The Kurkse tragedy (Estonian: Kurkse tragöödia) occurred on 11 September 1997, when 14 Estonian soldiers of the Baltic Battalion drowned in the Kurkse Strait during a dangerous training maneuver. As the last part of an exercise which had lasted several days, a team of 22 soldiers from the reconnaissance unit of the Baltic Peacekeeping Battalion attempted to wade about 3 km (2 mi) from the Pakri Islands through the shallow Kurkse Strait to the Estonian mainland. Although in the beginning of the exercise the conditions seemed satisfactory, later during the crossing, when the unit came out of the lee of the island, high winds and waves appeared and several men started to suffer from hypothermia in the cool (14°C) water. Also, it was expected that most of the strait could be waded through and