White Death.

[Jenks]

Ever heard of this chap.. I hadn't.


Interesting read... http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/fe ... hayh/20951




Jenks

[Dave 101]

Not seen that guy before , he lived to a ripe old age despite the near fatal wound .

Dave

[ovenpaa]

Yes I have read of him before, Finnish Simo Häyhä gave the Russians a good pasting and ended up with an impressive tally and a lot were taken with open sights.

[Sandgroper]

Yes I have read of him before, Finnish Simo Häyhä gave the Russians a good pasting and ended up with an impressive tally and a lot were taken with open sights.

All with open sights - he prefered them.

His kills came from a standard Mosin Nagant and Soumi SMG.

As a side note the Russians were so impressed by the performance and firepower of the Soumi, that they copied the drum magazine for their PPsh-41.

[Sandgroper]

A couple of articles on the man.

http://www.mosinnagant.net/finland/simohayha.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4

Top 15 snipers
http://www.hoffstrizz.com/2010/02/the-1 ... story.html

[Scotsgun]

Yes - they mentioned him in passing to be honest. Studying the Russian invasion of Finland was required reading. The losses incurred by the Russians, at the hands of the Finnish riflemen was amazing. The guerrila tactics employed are still highly regarded today.

The level of marksmanship of the Finnish was extremely high. It was common for hunters to shoot geese with rifles, whilst flying! Fighting units would operate in an area, be led by their officers but guided by hunters and woodmen local to that area. This way they could maximise the effectiveness of their guerilla methods.

[EagerNoSkill]

They have a National Day mentioned after him

http://listverse.com/2009/11/13/top-10- ... n-history/
"In less than 100 days he was credited with 505 confirmed kills, 542 if including unconfirmed kills, however the unofficial frontline figures from the battlefield places the number of sniper kills at over 800. Besides his sniper kills he was also credited with 200 from a Suomi KP/31 Submachine gun, topping off his total confirmed kills at 705."


The Finns thumped the Russians

Hitler and his henchman read that stats on the basis of .. look how poor the Russian army is (following various purges of officers and NCO's)... it contributed to their belief they could easily defeat Russia.

They did not realise it was in fact a salutary lesson on the skills of tenuous Finns, fieldcraft, riflecraft and small forces tactics.
The German invasion of Russia was a pivotal turning point in the WWII