Interwar Years
In the 1920s and 1930s Oesch advanced rapidly in the Finnish Defence Forces. He studied in French military academies in 1923-1926 and, once he had returned Finland, Oesch commanded the newly created general staff academy Sotakorkeakoulu in 1926-1929. In 1930 Oesch was promoted to Major General and appointed the Chief of the General Staff—assignment he was to hold almost a decade.
As Chief of the General Staff Oesch was one of the most influential men in the Finnish Defence Forces. He was a driving force behind the mobilization reform effected in the early 1930s (the new mobilization plans were mainly drafted by the then Lieutenant Colonel Aksel Airo). Oesch also served briefly as a deputy Minister of Interior Affairs in March 1932, during the crisis caused by the Mäntsälä rebellion. He was promoted to Lieutenant General in 1936.
Read more about this topic: Karl Lennart Oesch
Famous quotes containing the word years:
“You can hardly convince a man of an error in a life-time, but must content yourself with the reflection that the progress of science is slow. If he is not convinced, his grandchildren may be. The geologists tell us that it took one hundred years to prove that fossils are organic, and one hundred and fifty more to prove that they are not to be referred to the Noachian deluge.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)