Aksel Airo

Aksel Airo
Aksel Airo (left), with C.G.E. Mannerheim (right) and Erik Heinrichs
Birth name	Aksel Fredrik Johansson
Born	1898 Turku
Died	1985
Allegiance	Finland
Service/branch	Army
Years of service	1918-1945
Rank	Lieutenant general
Awards	Knight of the Mannerheim Cross in Order of the Cross of Liberty, Order of the White Rose

Aksel Fredrik Airo (1898, Turku – 1985) was a Finnish lieutenant general and main strategic planner during the Winter War and the Continuation War. He was the virtual second-in-command of the Finnish army under Field Marshal C.G.E. Mannerheim.

As a young man he became a supporter of Finnish independence. His father changed the original, Swedish, family name Johansson to Airo (lit. "oar").

During the Civil War in Finland (1918), Airo served in the artillery on the White side, taking part in battles near Viipuri. At the end of the war he was a lieutenant. Afterwards he was trained as an officer in Lappeenranta artillery school and was sponsored to the French military academy, École militaire in St.-Cyr in 1920. In 1921 he was accepted into École Supérieure de Guerre, the French officer training academy, from which he graduated as a captain in 1923, at the age of 27. Mannerheim invited him to join Finland's Defense Council as a secretary.

Airo rose swiftly in rank, mainly because newly independent Finland needed suitable officers for the fledgling army. He had, however, some professional challenges because he was neither a Germany-trained Jaeger officer, nor one of the officers trained in the Tsar's army during Russian rule. Still, by 1930 he had become a colonel.