White Death: The World’s Deadliest Sniper

It’s winter 1939, almost night. As the crimson horizon spreads across the wild, snow-draped forests, a column of Soviet soldiers marches across a frozen landscape. This is the Winter War, Stalin’s invasion of Finland, Talvisota as the Finns call it. As the column makes progress there’s a flash that comes out of nowhere and a man goes down. The Russian soldiers freeze. A cry of “Sniper fire, get down! ” is shouted, and the Russian troops hit the ground and scramble for cover, while again another shot rings out and yet another man falls to the ground. A murmur spreads among the hiding Russians: “Белая смерть” – The White Death. All alone in the distance a man clad head to toe in a snow-white coat hidden from view by the wild landscape and snow pushed up all around him balances his rifle on his gloves and patiently waits for another unfortunate soul to enter his sights. But who is this man that strikes dread into the heart of every Russian soldier in Finland? Born and raised in the rugged woods of Karelia in Southern Finland Simo Häyhä – from the start a natural hunter and sharpshooter. Häyhä recalled his experience growing up as a farmer, hunter, and skier as a vital part of his skill of being the excellent sniper that he became. Having been in the Finnish Civil Guard and Finnish Army from the age of seventeen he cultivated his skill as a marksman and won shooting contest after contest. His house was reportedly “full of trophies for marksmanship.” With the outbreak of war Simo is deployed as part of a garrison manning the defensive lines on the Finnish-Russian border. In the early days of the war Simo’s Commanding officer notices Häyhä’s skill with a rifle and assigns him to work independently as a sniper. Häyhä’s first action as a sniper was, ironically, a counter-sniping mission. Simo describes the mission such: "It happened once that my CO tried to kill an enemy sniper with a scoped rifle. This Russian had taken up position about 400 meters from us and was constantly shooting towards our lines. After a while he sent for me and showed me approximately where he thought the enemy sniper's position to be. One of our Lieutenants was with us, acting as a spotter when the duel began. At first, I didn’t see a trace of him, just a small rock where he was supposed to be. But after careful investigation we spotted him behind a little hump of snow near that rock. I took careful aim with my trusty M/28-30 and the very first shot hit the intended target." The Soviet fear of Simo grew to the point that they were willing to call in artillery to shell the areas where they believed him to be.