The Finnish Sniper Who Made an Entire Army Fear the Forest

[00:00:00]Did you know the Soviet army once dedicated artillery strikes to killing a single man? His name was Simo Häyhä, a Finnish farmer, 5 ft 3 in tall. When the Soviet Union invaded Finland in 1939, Häyhä walked into the forest and went to work. The temperatures dropped below -40° C.

[00:00:17]He wore all white. He packed snow into his mouth so his breath wouldn't rise and give away his position. He refused to use a scope on his rifle. A scope reflects light, so he used iron sights instead, which meant he had to get closer. Close enough that missing was almost impossible. In roughly 100 days, he killed over 500 Soviet soldiers. The Soviets had a name for him, White Death.

[00:00:38]They sent counter-sniper teams after him. He killed those, too. They called in artillery strikes on the forest trying to level the trees around where they thought he was hiding. One man, an entire army reorganizing itself around the problem of him. They never solved it.