At the end of the Winter War (November 30th, 1939 - March 13t, 1940) 1,000,000 out of the 1,500,000 Russian soldiers sent to take over Finland were killed by the defending, Finnish Military.
One man had a significant effect on the outcome of the war, racking up a total of 505 confirmed kills while only using iron sights on his Mosin-Nagant M28/30. This man was Simo Häyhä a.k.a “The White Death”.
Born on December 17th, 1905 in Rautjärvi, Finland, Simo grew up on a farm on the border of Finland And Russia. Growing up on a farm made him a tough person due to the physical labor. A few years later, Simo served his mandatory one year service in the Finnish military. After his service he was honorably discharged and promoted to the rank of Corporal.
Not too long after in 1925, Simo joined the Finnish Civil guard (an organization comparable to the U.S. National guard). During his time in the Civil guard he would undergo a lot of training. Simo’s favorite aspect of training was shooting. His first rifle was a Russian-built Mosin-Nagant bolt action M91, but he later was able to get the Mosin-Nagant M28/30 rifle and a 9mm Suomi submachine gun. After quite a lot of practice, Simo was able to hit a target 500 feet away 16 times per minute.
Simo was called into service in 1939 to serve under the 6th company of JR34 on the Kollaa river. Under the command of Major General Viluo Tuompo, the Finns were up against the 9th and 14th army of the Soviet Union. At one point the Finns were fighting as many as 12 divisions, which is about 160,000 soldiers. During one of these battles there were only 32 Finns against 4,000 Soviet soldiers.
The Finnish Military was vastly outnumbered, but were victorious in the end. The Soviets were extremely disorganized, which proved to be fatal for their campaign. The Soviets spoke many different languages and weren’t used to Finnish winters. During the winter of 1939-1940 the temperatures ranged from -40 to -20 degrees celsius (-40 to -4 in Fahrenheit). The Finnish “Motti” tactic would be incredibly effective against the Soviets. Since the Soviets would invade using the main roads, the Finns would hide in the forests nearby and attack once the Soviets had passed them.
During The Winter War, Simo would wear winter camouflage and only carry a day's worth of supplies and ammunition. While hiding out in the snow he would put snow in his mouth in order to make sure his breath would not be visible. Simo would only use iron sights due to the fact that rifle scopes can glare in the sun, making him a very visible target.
Within 98 days Simo racked up 505 confirmed kills and because of this he was given the nickname “The White Death” by the Russian Soldiers.
There were a total of 3 times in which Simo came fact-to-face with death:
Soviets fired mortars directly over Simo’s position, but surprisingly he wasn’t injured at all.
The Soviets fired artillery on Simo, in fact, an artillery shell blew up just behind Simo, but, yet again, Simo was unharmed.
On March 6th, 1940, Simo was hit in the jaw with an explosive round from an enemy sniper.
After he was shot, he fell into an 11 day coma, awakening on the final day of the war.
At the end of the war, Simo was promoted from Corporal to Second Lieutenant. This was the largest jump of ranks in Finnish history. He lived to the old age of 96 (Died On April 1st, 2002) and attributed his skill in sniping to “practice”.
Awards Received: Medal of Liberty: 1st class and Second Class; Cross of Liberty: 3rd and 4th class; Cross of Kolkata Battle
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