Spanish aviators from Wing 11 bid farewell to Lithuania by placing a cross in Šiauliai

This week, the Spanish Air Force has proceeded with the relief of its Vilkas Detachment at the Šiauliai Air Base in Lithuania.

Spanish soldiers place a cross on the Hill of Crosses, which was devastated by communism
Spanish Eurofighters were activated due to a possible Russian air incursion into Poland

Until now, the Vilkas Detachment consisted of ten Eurofighters from Wing 11 and an A400M Atlas tanker aircraft from Wing 31. This rotation has been quite unusual, as it is the first time that Spanish pilots have been relieved by their compatriots on the Baltic Air Policing (BAP), a mission that NATO has been carrying out since March 2004 to reinforce the security of the Baltic states, whose small air forces lack fighter jets.

Spain has been participating in these missions since August 2006. The one that began this week is the 13th Spanish deployment to the Baltic states. The official handover took place this Thursday, with the Vilkas Detachment now consisting of ten EF-18Ms from Wing 15 and one A400M Atlas from Wing 31, both based in Zaragoza.

The new rotation of the Vilkas Detachment is now the 70th continent to participate in NATO's BAP missions. The outgoing rotation, the 69th, also consisted of Hungarian Air Force pilots with four JAS-39C Gripen fighter jets.

Before their return home, the Spanish airmen of Wing 11 upheld a tradition followed by detachments from various NATO countries when they complete their BAP (Battalion of Apprehension) missions in Lithuania. This tradition consists of placing a cross on Kryziu Kalnas (Hill of Crosses) in Šiauliai, located almost 13 kilometers north of the air base.

As you may have read in Defense and Aviation in 2021, Lithuanians began placing crosses on that hill in the 19th century, as a memorial to their compatriots who fell in the November Uprising of 1830, in which Poles and Lithuanians rose up against the Russian Empire. After the Soviet invasion of Lithuania in 1940, the communists razed the hill four times, in an attempt to erase the Catholic identity of the Lithuanian people, which, as with their Polish neighbors, has historically been a fundamental part of the country's national spirit. Every time the communists tore down those crosses, the Lithuanians put them back up, making that hill a symbol of Lithuanian resistance against Soviet totalitarianism.

The Spanish Defence Staff (EMAD) has today published a photo of this symbolic farewell, showing a large group of Spanish airmen. The cross they have placed includes the silhouette of a Eurofighter, a St. Andrew's Cross (the emblem on the tail fins of all Spanish Air Force aircraft) at the top, and the inscription "EAP 69 ALA 11 SPAIN," referring to the 69th contingent of NATO's Enhanced Air Policing mission and the Spanish fighter unit based in Morón de la Frontera (Seville) that contributed its aircraft to this deployment.

There are currently about 200,000 crosses on Kryziu Kalnas. These crosses and other symbols were left as mementos by previous contingents of the Spanish Air Force and by pilots from other allied air forces. That hill continues to represent the Lithuanian people's will to defend their sovereignty and independence, a commitment in which they now have the support of other NATO nations.

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Main photo: Estado Mayor de la Defensa.