#sniper rifle
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!