The most successful sniper ever: Who is Simo Hayha?

We would like to say that Simo Hayha was a handsome prince trying to save a princess from a dragon-locked tower, regardless of the arctic cold and scorching heat ranging from -20 to -40 degrees. But unfortunately not so!

In his white camouflage, sometimes digging in a dead tree hollow and sometimes in the snow, Hayha killed 700 Russian soldiers in 100 days. It sounds like the snowy episode in 'Call of Duty Modern Warfare II', but it's not.

Simo Häyhä (17 December 1905 – 1 April 2002), often referred to by his nickname, The White Death, was a Finnish military sniper in World War II during the 1939–1940 Winter War against the Soviet Union. He used a Finnish-produced M/28-30 (a variant of the Mosin–Nagant rifle) and a Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun. He is believed to have killed over 500 men during the Winter War, the highest number of sniper kills in any major war.

Hayha, who is a very intelligent warrior, would often take snow in his mouth and wait for a target so that he could not be identified because of the steam coming out of his mouth. In fact, he was such a good marksman that he used the original sight of the gun instead of the optical scope in case it would cause him to be seen. For this reason, the Russians nicknamed him the 'White Death'. No one would have thought that the hayhan, a farmer and hunter before entering the war, would become such a killing machine.

Details of the story

When the calendars showed the year 1939, the sparks of the Second World War were still evident, but many mentally ill leaders were determined to turn this spark into a fire. One of them, the leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Josef Stalin, started the Winter War to seize Finland, which was a quiet country.

The Soviet army reached the Finnish border with 750 thousand soldiers, 6,000 tanks and 3,000 planes. The Finnish army had only 300,000 soldiers, a few tanks and a little over a hundred aircraft. This invasion attempt, called the Winter War, lasted exactly 100 days, and to everyone's surprise, the Finns won. This war gave birth to the legend of Simo Hayha, known as the 'White Death'.

Simo Hayha was born on 17 December 1905 in the Rautjärvi region near the Finland - Russia border. At the age of 20, he completed his compulsory military service and returned to his city. Hayha, who is a simple man; he was farming, fishing, sledding, that is, he lived as an ordinary cold climate person.

When the Winter War began, he took his rifle from storage and joined the army. When they went to the war zone, they were all given white camouflage. Haha, he was a rather small man. For this reason, instead of participating in the hot conflict, he used his mind and took a daily meal and a rifle without even binoculars, and dived into the depths of the forest.

Being a small man, Hayha already looked tough the moment he wore the military white camouflage. Also, when he lurked, he was literally invisible because it covered himself with snow. The 5'3″ rifle was also small and unobtrusive. Since he did not have binoculars on his rifle, his location could never be known due to instant sun glare.

He was lying and waiting. There were no snow spatters, as he had compacted a small mass of snow and placed it under his rifle. Most importantly, he always kept some snow in his mouth. This way, his breath wouldn't evaporate in the cold air, and he had removed the only thing that was his own to see. Simo Hayha was a true White Death.

During the Winter War, which lasted for 100 days, he killed 505 people with a sniper rifle, 542 with unapproved ones, 200 with Suomi KP/31 rifle, that is, a total of 705 people in total, officially. Unofficial figures are said to be much higher, but even the confirmed number is quite frightening.

A trace of the war: what happened to Simo Hayha's face?

The Winter War, the Soviet attempt to invade Finland, lasted 100 days, and peace treaties were finally signed, but Simo Hayha was not at the front until the last day of the war. He was spotted by chance by a Russian soldier 11 days before the end of the war and took a bullet in his jaw.

Wanted by the most senior snipers, sniper teams and even huge battalions of the Russian army, Hayha was seen by an ordinary soldier and received a wound that caused half his face to scatter. He remained in intensive care for days, did not die, but lived with the scars of war on his face until his last day.

How did Simo Hayha die?

Nicknamed the White Death, Simo Hayha, who made his mark in history as the single most murderous sniper, went on hunting trips with Finnish President Urho Kekkonen after the war. He lived a long life and finally died on April 1, 2002, at the age of 96.