   karl lennart oesch (8 august 1892 â 28 march 1978) was one of finland's leading generals during world war ii. he held a string of high staff assignments and front commands, and at the end of the continuation war fully two-thirds of the finnish ground forces were under his command. oesch earned a reputation of being able to deal with difficult situations, a trait that mannerheim used fully. ==early life== oesch, who used lennart as his first name, was born to parents of swiss origin, who had moved to finland before his birth. oesch himself held dual finnish-swiss citizenship until 1920. he attended school in sortavala and studied in the department of mathematics and physics at the university of helsinki from 1911 to 1915. ==jaeger movement and civil war== oesch joined the jaeger movement in 1915 and trained and fought in the royal prussian 27th jÃ¤ger battalion. when the jaegers returned to finland in february 1918, he was commissioned a captain in the finnish army. during the finnish civil war oesch commanded an infantry battalion. ==interwar years== in the 1920s and 1930s oesch advanced 
1892_births 1978_deaths Finnish_anti-communists Finnish_generals Finnish_military_personnel_of_World_War_II Finnish_people_of_Swiss_descent German_military_personnel_of_World_War_I Government_ministers_of_Finland Karelian_Isthmus Knights_of_the_Mannerheim_Cross People_from_Priozersky_District People_from_Viipuri_Province_(Grand_Duchy_of_Finland) People_of_the_Finnish_Civil_War_(White_side)