately 200 men with Captain Iver de Hemmer Gudme as corps commander and Captain Richard Gustav Borgelin as company commander. DBAC left 26 March 1919 for Hanko in Finland on board the Finnish ship M/S Merkur.

DBAC was contracted by the Estonian Army and participated on its side in the months of May to August 1919 during the Estonian War of Independence and the Latvian War of Independence. During the months of May and June DBAC conducted a 200 kilometres (120 mi) long push from Werro in southern Estonia to Jakobstadt in Latvia, and ultimately the Daugava River, to cut off the Bolshevik's eastern supply lines.

After the successful campaign, the DBAC was pulled back to Estonia, since the political conflicts between Baltische Landeswehr and the Latvian Army was not part of the contract. At the end of July 1919 DBAC was sent to a section of the eastern front between Ostrov and Porkhov in the Russian Pskov Governorate, which turned out to be a bloody experience and costly to the corps (four dead, twenty wounded and four prisoners of war). On 2 September 1919, the Danish-Baltic Auxiliary Corps marched through Tallinn to their ship Kalevipolg, in a victory parade with over 1000 Estonian soldiers, Johan Laidoner and Otto Strandman participating.