...That’s... That’s the most finnish thing i’ve ever heard!!

R.I.P Simo Häyhä

Loved and remembered by all Finns. When I die someday, I would like to visit you. I know that sounds stupid, weird and dangerous.

It should be noted, though, that he used iron sights (the regular stuff on the rifle), and not any scope.

@Varangian Reportedly, he was very good at spotting the sunlight reflecting off of enemy rifle scopes and shooting them and didn't use a scope because he didn't want anyone to do it to him.

@ShoggothOnTheRoof Yup. Also he was very good at spotting breath vapor. We are talking -20 C and lower here so breath is very visible. He kept snow in his mouth so his breath was cold enough not to make the vapor cloud that could give his position away.

@Barracuda wasn't that an old hunting trick? I think he said that a lot of his abilities was down to his hunting and tracking skills

Brother Usa: So what? I got Audie Leon Murphy during World War II, He got all the medals, ever!

Sister Usa: What brother you remember him? But you are terrible with history!

Brother Usa: Not about World War II.

He was mentioned in Coffee Theif

Actualy, Häyhä had abit over 500 confermed kills. Because all of his kills could not be confermed, it has been estimated that about 200 kills has not been counted. So there is a bossibility to 700 kills or more.

@Walle Häyhä stated to his biographer that the often-circulated number of ~200 kills with submachine gun is exaggarated. He never talked about his official kill count, but historians believe that was also inflated for propaganda purposes.

not only that but the russians drop artillery on him, sent teams to hunt him down (including anti snipers) and when finally someone did shoot him (with an explosive bullet that took off half his jaw) all it did was put him in a coma for a few days causing him to wake up the day the winter war ended. all of this done with an old hunting rifle with iron sights, no scopes. (and a few done with a SMG)

@crwydryny
M/28-30 was actually a proper military rifle, which was also the second newest model of Finnish bolt actions designed at the time, the newest being m/39 of which only ten had been produced by the end of the war. Hardly an old old hunting rifle.

@Vilkku92
But to him it was an old hunting rifle. Simo had been using the M28-30 for hunting and target practicing, even before the war started. That's why he was so efficient with the gun, he had learned its ins and outs before the war, and had studied different tactics for hunting, that he put to use when fighting the Soviets. This included pouring water on snow of his "nest" so that the muzzle flash wouldn't move the light snow and reveal his position. That was also the reason he didn't use a scope: lens flare would've given his position out, and in those Mosin-Nagant based rifles the scope was set very high in order to allow the use of iron sights.

There are a lot of things he did that made him an excellent marksman and soldier, which in turn allowed for his effectiviness during the war.

@Kollu Plus, to go along with your first point (as evidence concerning the validity), when he was asked how he was such a good shot, he said "practice"

@Ahti_S Best answer ever

@InDeathWeReturn Also, a typically terse and blunt Finnish response. There's a joke:

A Finnish soldier on leave was interviewed by a foreign journalist, who asked about the first thing he did when he got home.

"I ****ed my wife," came the reply.

The journalist, realising that he couldn't possibly print that in the newspaper, asked what he did next.

"I ****ed my wife again."

Stymied, the journalist asked what happened when he had finished "greeting" his wife.

"Then, I took off my skis and backpack."

Well normally I would say you don't see snipers like that any more but on the wiki list of snipers there's a UK marine with 90 confirmed kills in ONE DAY..... that's a hell of a lot of ammo to chew through when you think about it.

@sgt_Oddball But Häyhä had a shitty sniper with ironsight(own choise) compared to the snipers we use today.
He got 25kills in one day, but for that time it was a good score

@sgt_Oddball Häyhä's m/28-30 had effective range of 600 meters, 300 meters without a scope. If you compare it to more recent rifles with more than 1,5 kilometers of effective range it's no surprise that the more recent records are a bit more deadly

But how the hell did they confirm this? Send a note to the russian side and asked for confirmation? Collected ears? Not saying its false just wondering.

@Aldarad The Russians presumably kept track of who was dying, and of what cause.

@Aldarad Häyhä had a spotter with him. He also had 37 probable kills that couldn't be confirmed.

@DarkMage7280 Aha, thanks for clearing that up.

@DarkMage7280 He had over 300 unconfirmed kills from what i heard.

@GermanDude That is right. When he was alone none of those kills were "confirmed" kills. Some historians speculate he had over 1000 kills, but official record is 505 as no one could vouch for the rest. That 37 is just for those shots the spotter saw but couldn't say for sure if they were kills.

@Aldarad Usually they name it confirmed kill. There is a specator which says, well I've see him go down or such. Anyway I find it perverted...

Seems well referenced here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_snipers

Verdict: True

@Karen Bit of a clarification: The official confirmed kills number is 505, but if we are talking about kills that couldn't be confirmed we are on 600-1100 scale depending which historian you ask.

Sadly he was beaten by Dillard Johnson with 2746 kills

@Irish The 2746 are an estimate, and above all, shared with all the men in his unit.
AND they were scored with a Bradley, an IFV.

http://nordic.businessinsider.com/the-incredible-life-of-simo-hayha-the-worlds-deadliest-sniper-who-killed-hundreds-during-the-winter-war-2017-3/

sadly he was shot in the cheek by a russian sniper and it knockt out some of his teeth so he needed a replacement jaw for it

@evildeuchland68 Well, he killed the sniper in question, and regained consciousness on the day peace was declared.
Coincidence? Mayyyyyyyyyybe.

@evildeuchland68 and he survived

''505'' Confirmed. Not 700 confirmed deaths.

Well someone claimed that he killed around 2000 on Doomsday. He was a machine gun shooter. But well is that a record one wants to hold?

@FDominicus That was a german machine gunner that was in one of the pilboxes.

@FDominicus Finn's were nowhere near Omaha beach or even France on D-Day. We just fought Russia.

My first time hearing of this guy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s43yLMgXXOU