Harald Öhquist

Harald Öhquist

Harald Öhquist (1 March 1891, Helsinki – 10 February 1971) was a Finnish Lieutenant General during World War II.

Biography

Öhquist joined the Jaeger Movement in 1915 and trained and fought in the Royal Prussian 27th Jäger Battalion. During the Finnish Civil War he was promoted as Major, and Öhquist lead the White Guard battalion in the battle of Viipuri. In 1930, he was promoted as Major General, and three years later he was the Commander of the Army on the Karelian Isthmus.

During the Winter War, Öhquist was the Commander of the II Corps on the Karelian Isthmus. Öhquist had cold relations with Mannerheim, who did not provide responsible tasks after the war. In the begin of the Continuation War, he was the Finnish Contact Officer with the Nazi Germany in Berlin. Between 1942 and 1944, Öhquist commanded a military group on the Karelian Isthmus, and later he was the Supervisor of Military Training.

In 1949 Öhquist published a book of the Winter War named The Winter War from my point of view (Finnish: Talvisota minun näkökulmastani). Two years later he resigned from the army.