ManWho Killed 705 Enemy In Just 100 Days

The ‘White Death’ aka Finnish sniper during winter war 1939–1940

L. Small
4 min readAug 27, 2020
“Cold Weather Training Sniper, 1989” by Archives Branch, USMC History Division is licensed under CC BY 2.0

There are many great snipers in this world complete with their respective skills, like Simo Hayha for example. The man who was born in Rautajarvi, Finland, in 1905 is indeed often called the greatest sniper in history.

Who is Simo Hayha?

During the cold war (1939–1940), Simo was a lethal weapon in the Finnish Army . During the war with the red army of the Soviet Union, Simo was dubbed by the enemy as the ‘ white death’. This is inseparable from his cleverness in camouflaging in a snowy battlefield. Häyhä was born on December 17, 1905 on a farm in the Rautjärvi province of South Karelia In 1925, Häyhä was drafted for a year of military service. He displayed his military prowess early on and after only one year had already advanced to the rank of Corporal.

Photo by Duncan Kidd on Unsplash

War breaks out

The Winter War began in Finland in 1939, when Russia took the opportunity to regain the territory that had once been theirs. The Russian army probably assumed that such a tiny country like Finland would be easy to…

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L. Small
L. Small

Written by L. Small

"One arrow alone can be easily broken but many arrows are indestructible" ~Genghis Khan~

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