Movie Theater Finnish Sniper Article

[utnapishtim]

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, or even if this is old news, but I found this article quite entertaining.

Badass of the Week: Simo Hayha

 

[Sniper Uncle]

That's pretty good!

 

[Beyschaefer]

Read about him before...
500 kills... Iron sights.
After the war the government gave him a farm and cabin "near the Russian border". I can't help but think that was on purpose. Imagine through the 50's, 60's, and 70's.. Crusty old WWII vets on the Russian side, showing the new troops the ropes...
"Hey, kid.. C'mere... Wanna know why you don't ever want to go into Finland? See that cabin over there? The White Death lives there... Let us tell you about him..."

Hell of a man.. Even if I don't know how to pronounce his last name.

 

[ksthomas]

Number of things wrong in the article, but it's clearly not what you'd really call a history piece. Interesting guy, although like Carlos Hathcock, he was very hard to interview as he didn't like to talk about himself or his experiences. He was an avid hunter and outdoorsman, and had a particular fondness for fox hunting as he considered them the most cunning of prey. Apparently that background served him pretty well for dealing with the Russians when they launched the Winter War. The Finns lost some 25,000 men killed in the Winter War (they actually fought three wars during the WWII period-the Winter War in '39-'40, the Continuation War in '41-'44, and the Lapland War in '45) compared to the Russian losses (according to the Finns; the lowest estimate) of 250,000. Nikita Kruschev said that Russian losses were somewhere between 500,000 and one million, but the Finns themselves consider this estimate to be overinflated. The Russian crushed the Finns with sheer weight of numbers, but they sure as hell didn't "beat" them. Took a major ass whuppin' in the process, and the Russian Generals readily admitted as much.

Simo died in a Finnish Disabled Veterans Home on 1 April, 2002.