Aksel Airo

As a young man in 1890’s he became a supporter of the Finnish independence. His father changed the original, Swedish family name Johansson to Airo (lit. “oar”) alongside thousands of others in 1906.

During the Finnish Civil War, Airo served in a White side in artillery and took part in battles near Viipuri. At the end of the conflict he was already a lieutenant. Afterwards he was trained as an officer in Lappeenranta artillery school and was sponsored to French military academy, Ecole militaire[?] in St. Cyr[?] in 1920. 1921 he was accepted into Ecole superieure de guerre[?], French officer training academy from which he graduated as a captain in 1923, at the age of 27. Mannerheim invited him to join Finnish defense council as a secretary.

Airo rose swiftly in ranks mainly because the young Finland needed suitable officers for the fledgling army. However, he had some problems with the fact that he was not German-trained yeager officer or one of the officers trained during the Russian rule. Still, by 1930, he had become a colonel.

In the beginning of Winter War, Mannerheim appointed Airo as Quartermaster-General[?] and he was promoted to a major general and to a lieutenant general two years later. On November 18th.1944 Mannerheim made him a Knight of the Mannerheim Cross, Cross of Liberty.

Airo was in the Mikkeli[?] headquarters during the war and rarely went to a field. He was responsible for operational planning and the presentation of operations, or, as he allegedly said “Marshal (Mannerheim) leads the war but I lead the battle”. They had many differences in opinion but still managed to work well together.

At the end of the Continuation War, now communist-dominated Valpo[?] (Finnish state police) arrested him for his alleged connection to so called Weapons Cache Case (hiding weapons in preparation for a guerilla war in case of Soviet takeover which Finnish communists thought was against the peace treaty). He said little about the affair afterwards and earned the moniker “silent general”. He was in prison from 1945 to 1948 without being sentenced until president Juho Kusti Paasikivi released him. President relieved him of his duties with a special permission to wear military uniform. He never reached the rank of full general.

In his later life Airo was a member of the parliament for Kansallinen Kokoomus party and a presidential elector. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he never wrote memoirs about his war experiences. 1982 president Mauno Koivisto awarded Airo with the membership of the Finnish Order of White Rose. He died in his home farm 1985.

Airo was known for some recklessness and sarcastic humor. He also had taste for liquor, tobacco and ladies.

External links

• Mikkeli Headquarters museum about Airo: http://www.mikkeli.fi/museot/englanti/pm_airo