“I only did my duty, and what I was told to do as well as I could.” - Simo Häyhä
The Winter War or sometimes referred to as the First Soviet-Finnish war was fought between the USSR and Finland. Stalin was in charge of the Red Army and Hugo Österman controlled the Finnish army. It began on 30th November 1939 and ended March 12th 1940, 105 days later. The Soviets wanted sections of Finland, they said, in order to protect Leningrad from the attacks of the Nazi’s. In return for the areas of land that thy requested, the Soviet government was willing to exchange land with the Finns. Finland refused and therefore, the USSR invaded. Stalin sent close to a million soldiers into Finland knowing that at their maximum capacity, they had roughly 300,000 troops. The aim was to steamroll Finland take control and have very limited casualties as their army was superior in every aspect. It was considered a formality and Stalin could celebrate his 60th birthday on the 21st of December. The USSR believed victory was inevitable, and it was, however, it was not as straightforward as they had expected. There were a few aspects that were in the Finnish army’s favour. The landscape was covered in snow, this suited the Finns as they were all competent skiers and used to the environment. The Finnish army were supplied with heavy, white, winter uniforms. This allowed them to be almost invisible when moving across the terrain. The Red Army were still using their khaki green uniform and had not adequately prepared with regards a camouflage standpoint. This made them highly conspicuous to the Finns, even from large distances, when they were marching crossing the landscape. Furthermore, the USSR lacked any leadership skills as when Stalin purged the USSR, he had anyone deemed to be a political opponent executed. All of the above, coupled with the fact that the Finnish army had an incredible marksman in their ranks. A sharpshooter, who, by the end of the war would become the deadliest sniper in history.
Simo Häyhä was born on the 17th of December 1905 in Karelia Russia. He was a farmer and hunter. At 17 years old he joined the voluntary Finnish Civil Guard which is where he honed his shooting skills, winning many local sharpshooting competitions. In 1925, at the age of 19, Häyhä began his 15-month compulsory military service in the Bicycle Battalion 2 in Raivola, Viipuri Province. He attended the Non-Commissioned Officer School and served as a conscript officer in the Bicycle Battalion 1 in Terijoki. However, he did not get sniper training until a year before the war in 1938 at a training centre in Utti. After completing his service, soldiers were given the opportunity to buy the rifle they had trained with during their compulsory service. Häyhä, took that opportunity and bought the SAKO M/28-30 that he had become so proficient with. When the USSR invaded in 1939, Häyhä brought this rifle to use in the war and declined the use of the more modern weapon that was offered to him. He was assigned as a sniper in the Finnish army and was tasked with repelling as many Soviet soldiers as he could. Dressed entirely in white and choosing to work alone, Häyhä would take a day’s supply of food and water along with his weapon and rifle out into the snow covered terrain and pick a spot to sit and wait for USSR soldiers to appear. While his comrades were using state-of-the-art telescopic lenses to zoom in on their targets, Häyhä was fighting with an iron sight, which he felt gave him a more precise target.
He also noted that several targets had been tipped off by the glint of light on the newer sniper lenses. As well as this, he had developed an ingenious method of not being sighted. On top of his white camouflage, he would build up snowdrifts around his position to further obscure himself. The snowbanks also served as padding for his rifle. He would pour water on the snow in front of him prior to taking a shot this prevented the force of his gunshots from stirring up a puff of snow that an enemy could use to locate him after he had fired. Moreover, as he lay on the ground in wait, he would put snow in his mouth to stop his breath being visible and betraying his position. Häyhä’s strategy kept him alive, but his missions were never easy. For one, conditions were brutal. The days were short, and when the sun set temperatures dropped as low as -40 degrees Celsius.
During the war, Häyhä became somewhat of a mythical figure in the Soviet ranks. They gave him the name ‘Belaya Smert’ meaning ‘The White Death’ and his own comrades dubbed him ‘Taika Ampuja’ ‘The Magic Shooter’ he was so proficient that even though the Red Army could not see him, Stalin decided the bomb the general are in which they believed him to be operating from. After the bombs, the would pepper the area with bullets in the hope of eliminating his threat. Häyhä fought for 98 days of the 105-day war, he has 505 confirmed kills. His most successful day on record is one where he shot and killed 25 Soviet soldiers. On his 98 day in service, he was seen by a Soviet sniper and shot with an exploding bullet in the face. The bullet, hit Häyhä in the jaw. Completely shattering it and removing close to half of his face. He was removed from the battlefield relatively quickly and survived. However, the injury placed him in a coma for 7 days and when he awoke, the war was over and the Moscow Peace Treaty had been signed, bringing an end to the war.
It took several years for Häyhä to recuperate from his wound which required lengthy treatments and twenty-six facial reconstructive surgeries. Although his face remained disfigured for the rest of his life, he otherwise made a full recovery and after the Second World War was given his own farm in Valkjärvi, Ruokolahti, a small municipality located in southeastern Finland near the Russian border. As well as this he was decorated with several medals of honour including the Medal of Liberty: 1st class and 2nd class, the Cross of Liberty: 3rd class and 4th class and the Cross of the Battle of Kollaa. He lived for 60 years after the war and died on the 1st of April 2002 at 96 years old as the deadliest sniper in history.