True Stories #403 - The White Death

Simo Häyhä became known throughout 1939 Finland as "The White Death." He also made history.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
I'm Seth Andrews, and what you're about to hear is
a true story. Nineteen thirty nine. The war between Finland
and Soviet Russian is known by historians and a few
history buffs, but it is not really talked about much

(00:24):
for obvious reasons. The world was facing down the threats
from Hitler's Germany and Japan's ambitions to expand its empire,
and so Finland, a tiny country of about four million,
going head to head with its gigantic Russian neighbor. Well,
that's a story that often gets lost in the shadows,

(00:45):
but this situation would become known as the Winter War.
Finland had just gained independence, or a kind of independence,
from Russia after World War One, but in October of
nineteen thirty nine, Joseph Stalin demanded the right to establish
military bases and revise borders. The Baltic States submitted Finland

(01:09):
would not, so Russia decided it would take what it
wanted by force. And this was supposed to be an
easy victory for the Soviet Union. But oh, they were
in for a big surprise. Beyond the brutal cold and
those lands just above the Arctic Circle with the ice
and snow and frost bite and terrain, and the fierce

(01:31):
Finland resisters. The Russian army came to encounter a man
of only five foot three who would himself be his
own army from the trigger end of a sniper rifle.
His name was Simo Heya. Snipers have great utility in
times of war. They can keep large numbers of enemy

(01:53):
soldiers pinned down as everybody fears being the next victim.
The sniper looks his victims in the face. The targeting
is individual, the kills are personal. Few things can demoralize
an army like a well hidden and accurate sniper. You
wouldn't think that a guy who was once a simple,

(02:14):
finish farm boy would generate all that fear, but this
seventh son of eight children learned to shoot out on
the farm. Simo was familiar with the dense forest and
changing elements of the outdoors. When he joined the local
civil Guard at the age of seventeen, it was immediately
apparent he was gifted with a rifle. His room was

(02:37):
filled with trophies from shooting competitions. This guy could hit
a small target six times in a row in one
minute from one hundred and fifty meters using just a
bolt action rifle. Two years later, in nineteen twenty five,
he started his mandatory fifteen month military service. He qualified

(02:58):
for formal sniper training in nineteen twenty seven, and he
joined his comrades to battle Russia in the nineteen thirty
nine War. His condition for joining was that he be
allowed to use his old training school rifle, and his
commanders agreed that gun, an M twenty eight thirty seven

(03:18):
point sixty two caliber weapon, would go on to make history.
Simo aimed at his targets using only iron sights. He
did not want to use a scope. He said the
scope might reflect the sun and expose his position. Sometimes
he would put snow in his mouth to keep his
exhaled breath from being noticed by the enemy and from

(03:41):
his concealed positions across the field of battle. Simohea sent
death to Russian soldiers like no one else. His average
more than five kills per day. His highest total for
a single day twenty five, and the kill count didn't
include those that he dispatched with a submachine gun. A

(04:04):
whole other kind of war he was waging as a
single soldier fighting for Finland. Now, the targets weren't hard
to spot. Russian troops, for some reason, were assigned brown
uniforms and a snow covered battlefield, while finished troops cloaked
themselves in white. The Russians were sometimes ordered to attack

(04:26):
while crossing frozen lakes. Many of the vehicles, the tanks
and trucks would actually crack down into the freezing water
through the ice. Russian morale was very low, and yet
on the Finland side, Simoheya's story was a morale booster
throughout the country. This guy was lethal, he was effective,

(04:47):
he was successful, and yet in March of nineteen forty
he would prove mortal as a Russian explosive detonated right
next to him, shrapnels striking his head. It was assumed
that Simo was dead until a fellow soldier saw his
leg moving slightly, with his left cheek and much of

(05:10):
his upper jaw blown off of his head, and with
so much loss of blood, it seemed unlikely he would survive.
But after fourteen months and twenty five surgeries, Simo lived,
and for his actions in battle, he was commissioned a
lieutenant and ultimately given the prestigious Knight of the Mannerheim Cross. Award.

(05:34):
He was disfigured for life, but he never complained, and
he would live to the age of ninety six, passing
away in two thousand and two. In any context, it
would be remarkable that a single soldier could amass so
many sniper kills, and a single deployment so many that

(05:54):
he would become known by his nickname the White Death.
Five hundred and five confirmed kills. But what's even more
interesting is that seam Ohea, one man with an iron
sight and snow in his mouth, carried out those five
hundred and five kills in just over three months. For

(06:22):
obvious reasons, seem Ohea, the White Death is considered the
most lethal sniper in history. And that's a true story.
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