Simo HayHa & the Finnish-Russian Winter War

G

g.willikers

New member
I was listening to the Guntalk after show, from last Sunday, and learned of the incredible Finnish sniper, Simo HayHa, who single handedly successfully engaged over 500 Russian invaders to his country in the Winter War of 1939.
For those, like me, who didn't know about him, here's the web site, along with a short video:
http://www.simohayha.com/videos/
 
Using Iron sights no less, truly and amazing marksman. A shame his country was allied with the Germans at the time. Still, can't help but admire his incredible skills.
 
The Finnish people had revolted against their Russian masters during the 1917 Russian revolution, taking advantage of the situation to take their land back, and become an independent nation, again.
When the Soviets invaded in 1939, the Fins allied themselves with Germany not so much to help the Nazis as to repel the Russians.
They had asked the Allies for help in fighting the Soviets, but were refused, for obvious reasons.
They eventually turned against the Nazis.
 
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Given the harsh climate, the quality of optics available to him, and the dense forests he fought in, I think iron sights suited him just fine.
Among his field craft techniques were putting snow or ice in his mouth to hide his breath.
 
Here's a 'young peoples' book about the Winter War-I read it anyway:rolleyes:

http://www.amazon.com/Winter-War-No...qid=1405119465&sr=1-8&keywords=the+winter+war

The author has the Finns CONSTANTLY asking why the U.S. doesn't send them aid during their war with Russia which I found a little annoying but it's an easy read and an interesting book.

WEB Griffin in his 'The Corps' series in book #3 Counter Attack has some info about the Finland/Russia dustup too.

I also read somewhere that Finland was the ONLY country that actually paid all the reparations levied against it after WWII,
 
The US did send aircraft to Finland, and hundreds of Americans volunteered to fight in the Finnish forces.

Lend-Lease aside, we were pretty isolationist until Pearl Harbor. And, while Germany would have probably allowed neutral American vessels to deliver aid to Finland right up until Dec. 11th, 1941, it's unlikely that Congress would have approved it, especially after Germany invaded Russia in June of 1941. Even if Congress had approved aid, Roosevelt would have done nothing but delay it. The Russian invasion of the Baltic states caused widespread anger in the US, but nothing was done due to the inability of the New Dealers to comprehend Russia as a totalitarian system, and the weakness of the US military. We ranked behind Portugal in the size of the army in 1940.
 
FWIW, pretty much the entire planet that wasn't actively hostile to the US was constantly asking why we weren't doing something to help them before/during WWII ;). Primary reason for our break in relations with Russia, to be honest (we let them soak up the Germans for years before we wrapped up tertiary conflict zone North Africa, made our way to Normandy, and eventually meandered over to stop their advance just as they were getting to the juiciest parts of Europe --I'd be ticked, too, if I were Stalin)

Simo Hayha was known as "The White Death" for the white blankets he would camouflage himself with. His record-making number of kills was made, no less, in the span of 100 days, before he was terribly wounded by a counter sniper (I honestly have no idea how a person can survive a 7.62x54r hitting their jawbone)

"I only did my duty, and what I was told to do, as well as I could." --Simo Hayha

TCB
 
he was out for commision for a good while during those 100 days to, the russians had to resort to bombing the whole area he supposedly was hiding in and he took shrapnel.

the finns were a remarkable people putting up such a great fight. a great shame of Sweden that we didn't offically do more, there were supplies and volunteers sent (my grandpa was one of them)

and they did take care fo business themselves and drove the germans out at the end

and bear in mind even thou they were allied with Germany they weren't Nazis, they were a democracy and no massdeportation of jews occured and no concentration camps were present on finnish soil. heck there is one famous jewish female soldier fighting for finland who got the iron cross!


soviet was an allied but just as bad as nazi germany
 
The Finns are an interesting people

'Sisu' is a term used to described most Finns. It means self reliance in an environment known to killed the unprepared in mere minutes.

What did the Russians in the most was their unpreparedness for filed operations in bitter cold. The disasterous invasion of Finland actually taught them a few lessons in their winter campaigns against Hitler.
 
Another great finnish soldier was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauri_Törni

fought the soviets both as a finnish soldier and a german, and later joined the US army as a special forces guy.

a future president of Finland served under Lauri, and a funny story I read somewhere was that during som fancy smancy dinner party among diplomats in Washintong, some american diplomat was boasting about the american president and how hard he was against the soviets (diplomatically) and one finnish diplomat was so drunk he stood up and said my president killed russians with his bare hands!:o:D
 
I grew up believing that I was Scotch Irish on my dad's side and Swedish on mom's. About 20 years ago she learned that her ancestors were actually Finns. Being a Swede in Minnesota 100 years ago beat being Finnish for some reason, so that became the family heritage. In any case it does explain my personality.
 
In any case it does explain my personality.
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Sullen?, napoleon complex, prone to violence and drunkenness?:D

finnsh have had periods of second class citizenship in attitude in Sweden, they were our country bumpkin neighbours (and once members of our "emipire") finns who moved to Sweden thruout history got the worst lands (called finnmarks)

nowadays they have surpassed us, great athletes and scholars, succesful companies, bigger/better military

probably the best conscript army in the world
 
A shame his country was allied with the Germans at the time.
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I don't think the Finns were allied with Germany during the Winter War. They got help from the British and French who were fighting the Germans. It was the Continuation War that had an alliance between Finland and Germany.
 
Finland always had ties with Germany.

Mannerheim is their big wartime leader, doesn't sound very finnish does it:D

the support wasn't official in the Winter War but it was there

Germany supported the whites in the civil war after ww1
 
finnsh have had periods of second class citizenship in attitude in Sweden, they were our country bumpkin neighbours (and once members of our "emipire") finns who moved to Sweden thruout history got the worst lands (called finnmarks)
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A friend of mine who rebuilds Suomi's as a hobby, often exclaims that the Finns could have taken over Europe if they were so inclined. Sort of like the Czechs, the Finns have an odd fixation of quality weaponry unbefitting a nation without world-dominating ambitions :D

Those Suomi's SMG receivers were milled from a solid forging, and the inside tube steps were all cut with a single gigantic reamer (all six or so diameters). The bolts were then made and hardened to some ungodly figure. The magazines, stick and drum, were probably the finest ever designed for the 9mm round, and directly inspired SMG mags for decades.

What did the Russians in the most was their unpreparedness for filed operations in bitter cold.
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The Russians had some horrifically stupid tacticians, too. Otherwise, individual snipers wouldn't be picking off hundreds of conscripts (I'm sure Simo was not the only one), and individual M31 submachine gunners wouldn't have been annihilating entire Russian charges. The Russians learned a lot of lessons in the war, and it was also supposedly what caused Hitler to believe (rightly, at the time of the Winter War) that the Russians were a paper tiger that could be trounced through superior firepower. Had he not waited so long to turn on the Bear, things may not have worked out nearly so 'well' for the Soviets at Stalingrad (or Moscow). As had been the case through their entire rise, speed was the Nazi's ally, and their defeat was mostly the result of them not being quite fast enough in too many important turning points.

TCB
 
Being a Swede in Minnesota 100 years ago beat being Finnish for some reason, so that became the family heritage.
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Just spit-balling but:

Sweden did rule Finland from 1250-1809. Being that if you moved from Finland around the turn of the 20th Century, it's very possible your family still considered themselves to be Swedish, despite being an independent nation for 100 years. Sometimes it takes a while for that national identity to pop up.
 
Hiding in trees (with no leaves to hide behind) for hours and hours in sub-zero F temps, with that many kills? Yeah, I'd say he's the best sniper in history. I'm not worthy!!

Another great finnish soldier was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauri_Törni

fought the soviets both as a finnish soldier and a german, and later joined the US army as a special forces guy.

a future president of Finland served under Lauri, and a funny story I read somewhere was that during som fancy smancy dinner party among diplomats in Washintong, some american diplomat was boasting about the american president and how hard he was against the soviets (diplomatically) and one finnish diplomat was so drunk he stood up and said my president killed russians with his bare hands!
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Wow, what an amazing soldier; he must have had fighting in his blood; thanks.
 
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