Häyhä — the marksman of Kollaa

Häyhä chooses C: measured ambushes (one or two a day), with frequent position changes, to last over time. His personal tactic: white-snow overalls, ambush from a hide in the snow (sometimes three hours motionless at -40°C), iron sights at 150-450 metres, two or three shots maximum per ambush to avoid being spotted. He keeps snow in his mouth so that his breath does not form a visible cloud of vapour. From 19 December 1939 to 6 March 1940 (78 days of continuous combat) he accumulates, according to Finnish military records: 505 confirmed rifle kills, plus around 200 further kills with the Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun. The Soviets nickname him Belaya Smert ("the White Death"). Several Soviet attempts to neutralise him — counter-battery artillery, no result; specialised sniper teams sent in (all neutralised in turn); finally targeted air bombardment of the sector. On 6 March 1940, six days before the Peace of Moscow, an explosive bullet fragment tears away half his lower jaw. Evacuated unconscious, he is operated on for fourteen hours at the hospital in Lahti. He survives. Reconstruction of the jaw takes 26 operations over seven years. Marshal Mannerheim promotes him to sergeant by personal decree on 25 March 1940 — an unprecedented exceptional promotion. Häyhä always refused to be treated as a hero — his comment to journalists: "I did what the situation required. Someone had to do it." He lived after the war as a farmer-hunter at Ruokolahti, refused interviews and published no memoir. Died in April 2002 aged 96.