Simo Hayha Was the Deadliest Sniper Who Ever Lived
Nicknamed “White Death”, Simo Hayha (1905 – 2002) was a Finnish sniper who was credited with killing 505 Red Army soldiers during the Winter War of 1939-1940. He was born in a farming community, and from early childhood, was accustomed to hard work on the farm. He also got an early start in learning how to stalk and hunt game in the Finnish wilderness, and had a passion for target shooting. So from early on, Hayha picked up the traits of toughness, patience, and accurate shooting, that would come in handy and serve him well when he went to war.
In 1925, Hayha did his one year mandatory service in the Finnish army, and after his honorable discharge, he signed up for the Civil Guard – Finland’s equivalent of the National Guard in the US. In the Civil Guard, Hayha’s years of hunting and target practice made him his unit’s best shot. So he was trained as a sniper, first with a Russian Mosin-Nagant bolt action rifle, and later, with an improved Finnish variant. In due course, he was able to accurately hit targets 16 times a minute from a distance of about 200 yards. In the heavily forested Finnish landscape, there were few unobstructed lines of sight, and thus few targets at distances longer than that.
Hayha was mobilized when the Soviets invaded Finland in November of 1939. Although greatly outnumbering the Finns, the invaders were still reeling from Stalin’s recent military purges, which removed many experienced officers and left the Red Army in disarray. The Finns by contrast, while numerically inferior, were better trained and organized, and were more familiar with the local terrain. They were also highly motivated, since their own homes and families were in the invaders’ path.
It was in the course of resisting the invaders that Simo Hayha became “White Death”. Every day, he would don white winter camouflage to blend into the snowy landscape, take his rifle and a day’s supply of food and ammunition, and go hunting Soviets in the Finnish wilderness. He would then pick a kill zone along a likely Soviet route of advance, and select a position overlooking it. Hayha would then burrow into the snow, and patiently wait for enemies to enter his death field. He did not use a scope, because he did not want to risk sunlight glare exposing his position. Instead, Hayha relied exclusively on iron sights, making his 505 kills that much more impressive.
Later, sources from his unit pointed out that “only” 259 of those kills were confirmed sniper kills, while the rest were probable, but unconfirmed. However, even if he had “only” killed 259 enemy personnel, 259 kills would still make Hayha one of the deadliest warriors to have ever bestrode a battlefield. Especially considering how relatively brief the Winter War had been: it began on November 30th, 1939, and ended on March 13th, 1940. Meaning that Hayha had killed at least 259 enemy soldiers, and perhaps as many as 505, in only three and a half months.