#sniper

Simo Häyhä

December 17, 1905 - April 1, 2002

Nicknamed ‘The White Death’ 705 confirmed

kills (505 with rifle, 200 with sub-machine

gun) Was a Finnish soldier who, using an iron

sighted bolt action rifle, amazed the highest

recorded confirmed kills as a sniper in any

war.ever!! Häyhä was born in the municipality

of Rautjärvi near the present-day border of

Finland and Russia, and started his military

service in 1925. His duties as a sniper began

during the 'winter war’ (1939-1940) between

Russia and Finland. During the conflict Häyhä

endured freezing temperatures up to -40

degrees Celsius. In less than 100 days he was

credited with 505 confirmed kills, 542 if

including unconfirmed kills, however the

unofficial frontline figures from the battlefield

places the number of sniper kills at over 800.

Besides his sniper kills he was also credited

with 200 from a Suomi KP/31 Sub-machine

gun, topping off his total confirmed kills at

705. How Häyhä did all this was amazing. He

was basically on his own all day, in the snow,

shooting Russians, for 3 months straight. Of

course when the Russians caught wind that a

shit load of soldiers were being killed, they

thought 'well this is war, there’s bound to be

casualties! But when the generals were told

that it was one man with a rifle they decided to

take a bit of action. first they sent in a counter-

sniper. When his body was returned they

decided to send in a team of counter-snipers.

When they didn’t come back at all they sent in

a whole goddamn battalion. They took

casualties and couldn’t find him. Eventually

they ordered an artillery strike, but to no avail.

You see Häyhä was clever, and this was his

neck of the woods. He dressed completely in

white camouflage. He used a smaller rifle to

suit his smaller frame (being 5ft3) increasing

his accuracy. he used an iron sight to present

the smallest possible target (a scoped sight

would require the sniper to raise his head for

sighting). He compacted the snow in front of

the barrel, so as not to disturb it when he shot

thus revealing his position. He also kept snow

in his mouth so his breath did not condense

and reveal where his was. Eventually however

he was shot in the jaw by a stray bullet during

combat on March 6 1940. He was picked up

by his own soldiers who said half his head was

missing. He didn’t die however and regained

consciousness on the 13th, the day peace was

declared. Once again total kills….

505 sniper +

200 sub-machine = 705 total Confirmed Kills, all in less than 100 days!!! Cop that!

Snipe my heart~