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Simo Häyhä

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Simo Häyhä
Häyhä after being awarded the honorary rifle model 28.
Nickname(s)White Death
Born(1905-12-17)December 17, 1905
Rautjärvi, Finland
DiedApril 1, 2002(2002-04-01) (aged 96)
Hamina, Finland
Allegiance Finland
Years of service1925–1940
RankAlikersantti (Corporal) during the Winter War, promoted to Vänrikki (Second Lieutenant) shortly afterward[1]
UnitInfantry Regiment 34
Battles/warsWinter War
AwardsCross of Liberty, 3rd class and 4th class;
Medal of Liberty, 1st class and 2nd class;
Cross of Kollaa Battle[1]

Simo Häyhä (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈsimɔ ˈhæy̯hæ]; December 17, 1905 – April 1, 2002), nicknamed "White Death" (Russian: Белая смерть, Belaya Smert; Finnish: valkoinen kuolema; Swedish: den vita döden) by the Red Army, was a Finnish marksman. Using a modified Mosin–Nagant in the Winter War, he became one of the highest recorded number of confirmed sniper kills – 505 – in any major war.[2][3][4]

Early life

Häyhä was born in the municipality of Rautjärvi near the present-day border of Finland and Russia, and started his military service in 1925. Before entering combat, Häyhä was a farmer and hunter. At the age of 20, he joined the Finnish militia Suojeluskunta and succeeded with his sniping skills in shooting sports in Viipuri province. His home was reportedly full of trophies for marksmanship.[5]

Winter War service

During the Winter War (1939–1940) between Finland and the Soviet Union, Häyhä served as a sniper for the Finnish Army against the Red Army in the 6th Company of JR 34 during the Battle of Kollaa. In temperatures between −40 °C (−40 °F) and −20 °C (−4 °F), dressed completely in white camouflage, Häyhä was credited with 505 confirmed kills of Soviet soldiers.[2][6] A daily account of the kills at Kollaa was made for the Finnish snipers. Remarkably, all of Häyhä's kills were accomplished in fewer than 100 days – in other words, approximately five kills per day – at a time of year with very few hours of daylight.[7][8][9]

Häyhä used a Finnish militia variant of the Russian-made Mosin-Nagant rifle, the White Guard M/28 early variant "Pystykorva" (literally Spitz, due to the front sight's resemblance to the head of a spitz-type dog) chambered in 7.62x54R, the Finnish Mosin-Nagant cartridge, because it suited his small frame (1.6 m (5 ft 3 in)). He preferred to use iron sights rather than telescopic sights to present a smaller target for the enemy (a sniper must raise his head higher when using a telescopic sight), to increase accuracy (a telescopic sight's glass can fog up easily in cold weather), and to aid in concealment (sunlight glare in telescopic sight lenses can reveal a sniper's position).

A "Swedish donation rifle" Simo later received as gift was a Finnish model M/28-30 but he did not use it in battle.

Häyhä in the 1940s, with visible damage to his left cheek after his 1940 wound

The Soviet's efforts to kill Häyhä included counter-snipers and artillery strikes, and on March 6, 1940, Häyhä was shot in his lower left jaw by a Russian soldier. He was picked up by fellow soldiers who said "half his cheek was missing", but he did not die, regaining consciousness on March 13, the day peace was declared. Shortly after the war, Häyhä was promoted from Alikersantti (Corporal) to Vänrikki (Second Lieutenant) by Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim. No one else has gained rank so quickly in Finland's military history.

Later life

It took several years for Häyhä to recuperate from his wound. The bullet had crushed his jaw and blown off his left cheek. Nonetheless, he made a full recovery and became a successful moose hunter and dog breeder after World War II, and hunted with Finnish President Urho Kekkonen.

When asked in 1998 how he had become such a good shooter, Häyhä answered "Practice." When asked if he regretted killing so many people, he said, "I only did my duty, and what I was told to do, as well as I could." Simo Häyhä spent his last years in Ruokolahti, a small municipality located in southeastern Finland, near the Russian border.

Film

Actor Steven Wiig was cast in the role of Häyhä in the 2012 HBO docudrama Hemingway & Gellhorn. However, the scene that included Häyhä was cut from the final version of the film to reduce the overall running time.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b Lappalainen, Jukka-Pekka (6 December 2001). "Kollaa kesti, niin myös Simo Häyhä" (fee required). Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). Helsinki. Retrieved 19 February 2011. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ a b Rayment, Sean (30 April 2006). "The long view". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 30 March 2009.
  3. ^ http://www.wio.ru/galgrnd/sniper/sniper.htm
  4. ^ Алексей Илларионович Луковец (1975). Знамена Победы. Pravda. During the war, "Frontovaya Illustratsiya" wrote: "Sniper Sergeant Mikhail Surkov shoots at the enemy confidently and accurately. - He does not wound - he hits the spot. After killing over 700 Fascists, he went on to the next hunt "
  5. ^ Gilbert, Adrian (1996). Sniper: The Skills, the Weapons, and the Experiences. St. Martin's Press. p. 88. ISBN 0-312-95766-1.
  6. ^ "Sotasankarit-äänestyksen voitti tarkka-ampuja Simo Häyhä". MTV3 (in Finnish). Retrieved 30 March 2009.
  7. ^ Finland at War 1939–45, pp. 44–45. Brent Snodgrass, Raffaele Ruggeri. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84176-969-1 (2006)
  8. ^ Out of Nowhere: A History of the Military Sniper, p. 167. Martin Pegler. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84603-140-3 (2006)
  9. ^ Sniping: An Illustrated History, pp. 117–118. Pat Farey, Mark Spicer. MBI Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-7603-3717-2 (2009)
  10. ^ "Nicole Kidmanin takamus ja talvisota" (fee required). Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 30 October 2012.

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Simo Häyhä.
  • P. Sarjanen, Valkoinen kuolema ISBN 952-5170-05-5
  • Tapio A. M. Saarelainen, Sankarikorpraali Simo Häyhä ISBN 952-5026-52-3 http://www.apali.fi
  • Tapio A. M. Saarelainen, The Sniper – Simo Häyhä ISBN 978-952-5026-74-0 http://www.apali.fi
  • William R. Trotter, [Frozen Hell: The Russo-Finnish Winter War of 1939/40] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2000 - ISBN 978-0-945575-22-1
  • Adrian Gilbert, Tom C. McKenney, Dan Mills, Roger Moorhouse, Charles Sasser, Tim Newark The Sniper Anthology: Snipers of the Second World War, Pelican Publishing Company, 2012 - ISBN 978-1-455616-82-4

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