Nickname:
White Death
Place of birth:
Rautjärvi, Finland
Place of death:
Hamina, Finland
Allegiance:
Finland
Years of service:
1925 – 1940
Rank:
Corporal during the war, promoted to Second Lieutenant afterwards
Unit:
Infantry Regiment 34
Battles/wars:
Winter War (1939–1940, between Finland and the Soviet Union)
Awards:
I. Cross of Liberty, 3rd class and 4th class;
II. Medal of Liberty, 1st class and 2nd class;
III. Cross of Kollaa Battle
Simo Häyhä (www.wikipedia.org)(Finnish pronunciation: [ˈsimɔ ˈhæy̯hæ]) (December 17, 1905 – April 1, 2002), nicknamed "White Death" (Russian: Белая смерть, Belaya Smert; Finnish: valkoinen kuolema; Swedish: den vita döden; German: der weiße Tod) by the Red Army, was a Finnish sniper. Using a modified Mosin-Nagant in the Winter War, he has the highest recorded number (505) of confirmed sniper kills in any major war.
On March 6, 1940, Häyhä was shot in the lower left jaw by a Russian soldier during combat. The bullet tumbled upon impact and exited his head. He was picked up by fellow soldiers who said "half his head was missing".
The bullet had crushed his jaw and blown off his left cheek. Nonetheless, he made a full recovery and became a successful moose hunter and dog breeder after World War II, and hunted with Finnish president Urho Kekkonen.
When asked in 1998 how he had become such a good shooter, he answered, "practice." When asked if he regretted killing so many people, he said "I did what I was told to as well as I could." Simo Häyhä spent his last years in Ruokolahti, a small village located in southeastern Finland, near the Russian border.
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