Simo Hayha, The ‘White Death’: History’s Most Lethal Sniper

Armed with iron sights and white camouflage, the Finnish marksman killed more than 500 Red Army soldiers during the brutal Winter War.

by A.R. Fomenko

VIENNA BUREAU – They talk about him still in the bars and cafés of Finland – the humble yet lethal man whose legend was written in snow and silence.

“To his fellows, he was a quiet rifleman,” my companion said across the table in Helsinki. “To the enemy, he was a nightmare.”

That was how I first heard the story of Simo Häyhä.