US Marine reacts to the White Death
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- We are revisiting Simo Häyhä since the video we did previously didn't really do him justice haha.
Original video: • White Death: The World...
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#whitedeath #SimoHäyhä #WinterWar
Thanks for the reaction and the kind words on the animation
Thank you for your animations, these are masterpieces!
The animation looks very good!
Love the animation
I've subscribed.... I liked what I say
Thank you for letting me react to your awesome video! 🤙
Your pronunciation of his last name was actually very spot on.
Finally haha
@@CombatArmsChannel hehe, its funny to hear other people trying to pronounce his name.. everyone who has any clue how to say it, they say it "Hauha" instead of Häyhä :D
Just add a bit more Ä instead of A
@Uncle James And maybe Danish and Icelanders..? Idk, but I'm pretty sure that Finnish way of saying Å is horrendous for swedes... xD
@@smallfan1995 Å is pretty much just Finnish "O"
If you ever visit Finland, there's has a museum in Simpele near his old home called "Kollaa ja Simo Häyhä". Would recommend visiting if you want to learn more about him, his home and the regions history in person. A bit far of from the capital Helsinki but apparently you Americans don't consider a three-hour drive particularly long.
And yeah swamps are VERY common in Finland. And in the winter they can be quite treacherous, both solid and slushy. You can have solid ground beneath you for 10 minutes and then it gives away and you sink. And if you don't have good boots then they're gonna get wet very soon.
At same time swamps can be also used as temporary roads and even runways during the winter, if weather stays cold enough.
@@EiraAimo Really? I've used winter swamps for logging routes but a runway sounds pretty hard to believe.
@@VarvasNukka Ou Yeah! They used lake and frozen swamps as a runway that time. But of course planes where much lighter and propeller moved then. Would probably not work with modern jets though....
Its in Rautjärvi but yeah. its worth checking out.
@@Finnspeed Rautjärvi...is the Municipality, the main centre of which is Simpele...so your comment didn't really specify any more.
The swearing in Finnish had me dead even though it's my native language LMAO.
"vittu" swear word was not common in 30s or 40s. someone said that it didnt even exists back then
@@MrBanaanipommi Well, it probably did, but not as a swearword. There are some really old folk poems with the word, although it's not used as a swearword in them, but rather as a descriptive term.
"Perkele" would have been more appropriate in the 40's I guess 🤔
@@antimonni or saatana.
Finnish swearing is funny because so much is figurative speech and the literal translation (to English) makes no sense, which makes it funnier. I like to say perkele. It rolls off the tongue just right.
Finnish terrain consists of forests, marshland, bedrock and lakes. The marshland up here is not like the Bayou in the States. They are often vasts areas although varying in size among lakes and crests in the Finnish wilderness. They consist of peat and water.
That sounds like you at times would be wadding through a giant smelly murder slush ice.
@@erikrungemadsen2081 Not inaccurate. The swamps can be devastatingly misleading. Some you can wade through, but one wrong step and you can sink into an eye of the swamp and drown. They are also home to cloudberries, though mostly only on the northern Finland. A rather tasty and a local seasonal favorite berry.
@@Caldera01 Of course there is a delicious berry to lure you in to get lost or drowned.
@@erikrungemadsen2081 Those berries are worth it, trust me, it's THE shit.
@@kookoo9235 And before I know it, I am more lost in the Finnish death swamps, than a black metal band looking for a good forrest shot for their record cover.
Simo Hayha used to keep mouthfuls of snow in his mouth when sniping, as it negated any breathing out of clouds of vapor. He also wore a full white facemask with only opening or slits for his eyes, nostrils and mouth. He recalled that several times the Russians walked right past him, within feet of him, and never saw him. His rifle also was painted white, barrel and all. And, yes he used open sights, not telescopic sights.. And all his kills happened within a 3.5 month war. (November 1939-February/March1040.) BTW Finland has over 10,000 lakes and a lot of low-lying flat land - swamps are also common, and they freeze solid in the arctic winter.
Awesome Work Bro, Thanks 👍 Greetings from Helsinki, Finland 🇫🇮🇺🇸
I have read recently a book about Simo Häyhä. It's called Simo Häyhä Talvisodan legendaarinen tarkka-ampuja. It is a biography by Tapio Saarelainen about Simo and he has personally interviewed Simo while making the book
Thanks!
np man!
Yes Finland has a lot of lakes and swamps most of them were frozen during the winter war
The man forgot to mention that Simo was able to shoot 16 shots with his rifle in one minute and it’s a bolt action rifle
His custom rifle that was given to him was from a well made expensive precision manufacture that still exist today known as Sako and it’s one of the oldest firearms manufacture
And yes Simo did in fact has a confirmed kills of 505 and with an additional 200 or 250 kills during the war
Just to add, those 200+ extra kills were with a kp/-31 Suomi SMG
542*
@@IsaiahOngFr that’s unconfirmed, he has 505 confirmed and reported sniper kills,
The White Sniper by Tapio Saarelainen is available at Amazon. The autobiography is, I think done by Petri Sarjanen, named Talvisodan tarkka-ampuja. Simo Häyhä. Valkoinen Kuolema. (Winter War Sniper, White Death.) Don´t know if it is translated, so Saarelainen´s book would be best bet.
The rifle Simo got was donated by Swedish businessman Eugen Johansson.
Having read the Simo Häyhä biography, I remember the choice of iron sights had 3 reasons:
lower profile
no glare
doesn't fog up
Also the soviet soldiers weren't too motivated to fight in Finland, many of them being from Ukraine, having been occupied by Soviet Union themselves. Some even feeling for the finns.
Also you asked about swamps, Finland is filled with them, and lapland too is mostly made of swamps, me having trained in Rovajärvi artillery range, would know. :P
The finnish name for Finland "Suomi" is thought to come from "Suomaa", meaning "Swamp land".
there is no such thing as occupation of ukraine by SU. soldiers in red army was good motivated, but commanders made bad decisions because of lack of skill.
@@noname-sz4br Death penalty is a good motivator.
@@eerolz8758 lol. you can believe in whatever you like :)
@Eerolz Ukrainians, the 44th division, were fighting at the Raate road, not Kollaa, where Simo was.
i just use the name
Simo hayha
Stalin said that Finland will be occupied after 3 weeks. After 105 days they stopped coz casualties. Simo was wounded after 80 days of the Winter War and he had 542 confirmed kills. He was busy doing his job. I’m proud to be a Finn and I also served in the army. Small Christian protestant nation was attacked by godless communist and we kept our independence. Finland had approximately 300.000 men versus almost 1.000.000 soviets. Finland lost 70.000 men, soviets almost 400.000.
I don't know why, but I loved the "godless communist" part HAHAHAHAH. Made it sound like a distopyan alien or machine.
505 is his official record... but he killed more with a maschine gun, but 505 as a sniper...
Not a single one of those numbers are correct. And they are so easy to check...
@@seelenwinter6662 505 confirmed kills, with the rifle, and 300 unconfirmed SMG kills
Sounds familiar. 🇺🇦
Awesome that the characters actually speak Finnish 😅👍
mietin että mitä vittua mistä tuo kuulu :D "vittu"
@@autistiaatu se kuuluu tuosta videolta.
The one thing people dont maybe realise is how little we have day light in Finland during winter... That makes it even more scary
Simo also freeze that snow front of his rifle with water that when hes was shooting that snow don´t whirl and show from where he was shooting. That snow in his mouth already told in this video.
I love how humble you are and interested in the ways of other countries. Nice Work!
I’ve read from somewhere that Russian morale indeed was low. They felt the winter war was unnecessary, and that their officers lacked leadership. Basically, this war shouldn’t have happened.
Yes, though it improved towards the end. Leaders finally started taking the war seriously, and the ridiculous propaganda about easy little operation to liberate the oppressed Finnish proletariat was replaced with much more effective appeal to patriotism and pride. "Red Army has been humiliated in the eyes of entire world, and it's up to you men to wipe off that shame."
Low morale had a lot do with going to cold snowy wilderness with insufficient winter clothing, not being prepared for lengthened war and stalin having killed all military leaders. There were even divisions coming from belarus with summer equipment and no experience of freezing winters. Russian intelligence was sure Finnish divisions would defect or give in immediately. Russian soldiers thought they are welcomed as liberators. When this didn't happen, it certainly didn't help with russian morale.
Also they sent the soldiers from southern parts of Russia and even Ukraine to fight up north. Had they chosen some Siberians, it might have been a different battle. Of course their clithing wasn't actually suitable either, but Siberians would have probably known what to do.
Your pronunciation of Simo's last name was so good that I audibly thanked you for being first non Finnish speaking channel to pronounce it right!
Something I find quite funny about his story, when Simo was asked what he felt when killing an enemy soldier, he simply responded “the recoil”
Sounds exactly like what another finn of few words might say Kimi Raikonen.
About the books.. There were several good books mentioned already, but I'm really sad that the most interesting book about the Winter War and Simo's unit hasn't yet been translated into english. It's Kollaa Kestää by Erkki Palolampi and it combines diaries, maps and stories about these events. It was released right between the two wars, was an instant bestseller, and it also includes a lot of stories about their fearless company commander Aarne "Terror of Morocco" Juutilainen, who's brother interestingly became an ace pilot.
YarnHub did Swedish metal bands Sabaton's No Bullets Fly song's animation. Based on true story about Allied B-52 bomber The Ye Olde Pub
B-17, but otherwise correct
Didn't he do "Night witches" too?
@@darkiee69 yeah he did
Swamps are quite common. They cover roughly a quarter of Finland.
So many swamps, so we named her ”SUOmi”.
What an utterly fascinating character. Thanks for sharing and reacting. Be well.
Häyhä's possible Submachine gun kills are a debated topic, in a book written by him he doesn't mention an SMG but once during the battle where he got wounded he says to have thought to himself that an SMG would be good as the enemies are so close and many.
He also never confirmed with his own words ever having used an SMG during the winter war but it is very possible he did due to his rank of Sergeant, Sergeants usually had the Squads SMG during that time due to Finnish doctrine wanting the most experienced squad member to wield an SMG which were in late 1939 and early 1940 fairly rare due so low'ish production numbers.
In any way, confirming kills from a smg in a pitched battle is a bit harder than confirming sniper kills.
I read an interesting book compiled of confiscated Soviet soldier letters, many were Ukrainian and more or less forced to this war... "Who are we liberating, these people live better than us?" Motivation seemed to be pretty minimal.
Don’t know if it’s mentioned here, but the Finnish refurbished Mosin-Nagant that Simo used was colloquially referred to as ‘pystykorva’, or ‘prick ears’, referring to the blades of the front sight. Pystykorva is also the name of Finland’s national dog breed - the Finnish Spitz, which Simo loved, bred and hunted with after the war.
What comes to the animation is awesome :D
Those who did this got real talent!
Häyhä's CO Aarne Juutilainen (yet another charecter in finnish WWII lore) had combat experience from North Africa with the french foreign legion. I'd guess he'd had let Simo do his own thing, and well, the rest is history.
Great video!!
He killed between 505 and 542 with bolt action and 300 ish with machine gun. Around 840 Kills. He called them his Sin List in his journals.
One determinative factor in Winter War was that the Soviet Groups where moved fast from Ukraine to Finnish front, and were not used to Winter circumstances. And at first they didn't even have winter gear, but were equipped with summer/desert uniform, and were therefore freezing.
You should check the videos by sabaton history about lauri törni AKA the soldier of three armies since he fought for the finnish, german and american militaries
As a sidenote, the gravestone says, "Home-religion-fatherland"
And one Häyhä's tricks was, and still is, that those shooting ranges were well prepared and planned beforehand . Snow in it's most natural form is a powder, and it's dusty like sand or flour. But with some water that powder form into ice, so that dust won't show the shooter.
Way you said talvisota (winter war) was absolutely perfect, and Häyhä was also very close to target. 👍
Nice video again. Reasons not to use scope in winter war was generally quality of 30s scopes. Scopes were easily get in fog, winter here north is quite dark, and those scopes back then were not very bright then.
His reply in the interview is similar to the one by an unknown Marine.
Reporter: What did you feel when you killed the enemy?
Marine: Recoil.
I love that you talked about what you should and shouldn’t do in snow and about the glares. You can ask your instructors and any trained sniper: Häyhä is the one who’s tactics and techniques are taught to snipers all over the world.
In Finland, sa well as Sweden it is fairly common with swamps and marshes. When winter stikes, the snow stays on top of the water sinse there is no waterflow or very little. This makes it dificult in any situation since you can not determin what is land, or water.
One of our Heroes! 🙏💪❤️🇫🇮 When you defend your country home family Friends you put everything you got in it! Every part of yourself! Heart and soul!
13:06 That is a very unusually long life for such a legend!
i,m a Finn.. and you said the name good.. thanx for the attention you give our hero
Actually, soldiers carrying rifles slung over there shoulders or backs, or held in their right hand at their sides was the standard way to carry a rifle back then, even on patrols. The way we are used to where the rifle is held in both hands across the front of the body was only starting to be used by soldiers with fully automatic weaponry like Submachune guns but even they weren't trained to do it, they simply learned that doing so gave you a significant advantage in snap shooting that I guess nobody thought of with the more common bolt actions of the time.
There are even large areas of marshland in the UK for example some areas in Scotland, the Fens in England as well as Dartmoor and Exmoor. In a cold place water does not evaporate so much. Sometimes it's just a case of there is no outflow, and sometimes (like Florida USA) it's a matter of closeness to sea level,
11:07 so basicly Finland is called Suomi in Finnish. Suo is swamp in finnish so half of the country's name is just Swamp so yes there are alot of swamps in finland xd
Ä is pretty much like a in back. But its just hard for english speakers to throw that sound in combinations not common in english. And I can't think of an example in english that would have a sound exactly like finnish Y.
I remember hearing that he liked to sit and shoot instead of laying in prone position.
Regarding swamps in Finland, its called "the land of the 1000 lakes" in Sweden for a reason. Its alot of lowlands and alot of lakes, the vicinity of wich
turn into a kind for foresty swamp in spring and autumn
"The land of thousands of lakes". About 168 000 lakes.
You actually pronounced it well great Job!
I was just looking at my "Simo Häyhä, Talvisodan legendaarinen tarkka-ampuja" (, Winterwars legendary sniper) book by Tapio Saarelainen. when you asked if there are any books about Häyhä. Its a very in depth book but i do not know if its in any other languagethan finnish
I'm a war movie geek. I wish this would be made into a sniper movie / war drama someday. If the topic interests you, I once watched an very good film about the winter war from the 80s. Mood, equipment, conditions.. what the war really was was accurately portrayed.
what they left out is that daylight is limited around here (I live in Sweden right next to Finland) during winter.
Finland is called "Land of a Thousand Lakes", if you look at a map, you will see that it is dotted with lakes and swamps of all sizes.
Häyhä had a memoir titled “Sotamuistoja”(War Memoirs)written in 1940 wherein he describes his experiences in the winter war.There’s also a book called The White Sniper:Simo Häyhä by Tapio Saarelainen.I have not seen movies about him but there was a short film dedicated to him called The White Sniper.😊
"1944: The Final Defence (Tali-Ihantala 2007) [1080p] - full movie with English subtitles"
Man, I thought Simo died in like 1980. When I saw his tombstone in the video I got SERIOUS goosebumps, cuz I really didn't think I would've been alive when he was.
About the scope. A scope often fog up due to changing temperatures, especially in exstrem cold. In the winter the sun sets just over the horisont, perfect angle to reflect a vertical lense.
He was born one month after my grandma and died one month before her.
I just love the part where he gets the scrach on his jacket and shouts "VITTU!"
Thanks for your reaction. The swamps in Finland are really marshes, not like the swamps which are covered with water.
It takes about 2meters of stamped snow to stop rifle bullet, so practically snow only gives place to hide.
In a particular weather the sky is white, trees are white and the land is white. best to describe that is that you imagine diving in a pool of milk.
Swamps or marshes are quite normal in both Finland and northern Sweden. In Swedish they are called myr, mosse, kärr or sometimes träsk. These lands are seeing an abundant annual precipitation which drowns a shallow terrain with water only letting higher grass to grow on a soft watery surface of land. This terrain could be difficult to cross on foot or by vehicles. Best is skiing on winter.
Most likely the customization of the rifle gifted to him would be extremely tight tolerances and carefully measured shims on a m39 mosin
Swamps in the artic? Yes. It's where inexperienced tankers and drivers get stuck. And if the weather is milder and the ice thinner...it's the place where you suddenly is up to your waist in freezing water and mud. :)
Great Simo Häyhä pronounce as foreigner, some Finns can sound the same. Good work 💯!
Why is this guy looking like Alex Pereira+Charles Oliveira 🥶❤️
Even southern Finland where I'm from and now live, has swamps, even the capitol region forest. I've been to one somewhat small swamp there, and I don't know how swamps here are in winter because during that season of the year I've not been to a swmp yet, which I probably should at some point. But, my experience of the summer and autumn and spring swamp terrain is, you can have some spots which can seem like you might not sink there and die, but that can still happen. It can be deceptive there, kinda. I think a lot of finns who do forest walks and hunt, know of this.
The scopes of ww2 weren't as powerful as those of today. So Häyhä didn't have to trade off as much as a modern soldier would have to. As mentioned, the reflections and added profile are cons that come with the scope and there is also the possibility to get your scope frozen.
Good thoughts on videos like this. I think your reaction was really good for this. Thank you. And your t-shirt is just like WWF/ the Finnish protected animal "The Saimaa ringed sea" = "Saimaan norppa".
It was a Finnish charity shirt!
@@CombatArmsChannel :)
@@CombatArmsChannel You like guns. Here's a great channel:" Forgotten Weapons" / "Full Auto Suomi in the 2021 AZ PCC Championship".
there is a finnish documentary about häyhä, where is still alive on youtube, but no subtitles
There's an anime series called the Record of Ragnarok on Netflix, the 1st season came out in spring '21 I think. In the series, gods battle against humanity in 1v1 fights; Thor vs Lu Bu, Zeus vs Adam etc. In one of the early episodes, the whole table of contestants was shown for a brief moment, and one of the names there was シモ・ヘイヘ, Shimo Heihe. Tremble gods, tremble. Hopefully the 2nd season comes out soon, since he wasn't in the 1st one.
That pronunciation of his name was so good for a person who doesn't speak finnish as their 1st language!
7:00 that "vittu" means fuck
Swamps and mires are pretty common in Finland. They freeze up in the winter though
When he was asked on what he felt from shooting all the Soviet, he just replied “the recoil”
Mannerheimin Cross soldiers (such as Simo Häyhä and Lauri Törni aka Larry Thorne) overall did some incredible stuff at war. I red a short story of each awarded soldier, and they were almost hard to believe
when simo was asked what did he feel when killing the enemy he said ''the recoil''
His rifle was his service rifle from when he served in 1925 and he trained with that rifle for more then 15 years it wasn’t modified or anything it was just like a 3rd arm for him
Greetings from Helsinki, Finland. Simo "Simuna" Häyhä kill 542 with sniper riffle and over 200 with submachine gun.
The 200 smg kills are a debated topic as simo never personally said that he ever even used the suomi kp/31
Simo the legend between 505 - 542 confirmed kills now that puts the movies into perspective
Amazon has book "The white sniper : Simo Häyhä" It's translated from finish author.
I was an exchange student to Finland back in 1986-87. Had no Idea how he was when a group brought me to meet him.
There needs to be a movie about him. Maybe even a mini series!
I don't know any movies about häyhä
But there is a fantastic movie about the continuation war called
Tuntematon Sotilas
I wish the movies of Larry Thorne and 'Simuna' will one day be made. Thank you for good content.
nice one, thanks! have you ever heard of Larry Thorn? The Green Baret they named the SF Center at Ford Bragg ? He was a Finn, and fought in 3 Armies. Check out "Soldier of 3 Armies" by Sabaton.
All without a scope, a true mad lad
You should come and visit Finland 😀
Juuri näin
And get bullet by some another sniper ??? 😮
Hahaha 😂
Naaah...
7:38 In 1939-1940 Winter War Häyhä (and other Finns also) had the advantage that enemy was more or less on East and sun goes down to West and short winter day you might have a blink from that scope when sun is setting to East as early as 3 P.M.
Also a book named "THE WHITE SNIPER Simo Häyhä" is a good book in english about him.
There is a lot of material about the battles of the Winter War and Raattentie is one of the most famous, can you make a video of it? That's where Stalin's forces experienced perhaps the biggest defeat, and I don't want to upset the enemy here either, but historically, America was also filming that destruction.
One detail that seems small is that the 4th division knew how to ski and that was one of Finland's advantages because, at least people in my age group know how to ski and will learn at the latest in inti, but it is a basic skill that is taught in schools.
We need movie about Simo Häyhä
I just read some interwiew, where Simo told, when he wounded, they set him laying back, and he woke up for seconds that position, and turn himself laying his side, and this is what save his life. Because he allmoust drown his own blood.
You got the name Simo Häyhä much closer than most native English people ever get it, so good job! The only improvement I'd give is to say the first ä the same way you said the second. The "'ä" is pronounced like you pronounce the "a" in the word "hat". But aside from that slight correction you did really well! ☺👍
Glad to see you back on the Finn train.
11:09 You could say that Suomi is literally translated as Swampland and not as Finland. Finland is filled with swamps and lakes. Before we started to drain swamps Finland was around 1/3 swamp. We even have a traditional soccer game played in swamps called swamp football.
11:20 Yes swamps are very common in Finland. Some people have even speculated that the finnish name for Finland "Suomi" might come from the finnish word "suomaa" meaning "swamp land" although that wouldn't rly make that much sense in my opinion since the southwest parts of the modern day Finland which was originally the part of Finland called "Suomi" (even to this day that part of Finland is called "Varsinais-suomi" or "Proper Finland" in english) doesn't/didn't have that many swamps.
If alex pereira was a youtuber
There is 3 known Finnish soldiers: Simo Häyhä aka, White death. Lauri Törni, aka Larry Throne and Aarne Juutilainen aka, Marokon kauhu.
And there is only one real story in Tuntematon sotilas/unknown soldier and that soldier is called Viljami Pyykkö.
you should do their cooperation video with sabaton called No bullets Fly! great video/song.