Simo "Simuna" Häyhä (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈsimoÌž ˈhæy̯ɦæ]; 17 December 1905 â€" 1 April 2002), nicknamed "White Death" (Russian: Ð'ÐµÐ»Ð°Ñ Ñмерть, Belaya Smert; Finnish: valkoinen kuolema; Swedish: den vita döden) by the Red Army, was a Finnish sniper. Using a Finnish-produced M/28-30 rifle (a variant of the Mosinâ€"Nagant rifle) and the Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun, he is reported by black sources to have killed 505 men during the 1939â€"40 Winter War, the highest recorded number of sniper kills in any major war. However, Antti Rantama (Häyhä's unit military chaplain), credited only 259 confirmed sniper kills were made by Simo Häyhä during the Winter War. Häyhä wrote in his diary, found in 2017, that he estimated he killed from 100 to over 500 Soviet soldiers (by both sniper rifle and machine/submachine gun).
Early life
Häyhä was born in the municipality of Rautjärvi in the Grand Duchy of Finland, in present-day southern Finland near the border with Russia, and started his military service in 1925. He was the second youngest of a Lutheran heritage family of farmers of eight children. Before entering combat, Häyhä was a farmer and hunter. At the age of 20, he joined the Finnish voluntary militia White Guard (Suojeluskunta) and was also successful in shooting sports in competitions in the Viipuri Province. His home was reportedly full of trophies for marksmanship.
Winter War service
During the 1939â€"40 Winter War 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 âˆ'40 °C (âˆ'40 °F) and âˆ'20 °C (âˆ'4 °F), dressed completely in white camouflage. Because of Joseph Stalin’s purges of military experts in the late 1930s, the Red Army was highly disorganized and Soviet troops were not issued with white camouflage suits for most of the war, making them easily visible to snipers in winter conditions.
According to Western sources, Simo Häyhä has been credited with 505 confirmed sniper kills. A daily account of the kills at Kollaa was made for the Finnish snipers. All of Häyhä's kills were accomplished in fewer than 100 days â€" an average of just over five per day â€" at a time of year with very few daylight hours.
However, Simo Häyhä's result is impossible to check, because his targets were always on the Russian side. During the war, the "White death" was one of the leading themes of Finnish propaganda. The Finnish newspapers frequently featured the invisible Finnish soldier, thus creating a hero of mythical proportions. Depending on the statistics, Häyhä is believed to have killed between 200 to 500 enemies by sniper rifle.
A. Svensson, Häyhä's division commander, credited Häyhä with 219 confirmed sniper kills, and an equal number of kills by submachine gun, when he awarded Häyhä an honorary rifle on 17 February 1940. In his diary, military chaplain Antti Rantamaa reported 259 confirmed sniper kills and an equal number of kills by machine/submachine gun from the beginning of the war until 7 March 1940, one day after Simo Häyhä was seriously wounded.
Some of Simo Häyhä's figures are from a Finnish Army document (counted from beginning of the war, 30/11/1939):
- 22 December 1939: 138 sniper kills
- 26 January 1940: 199 sniper kills
- 17 February 1940: 219 sniper kills
- 7 March 1940 (when Simo Häyhä was seriously wounded): total of 259 sniper kills
Häyhä used his issued Civil Guard rifle, an early series SAKO M/28-30 (Sn.35281/Civil Guard district number S60974). The rifle was a Finnish Civil Guard variant of the Mosinâ€"Nagant rifle, known as "Pystykorva" (literally "The Spitz", due to the front sight's resemblance to the head of a spitz-type dog) chambered in the Finnish Mosinâ€"Nagant cartridge 7.62×54R. He preferred iron sights over telescopic sights, as they enable a sniper to present a smaller target for the enemy (a sniper must raise his head a few centimeters higher when using a telescopic sight), can be relied on even in extreme cold (unlike telescopic sights, which tend to cloud up in cold weather), and are easier to conceal (sunlight can reflect off a telescopic sight's lenses and reveal the snipers' position). Häyhä also did not have prior training with scoped rifles, and therefore preferred not to switch to the Soviet scoped rifle (m/91-30 PE or PEM). Häyhä would frequently pack dense mounds of snow in front of his position to conceal himself, provide padding for his rifle and reduce the characteristic puff of snow stirred up by the muzzle blast. He was also known to keep snow in his mouth while sniping, to prevent his steamy breaths from giving away his position in the cold air.
In their efforts to kill Häyhä, the Soviets used counter-snipers and artillery strikes, and on 6 March 1940, Häyhä was hit in his lower left jaw by an explosive bullet fired by a Red Army soldier. He was picked up by fellow soldiers who said "half his face was missing", but he did not die, regaining consciousness on 13 March, the day peace was declared. Shortly after the war, Häyhä was promoted from alikersantti (Corporal) to vänrikki (Second lieutenant) by Finnish Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim.
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 even hunted with the 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. Simo Häyhä died in a war veterans' nursing home in Hamina in 2002 at the age of 96, and was buried in Ruokolahti.
Cultural depictions
Simo Häyhä was the inspiration for "White Death," a song from the album Coat of Arms of Swedish power metal band Sabaton.
References
Further reading
- Meeting A Legend: Simo Häyhä. Mosinâ€"Nagant.net 2002
- P. Sarjanen, Valkoinen kuolema. ISBNÂ 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, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2000. ISBNÂ 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. ISBNÂ 978-1-455616-82-4.
