|
main index Narrative
|
 Throughout this campaign, Häyhä basically just ran around doling out head-shots like the ice cream man gives out Dove bars on a hot sunny day in the Sahara desert. His personal best was fucking twenty-five kills in a single day. That's like an entire baseball team!
Put simply, Simo Häyhä was the greatest sniper in existence. Simo was born in 1905, and prior to the Winter War of Finland, was an ordinary farmer who had served one compulsory year in the Finnish army. When the war began in 1939, he was called to action, and taking his trusty Mosin-Nagant rifle, became to many over the next 105 days an almost legendary figure.
Using his extensive knowledge of the surrounding forest as well as a knack for camouflage (He dressed in all white and even kept snow in his mouth so as to mask his breathing and avoid giving away his position), he racked up an incredible 704-742 confirmed kills ''estimate'' (542 by rifle, and around 200 by submachine gun). All the more impressive was that he did all of this without a scope or a spotter. He instead used the trusty iron-sights on the rifle, as he noticed that using a scope presented a target due to the glint off the lens (when asked later in life how he had become such an incredible shot, Simo answered simply: "Practice. And clear days.").note
The Russian forces were absolutely terrified of Häyhä, nicknaming him The White Death. They attempted numerous times to kill him, from sending teams of countersnipers after him (none came back alive) to artillery bombing any place they thought he was hiding. Needless to say, each of these attempts was met with failure, and Simo continued to utterly stomp any enemy who came within his sights. Eventually, the Russians had a stroke of luck when one sniper, after Simo had pretty much wiped out the whole team, managed to shoot him through the jaw with an exploding bullet, blowing half of his cheek away. Incredibly, Simo managed to pick up his gun and kill the sniper, and walked back to his nearest unit, where he was sent to the hospital, whereupon he slipped into a coma. A ceasefire was ordered, and eleven days later, on the day Simo awoke, the Russian army withdrew. While almost certainly a coincidence, it was nonetheless an incredible one. With the Winter War over, Simo returned to farming, where he spent the majority of his life breeding dogs and hunting moose. When asked if he regretted killing so many people, all Simo had to say was: "I did what I was told to as well as I could". He passed away in 2002, aged 96.
Many people consider him to be one of the ultimate examples of a Badass in real life, having racked up more confirmed kills than any other sniper in history. However, in real life he was by all accounts a very humble man who only considered his actions to have been doing duty by his country. No matter what, "The White Death" will always be remembered as the greatest sniper in human history.
Tropes Applied to Simo Häyhä
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org.
Privacy Policy
22