Lauri Sutela

Lauri Sutela
Born (1918-10-11)11 October 1918
Äänekoski, Finland
Died 8 November 2011(2011-11-08) (aged 93)
Helsinki, Finland
Allegiance Finland Finland
Service/branch Finnish Army
Years of service 1939–1983
Rank General
Unit 12th Jager Engineer Regiment.
Commands held Chief of Defence
Battles/wars Winter War
Continuation War

General Lauri Johannes Sutela (11 October 1918, Äänekoski – 8 November 2011; surname until 1929 Schroderus) was a Finnish military officer.[1] He served as an officer in the engineer corps during World War II.[2]

Sutela worked his way up the Finnish Army and finally became the Chief of the Finnish Defence Forces from 15 April 1974 until 11 October 1983. His appointment was controversial since he was the first (and last) non-combat arms officer to be appointed as the Chief of Defence, but he was appointed solely on the basis of seniority. He was considered to be acceptable and a consensus candidate to both Sweden, Soviet Union, West Germany and East Germany, i.e. the main foreign players with influence in the Finnish defence establishment.[3] As a Staff Colonel in the early-to-mid 1960s, he had authored several books on doctrine and tactics on how to adapt Soviet weapons systems to Western/Finnish doctrine and tactics

Death

Sutela died in Helsinki, Finland on 8 November 2011 at the age of 93. He is buried in the Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki.[4]

References

  1. "Puolustusvoimain entinen komentaja Sutela on kuollut" (in Finnish). Kaleva. 2011-11-08. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
  2. "General Lauri Sutela har avlidit" (in Swedish). Åbo Underrättelser. 2011-11-08. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
  3. Jaakko Salmela (September 2009). "Kenraalit ovat tervaskantoja". Ruotuvaki. Retrieved 25 December 2010.
  4. "Hietaniemen hautausmaa – merkittäviä vainajia" (PDF). Helsingin seurakuntayhtymä. Retrieved 27 August 2016.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/26/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.