Simo Häyhä
Simo Häyhä | |
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Häyhä after being awarded the honorary rifle, model 28, on 17 February 1940 | |
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| Born | 17 December 1905 Rautjärvi, Viipuri Province, Grand Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire |
| Died | 1 April 2002 (aged 96) Hamina, Finland |
| Buried | Ruokolahti Church graveyard 61°17′05″N 28°49′48″E / 61.284678°N 28.829907°E |
| Allegiance | Finland |
| Branch | Finnish Army |
| Service years | 1925–1926, 1939–1940 |
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| Unit | 6th Company of Infantry Regiment 34 |
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Simo Häyhä (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈsimo ˈhæy̯hæ] ⓘ; 17 December 1905 – 1 April 2002), often referred to by his nickname The White Death (Finnish: Valkoinen kuolema; Russian: Бе́лая смерть, romanized: Bélaya smert’), was a Finnish military sniper during World War II in the 1939–1940 Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union. He used a Finnish-produced M/28-30 rifle (a variant of Mosin–Nagant) and a Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun. Häyhä is believed to have killed over 500 enemy soldiers during the conflict, the highest number of sniper kills in any major war. Consequently, he is generally regarded as the deadliest sniper in history.
Häyhä estimated in his private war memoir that he shot around 500 Soviet soldiers. Written in 1940 (a few months after he was wounded), his Sotamuistoja (lit. 'War Memories') describes his experiences in the Winter War from 30 November 1939 to 13 March 1940. Hidden for decades, the memoir was discovered in 2017.