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The Bullet That Should Have Killed the White Death
His own side thought he was dead — they laid him on a pile of frozen corpses and moved on to find the living.
On March 6th, 1940, an explosive round tore away half the face of Simo Häyhä, the Finnish farmer the world remembers as the White Death and generally regarded as the deadliest sniper of the Winter War. He had survived months under relentless artillery at Kollaa, firing without a scope, packing snow around his rifle to hide the flash and holding snow in his mouth so his breath wouldn't give him away. Then a single bullet found him. A soldier noticed his foot move and dragged him off the corpse pile through the snow.
He woke a week later, on the very day the war ended, to read his own obituary — and to face roughly 26 reconstructive surgeries that would rebuild his jaw with bone taken from his own hip. This episode follows the chapter the legend always skips: the wound, the silence, and the sixty quiet years that followed. Asked how he became such a good shot, he gave one word — "Practice." He would go on to outlive the Soviet Union itself.
More from Nick's WWII Archive: https://nickswwiiarchive.com/posts/the-bullet-that-should-have-killed-the-white-death
Watch the full documentary on YouTube: Nick's WWII Archive.
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By Nick's WWII ArchiveHis own side thought he was dead — they laid him on a pile of frozen corpses and moved on to find the living.
On March 6th, 1940, an explosive round tore away half the face of Simo Häyhä, the Finnish farmer the world remembers as the White Death and generally regarded as the deadliest sniper of the Winter War. He had survived months under relentless artillery at Kollaa, firing without a scope, packing snow around his rifle to hide the flash and holding snow in his mouth so his breath wouldn't give him away. Then a single bullet found him. A soldier noticed his foot move and dragged him off the corpse pile through the snow.
He woke a week later, on the very day the war ended, to read his own obituary — and to face roughly 26 reconstructive surgeries that would rebuild his jaw with bone taken from his own hip. This episode follows the chapter the legend always skips: the wound, the silence, and the sixty quiet years that followed. Asked how he became such a good shot, he gave one word — "Practice." He would go on to outlive the Soviet Union itself.
More from Nick's WWII Archive: https://nickswwiiarchive.com/posts/the-bullet-that-should-have-killed-the-white-death
Watch the full documentary on YouTube: Nick's WWII Archive.