When the Soviet Union marched into Finland in 1939, the biting arctic cold was only one of the challenges the Red Army would face. Within the icy woods of the Land of a Thousand Lakes, Soviet soldiers encountered an invisible foe that would haunt their nightmares: a Finnish sniper they named the “White Death.” Simo Häyhä, once a farmer renowned in his hometown for his uncanny hunting and marksmanship skills, was drafted to repel the Soviet invaders.
In the face of foreign aggression, he would become an unstoppable force of vengeance, eliminating as many as 25 Soviets in just one day. He decimated entire enemy units, clinging to his cherished hunting rifle.
Despite offers of modern Swedish firearms, he declined, opting to not even equip a scope to his weapon. Leveraging his deep familiarity with the terrain, Häyhä made the most of Finland’s brief winter daylight hours, conducting his mission in less than 100 days. In that time, more than 500 men met their fate at the hands of his rifle. Yet, his greatest trial would come on March 6, 1940, when he would find himself on the other side of the barrel of a rifle…
