When we say the best sniper, we could be referring to who had the best shot in terms of distance,
or who had the most kills to his/her name.
Today we’ll focus more on the most prolific sniper, the person with the biggest body count.
You’ve probably all heard of Chris Kyle, the American soldier who was the inspiration
behind the movie, American Sniper.
The Department of Defense tells us he had 160 kills to his name.
Ironically, Kyle was later shot and killed at a shooting range in the U.S.
The British media in 2015 reported that a Royal Marine was the world’s deadliest sniper
with 173 kills, though they didn’t name him.
But none of these sniping upstarts have anything on the man we are going to talk about today,
in this episode of the Infographics Show, The Best Sniper in History.
If you look around the web, the consensus is that the focus of today’s show is indeed
the deadliest sniper that ever lived.
His name was Simo Häyhä and he was a Finnish Army Second Lieutenant.
We are told he killed somewhere between 505 and 542 people.
His victims were Russian, and they were killed during the Winter War.
This was a conflict between Finland and the Soviet Union that started in 1939 and lasted
just over 3 months.
That’s a short amount of time, but it was enough time to cement Häyhä’s name in
history.
The number of casualties in those three months was reportedly around 25,900 Finnish deaths
and 126,900 Russians deaths.
Hayha’s kills were even recorded by the Finnish military.
The document states how many people he had killed up until that day, not how many people
he killed on that day.
It’s thought his biggest tally on one day was about 25 deaths.
On December 22, 1939, the document states that he killed 138 people.
On January 26th, 1940, he killed 199 people.
On February 17, 1940, he killed 217 people, and on March 7th, 1940 he killed 259 people.
That day wasn’t the best day of his life as he was very seriously wounded.
He took a Red Army bullet right to the face, and that’s why photos of him that circulate
around the web depict a monstrous looking man.
Sorry about being so blunt, Simo.
The wound didn’t slow him down so much though, and he lived a long life.
He was born in 1905 and lived until the ripe old age of 97, dying in 2002.
But who was this man?
Well, the Finnish told all kinds of stories about him, as he was the focus of a lot of
propaganda.
Back in those days, war heroes were an important piece of national storytelling in many countries,
used to foment pride in the public and give people hope.
He was born in Finland, very close to the border with Russia.
At the age of 20, he became a volunteer in the Finnish Civil Guard, and it was certain
he was going to be of some use.
Prior to signing-up, he was said to be an excellent hunter, but he’d also won awards
for his marksmanship in many shooting competitions.
Apparently, he had amassed so many trophies, his house was full of them.
He was later enlisted as a sniper in the Finnish army, and his battleground was mostly in the
snow, hence many photos of him are him dressed in all white looking a bit like James Bond.
Apparently, the Soviets were a bit behind the Finnish in this respect, and their army
was decked-out in normal army clothing.
This made them very easy to spot and kill, while lucky Hayha was extremely difficult
to see.
The Finnish media jumped on this, calling him the invisible soldier, and giving him
the sobriquet, “White Death.”
What else do we know about him?
According to Business Insider, the Nordic version, he was humble.
The same source says he would wait for his victims, sometimes as far as 300 meters away,
but usually around 150 meters away.
Hard to spot in his camouflage, you couldn’t even see his breath in the cold, as he put
snow in his mouth.
The BBC interviewed him on a few occasions, and so we know the following:
Apparently Hayha was what we might call a Finnish hick, and enjoyed a life in the wilderness.
His hobbies, according to interviews, were skiing, hunting and shooting.
The same article says that the Russians feared this man so much they once tried to kill him
by just bombarding the area he was in with hails of bullets and mortar, but they missed,
and the White Death walked away.
They once dropped an artillery shell on him, too, and apparently all that happened to Hayha
was his coat got ripped and he again walked away with a “minor scratch.”
It’s said he treated his occupation as a sniper like he would hunting, once telling
the press that he felt no guilt about killing.
"I only did my duty, and what I was told to do, as well as I could," he said.
As for his modus operandi, the BBC writes, “He also became a master of using sounds,
smoke and artillery fire to cover his movements when changing positions.
With maps very scarce during the war, Häyhä relied on his memory to find the best hiding
positions.”
It’s said he was always careful and even obsessive about finding the right position,
making sure his gun wouldn’t jam, and generally setting up the place where he would be shooting
from.
The strange thing is his M/28-30 gun didn’t even have a telescopic sight, but this was
the same gun that Hayha had hunted with throughout his life, and so he was very familiar with
it.
It’s said that as a kid he would hunt birds in the forests, and to hunt these small animals
you needed to have a remarkable shot.
We are told that this is one of the reasons why hunters so often make the best snipers.
You can’t focus on moving targets at the army shooting range, so experience killing
animals is a must.
The smaller the better.
The BBC writes, “As a young man, he also learned to estimate the effects of wind and
rain on shooting and conditions in forests.”
Alas, our meritorious marksmen was finally hit in the face, and the shot took off much
of his jaw.
It’s said that he spent the rest of his life in near constant pain, not to mention
looking something like Sloth from the Goonies.
He had 26 surgical operations, but his face would never be the same again.
He would carry on hunting, however, and his eyesight was always just as good as it was
during the war.
His victims were never again human, and perhaps as moose was his favorite animal to kill,
he wouldn’t miss very often.
He even did some hunting trips with one Finnish President.
There is a book about him out called The White Sniper, if you want to know more.
We’ll leave you with a quote right from the horse’s mouth, “War is not a pleasant
experience, but who else would protect this land unless we are willing to do it ourselves.”
So, have you ever shot a gun before?
Do you think you have what it would take to become a professional sniper?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Also, be sure to check out our other video called US F-35 vs Russian Su-35 Fighter Jet
- Which Would Win?!
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See you next time!