Simo Häyhä - Sniper Central. He was born December 17, 1905, in the Grand Duchy of Finland, which was part of the Russian Empire. He died April 1, 2002 in Finland.
When the Soviet Union was formed, Finland was independent. (They had been part of the Russian Empire.) As you can imagine the Soviets didn't like that.
In 1939, the Soviet Union attempted to invade Finland. It was known as "The Winter War." It didn't go well for the USSR.
The Civil Guard was called up, and Häyhä was included in that.
Because Finland was such a small country that was being invaded by a much larger Soviet Union, everyone that was fit and able was willing to serve to defend their homeland regardless of their age and Simo was very fit and able. Simo was an avid hunter and farmer and was a member of their Civil Guard and already had his own issued M/28-30 bolt action rifle that he used through the entire Winter War conflict and no, it the rifle not have any optics. One of the common traits of a sniper is the ability to deliver long range precision fire, but in the very thick forests of eastern Finland, there were very few, if any, opportunities to engage targets beyond about 150 meters.
Häyhä used a Sako built M/28-30 rifle with iron sights. It weighed 9 and a half pounds. His confirmed kills are 542.
Because the entire conflict he fought in was only 3 months long, it took place entirely during the brutal Finnish winter time and in the snow. Often times Simo would pour water on the snow in front of his muzzle to cause the snow to ice up to prevent a plume of snow from being created by the muzzleblast when firing.
He was shot in the jaw, shortly before the ceasefire was signed. The pictures of Häyhä that you usually see are from after the war and include the damage done to his jaw, and face.
Sabaton is a Swedish Heavy Metal band. (English lyrics!) They have a thing for historically-themed songs. The have a song, "White Death" which I can't decide if I like or not. But I include it here for you to decide. About those lyrics; they may be in English, but it is Heavy Metal. You can find the lyrics at this link.
You're in the bullets way
The White Death's prey
Say goodbye!
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