Simo Häyhä – The World’s Most Successful Sniper in History
When World War II broke out in 1939, the Soviet Union decided to invade Finland while everyone else was preoccupied with the war in Europe. But a sniper named Simo Häyhä came to Finland's defense. Häyhä allegedly eliminated a staggering 505 enemy soldiers, which if accurate would make him the single deadliest sniper in history.
The invading Soviet soldiers grew to be straight-up terrified of Häyhä. Having to patrol the blanched Finnish wilderness with the knowledge that Häyhä could be out there waiting dipping them with a spectacular long distant shot earned him the nickname Belaya Smert, which is Russian for White Death. However, Häyhä’s fellow Finnish soldiers had a completely different name for him. They called him Taika-ampuja or Magic Shooter.
500 Confirmed Kills in 100 Days
Simo’s exact sniper count varies depending on the source. Some suggest he downed as many as 542 Soviet soldiers with his rifle. But no one claims he eliminated any less than 505. This makes him the most effective sniper in any war, with Soviet sniper Ivan Sidorenko sitting at a close second with 500 kills.
However, Häyhä’s count may even be higher. Rather than stay at a comfortable distance behind his sniper rifle for the entire war, Häyhä may have also cut down several hundred enemy combatants with a submachine gun. If true, that would put his count at approximately 800.
The Winter War lasted for a single winter, as his name suggests, which means Häyhä was putting in serious work. In order to achieve his staggering record, Häyhä was eliminating an average of five to six enemy soldiers every day.
Of course, some days were better than others. Häyhä racked up a terrifying 40 confirmed kills in a single day, scoring 25 and 20 on two other record days.
The cloud of perpetual death in which he lived saw him promoted from corporal to second lieutenant, the biggest rank jump in the history of Finland’s military.
A Rifle Without a Scope
Häyhä did not use a scope to forge his legendary sniper count. He preferred to use the plain old iron sight on his rifle. There was a strategic reason for this. Häyhä recognized that scopes gave his enemies an easy target. In addition to making the target slightly bigger, scopes would glint in the sunlight, allowing Häyhä to spot enemy snipers before they spotted him.
At the time, every Finnish citizen was required to do one year of military service, and Häyhä had done his 14 years earlier back in 1925. That was the extent of his military experience.
He did join the Finnish Civil Guard as a reservist, which is essentially the equivalent to the US National Guard, but he stuck to his civilian life of hunting and farming right up until the Soviets decided to invade in 1939, at which point he was summoned back to service.
After he completed his year of mandatory service in 1925, Häyhä was given the option to purchase his service weapon, a standard bolt action rifle. He bought the gun and spent the next decade and a half mastering it.
When he was called back to duty during the Winter War, Häyhä brought his old bolt action rifle, turning down a more modern rifle with advanced optics.
The extreme cold, which ranged anywhere from minus 20 to minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit, caused frequent weapon malfunctions among his fellow soldiers. But Häyhä’s experience with his bolt action rifle allowed him to keep the gun functional throughout the winter.
The Competitive Shooter
While only having minimal military experience, Häyhä how wasn’t possessed by the Lord of incredible aim. He developed his skill from being a competitive sharpshooter, having grown up a few miles away from the Civil Guard shooting range, which held annual contests.
Häyhä regularly participated in these competitions, packing his house full of trophies. Among his accomplishments was the ability to hit a target with his rifle 16 times in a minute at a range of 500 feet, a talent best described as supernatural.
Häyhä and 31 Other Finns Held Off 4,000 Soviets
Häyhä was deployed to the Kollaa battlefield, where he and 31 other soldiers were tasked with holding off an invading force of 4,000 Soviet troops. Despite having fewer men on the roster than a college football team, Häyhä’s group managed to hold their ground for the entire winter.
He and his fellow Finns had a few other advantages beyond his angel of death status as a sniper. For instance, the Soviet troops all wore bright green uniforms, which made them stand out like decorated Christmas trees against the snowy white landscape.
What also didn’t help the Soviets was that they lacked officers with any leadership skills, mainly because Stalin had them all executed when he purged the USSR of any potential political opponents.
And even though the Soviet invasion of Finland was technically successful, they only managed to capture a relatively small amount of border territory, leaving the rest of the country intact.
All told, the Soviets suffered nearly 400,000 casualties during the Winter War compared to the 66,000 suffered by Finland.
An Unusual Firing Position
Most snipers shoot while lying flat on their stomachs because it gives enemies a smaller target to aim at. Häyhä fired from a sitting position because he felt the position was better for his aim. He didn’t worry too much about making himself a bigger target, as he was just a biscuit over 5 feet tall and would conceal himself in snowbanks and put snow in his mouth to hide his breath.
Additionally, Häyhä would pack snow in front of his rifle barrel or pour water on it to freeze it so that smoke would not rise from it after he fired and give away his position.
And in perhaps the biggest departure from sniper etiquette, rather than going for the head, Häyhä aimed for the center mass of his targets, which is effective in wartime.
Häyhä’s reputation eventually drew the ire of the Soviet commanders, who finally grew tired of his nonsense and began targeting him directly.
Because getting anywhere near Häyhä was out of the question, they began hammering his general location with artillery strikes. When those didn’t work, the Soviets sent teams of counter snipers to take him out. But Häyhä, being the sniper’s sniper, dispatched them with bone-chilling ease.
Finally, one Soviet sniper got lucky and blasted Häyhä in the jaw with an exploding round.
Despite being described by one friend as having half of his head missing, Häyhä refused to die. And after days of reconstructive surgery, he finally regained consciousness the day after the Winter War had ended.
A Long Life
Despite getting a portion of his face blown entirely off his dome in a time when medicine was still largely experimental, Häyhä survived World War II and went back to hunting and farming.
The Finnish government actually gave him a farm in 1961, presumably both to reward him for his service and they probably wanted to stay on his good side.
Häyhä took up dog breeding and continued hunting, winning the Ruokolahti Hunting Society’s Game Cup five years in a row.
In 1970 he moved into a small apartment, where he lived out the rest of his days before passing away at age 96 in 2002.
Simo Häyhä left his quiet farm life in the winter of 1939 to become the most effective sniper in history, racking up over 500 confirmed kills without even using a scope before returning home to live out the rest of the 20th century in peace.
