The Finnish Farmer Who Terrorized an Entire Soviet Army

[00:00:00]Did you know the Soviet military deployed artillery strikes to kill a single farmer? His name was Simo Häyhä, a Finnish farmer turned soldier who became the deadliest sniper in recorded history. It was 1939.

[00:00:11]The Soviet Union invaded Finland.

[00:00:13]Temperatures dropped to -40° C.

[00:00:16]Snow buried everything. Simo stepped into that cold with a rifle and disappeared. He didn't use a telescopic sight. The lens could catch the light and give away his position. So, he used iron sights instead in blizzard conditions. And still, he killed over 500 Soviet soldiers in roughly 100 days.

[00:00:33]The Soviets didn't know what to do. They sent counter snipers. He killed them.

[00:00:37]They called in artillery barrages targeting one man in the woods. He survived those, too. An entire army humiliated by a single person they couldn't see.

[00:00:46]Then one morning, a Soviet sniper finally found him. A bullet tore through his jaw and took half his face. He fell into a coma. He woke up on March 13th, 1940, the exact day the war ended.