Biography of Simo Häyhä (1905-2002)
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- čas přidán 28. 05. 2024
- When the Soviet Union invaded Finland in the winter of 1939, one Finnish sniper truly distinguished himself. His name was Simo Häyhä. The Red Army referred to him as the White Death, and for good reason. An excellent marksman, Simo became the greatest sniper of history with a kill score of 542. He managed to attain this in just 98 (!) days.
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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:53 Early Life
4:44 Simo's Tactics
7:55 Simo's Combat
10:14 Life after the Winter War
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The content of this video covers events, people or concepts via a lecture-style presentation that is educational and historical in nature. Every video is original content by House of History. The events relating to conflict in this video are portrayed in their historical context without either value judgment or an ideological message attached to it. There is no intent to shock, upset or disgust. The goal of my channel is to make interesting lecture-style videos, no more, no less.
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In November 1939, the Soviet Union invaded their much-smaller neighbour Finland. It marked the start of the so-called Winter War. This war, lasting for just a little over three months, saw many heroic Finnish soldiers stand up against the better equipped and much larger Red Army behemoth. One of those soldiers that truly distinguished himself was the sniper Simo Häyhä. In merely 98 days, he managed to kill 542 Red Army soldiers, a staggering number. It didn’t just propel him among history’s most successful snipers, no. In just 98 days, Simo Häyhä managed to shatter any sniper victory score, a record that has not been matched by anyone before or since. And what is more, Simo managed to achieve this using no other equipment than any ordinary Finnish soldier had at his disposal. Including a rudimentary iron sight instead of scope on his rifle.
In 1922, at the age of 17, he joined the local Finnish civil guard. He finished middle school and intended to take over his father’s farm once he became too old to operate it.
In the civil guard Simo’s talent was discovered: marksmanship. He practiced with the Mosin-Nagant M1891, a Russian-built five-shot bolt action internal magazine fed military rifle. And he was quite adept at it. Finnish militias distributed this Russian gun and ammunition for free among its members. From December 1925 to March 1927, Simo fulfilled his mandatory military service, completing his time at the rank of Corporal.
If you have any feedback, questions or criticism feel free to leave a comment. Your opinion truly aids me in improving the content of the channel! If you have a question, feel free to leave a comment and I will either write a reply, answer your question in a Q&A video, or make an entire video about it!
Sources:
Feist, Paul. The Redwood Stumper: the Newsletter of the Redwood Gun Club, 2010.
Saarelainen, Tapio AM. The White Sniper: Simo Häyhä. Casemate, 2016.
Tactical-life: www.tactical-life.com/firearm...
Narratively: narratively.com/the-deadliest...
Historiek: historiek.net/simo-hayha-slui...
Voyageur: dut.tivoyageur.com/how-white-...
www.is.fi/suomi100/art-200000...
Written by House of History
Photos, paintings and imagery: Public Domain, Wikicommons
#HouseofHistory #History #Finland
5'3"... small man, big gun...HERO
Good documentary 👍
They say, watch out for the man with only one gun!
🇫🇮We are a proud nation that remembers its past and respects the victims and heroes of our wars.🇫🇮
One of the greatest heroes of all time! I’m so glad that you were able to do this history justice!
Thank you, Alec!
This was actually the best "short story" of Simo I´ve seen and with original pictures; great work !!!
Thank you!
Excellent presentation, thanks. The Finns are one, tough bunch of freedom loving people who I admire very much. Long live Finland.
Notice his officer's collar badge. Simo was promoted straight from sergeant to second lieutenant (Fähnrich), even though it isn't allowed. You know, there should have been four promotions in between. I guess he was exceptional.
As I remember, it was a sort off honorary discharge reward. Its common with honorary discharge follows a higher grade for retirement. Simo got an extra bonus. He got also a small farm to live on.
Thank you very much for this. My own grandfather was a sniper and this story touched me. Tim.
My pleasure!
Well, am I can say is that you've really earned your place among the top historians on CZcams. It's so, so important to somehow educate the younger generations of which less and less actually know about the modern history of the last century - something so important that it's needless to say.. Kudos to you and your work!
Thank you very much!
@@HoH also the most handsome
The attention paid to detail is notable. I learn so much and appreciate the human cost of conflict. You show such respect for the combatants in the telling of each story. Sincerely, Lisa Rousseau.
I believe when asked 'what he felt' when he hit the targets, Simo apparently replied: 'the recoil'. Great video HOH and hats off to you for remembering Billy Sing! ( I am Australian)! Thanks for another excellent video!
My pleasure - one of my upcoming videos are about the Cowra breakout of Japanese POWs on Australian soil. Perhaps I'll create a video entirely about Billy Sing in the future.
@@HoH I'll look out for that.....maybe you should look at the less well known breakout of German prisoners in WW2 from the camp in Victoria ( the name escapes me right now) , a little to the south. The guys escaped by digging a tunnel , amongst them was Dettmers, the captain of the Komoran ( =of Kriegsmarine fame, sunk by HMAS Sydney in 1941, Sydney itself being lost in the same engagement). I think they were all recaptured in a week- Central Victoria is freezing in wintertime!
@@ronti2492 Never attempt a winter invasion of Russia. Or Central Victoria
@@stevenhale2935 Indeed! Pucka in July: winter death!!!!!
No, he said something more along the lines of I did what I was told to do, as best as I could. There would be no Finland if not for everyone doing their e best" or something like this
Simo and his iron sights put all those modern day scoped snipers to shame !
That is the face of courage. Thank you for honoring this unsung hero!
thanks so much for mentioning francis pegahmagabow, i appreciate it
My pleasure, I am currently writing a video about his incredible life and his First Nations organisations advocacy and activism.
@@HoH awesome. we need more canadians covered here
@@HoH how can I join the channel to watch the other videos on the channel? If I become a patreon does that allow me to watch the orange bordered videos on the CZcams channel? I love your videos so much! Happy I came across them!!
@@douchecicle2013 Dear Nathan, if you join my Patreon I will send you a private CZcams playlist (within 12 hours usually) which includes all the orange videos on my channel. Thank you for considering supporting the channel, and I am happy you enjoy my videos!
He killed 505 with sniper gun and 300 with machine gun. An real legend👏
He Had 360 Kil's With
His Rifle & 145 With His
M.G, For A Total Of 505 Kill's...
I got to know this guy thanks to Sabaton. He is indeed a phenomenal badass in which we'll likely not have nor his achievements can be replicated again.
Soviets: I fear no death!
Finnish: how about a white one?
Hahaha!
Our foe is so vast
Our land is so small
Where will we find space
To bury them all?
so fucking metal
So well researched, written and presented. Thank you for another truly informative history lesson. 😊
I very much appreciate your factual, non-sensationalized accounts. You are truly a historian.
correction: the rifle in museum is similar but not the one Simo used.
Simo's rifle was lost on the field.
He said "honorary rifle".
The Finns are fantastic fighters. Simo was the best of the Finns.
The Greatest sniper Of All Time!
Awesome. I knew some of his story, but learned quite a few new details.
A Finnish hero...
Good to see, that you keep being very creative. Great video as always.
I have a piece of paper is it:
A) Blank
B) A Scandinavian snowy day
C) Simo Häyhä in position
D) Both B & C
True Warrior 👏😎 🇫🇮
That was a really good one. Thanks.
”He did his job!”❤
Inspiring. Thank you.
Everytime I see this picture of Simo I remember my wife's Uncle. He found a Nagant revolver while ploughing, in Ukraine in the early seventies. The revolver was in reasonably good condition so he took it home and spent the next months removing the rust, adjusting the drum and trigger mechanism, carving new handgrips and basically making the revolver look like new. Finally, he shot himself in the face! Nowadays he resembles an Ukrainian version of Simo Haya and is very lucky to be alive...
You from Ukraine?
Love your work mate. 🤘
I appreciate it!
What a great video of a true national hero. Finns are so kick-ass!!!!
Modest, quiet, but help Armias (God) when he gets angry!
What a man! A legend....
Have you heard of Matthäus Hetzenauer? Top sniper in the Wehrmacht. There is a good book about him called eastern front sniper. Good video btw.
The Finns finely tuned their Mosin-Nagant rifles. Very nice rifles to shoot. Right rifle for the right person. ☯️🎩♠️
I've got a 1916 Tula Finnish capture mosin, I love that thing. I had to lop a foot off the barrel because the yahoo that owned it before me stored it barrel-down in a bucket that got wet, the first third of the barrel rusted out so I just chopped it down to minimum length, it's just a tad over 16" long now. Throws a hell of a fireball and makes a whole lot of noise, just the way I like it🤣.
Thanks
🗣” Each One, Teach One”...thx💙💙💙
Russians were really tough guys.... until the snow started talking in Finnish.
I read about SIMO previously before and he is an awesome hero for Finland ! 💓🙏 A true hero among Finnish soldiers to repel those filthy Russian communists.
My courageous father was among the Polish Resistance during the war.
Soviet: nyet. Rifle is fine
Finn: 😅😅 We will take it and make rifle much better
Look at the pictures of him hunting.
The background is all heavy forest.
Under those conditions a scope is actually a hinderance because of it's limited field of view.
He was skilled and talented and he didn’t want a cumbersome piece of equipment like a scope getting in his way.
The main reason actually was that a scope reflects sunlight which could give away his position and he would have to raise his head higher to see his target. Iron sights allowed him to stay lower and keep a smaller profile. He also packed snow into his mouth so his breath wouldn't be visible in the cold air too. He connected on a lot of these shots from a lying down position to keep a lower profile and stayed still for hours in -40 degree cold. He would pile up snow around him and pour water on it so it would freeze and not puff into the air after a shot & give his position away. While other soldiers hung onto theirs, Simo only carried a days worth of food/supplies with him at a time to stay as weightless as possible. The amount of craftiness, wilderness savvy, focus, and mental/physical toughness he had may be more impressive than his marksmanship. The Russians sent a counter sniper to take him out and Simo dusted him. Then they sent a team out after him. They never returned. The Soviets ended up sending a battalion out looking for him and he ended up lighting a bunch of them up. They even launched artillery strikes to kill him. All that investment of resources, time, and men to get one man is ultimate show of respect. The sheer level of the badass-ery of Simo Hayha may never be seen again.
I mean, it must have felt as a joke to Russians when he died
Killer Hill has been something that has interested me for a while. It crops up often in pop culture and more simplistic retellings of the Winter War.
So far, what I have found is Tappokukkula (Kill[ing] Hill/rise/mound) that was on the extreme left flank of the Kollaa line. which was protected by a platoon of the 9th Company, 3rd Battalion, Infantry Regiment 69.
It saw heavy assault on the 8th March and finally fell to the Soviets on the evening of the 10th, by which point the platoon was only commanded by a Alikersantti (Corporal).
Likewise. I didn't make much progress myself in researching it, so nice to read your additions. Kiitos 🇫🇮
Luckily the russians lost Finnland ... and never got it back - except the harbor.
Great achievement by Simo.
Both Simo and other men such as Lauri Törni: czcams.com/video/HSqCyey7TNg/video.html The Finns certainly are a warrior people and utterly intriguing.
Well Done!
That's my namesake dont wear it out
Pity there weren’t a thousand more like him. There wouldn’t be a Russia now.
snipers, though not exclusively do work alone alot! so how are these sniper death toll figures backed up genrally???
Good question! When russian snipers (and especially soviet female snipers) have their death rates, very many are questioning this. But I have never or seldom heard anybody question Simo or the other male top snipers... Yet Simo worked alone, while the russian sniper were usually in pairs, and reporting their result to the commanding officer immediately after the pass: so no memory lapses...
The opposing Soviets probably tallied their soldiers killed by Simo.
Actually his rifle is lost.
"better equipped" The Finns had almost no weapons
Tarkka ampuja 👍🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮
*Tarkka-ampuja tai tark'ampuja.
Oops! His rifle was not Russian made. It was made by New England-Westinghouse, in the USA for the Russian Government.
"much smaller"? Amazingly smaller is a better description
Poor Soviet working-class soldiers
I get they were invading another country, but it's not as if much, if any, of the these men even had control over the production of their Union's culture; as such, they were similarly under the influence of ideas that allowed them to kill, just as the Finish soldiers were. 😞
If he is still alive and in younger age, maybe he would go to Ukraine now.
He Would Re-Start,
Where He Left Off, lol...
He took out alot of Communists.
But not enough...
Tja, Molotov-Ribbentrop-Agreement gave the Baltics and Finland to Stalin's interests.
The Balts weren't as successfull, as the Finns.
There is some female organisation in Finland, as for the Home Guard : #LottaSvärd.
It wasn’t Sako, but Tika, which converted those rifles.
To say he was hit in the jaw by an "exploding bullet" is not accurate. I think you meant a soft nose expanding bullet. These carried no explosive charge.
Wrong, it was an exploding bullet. Soviets used both "ZR" and "PZ" exploding bullets. However, for the sake of politics, they called them "incediary bullets". Most probably Haiha was shot by a "PZ"-variant. Soviets used millions of them during the Winter War. "PZ" rifle bullet contained incendiary material and a Tetryl explosive charge.
Dagens
Ungdomar.
❓❓❓❓🤫
That answer about the regret because of killing so many people - he was told to do so - reminds me eichmanns and all the german apologies before nürnbergs trail
Wtf except here he all he was doing was being a supersoldier in a defensive conflict
Simo killed active combatants only... Eichmann murdered civilians having nothing to do with the war... and therein lies the difference: Simo was a man of war, not a murderer.
his name was not Haiha, stop pronouncing it like that, it is wrong.
Wonder what his take would have been on transgender issues..?
A coward was he. Hiding, hitting and retiring. Allegedly killed over five hundred men and he felt no pity or regret at the end for the dead. In my opinion, he was a cold person without heart and consciousness.
If your country was invaded by another, what's your option? Hide and pray?
Men will do what they have to do when an enemy is trying to annihilate you. God grants you , your right to self defense.
He fought in the front lines. He protected his country from aggressor. Anyone would have done the same, and in Finland everyone did.