Meet the Greatest Sniper Who Ever Lived

This video is kindly sponsored by Curiositystream. Find out more a little later in the video. Hello 42, here on April 1, 2002, a 96-year-old man passed away quietly in a nursing home on the southern coast of Finland. He seemed small when he died. In his prime he was only five feet tall and his old age had affected him even more many years before he was a secretive farmer, he had n

ever

married and had no children except the few people who came close. . enough to think of him as a friend called him simo in his youth, yet many decades earlier he had been known by another name usually whispered by nervous-looking men in snow-covered forests who constantly scanned the horizon and jumped at

ever

y sound. of these men.

He had never met Simo and therefore did not know his real name, so they gave him another one, the White Death, which might seem like a great title for a tiny Finnish farmer, but it was very appropriate because during the space of 98 days in 1939 In the quiet snowy landscape of his native country, Semo became death incarnate, a perfect killing machine that ended the lives of hundreds of men. This is the story of Simo Hyeha, known to his enemies as the White Death, the best

sniper

who ever

lived

. This story about the

greatest

sniper

who ever

lived

is incredibly interesting and if you love stuff like this like I do, then I know you'll enjoy the flow of curiosity.

The curiosity stream is Netflix for the nerds, Hulu for the history buffs, Disney Plus for the scientist. Offering us thousands of documentaries and non-fiction titles from some of the world's best filmmakers, including exclusive originals. The best thing about Curiosity Stream is that it is available worldwide. They continually update their content and add new and exciting titles covering science, history, nature, technology, society. and lifestyle, as you probably know, I love history and I love their huge selection of high quality history. One of my favorites is How to Build a Castle, which follows a team of medieval enthusiasts in France who are building a real castle today.

Using only historically accurate construction techniques, I really loved every minute of it, so if you're like me and love learning new things then you should check it out, you can get unlimited access to the world's best documentaries and non-fiction series. starting at just 2.99 a month or just 19.99 all year round and if you go to Curiousstream.com slash 42 and use my promo code 42 the first 30 days will be completely free. Simo was born in a small village in southwestern Finland. in 1905. He had a fairly normal childhood for the time, volunteering in the Civil Guard at age 17 and completing his mandatory national service at age 19 where he joined the bicycle battalion, a cyclist light infantry unit if the idea of ​​soldiers in Push bicycles sound a bit comical, you might be surprised to know that at the time when bicycles were considered real vehicles of war, they played an important role in the First World War and were still used in the Second, although in smaller numbers to Despite this early brush with the army, he had no martial ambitions and had every intention of spending his life at home, on his farm, so after completing his mandatory service he went exactly where he went, but with the passing of Over the years the atmosphere across Europe began to darken and, in the late 1930s, Simo was called upon to serve his country in one of its most desperate hours that began in 1939, when the world was on the brink of total war. when Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression agreement that became known as the Molotov agreement.

The agreement shocked the world, not only had the Soviets been negotiating unsuccessfully with the French and British for months at the time, but the Germans and Soviets were long-time adversaries who hated each other, but it was as shocking as the pact between the two. old rivals was that there was even more to the deal than met the eye because, behind closed doors, a secret protocol had been slipped into the deal in which Hitler and Stalin had essentially divided the countries of Europe between them based on what they called their spheres of competence. influence just over a week later Germany and the dictators jointly invaded Poland the Germans from the west and then 16 days later the Soviets did the same from the east claiming half of the conquered country each by the way the Molotov of the Molotov Cinta-Trop Pact He is the same man who gave his name to the now well-known cocktail that you definitely do not want to drink during the brief war that was fought between Finland and the Soviet Union after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, the same war that would soon become a living legend in At a high level the Soviets carried out widespread bombing of Finnish cities, but the international community generally disapproved of dropping bombs on their neighbors and therefore, through Cheslav Molotov, the Soviet foreign minister carried out a campaign of propaganda insisting that their nation was They did not bomb the Finns, but instead delivered food parcels like the friendly good neighbor.

It was the Finns who demonstrated an admiral's sense of humor considering they were receiving bombing raids at which time they began jokingly referring to these bombs as Molotov bread baskets when the Soviet tanks began to roll. Across the border soon after, the Finns responded by throwing improvised bottle-based incendiary devices at them that they called Molotov cocktails, a drink to accompany the food packages that Cheslav Molotov had so kindly forced to send them anyway after the German Soviet invasion of Poland. The Soviets began handing out ultimatums to other countries considered within their sphere of influence, including Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland.

The Baltic states were soon forced to accept Stalin's demands, but the Finns stood firm, rejecting his kind offer. to give up a group of their land in exchange for not being killed their intimidating diplomatic approach had failed the Soviets decided to let their soldiers talk beginning a full scale invasion of Finland in November 1939 the winter war had begun Finland is a land of Lakes, swamps and densely populated forests and when Stalin's army attacked most of it was buried under a thick layer of snow, the difficult conditions made it difficult for the Soviets to successfully deploy the full power of their forces and the Finns were much better off. prepared began to participate in their own unique Even so, Finland had a population of only 3.7 million inhabitants at that time, meaning that there were about 50 Soviets for each fin.

When the Red Army crossed the border at several strategic points, they brought with them thousands of tanks and planes. The army, on the other hand, had only 32 tanks to its name along with around 100 aircraft and an unknown number of bicycles armed with very loud bells and those things you put on radios. In short, the Finns needed a hero and a low hero is exactly what they got was very much a clash between David and Goliath, but when Goliath showed up in this particular fight, David was nowhere to be found, he had hidden in a snowbank more than a kilometer away and was carrying a sniper rifle.

Simo's national service had ended a good 14 years before he was called up to fight in the Winter War, but that didn't mean he was rusty in many ways: he had been in involuntary training since he left the army stalking the woods. He knew like the back of his hand when searching for elusive prey, his trusty rifle slung over one shoulder, and making the transition from master hunter to god-level sniper turned out to be quite simple. The conditions during the winter war were brutal, with temperatures generally fluctuating between -20 and -40 degrees Celsius, but simo didn't care, in fact, he didn't even think the conditions were particularly harsh for him, it was simply winter, so he put on more clothes and moved on with the red army on the other. hand was woefully underprepared, the men were given standard uniforms in a sort of dark khaki, meaning that they stood out like bright beacons as they patrolled the endless white of the Finnish desert.

Simo and his fellow snipers, on the other hand, were clad in a pure white camouflage gear that made them almost invisible within days of the war's start, it became clear that Seemer was no ordinary marksman; It wasn't just that he could make shots that were virtually impossible for other men, but that he was also his machine. like consistency once the target entered his sights, no matter the difficulty of the shot, Simo almost never missed and yes, it wasn't just his outrageous skill that set him apart to begin with. Simo did not use the same state-of-the-art sniper. rifle with a telescopic sight that his fellow soldiers preferred to use the same old basic rifle that had been issued to him years before during his days in the civil guard, a much simpler weapon equipped only with iron sights that is as crazy as it sounds, the most sniper deadly in the world. the history of mankind never even used a scope and you don't need to play Call of Duty to know that no scope is hard, something they say in YouTube build captions, but that's how Semo preferred to do things and so In fact, he gave up the scope.

It had a couple of important benefits that extended his advantage on the battlefield. A sniper using a scope has to raise his head a few inches to look through the scope, which presents a marginally larger target for the enemy. Semo also realized that the telltale flashes of sunlight from enemy sights were often what gave them away, something he knew better than most could be fatal, as well as his unusual choice of weapon. Simo was meticulous in his preparations for battle. He visited their favorite firing positions in the middle of the night to verify that they had not been discovered by the enemy and prepared them for action the next day, shaping the snow to better conceal their position and flattening the gunpowder to ensure that did not swell when he shot, giving him away.

Simo left absolutely nothing to chance to make the most of it. Of all the advantages available to augment that amazing aim of his, he even went so far as to keep snow in his mouth while he fired to cool his breath so that it wouldn't be visible after condensing in the freezing air. Shot, he most likely would have emerged from the Winter War with dozens of confirmed kills to his name, but by combining that remarkable level of skill with all these different tactics, he became a force of nature. . The war between Finland and the Soviet Union was short-lived. just over 100 days, and yet during that time, the man who would become known as the White Death racked up over 500 enemy kills at an average of over five per day.

The exact number of confirmed kills is unknown, but most sources put Simo's tally between 505 and 542 kills, the most of any sniper in history to put those numbers into perspective, possibly the most famous sniper in recent times. years, chris kyle, star of the film, the american sniper had 160 confirmed kills to his name earned in four tours of duty during the iraq war and 10 years of service, another legendary sniper hero of the soviet union, vasily zaitsev, who He became known to Western audiences after being played by Jude Law in Enemy at the Gates, and is credited with 242 deaths during 80 years of service in World War II. both and achieve defeat in a matter of months, not the better part of a decade, and all this despite using relatively basic equipment and not even being a career soldier, as expected, rumors of an almost supernatural sniper that never failed began to spread among the Red Army soldiers and the legend of the white death began to grow.

The Soviets became so concerned about the number of men they were losing to this mysterious Finnish ghost that they sent literally dozens of their own snipers to hunt him down, but Simo sent every single one. Some of them, increasingly desperate, tried to bombard Simo with mortar fire, but he chose his hiding places carefully, firing from natural trenches and deep snowbanks; nothing less than a direct hit would have eliminated him and since the Soviets They were never sure where exactly he was even as he picked them off one by one, they never made it, that is, until the last week of the war, when an explosive bullet hit him in the face during a particularly fierce battle.

Simo's fellow soldiers then found his motionless body in the snow and mourning for his fallen hero placed himsolemnly with the dead, but hours after the battle ended, a soldier noticed movement among the piled bodies, a leg moving noticeably despite having lost its upper jaw, most of its lower jaw, and its entire cheek. left, it seemed that he was Alive he was immediately taken to the hospital where he would remain in a coma for a full week before regaining consciousness on the day peace was declared with the Soviet Union. His injuries were horrific and he would need 26 surgeries over the next few years to repair the damage. on his face, although he remained severely scarred for the rest of his life, the Winter War ended with the Moscow Peace Treaty in which Finland ceded border territory to the Soviets in exchange for the cessation of hostilities, while the Finns ended up losing more land than the Soviets. had demanded before the war, most observers believe that Stalden had intended to take over the entire country by force, something he was ultimately unable to do thanks to the bravery of men like Sema in the face of overwhelming gods, in the end After the war, Simo had become a true national hero and was promoted from the rank of corporal to second lieutenant as a reward for his service.

It remains to this day the highest promotion ever awarded to a soldier in the Finnish Army. They also gave him a farm called Blanca. He made a fitting home for the man called the White Death despite the truly terrifying number of murders in his name. Semo never reveled in his work in his diaries first discovered in 2017. He referred to the staggering number of men he had killed as war, but shortly before his death he was asked if he regretted having taken the lives of so many men. His response was typically modest. I did what I was told to do to the best of my ability.

Finland would not exist unless everyone else had done the same. same thanks for watching