Mr. Simo Hayha

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Since nobody has done it here already I would like to take a few moments to give a big shoutout to the late Mr. Simo Hayha (1905 - 2002) of Finland, a veteran of their Winter War with the Soviet Union. At first he appeared to be a quite ordinary and genial diminutive (160 cm tall) man with a slightly disfigured face. Now, generally killing other people is a bad thing but throughout history doing it in defense of one's homeland instantly changes it from abominable to a good thing or potentially awesome. Mr. Hayha was a farmer and hunter by trade and, during the Winter War, he scored at least 505 sniper kills and 200 kills with a sub-machine gun. These numbers are enormous, and even more famous people like air aces and Zaitsev compare rather poorly (although other less known snipers came closer). They also usually had years at their disposal, while Mr. Hayha's kills were: 1. All performed within 100 days. 2. In temperatures of -20 to -40 degrees Celsius. This MyLotter has on a few occasions experienced temperatures below -20 Celsius and they are not pleasant. 3. Using a sniper rifle without a telescopic sight (he wanted to keep his head low). 4. For the latter ones, performed while singled out for destruction by the Red Army which deployed numerous traps with counter-snipers and even artillery with the primary purpose of killing just him. For these exploits, and his wearing of standard-issue all-white camouflage he earned the nickname of "White Death" and was promoted from corporal to second lieutenant. Mr. Hayha was no less epic on the receiving end: he was shot in the face[b], badly enough that his rescuers said that half his head was missing. Almost anyone else would have died but he regained consciousness after a laughable 7 days and lived to be [b]96 years old and see the new millennium. This man made pathetic posers of even the most dangerous and intimidating gangsters and other criminals, and many "fearsome" or "heroic" warriors of renown in history and legends, while being a completely unassuming little Finn and by all accounts a nice guy as well. His secret? "Practice." Also, I can't find any "history" discussion interest. Where is it?