Texan Reacts to Simo Häyhä- The Deadliest Sniper in Military History
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- čas přidán 7. 05. 2024
- The history and background of the Winter War's greatest sniper, Simo Häyhä. The guy is just an absolute legend and was deadly with his bolt action in his hands.
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Simo Häyhä was also very humble. He didn't see himself as anything special, he just "did what he was told to do. If more people hadn't done that, there would be no Finland now".
Actually, Simo was a farmer, had a small farm, in the Carelian peninsula, when he was asked why did you go to wr and do all this? He answered "they were trying to take my home..." In these dark days to all those defending Ukraine: Slava Ukraini!
Its actually pretty same for another veterans too, they dont see itself as a heros, but did their part for protecting fatherland.
Yes he had between 505 and 542 sniper kills. BUT then add on the 300+ ambushes with a sub machine gun makes him seem fiction. If this was a movie people will not believe it.
He outlived the Soviet Union. That's cool.
Simo deserved to have to pay zero taxes for what he did honestly he was such a badass it’s not possible to describe his badassery.
Greatest crime in Finland is not to pay taxes to the gubberment, not joke.
He was a renowned Moose and Fox hunter and trapper, and competitive shooter! He killed 73 Moose with his Presentation/Award M28 Sako donated by a Swedish business man. His 28/30 which he used in the war had been in his possession for years so he knew it. Majority of kills were 110-165yds!
Molotov to Stalin "JOSEF JOSEF"! Simo is awake !! Stalin:"Peace treat" NOW !" "Call Mannerheim !"
He didn't go to war... He went on a hunting expedition
Mine grandfather fought in winterwar and continuoswar. He wounded really bad but still survived. After the war his childrens were asking about what he did in war and how many russians he killed, he ever didn't answered those questions.
That great man died in 1979 and i was born in 1986 😔
And again russia is on the warpath.
I have done mine mandatory militaryservice in Finnish military, engineering company.
One of our specific skils were explosiim boobytraps.
I say welcome to russian soldiers, we are ready and willing to kill
My grandfather was too winter and continuos war. Wounded twice and take schrapnels with him on grave. Died 1985 age 75. Was winter war in ladoga karelian front in combat messenger. Cause shortage of artillery. Continuos war was first antitank artillery and wounded when tank shot back. Then moved field artillery.
The wounded veterans were quite well taken care of during their life. If I remember correct, the wounded veterans in general lived longer lives than the non-wounded ones. I saw you haven't gotten into Lauri Törni's aka Larry Thorne's personal history in depth. He might be more interesting character from the American perspective. There's a Finnish documentary about him with English subtitles (Törni - Sotilaan tarina (A Soldier's Story) English Subtitles) and interestingly he appears on the episode of "Phantom Fighters - The Big Picture".
Its not enough with being a great shooter. You also have to become one with the nature. This war took place in a cold winter landscape, with darkness 18 hours per day. You also have to be very patient. dressed properly while laying in the snow waiting for the enemy to show up, or you will freeze to death. You arent able to move very much.
Simo Häyhä must have had enormous survival skill, good eyes and a 6th sense beside being hell of a shooter.
They say he used to put snow in his mouth so the enemy wouldnt see the smoke from his breath, I think thats why he used iron sight so there wouldnt be any reflections in the glas.
And the scope would fog up and also it would require him to raise his head a bit.
Good sir, your pronunciation of Simo's surname is OK - finnish is a weird language, we do not expect others to master it :)
edit: pronunciation or pronounciaton, cannot remember which one is right in this case.
You were right, it’s pronunciation, at least here it would be. And thanks, I appreciate you not killing me for it. I always worry when talking about a country’s kind of past heroes that people from that country are going to be mad that I butcher the name.
@@rayceofhistory I don't mind if people butcher names in general, and even if I did I would give a pass with Häyhä's name since the letter "Ä" isn't even in English vocabulary.
The sad part of this story is that after World War II, the Finnish communists started threatening Simo because of his wartime actions. He was so afraid that he hardly dared to live in his own house, preferring to stay at his parents' house and avoid large "crowd gatherings" for the rest of his life. Sad but true story :(
War is hours and days of boredom followed by moments of pure chaos.
Häyhä's engagement range was usually around 100-200 meters, this was possible due to the winter camo, and very well concealed & planned firing positions.
Häyhä did have some confirmed longshot kills up to 500 meters but he most of the time chose not to engage at that range to have more reliable shots, he rarely missed.
And Finnish landscape also made that kind of mandatory. Karelia is a very rugged terrain with hills, rivers, lakes and ponds and thick forests. Not a pleasant terrain to advance. Simo knew the terrain well, and was able to predict well where Soviet troops would come from so he made several firing positions for himself. First shoot once or twice from one position, then move to another one where you can shoot with a different angle and so on.
@@RoyalMela Well.. All of Finland is not pleasent terrain for an invading force. You know the 22 billion'ish trees, 188,000 lakes n stuff. All bridges have premade slots for demolition and roads are intentionally curved etc. Every advantage in the terrain is taken into consideration and this planning has been ongoing for.. 100+ years?
Such a great video, with important commentary as well👍👍👍 Liked and subbed
Simo the legend between 505 -542 confirmed kills natural hunter
I am from Finland, Iromn sight. 150m facekill.
Without scope it really is something so unique that you have to be born with this extra skill/vision.
When I started in the Lapland Ranger regiment in Sweden, I had to start shooting with the same model of rifle as Simo Häyhä. We also did not have a binocular sight on our rifles, but only used the sight that was standard on the rifles. Then when we switched to using AK4 (Swedish name), so even then we had no binocular sight on the weapon but we would only use what was standard on the weapon. You still became a skilled shooter and also a sniper.
I don’t think it’s overall impossible, just would be extremely difficult in a wartime situation, especially with enemy snipers using a more advanced scope.
@@rayceofhistory Today, every Swedish soldier has advanced scope on their AK5 (Swedish name for the weapon), but that was not the case when I was in the military in the 80s. There is a great difference in the weapons and equipment every soldier has today compares to my time.
@@ingvartorma9789 there are some pretty hilarious stories from former military in the US that are pre 9/11 where they’re training all the time but there is no conflict, and they are all about some of the nonsensical drills they did, some of the firearms they used, and some of the extremely sub par equipment they were given. Most of those stories that I’ve heard tend to be early to mid 1990’s, and that’s exactly what it made me think of when you said that. But as a country you’re kind of in a tough spot. No war means no need for increased defense spending, but decreased defense spending means no top of the line weapons to train with. So, you train with what you’ve got.
@@rayceofhistory When the Soviet Union fell, Swedish politicians considered that there was no longer a threat from the East, so it was decided to go from conscription to military service. So you reduce the number of conscripts from 52,000 per year down to only 2,000 soldiers per year. Several regiments and air armaments were stationed around Sweden. Then they had to start arming the defense when they realized that Russia had armed the Russian defense.
Swedish military had Mosin-Nagant rifles? Eeh. More likely you shot with "swedish Mauser" 6,5mm, I assume?.
He used a Finnish-produced M/28-30 (a variant of the Mosin-Nagant rifle) and a Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun
He's got kills more than Chris Kyle and the sniper played by Jude Law.
I have, in Finlands mandatory service, with AK-74 shot 150 meters to face 20cm across. 4/5 do it.
Fun fact during the winter war sweden gave up pretty much half of its military equipment to give to Finland to hold against the USSR. Also had a volunteer core in Finland. 🇸🇪 🇫🇮
Finland had the most badass leader in charge of the army too Gustaf Mannerheim who had the Mannerheim line named after him.
The Germans but pretty much the entire west was laughing at the Soviets during the winter war and it boosted the German confidence that they can easily defeat the USSR. And tbh by looking at how badly the Soviets did I don’t blame the Germans for becoming overconfident.
The mannerheim line is almost a hard thing to talk about now, because it’s almost like it’s been so overblown that now even discussing it makes it seem like you’re discounting the Finnish troops. But the defensive line was decently well thought out, although far from perfect. But the biggest battle I feel like for a country like Finland is arms and troops, much like Ukraine today. If you can flood it with arms and soldiers, it becomes a very different type of war if the defenders are willing to fight. And man were the Finns willing to fight.
Yeah Sweden helped Finland alot during this war, and in february 1944 Soviet retaliated by dropping bombs over Stockholm and some minor places just outside the capital called Strängnäs and Södertälje.
@@Northman-from-the-North Yep screw the USSR had no big reason to just drop bombs on our capital. :/
So I know you watched the video, but in regards to the Iron Sights, here's a few facts about Simo:
- Simo was raised on a farm, and learned to hunt and shoot at a young age.
- Simo lived near a marksmanship club, and joined when he was young. He became very skilled and won many trophies in shooting competitions.
- When Simo served his mandatory 1 year service in the Finnish Army, he was already an excellent shot, and he turned several heads with his shooting ability.
- One officer from his early service days remarked that Simo could - with his naked eye - accurately judge distances up to 500 ft away to within a few feet.
- He was also once observed to hit a target almost 500 ft away a total of 16 times in under a minute - using the very same rifle that he would end up taking to war.
- This was all 14 years before the war broke out. After his service, Simo purchased his training rifle from the Finnish Army, and took it home with him. For the next 14 years he hunted with that rifle, becoming intimately familiar with caring for and operating the weapon.
- When the war broke out, he elected to keep using his personal rifle due to how comfortable he was with it - while other soldiers were struggling to operate their new rifles in terrible conditions, Simo knew his gun like it was a part of him.
So when you say "It seems impossible to do this all with Iron Sights, you'd have to be so comfortable with a gun that it's as easy as walking or breathing" for Simo, that's actually not a completely inaccurate statement. While he was always a kind and humble man, he was a skilled marksman before ever serving in the army, and he spend almost a decade and a half *since* his service in the army becoming intimately familiar with the exact gun that he would eventually use to become legendary.
check out Meth fueled Finn by Yarnhub, another legendary soldier from Finland but for different reasons :D
If you haven't already, there was another Finn called Lauri Törni, or Larry Thorne that you should review.
He served in the Finnish, German and US militaries and received 2 Purple Hearts
It was actually *the* day the peace treaty was signed when Häyhä woke up from the coma, coincidence?
In Finlands navy 1987 with RK 7,62 ironsites, I hit 150 meter headshots 7/10. So Bodyshot for his better rifle.
when i went thru boot camp in the 70's we had no scopes or any optics except those that came with the weapon system on armor and anti armor vehicles, all of are rifles were iron sights and that is what i still prefer today, you will never find optics on any of my rifles, and i feel sorry for the people who never shoot without them
How many kill`s not hard to believe with so many targets but to Survive that is another Amazing
Helow Texan! I spent a year In Pittsburh PA. I will be back.
Really good reaction! Since you mentioned the winter war series, will you also check up the battle of Greece series? Its about the greek participation in ww2. Greco italian war, german invasion of greece etc.
Definitely, I'll put it on my history list. That list has been getting kind of low anyway.
Great to hear! We didn't have any legendary sniper of Hayha's caliber, but we had some more madmen, like pilot Konstantinos Mitralexis, who among other things. "On November 2, a squadron of 15 Italian CANT Z.1007 bombers, with Fiat CR.42 fighter escorts, headed towards Thessaloniki. Soon they were spotted and intercepted by Greek PZL P.24 fighters of the 22nd Squadron. During the dogfights, three of the bombers were shot down, while the rest reached their targets, and then started to return to their base in Albania. Mitralexis, who had already shot down one bomber, was now out of ammunition, so he aimed the nose of his PZL P. 24 right into an enemy bomber's tail, smashing the rudder and sending the bomber out of control. He then had to make an emergency landing near the crashed bomber. Having landed, Mitralexis captured the four surviving crew members of the enemy aircraft using his pistol."
many greeks fought and died during the korean war.
On death note of Simo, has a poem that roughly translates: "Oh, Finland our birthland. On your lap your son happily falls to sleep. As you have put him in his final resting place."
“Iron sights suck?” How dare
Finland was the only country that fought against the Soviet Union and you have to remember that in the winter war the biggest defeat came on the road to the Soviets and at its worst the frost was 39 degrees Celsius and the Finns were used to moving in the forest and getting along in extreme conditions and Finland still has the best defense forces in Europe and a reserve where 280,000 soldiers can be quickly mobilized and a total of 900,000 reservists and the neighbor knows it and that's one reason why there is no great desire to attack here.
08:00 In Finland we have this saying that "war doesn't need one man". And if you would as Simo, he would have said that results of the war wouldn't have changed if he would be there or not. He was just one man doing his duty like 340 thousand other finnish troops fighting in the same war.
But yeah, he was awesome and one of the best.
It has been said that the winter war had a reassuring effect in regard to Hitler's decision to execute the Barbarossa plan, but I don't know about that. Barbarossa was launched a full year before it was supposed to be remotely feasible, according to German high command plans. But Hitler was Hitler, a nutcase to the bone. And to digress even further, although the soviet sacrifice in beating Hitler was crucial and immense in terms of human sacrifice, I've never heard the Soviets or subsequently the Russians utter one single word of thanks to what kept the Soviets going in the war materially in the years 1942-1943: massive US and to lesser extent British supplies and other aid.
It’s impossible to try to get inside hitlers mind. There are some psychologists that do it decently well, historians tend to try to stray as far away from that as possible just because it’s largely futile to try to guess the rhyme or reason to his doing things. That’s why the argument that Germany could vs couldn’t have won WW2 is kind of a funny conversation to me, because it’s just people looking at Hitler differently. The side that thinks they couldn’t have won thinks Hitler couldn’t be or do things any differently than he did, and the ones on the side that think Germany could have won are almost completely ignoring Hitler and just giving tactical and strategic realities. I don’t think either side is 100% right, but it’s hard to know when it comes to him because of him being, like you said, a nutcase to the bone.
@@rayceofhistory Germany would win if italy wouldnt be there allie.
My two favorite superheroes are Simo Häyhä and Bass Reeves.
15:31 its was not a sniper it was in close engagement.
I chringhe every time the narrator says basically Simo "HAIIHA" and i't ssssooooo wrong..
You will react to the sabaton history video for white death too right?
Yes. But after the song. I wanted to do one before.
Him only using iron sights had a lot to do with the fact, that the gun, the sights and the ammo were quite perfectly suited for just that.
czcams.com/video/eAnCjqX0IQA/video.html
This 9-hole review video goes quite deep with that where they actually get authentic gun, ammo and everything and try target shooting with iron sights only, and the end results are that it's a scarily accurate combination.
Oh perfect, this is exactly the sort of thing I wanted to see. All of this stuff is so old now that it’s hard to find reliable information on any of this stuff.
Finnish mosins had sako/valmet barrels and they use lapua ammo. Extremely accurate rifle at the time
@@zinsanez I went looking for the rifle. Not specifically his, but the model. Being in Texas I thought I could potentially find it, and I did find a place that said they have a few come through every year, but they didn’t have one at the time. I wanted to go through it and shoot it myself just for context.
Great reaction :) Infantry man shot him pretty "close" not sniper but rest of video is good :)
Btw, being a sniper was not his job, it was his duty. His job was being a farmer.
Sisu och motståndskraft adding to skill , det fanns många andra också förståss
Scopes at that time were crap. He told in the book that about 400m was longest kill shot he made. Good luck even with modern rifles and scopes to hit a moving target from that distance. You cant shoot what you cant see. In forests of Finland you cant see much further. It was all about not to be seen yourself.
Remember that every finn was a hero in Finland. We would not be independence otherwise. Every finn man took apart to winter war. Every single one. Every this day finn is a grandchild for some winter war soldier. So we love them all, not just Simo. ❤🇫🇮
Agreed. For sure I agree. This is the case in all wars. A few get notoriety(whether they want it or not), but all who fought had to endure it and live with those consequences mentally or physically from then on.
He did not pay for drinks.
That is Finish sisu = stamina
The memoirist had a little more and different info than Wierd History
Lauri töri, Lars Thorn. Arkiston,rip
I myself was a master in various weapons since I was 10 years old, also hunting rifles and various automatic weapons and machine guns. I won gold in the European Cup for shooting. When we had a shooting competition in Sweden, we had moving targets. Plus during shelling.
Never heard of it 🤔
Hi is an absolutely legend, I know same part sound crazy, but hi lived there and when you love your country, you not gone file the could or something else... Is no mention as hi fire from 1mile way and in that environment was difficult to be spotted and I hired in other video ,hi prepared the position in night before ,mean hi not waiting randomly. Is absolutely possible, at that time not exist night vision or thermic scanner and hi used own rifle which used at lot in pass and knew exactly how to fire. Is an legend, but above is in hero who fought for his country
In military i get 10 out of 10 in 300m with our assault rifle RK 62.
Simo is sometehing else.
Buying him drinks? Guess what, he actually got hate mail from some people calling him a mass murderer. When he was asked about how he felt about killing so many people he said that he felt nothing, he did what he was told and that Finland only exists today because people at that time did what they had to do. Yet quite recently they found his diary in which he calls his victims "my sin list". It's also remarkable that he refused to participate in the continuation war, when Finland alongside Germany invaded the USSR. He refused to invade other people's land like they invaded his.
That is so brutal. The American south is pretty culturally different than a lot of places, which is why I try not to speak on other peoples cultures. The one down here is the only one I really know. But that is just so drastically different than here that it’s hard for me to comprehend. The man seems like a genuinely good guy, specifically with the not joining in for the continuation war. I don’t know, but it’s rough to hear that there were people who thought lesser of him for being so good at his job, especially when that job was defending off an invading force that immeasurably outnumbered you.
@@rayceofhistory You're right, it's more of a cultural thing. Generally speaking Nordic nations, such as Finland, Sweden, Norway tend to be more pacifists. I quite admire them for that as I am a strong pacifist myself (I'm a Hungarian living in Romania, but I have relatives there, I kinda know their thinking). yet with all my pacifist and anti-militaristic convictions I realize that once you're attacked and invaded you got to do your best to defend yourself and your people. I could never be a soldier, I have neither the skills nor the will to fight, my thinking is as remote as it can possibly be from that of a soldier. Yet now for instance I have great admiration for everyone in Ukraine who is fighting to defend and protect that nation. But of course, with every line of thinking you will inevitably get extremes too, with a Finnish population of 5.5 million they're bound to have some people who will take their feelings to the extreme.
@@ferencercseyravasz7301 you’re right, there are people on the extremes everywhere, and I’m sure that was what it was. I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a pacifist, but the kind of “way of the world” down here is sort of on a trigger point. Nobody wants violence, everybody goes about their daily lives as normal, but once someone does something, breaks into a house, assaults someone, or god forbid tries to invade, well half the citizens carry for that exact reason. So the idea that someone would be looked down on for, once the invasion starts, taking up that firearm and going to work..it’s just such a foreign idea to me. And I’m sure there are a bunch of Finns that see him as a hero, but it’s just unfortunate that he got pushback for doing what he had to do.
@Suvi Eskelinen it's too bad that Finland didn't got the land they lost, karelia, back when the Sovjet union collapsed.. I wonder why the finnish government didn't asked for that? Do you know the reson for that?
@@rayceofhistory there were commie traitors back then that hated the veterans, not so many maybe because of the brutal red/white war (Finnish civil war 1918) which the whites won. They eliminated most of the red commies but some survived. Look up that war to if you want to understand the history of Finland a bit more..
Confirmed kills. He never counted unconfirmed kills.
I still can't get over how hard it is to actually pronounce ä....it's not thät hard. ö is bit different
Today, this is a problem because the soldiers have protection there. So you have to shoot where they do not have protection face and legs.
Yes there is, although most places in the US still train center mass. But with some of these scopes now depending on distance you could probably tell type of body armor and decide if it’s worth potentially giving your position away.
Pronunciation should be closer to "How-ha"
Boy how is the finish vs Soviet Union with the finish winning impossible
We did that during our independence
the odds for Simo Häyhä's unit was 125 to 1
The winter war in and of itself is crazy odds. The casualty numbers of each side are incredibly one sided.
-39 scopes was crap. And pystykorva is accurat rifle and not easy put scope on it
Simo was bad ass!! But.. Greetings from far, far and cold Finland! .. I hope you react this emotional and super cool (anti) war song. Sabaton - No bullets fly (animated version) super cool super emotional real story of ww2, i promise that!!
It's on the channel! a few different versions and the sabaton history.
He was not called White Death. Although his record is incredible, the name was not given to him.
He wasn’t called that by who?
@@rayceofhistory Soviets gave him that name. Finns called him "taika-ampuja", magic shooter. It is a word play in a way. "Tarkka-ampuja" means a sharp shooter, so "taika-ampuja" is almost similar word.
Simo Heiha 😂
That's true. Nazi germany took it as weakness and did very well until dictators clash....which ofc was stalingrad. No1 ever conquers russia. They have about 20-30% land of entire world....it's just no. Weird enough AFganistan...Britts couldnt do it, Soviets couldn't do it, US couldn't do it....in history no1 has ever done that. I have to say 'm not sure of gengis khan....
Nikita Chrusjtjov who take ower after Stalins deadt say that sovjet lost one miljon (1 000 000) soldiers in 105 says Winter War !! Finland 26 000 !
Simo is real life version of a Chuck Norris
white death was the best shooter but many Finns were also good at shooting better than poorly trained Russians
This video is quite terrible. Sabaton history for "the white death" is much more accurate!
Agreed it’s much better with the sabaton history for the song.
I guess I didn’t catch it, what was inaccurate about it?
@@rayceofhistory Nothing really I only agreed that the sabaton history vid is much better. Don’t know what he thought was bad with it this one tho.
@@rayceofhistory I have to correct myself in that this video is not that "inaccurate", that was bad wording. It is more about how the information is delivered.
@@teemup9247 that’s fair.
Simo is SISU
He definitely is.
The only reason he was so good was because he owned and shot that rifle so many times.
Texas you didnt need be so mean finland greatest man and you say that iron sight is bad. Its mean you are bad shooter
Finns were not very good, but Russian, This sadly Ukrainain regiment was so bad!
Take finnish alfapeth and before make reaction video learn that 32 words pronunatttionnns . Simply like that = Respect other languge. You are lucky that 1949 in Genf selected international language english. Please respect now other languages too. Over.
Did you know that Russia used Ameican lend lease stuff on Finnish front?
Has there ever been a time in histor when USA has not funded terrorists against sovereign peoples?
Lend lease wasn’t passed until 1941 if my memory serves correctly.
every russian t-34 tank had a case of spam shipped from usa to ports in iran and murmanske. germany funded finland and declared war on usa. fin dood, read more history before commenting anymore.
Ah the Sabaton... Maybe not using Swedish music for Finland. You can take someone's culture without permission among "white people".I can't stand Swedish speaking for us when we are the "Finnjevle".