Häyhä, a native of Finland served one year in the Finnish military and then became a farmer. But when the Soviet Union invaded his country, he grabbed the standard issued rifle he’d received, some white clothes, and a couple cans of food and then proceeded out into six feet of snow at -30°C (about -20°F). For a period of over a hundred days he sniped 505 Russians and had over 200 SMG kills. The Russians tried several times to kill him by scouting the area entirely, developing a counter-sniping team trained to target him, and by napalming the vicinity he was in. None of those stopped Hayha, and he became known to the Russians as “The White Death.” He was finally stopped when he was hit in the head with an exploding bullet. A week later he woke from a coma on the day the war ended and lived until the age of 96.
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
I read this morning that the American gun manufactorer has agreed to remove the biblical references from the guns …
What a weird world we live in; guns and god combination in US and here we pray before shooting foxes!
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Gez and I were invited to a dinner by our neighbours whose property was used by a Fox hunting Club. Before the dinner we all stood in circle, holding hands, and we prayed for a ‘good’ killing the next day. How bizarre!
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Well now I’m here Helvi, what does SMG stand for??
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Sub Machine Gun.
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Cheers.
I was the owner of a Beretta over and under once.
Proudly licensed by The Hampshire Constabulary.
Had to sell it when I shot a pheasant at home on The IOW. Her indoors was furious. And to tell you the truth I tried to be manly and tough about it. Calling it hunting–but I felt guilty as sin and absolutely stupid!!
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Sorry but what does SMG stand for ?
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Look Hung you idiot it stands for the Sydney Morning Gerard
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Hung, that Gerard must be Gerard Henderson then, he writes for the Sydney Morning Herarld after all!
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There’s a fabulous movie you should all try to catch. They run it on TV late at night every now and then. It’s called “Enemy At The Gates” and stars Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, Ed Harris, Joseph Fiennes and Bob Hoskins. Fabulous movie about German and Russian snipers in Stalingrad during the seige. I have a fascination for snipers. Their motivation and the focus on technical skills, wedded to the millenniums old skills of tracking and identifying your prey.
A mate of mine was SAS during Desert Storm One. He was seconded to the yanks at the time and as he was a trained sniper they sent him in early to get a few wet jobs done before the kick off. When he talks of his experiences he becomes an changed person. I get the vibe he’ll spend a long time, maybe the rest of his life, processing his time in the army. Snipers are a breed apart.
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I found it amazing that the Russians developed a counter-sniping team just to target one bloke.To go through all that and still reach the age of 96!
Will keep an eye on the movie you mention, all the actors seem familiar.
We are going to Sydney tomorrow and I hope to squeeze Almovodar’s ‘Broken Embraces’ in, too many things to do, so it might not be possible…
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They did it ti maintain morale. You can’t have a growing legend of one unhappy Fin going about knocking off The Red Army one man at a time.
In the end the compelling core of your story is something we’ll never know. Just what was he thinking as he squeezed the trigger all those times; and then to survive an exploding head shot. It’s just astonishing
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Whatever wars and battles the Finns and the Russians fought they seem to be getting on famously.
I sometimes wonder about how any soldier can sleep at night after killing even just one other human being , and not hundreds like The White Death of Finnland!
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Yes I saw the movie.
The film set looked like a film set.
It made one angry when the boy was hanged and engendered a feeling of ‘ wanting a death to occur’, in retaliation!
I didn’t receive mail notification of these last two posts. Is that what happens when a new page starts MJ??
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Oh oh, I just realized that I am in Hevi’s Episode.
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Well it is late. I thought that I was in the dot- after Hung’s post, my reply- and my Mulga tip!!
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Helvi – many thanks for this arresting vignette.
Waz, I was mesmerised by Antony Beevor’s book “Stalingrad”. And I agree, the notion of a sniper is equally fascinating.
It seems to me that it’s a kind of ultimate hunting in war – where the quarry and the hunter can be simultaneously one and the same.
Major difference is that the trophy is rather more significant than a stuffed beast mounted on the wall – other quarry get to stay alive. Go the home team !
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Maybe this Mr Hayha had a lot of this characteristic, the Finns call ‘sisu’.
Here’s another little illustration of the same:
It is 1939 two Finnish foot soldiers are pinned down in a battle during the war between Finland and Russia.
‘We are outnumbered,’ one soldier says. ‘There must be over forty of them, and only two of us.’
‘Dear God, it’ll take us all day to bury them!’
exclaims the other.
I found this little gem in C J Moore’s delightful little book In Other Words.
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The Red Army on the high ground, is lined up ready for battle. The Finns are down in the mists of the valley.
A voice disembodied cries up from the mist, “Any one of us can beat any ten of you!”
The Red Commander on the heights picks ten volunteers, “You, you, you, you, etc.” and they dutifully troop into the mist. There’s the sound of heavy hand to hand combat then silence.
The disembodied voice again says, “Any one of us can beat any ten of you.” and the process is repeated, several times, until the Red Commander on the heights figures he’ll show them and sends down a hundred men. There’s the usual sound of hand to hand combat then the usual silence. The Commander on the heights gets worried and his concern is confirmed when a broken and bloody soldier drags himself upslope and with his dying breath says,
“It’s a trap! There are two of them!”
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SMG?
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???
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