Simo Häyhä tormented Soviet forces invading his native Finland between December 1939 and March 1940, killing 542 enemy soldiers in only 98 days.
In the hostile, minus forty-degree conditions of the Finnish winter of 1939-40, a man clad all in white lay with packed snow mounded in front of him as he awaited his enemy. The man was Simo Häyhä, and he was armed with only a regulation, bolt action rifle – he preferred the standard sight as it could not fog over or catch the light and was less conspicuous than a telescopic sight. Next to him lay his sub-machinegun, and he was no less deadly with that weapon. During the Winter War, Häyhä’s accurate sniper fire would account for almost an entire battalion of Russian soldiers.
This episode was written by Murray Dahm.
Murray is an ancient and medieval military historian from New Zealand, living in Australia. He has written more than 100 articles on various aspects of ancient and medieval military history and other historical topics from all periods. He is the author of Macedonian Phalangite vs Persian Warrior, Athenian Hoplite vs Spartan Hoplite and Leuctra 371 BC all from Osprey publishing. He is a regular on the Ancient Warfare Podcast.
>>Download<<