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Speaker 2: The woods are cold, dark, quiet. It's December nineteen thirty
Speaker 2: nine on Finland's eastern edge. The lakes are frozen, the
Speaker 2: swamps sprinkled with frost, and now deep in the wilderness,
Speaker 2: a crisp breeze skidds through the brambles, Snow begins to fall.
Speaker 2: Flakes tumble over a thicket of birch trees and come
Speaker 2: to rest on the shoulders of a man lying flat
Speaker 2: on the ice. His name is Simo Halja. He settled
Speaker 2: here hours ago in the black of night. He's surrounded
Speaker 2: by biting, cold, silence and thousands of Soviet soldiers, and
Speaker 2: now he waits for the sun to rise. When Soviet
Speaker 2: troops and tanks barreled over the border of Finland a
Speaker 2: few weeks earlier, Simo vowed to fight back. Today, it's
Speaker 2: twenty degrees below zero, He's dressed in a white snowsuit,
Speaker 2: nearly invisible from head to toe, his eyes squinting against
Speaker 2: the wind, scanned for invaders. Simo peeks out from behind
Speaker 2: a small ridge of snow and surveys the horizon, now
Speaker 2: glowing orange under the morning sky. Light glitters off the snowpack.
Speaker 2: Somewhere beyond the birches, past the bombed out craters, past
Speaker 2: the splintered trees, Simo notices something, a distant flash, the
Speaker 2: morning light reflecting off a glass scope some three hundred
Speaker 2: meters away. Simo reaches for his rifle. The Russian soldier
Speaker 2: lifts his head, just for a moment. Then the soldier's
Speaker 2: head falls to the ground. No warning, no flash, just
Speaker 2: snow in silence. Forsimo, A day of work has just begun.
Speaker 2: The Russians will never see the shooter, but they'll see
Speaker 2: the bodies of their comrades frozen on the ice. Dozens
Speaker 2: of them, then hundreds, all dropped by a single man,
Speaker 2: a quiet, thirty three year old corporal in the Finnish Army,
Speaker 2: who never used a scope, never left a trail, and
Speaker 2: never stopped defending his homeland. In the winter of thirty nine,
Speaker 2: every Soviet in Finland, feared the Reaper, lurking in the forest,
Speaker 2: cold as ice, quiet as snow. Simo hal Haa The
Speaker 2: White Death. Welcome to very special episodes an iHeart original podcast.
Speaker 2: I'm your host, Zaren Burnett. Today the story of a
Speaker 2: quiet farmer who became one of the most prolific snipers
Speaker 2: in military history. Simo ha Ha The White Death.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to very special episodes. My name is Jason English.
Speaker 3: We got a good one for you today. I'll get
Speaker 3: you right back out to it. I just want to
Speaker 3: do some shout outs at the top here. Occasionally we
Speaker 3: get to work with a production company called School of
Speaker 3: Humans out of Atlanta. They're a film, TV and podcast company.
Speaker 3: We've done many, many projects with them over the years.
Speaker 3: They worked on today's episode with us Amelia Virginia Ealy's
Speaker 3: Jesse Lucas Riley worked on this script. He's been here
Speaker 3: since the beginning and I'm told this is going to
Speaker 3: do good things for our numbers in Finland.
Speaker 2: Before the Soviet invasion of Finland in November of nineteen
Speaker 2: thirty nine, Simo how Ha led a peaceful life. He
Speaker 2: was raised in a Lutheran farming family in a rural
Speaker 2: hamlet called key Schenen. Life was simple, crops in the summer,
Speaker 2: skiing in the winter, and hunting year round. Like most
Speaker 2: kids from the Finnish backwoods, Simo learned how to shoot
Speaker 2: a rifle. As a child. He earned pocket change chasing
Speaker 2: down squirrels and selling their pelts. Timers praised him as
Speaker 2: the town's top pest exterminator. At seventeen, Simo joined the
Speaker 2: voluntary militia, where he excelled at marksmanship. After he turned nineteen,
Speaker 2: he began his mandatory military service. Shy, with blue eyes
Speaker 2: a gentle face. Standing just five foot three, he didn't
Speaker 2: look like an imposing soldier. He was assigned to a
Speaker 2: bicycle battalion, but the job was overall pretty boring. It
Speaker 2: was the nineteen twenties peacetime. Once his military service concluded,
Speaker 2: Simo hung his uniform up and returned to the family farm,
Speaker 2: and for the next decade he kept to himself. That
Speaker 2: is until in October nineteen thirty nine, rumors began swirling.
Speaker 2: Finland was on the brink of invasion. A month earlier,
Speaker 2: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union stormed into Poland and
Speaker 2: split it down the middle. Secretly the countries signed in agreement.
Speaker 2: Germany would take western Europe, the USSR would take the east.
Speaker 2: It was an uneasy alliance. Joseph Stalin feared that an
Speaker 2: emboldened Germany could ally itself, with Finland opening up a
Speaker 2: gateway to attack the USSR from the west. He set
Speaker 2: his sights on Finland's east as a strategic buffer and
Speaker 2: as a matter of pride, to restore land lost during
Speaker 2: the Russian Revolution. Finland was up for grabs, and Simo
Speaker 2: could feel it, writing in his war memoir.
Speaker 4: There was a sense of war in the air.
Speaker 2: This memoir, titled My Winter War Memories, was discovered in
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen and recently published by the Finnish historian Tavet ais.
Speaker 2: In it, Simo writes that in late nineteen thirty nine
Speaker 2: he gathered his family and told them that the Red
Speaker 2: Army was poised to invade soon. Finland would need every
Speaker 2: man to step up.
Speaker 4: This is our land and we have to defend it.
Speaker 2: Simo rejoined the military and was immediately assigned to sixth Company,
Speaker 2: Regiment thirty four. The men were soon deployed to a
Speaker 2: region of eastern Finland called Karelia, a land of rolling hills,
Speaker 2: tens of thousands of lakes and swamps, isolated villages, and
Speaker 2: deep remote wilderness. And then, on November thirtieth, at three
Speaker 2: in the morning, it happened. Soviet troops marched across Finland's border.
Speaker 2: Their goal was to reach a fifty five mile long
Speaker 2: fortification called the Mahndarheim Line, a series of bunkers and
Speaker 2: trenches stretching between the Baltic Sea in Europe's largest lake,
Speaker 2: Lake Ladoga. Think of it as the Great Wall of Finland.
Speaker 2: The Mahnnarhim was built to protect Finland's interior from invasion
Speaker 2: and the Soviets. They were determined to tear it down,
Speaker 2: but that would be tricky. The Mahndarheim was protected by
Speaker 2: natural terrain and defended by highly motivated military, So the
Speaker 2: Soviets went for Plan B. They couldn't break through the
Speaker 2: Mahnarkheim Line. They go around it and use the back door.
Speaker 2: The back door was Northern Karelia, the woodlands, where Simohaua
Speaker 2: and the men of Six Company were now waiting. Approximately
Speaker 2: one hundred thousand Soviet troops poured into North Karelia. The Finns,
Speaker 2: outmatched three to one, didn't stand a chance. Mortar fire
Speaker 2: lit the sky. The earth shook In the village of Hautavara,
Speaker 2: townhouses crumbled and horse carts were thrown into the air.
Speaker 2: The town turned to rubble. Simo was just a few
Speaker 2: miles from the destruction.
Speaker 5: Well, this is it, we thought the war had begun.
Speaker 5: Be assembled our bark fire, fortified our trenches, and finished
Speaker 5: digging our fox holes.
Speaker 2: More villages would fall. The Soviets made quick work and
Speaker 2: began marching towards Simo's unit. In early December, Simo would
Speaker 2: glimpse his first Soviet invader.
Speaker 5: I got the first across the border person in my sight.
Speaker 2: Simo saw the soldier walking straight at him. He could
Speaker 2: tell immediately that this man was not a run of
Speaker 2: the mill grunt.
Speaker 5: A bat carrying enemy company leader who tried to end
Speaker 5: my boar right there and then.
Speaker 2: Simo was not yet a hardened sniper. He didn't know
Speaker 2: how to hide from the enemy, and the Soviet soldier
Speaker 2: had him in his sights. Bullets whizzed past Simo's ears,
Speaker 2: Shrapnel kicked up sand and tossed it into his eyes.
Speaker 2: Simo wiped his face and rested his cheek on the
Speaker 2: stalk of his rifle.
Speaker 4: Then came my turn.
Speaker 2: He took a breath, cleared the sights, and.
Speaker 4: I got the mark my first hit. With time and care.
Speaker 2: The Soviet leader fell. This victory was short lived. The
Speaker 2: first few battles did not go well for Finland. Surrounded
Speaker 2: by the Red Army on three sides, Simo's unit was
Speaker 2: forced into retreat. As they ran, the Fins realized the
Speaker 2: enemy would use every abandoned village for cover. These little
Speaker 2: towns would become Soviet fortresses. The Fins couldn't let this happen,
Speaker 2: so one by one they set fire to their beloved homes.
Speaker 2: Entire villages went up in flames vataneami leos vara kaifa
Speaker 2: sua Yervi. Anxious Fins watched as the tables where families ate,
Speaker 2: the cradles where they rocked their children, their family bibles,
Speaker 2: everything burned to the ground, and the orders to retreat
Speaker 2: kept coming.
Speaker 5: After a couple of days of fearce fighting, we received
Speaker 5: orders to retreat as far as Souvi Lahti.
Speaker 2: In the lakeside town of Suri Loachti sixth Company was
Speaker 2: hiding out in a graveyard when the Soviets charged machine
Speaker 2: gun fire, rained down bombs exploded from all sides. The
Speaker 2: enemy was just two hundred meters away and getting closer.
Speaker 2: A messenger arrived on horseback, breathless. He had a note
Speaker 2: from the higher ups. Simo's commander arenau the line and
Speaker 2: waved the messenger off.
Speaker 6: There is no time to read when they had On's here.
Speaker 2: It was in order for another retreat, but sixth Company
Speaker 2: had nowhere to go. As the Soviets approached, four hundred
Speaker 2: homes were building into an inferno. The flames grew hotter
Speaker 2: and hotter. The Russians grew closer and closer. Machine guns blared,
Speaker 2: tanks squealed.
Speaker 5: In I'll never forget. I was given a mission to
Speaker 5: destroy the telephone light.
Speaker 2: Simo ducked his head and darted between live rounds from
Speaker 2: one house to the next.
Speaker 4: I cut the wires, taking my tie.
Speaker 5: Although the Russians were shooting at me with the machine
Speaker 5: gun from a position about two hundred meters away.
Speaker 2: He dodged flames to his left and bullets to his right,
Speaker 2: snipping phone lines and moving on. He felt invincible.
Speaker 4: At that time.
Speaker 5: I hadn't learned to think that there fire could cause
Speaker 5: any danger to me.
Speaker 2: He rushed back to sixth company. When an opening in
Speaker 2: the flames appeared, the company rushed through and regrouped into
Speaker 2: the woods. From the sky above, Soviet bombers hunted the
Speaker 2: retreating soldiers, but the town was a fireball. The heat
Speaker 2: was blistering, billowing smoke clouded into the sky. The bombers
Speaker 2: couldn't see. The homes of the Fins had provided safety
Speaker 2: and shelter one last time. Finland's scorched earth tactic ultimately worked.
Speaker 2: When the fires died, the Soviets had no abandoned buildings
Speaker 2: to shelter in, nor did they have telephone lines to
Speaker 2: make calls. They were cut off, trudging deeper into the
Speaker 2: Finnish hinterland, forced to sleep in ditches, it grew colder.
Speaker 2: The temperature would never rise about of seven degrees fahrenheit
Speaker 2: for the rest of December, and as snow began to fall,
Speaker 2: the tide would change. In what's known in Finland as
Speaker 2: Kara Disota, or the Winter War. David would punch Goliath,
Speaker 2: and a sharp eyed farmer who could not die would
Speaker 2: become a legend. That's when we come back. When the
Speaker 2: Soviet Union invaded Finland, party leaders promised the war would
Speaker 2: be over in a matter of days, the Soviets heavily
Speaker 2: outnumbered the Fins, both in manpower and machinery. They had
Speaker 2: more than two thousand tanks, the Fins, by comparison, had
Speaker 2: about thirty Dakita Khrushchev, then a member of the Soviet Politbureau,
Speaker 2: would later describe the Kremlin's mood as confident. Very confident.
Speaker 2: We could fire on unshot, he said, and the Fins
Speaker 2: would put up their hands and surrender. This was a
Speaker 2: spectacular misreading. Finland punched back hard, and they got help
Speaker 2: from an old friend. The weather the winter of nineteen
Speaker 2: thirty nine into nineteen forty would be one of the
Speaker 2: coldest on record. The Mercury routinely dipped to thirty and
Speaker 2: even forty below. The Fins were used to this. In fact,
Speaker 2: trudging through sub zero snow in the middle of the
Speaker 2: forest was their idea of fun. Soviet soldiers disagreed. Many
Speaker 2: were conscripted from places like Ukraine, where the climate is
Speaker 2: more temperate. Most had never experienced such extremes, and many
Speaker 2: of them didn't even know how to ski, and so
Speaker 2: as the December snow fell and the lake's froze, Finland
Speaker 2: had the home field advantage and their wardrobe gave them
Speaker 2: a leg up. The Fins wore white camouflage snowsuits, which
Speaker 2: blended in with the drifting ice. Meanwhile, the Soviets wore
Speaker 2: tan wool coats, basically walking around with shoot me signs
Speaker 2: taped to their backs. Simo took that as an order.
Speaker 5: The enemy snipers systematically picked off our leaders.
Speaker 2: A Soviet sniper had killed three finished platoon leaders. That's
Speaker 2: when Simo got the call.
Speaker 5: The company leader assigned me to send greetings back to them.
Speaker 2: Instead of taking up positions with his fellow soldiers, Simo
Speaker 2: peeled off on his own.
Speaker 5: The lieutenants sent for me and showed me approximately where
Speaker 5: he thought the enemy sniper's position to be.
Speaker 2: This would become his new routine. Each morning, Simo would
Speaker 2: ski out before dawn, slink into the woods, set up
Speaker 2: a perch behind enemy lines, and wait.
Speaker 4: They called me a stalker.
Speaker 5: I silenced the men of the enemy's machine gun nests
Speaker 5: when the occasion arose.
Speaker 2: Once he found a spot, he piles snow around it.
Speaker 2: He then wrapped white gauze round the barrel of his rifle.
Speaker 2: He tossed water on to the snow, making it freeze
Speaker 2: and crust over, preventing the powder from puffing up and
Speaker 2: revealing his position when he took a shot.
Speaker 5: When an enemy sniper was potted, I started stalking. A
Speaker 5: show down between snipers always has the nature of her due.
Speaker 5: Each one takes cover and wait for the other to
Speaker 5: show up.
Speaker 2: Simo tucked in and waited for an invader to take
Speaker 2: aim at one of his comrades.
Speaker 5: It often happened that an enemy sniper saw a good
Speaker 5: target and tried for it.
Speaker 4: The shot might have hit, but it was his last.
Speaker 5: My chance came when the opponent began a side task.
Speaker 5: I thumped with an open scope as soon as the
Speaker 5: man's head came into view.
Speaker 2: On his first outing, Simo scanned the woods. His enemy
Speaker 2: was a master of disguise, it seemed.
Speaker 5: At first I did not see a trace of him,
Speaker 5: just a small rock where he was supposed to be.
Speaker 5: After a careful investigation, we spotted him behind a little
Speaker 5: hump of snow near that rock. I took a careful aim,
Speaker 5: and the very first shot hit the intended target.
Speaker 2: Soon this became Simo's routine. Each morning, he would set
Speaker 2: out with at least fifty cartridges, a handful of grenades,
Speaker 2: and a submachine gun, and of course, his trusty rifle.
Speaker 2: One day in the field, Simo scanned the forest. In
Speaker 2: the distance. About three hundred yards away, he spotted a shimmer.
Speaker 2: It was a pair of periscope binoculars poking out of
Speaker 2: the snow. Simo couldn't see the enemy, but he knew
Speaker 2: they were there hiding. He loaded his weapon and took
Speaker 2: two shots.
Speaker 5: The Russians started pounding with their mortars towards us. Shrapnel, twigs,
Speaker 5: and soot were flying from everywhere.
Speaker 2: The pines shook violently.
Speaker 5: About fifty shells landed around my foxhole. Many of them
Speaker 5: threw clouds of sand into my face. Lieutenant cued the
Speaker 5: line and sent a man to tell me to get
Speaker 5: out of there. They'll kill you there, he said, Well,
Speaker 5: getting out of the foxhole was not really in my mind,
Speaker 5: so intense fast the enemy fire.
Speaker 2: Eventually Simo escaped. The near miss motivated him. The next day,
Speaker 2: he returned and set up in a hollow nearby.
Speaker 5: Suspense gets the blood circulating, so the cold didn't really
Speaker 5: face me.
Speaker 2: Simo surveyed the snowscape and again noticed the glimmer of binoculars.
Speaker 2: This time he could see the soldiers behind them.
Speaker 5: From this place I could choose in peace. The mortar
Speaker 5: fire didn't hit so close.
Speaker 2: Simo took out the soldier behind those binoculars and six
Speaker 2: others in the camp. The next day, when the Soviets
Speaker 2: set up in the exact same spot, Simo repeated his routine.
Speaker 2: Around that time, he began keeping count of his kills,
Speaker 2: what he called his list of sins ligament elichomedexixy. Throughout
Speaker 2: the entire winter war, Simo Hauha refused to use a scope.
Speaker 2: He executed his enemies from distances of two hundred, three hundred,
Speaker 2: even five hundred yards with old fashioned iron sights. Sometimes
Speaker 2: the biting wind would sweep shards of ice or snow
Speaker 2: into his naked eye, but to Simo the discomfort was
Speaker 2: a small price to pay. It was, after all, the
Speaker 2: reflected sunlight off of glass scopes and binoculars which gave
Speaker 2: away the position of enemy snipers. With iron sights, he
Speaker 2: would be virtually invisible. Besides, a scope would have given
Speaker 2: Simo a closer view of the person he was killing,
Speaker 2: and he didn't have the heart to look. By mid
Speaker 2: December nineteen thirty nine, Simo and his company had built
Speaker 2: a fortified position along the coal Law River, it was
Speaker 2: a natural place to set up a line of resistance.
Speaker 2: The coal Law was a small, gentle creek fed by
Speaker 2: a freshwater lake. It was surrounded by swamps and endless
Speaker 2: thickets of pine. Only one road crossed the river, and
Speaker 2: the Fins had blocked it. The Fins at the Coolaw
Speaker 2: were outmatched three to one, but they believed the little
Speaker 2: river was on their side. They appeared to be right.
Speaker 2: Over the next two months, the two sides would be
Speaker 2: locked in a grinding stalemate, with the co Lah dividing
Speaker 2: the two. Day after day, the Soviets sent tanks to
Speaker 2: take the bridge, and day after day the Fins lit
Speaker 2: those tanks on fire, and when the sun set, the
Speaker 2: Fins would put on their skis, glide through the woods
Speaker 2: and over the frozen lake, and steal cannons and mortars
Speaker 2: left by their fleeing enemy. In fact, the Fins would
Speaker 2: steal so many weapons Moscow would claim that a quote
Speaker 2: great power must be supplying the small country with extra weapons.
Speaker 2: Their suspicions were correct in a way. That great power
Speaker 2: just happened to be the Soviet Union. As Christmas approached,
Speaker 2: the Fins were routinely used the Soviet's own machine guns
Speaker 2: against them, forcing the enemy to lay low and sleep
Speaker 2: in the frozen bogs across the river. Here is how
Speaker 2: Erqui Palo Lampi, a Finish writer dispatched to the battleground,
Speaker 2: described the scene.
Speaker 4: The ice is uneven, torn by artillery cells. Showers from
Speaker 4: the machine guns sweep over us all the time, and
Speaker 4: the noise of the battle is intense. The enemies have
Speaker 4: fallen into dinright piles.
Speaker 2: As most of the Fins worked to defend the road
Speaker 2: and the river. Simo Hauha lurked in the woods alone,
Speaker 2: waiting watching.
Speaker 5: The sniper's job was relatively free. You had to move
Speaker 5: all over the company's area wherever you were needed. Sometimes
Speaker 5: I looked for suitable targets myself, sometimes they were shown
Speaker 5: to me. The company leader and platoon leaders would often
Speaker 5: say that there's an annoying opponent over there that would
Speaker 5: need to be taken out of the game.
Speaker 2: He was a specter, a whisper in the wind, a
Speaker 2: ghost in the snow, and each day he returned to
Speaker 2: camp with more notches in his belt.
Speaker 5: Udism the vizi udix Ingkament, the cozy ludisingment.
Speaker 2: One day, the company chaplain Antirantama joined troops on the
Speaker 2: front lines. He asked Simo how many kills he had
Speaker 2: so far.
Speaker 4: Come on the top log onya.
Speaker 2: Simo replied, nonchalant.
Speaker 4: Around one hundred and thirty eight a certain cases.
Speaker 2: Reverend Rantama rolled his eyes. Surely this was an exaggeration,
Speaker 2: but then he exchanged glances with Simo's buddies. They all
Speaker 2: flashed a look, yeah, that sounds about right. The Reverend
Speaker 2: gave Simo a nickname, the quote number one Reaperman of
Speaker 2: the Cold Law. He had others, including the magic Shooter. Simo,
Speaker 2: how Ha, was always a good shot, after all, he
Speaker 2: grew up blinking squirrels and other varmints, but early on
Speaker 2: he clearly had a gift for it. When he first
Speaker 2: joined the service in the nineteen twenties, his buddies marveled
Speaker 2: at how fast and accurate his shots could be. Once
Speaker 2: Simo hit a target five hundred feet away sixteen times
Speaker 2: in a row in just under one minute. He routinely
Speaker 2: entered local shooting competitions throughout the twenties and the thirties
Speaker 2: and regularly came home with a medal. Simo obsessed overmarksmanship.
Speaker 2: During his peaceful farming days, he used his lunch breaks
Speaker 2: to silently cite his rifle. When the day's work had ended,
Speaker 2: he'd load his rifle and practice. That practice paid off.
Speaker 2: There's a photo of six Company taken just before Christmas
Speaker 2: nineteen thirty nine. In it, about two dozen men stand
Speaker 2: in the snow, smiling out of frame as a Christmas
Speaker 2: tree decorated with grenade shraud. Simo, however, is nowhere to
Speaker 2: be found.
Speaker 5: I myself was not in the picture taken off the
Speaker 5: Christmas party, but I was in the foreground tasing the Russians,
Speaker 5: snapping twenty Russians and three more on the leg.
Speaker 2: He was too busy hunting Soviets. On December twenty first,
Speaker 2: Simo returned to camp, stepped into the main tent to
Speaker 2: shook off his boots, and reported his count.
Speaker 5: Twenty six here, Lieutenant, Oh, when he got it, just
Speaker 5: went thirty four hera lieutenant.
Speaker 2: The lieutenant scoffed, joking.
Speaker 6: You a wasted the States fan Simo.
Speaker 2: Simo sat on the bare floor and lit a cigarette
Speaker 2: twenty six kills. It was his single day best, if
Speaker 2: we can call it best. He sat there smoking by Christmas,
Speaker 2: he had recorded one hundred and fifty kills, completely unaware
Speaker 2: that he was already the most successful sniper in military history. Today,
Speaker 2: many accounts of Simo's exploits are lost. Sixth Company kept
Speaker 2: a war diary, but those pages went missing decades ago. Fortunately,
Speaker 2: tales of the company's success lured writers to the battleground.
Speaker 2: An author named Mika Vaultri came to the collah that
Speaker 2: December and painted the scene.
Speaker 7: Snow blanket glows eerily in the moonlight, and the shades
Speaker 7: of the forest are unmoving. Snow clad watchmen blend invisible
Speaker 7: into the landscape. Sometimes a snowsuit wearing watch emerges from
Speaker 7: the snow, quietly asking for the password. The snow covered
Speaker 7: shell holds along the roadside are getting more and more numerous.
Speaker 7: Here and there you can see shattered trees in the distance.
Speaker 7: We hear the blast of a grenade and something snaps
Speaker 7: in the branches above our heads.
Speaker 2: Vaultrie was invited into six Compani's tent, where Simo and
Speaker 2: his fellow soldiers gathered by the stove to share stories.
Speaker 7: When reading about them in the newspapers, the story seemed unbelievable,
Speaker 7: But when you hear them in a soldier tent with
Speaker 7: the stove giving off its warmth. Told by the people
Speaker 7: involved themselves in simple words, without boasting or exaggeration, then
Speaker 7: you know that they are indeed true.
Speaker 2: Suddenly five grenades exploded in the forest nearby.
Speaker 7: No one lying on the hay flinched. No wants expression changed.
Speaker 7: Only someone glanced at me, amusedly wondering what effect this
Speaker 7: might have on their guests.
Speaker 2: When Vaultri left the cola a few days later, he
Speaker 2: was convinced the underdog Fins would win. They had an advantage,
Speaker 2: a weapon that no military commander in a fancy office
Speaker 2: could understand.
Speaker 7: For the first time in my life, I realized what
Speaker 7: Finnish wilderness truly means. The forests and the snow fight
Speaker 7: against the folk. The Finnish wilderness protects suns better than
Speaker 7: any fortifications or fortress.
Speaker 2: By January, the co law still held Stories of bravery
Speaker 2: from the front lines spread across Finland and to other
Speaker 2: stretches of Europe. Once written off as a lost cause,
Speaker 2: Finland's push against the USSR was becoming an inspiration. In Britain.
Speaker 2: Winston Churchill marveled Finland alone and danger of death. Superb sublime.
Speaker 2: Finland shows what free men can do. If the co
Speaker 2: law could hold, if Finland could protect its then surely
Speaker 2: the country would prevail. In February nineteen forty, Simo Hauha
Speaker 2: was awarded a four day pass for rest and relaxation.
Speaker 2: He returned to his family farm. He told no one
Speaker 2: what he'd seen or done. Instead, he fled to the
Speaker 2: isolation of the woods and practiced. Simo was always quiet, reserved,
Speaker 2: but it's fair to guess that a lot was on
Speaker 2: his mind. More than one hundred men from sixth Company
Speaker 2: had died. One of his best friends, tov Varis, had
Speaker 2: been killed by a Soviet sniper. Simo and Tovey had
Speaker 2: been longtime buddies for years. They biked to the shooting
Speaker 2: range together in winter. They skied there with rifles on
Speaker 2: their backs, chatting, laughing. Now tove was gone, and Simo
Speaker 2: wanted one thing. The man who killed his friend.
Speaker 4: That man who will be taken out of his days.
Speaker 2: When he returned to the front, Simo interrogated the Finnish
Speaker 2: soldiers who saw Tovi die. Where was he killed?
Speaker 4: He asked.
Speaker 2: They opened a map and pointed here. The next day,
Speaker 2: Simo set out on his skis and set up camp.
Speaker 2: This mission would be different most days. Simo arrived early
Speaker 2: in the morning, hoping to catch the enemy at sunrise,
Speaker 2: but hunting a fellow sniper required a new strategy. Snipers,
Speaker 2: after all, stay put. They don't move, at least not
Speaker 2: until they leave for the night. So Simo waited all daylight.
Speaker 2: I came dusk, followed the moon and the stars began
Speaker 2: to rise, and instead of heading back to camp, Simo
Speaker 2: stayed watching. A shadow in the distance moved. It was
Speaker 2: the sniper, calling it a night.
Speaker 5: The poor boy climbed on the edge of the pit.
Speaker 5: I then raised the side a little. It was approximately
Speaker 5: three hundred meters.
Speaker 2: Three hundred meters in the growing darkness. A tough shot.
Speaker 2: Simo stared down his barrel focused.
Speaker 4: I had the good luck to hit with the first snap.
Speaker 2: By February, everyone in Finland would know about the Battle
Speaker 2: of the Cola, and everyone would know the name Simo.
Speaker 2: How there are many.
Speaker 7: True tales about him, how deadly bullets do not touch him,
Speaker 7: how he can bear to be away from the front
Speaker 7: line ewan when wounded, and how he doesn't even stay
Speaker 7: on the front lines, but goes behind enemy lines to
Speaker 7: harass them. The famous sharpshooter has certainly felt already around
Speaker 7: two hundred enemies with his rifle.
Speaker 2: More journalists arrived on the frozen battlefield, and Moore returned
Speaker 2: home with stories of the ghost in the snow that
Speaker 2: was Simo. How ha, Each tale made the five foot
Speaker 2: three soldier larger than life. Here's one. Simo was lying
Speaker 2: on a rock staking out Soviets when artillery reined down
Speaker 2: over his position. A grenade exploded so close it tore
Speaker 2: the shirt off his back. Simo brushed himself off, a
Speaker 2: red burn streaking down his back. When a writer asked
Speaker 2: Simo if the hit hurt, the sniper didn't appear to
Speaker 2: understand the question. He simply replied, but it didn't hit,
Speaker 2: And so his legend grew.
Speaker 4: Death moves along the front lines.
Speaker 6: Sometimes it takes a man from where you wouldn't believe it.
Speaker 6: Quite often man is miraculously sparred from what seems like
Speaker 6: certain death.
Speaker 2: Accounts of Simo's venerable hunts began appearing in newspapers as
Speaker 2: far off as Paris and Belfast. The race was on
Speaker 2: for eager reporters to flock to Coola to profile him.
Speaker 2: Many surprised that he didn't resemble the cold blooded killer
Speaker 2: of their imagination.
Speaker 4: You have to look that if.
Speaker 7: He were to murray, he would be a great danger
Speaker 7: of being put under the sleeper. He looks as innocent
Speaker 7: as if he wouldn't ever even have failed an apple
Speaker 7: from a three.
Speaker 2: The resistance at Cola became synonymous with Finnish grit. Powered
Speaker 2: by small units, they used terrain, cunning, and extreme conditions
Speaker 2: to hold off massive Soviet forces for months. The Finn's
Speaker 2: stubborn resistance was becoming legendary, and Simo was approaching mythic status.
Speaker 7: On his back is his famous rifle, with which he has,
Speaker 7: according to precise accounting, felt two hundred and nineteen enemies.
Speaker 7: He has a habit of skiing along the front lines
Speaker 7: and with his sharp eye watching what the other side
Speaker 7: is doing. Usually the first shot always hits when the
Speaker 7: cost is the price of the shot fifty five pennies.
Speaker 2: Across Finland, a belief emerged if Simo survives, so will
Speaker 2: the country and Simo, they believed, was untouchable. By early March,
Speaker 2: a trail of burnt out tanks stood as a monument
Speaker 2: to the Soviet's failure to cross the Kola. Stalin's men
Speaker 2: needed a new strategy. Miles away, they began felling tree
Speaker 2: and building a new road. They hatched a plan to
Speaker 2: send thousands of fresh troops across the river. The two
Speaker 2: sides were destined for an epic clash for finland. All
Speaker 2: hands were on deck. Leadership could not afford to have
Speaker 2: Simo sitting in the forest alone. They ordered him to
Speaker 2: join his countrymen and prepare for an all out assault.
Speaker 2: It's five a m March sixth, nineteen forty. Simo and
Speaker 2: his men poke their heads out of their tents. They
Speaker 2: strap on their skis, slowly, silently, under the cover of moonlight.
Speaker 2: They glide through the Ulis Minin forest and come upon
Speaker 2: a frozen swamp. The bog is the size of three
Speaker 2: football fields. There is no tree cover. The men exchanged glances.
Speaker 2: The sun is rising. They need to cross the open
Speaker 2: ground fast, and soon suddenly an explosion around them. Trees
Speaker 2: crack and splinter. Dirt flies into the air. Soviet shells
Speaker 2: rain down on their position. There is no time to think.
Speaker 2: They must cross now.
Speaker 5: On the other side of the swamp, an assault begun
Speaker 5: against an enemy that was right nearby.
Speaker 2: Simo presses his submachine gun to his shoulder. He skis
Speaker 2: across the swamp as fast as he can. Bullets whiz past.
Speaker 2: He returns fired.
Speaker 4: My rifle was working fine. I was happy with its results.
Speaker 5: We were so close to the enemy that the nearest
Speaker 5: was about two meters away from me.
Speaker 2: Simo can see the Soviets in their foxholes. Some are
Speaker 2: so close he can practically grab them. They're running away,
Speaker 2: disappearing into the trees. Simo looks around the woods for quiet.
Speaker 5: While fighting clashing in the dark forest. I couldn't see
Speaker 5: the enemy in front of me, and that's when my
Speaker 5: luck turned.
Speaker 2: A Soviet soldier is hiding behind the tree. Simo never
Speaker 2: sees them.
Speaker 5: Suddenly I heard a shot from maybe fifty to one
Speaker 5: hundred meters away.
Speaker 4: And I felt that now it had hit.
Speaker 2: Simo opens his eyes. He is on the ground in
Speaker 2: a pool of blood and melting snow.
Speaker 5: The world was spinning and tilting in my eyes. I
Speaker 5: think the stars were also showing. Then a rush of
Speaker 5: blood blinded my eyesight. My mouth felt to be full
Speaker 5: of bone, fragments and blood.
Speaker 2: Simo feels a warmth spread across his face. He feels
Speaker 2: his jaw dangling open, like wet meat. Pieces of his
Speaker 2: tongue lay on the snow. A bullet pierced his left
Speaker 2: cheek and upper lip. Soldiers rush to his aid, screaming
Speaker 2: for a medic. They turn him onto his side, hoping
Speaker 2: to stop him from choking on his own blood. Simo
Speaker 2: is still conscious. He feels his men drop his limp
Speaker 2: body onto a sled, tugging him back across the frozen swamp.
Speaker 2: The sled glides over the ice, The dawn sun begins
Speaker 2: to rise, machine guns fade in the distance, and Simo's
Speaker 2: world goes dark. Hours later, Simo's body is placed on
Speaker 2: a pile of fins, killed in action. His lieutenant is
Speaker 2: informed of his death. The news spreads across Finland. Radio
Speaker 2: and newspaper obituaries report with sadness that a national hero
Speaker 2: has perished.
Speaker 5: The freedom fighter simohioa of whose unique service the papers
Speaker 5: have told down around Miraculos stories, has fallen in the
Speaker 5: last battles of the water on the Kolarida.
Speaker 2: Around fifteen hundred Finnish soldiers would die defending the Kola
Speaker 2: and yet, despite facing a Soviet army much bigger than
Speaker 2: their own, the river would hold the Mohnarheim line, though
Speaker 2: would not the Great Wall of Finland would crack, Soviet
Speaker 2: forces would pour in, and Finland would be forced into
Speaker 2: an impossible position. On March twelfth, the two countries signed
Speaker 2: a peace treaty. Finland agreed to give up about ten
Speaker 2: percent of its land, all of the region around the
Speaker 2: Coolah River, the town of Simo's boyhood, his family farm.
Speaker 2: All of it was now part of the Soviet Union.
Speaker 2: The Coolah fell not with tanks or greens or a
Speaker 2: sniper's bullet, but rather with the stroke of a pen.
Speaker 2: The same day Finland surrendered, the family of Simo Hauha
Speaker 2: received a telegram.
Speaker 4: Stop the funeral the disease, dismissing the message.
Speaker 2: It was from Simo. He wasn't dead. He was in
Speaker 2: a Red Cross hospital. He'd been unconscious for nine days.
Speaker 2: Somebody had pulled him out of that pile of dead
Speaker 2: bodies and taken him to the hospital. He had four surgeries.
Speaker 2: Doctors reconstructed his face with pieces of his hip bone.
Speaker 2: Now he was eating through a feeding to but he
Speaker 2: was alive, awake, and in good spirits. A few weeks
Speaker 2: later he got a note from his lieutenant Arnayuti linen Seemore.
Speaker 6: We believed you were gone, we needn't told a memorial feast.
Speaker 6: But when we learned that you were alive, then we
Speaker 6: held quiet up on hardy. Hope your health returns. Every
Speaker 6: finish free or unofficially at Bat's grandmother, we'll accept the
Speaker 6: us a bachelor us Grando.
Speaker 2: In the years that followed, Simo underwent twenty six surgeries
Speaker 2: to reconstruct his jaw. By nineteen forty two, he was
Speaker 2: able to cross the border into Russia for the dedication
Speaker 2: of the Kolah River as a protected area, a joint
Speaker 2: memorialization effort by Russia and Finland. Approximately fifteen hundred Fins
Speaker 2: had perished in those woods, along with about sixty one
Speaker 2: hundred Soviets. Simo would be credited with two hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty nine sniper kills, plus another two hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: more with pistols and automatic rifles. All told, Simo was
Speaker 2: responsible for nearly ten percent of all Soviets killed at
Speaker 2: the Kolah, making him one of the deadliest snipers in
Speaker 2: military history. Simo Hauja would and the rest of his
Speaker 2: life on a woodland farm in solitude. He never married.
Speaker 2: He spent his years raising hunting dogs and guiding moose hunts.
Speaker 2: He rarely spoke about the war. When he did, he
Speaker 2: never boasted about individual accomplishments.
Speaker 5: Listen, no one slacked off there in the war. Together
Speaker 5: we underwent the tough moment and we eat tried to
Speaker 5: do our best. The most important thing is that you
Speaker 5: trust your friend.
Speaker 2: Simo carried the scars of battle for the rest of
Speaker 2: his life.
Speaker 5: But never complained the shot that wounded me. Came an
Speaker 5: honest man to man combat.
Speaker 2: Decades later, as an old man, Simo met up with
Speaker 2: a group of veterans who'd survived the Battle of Kola.
Speaker 2: At one point, somebody asked him, had any snipers from
Speaker 2: Russia shown up? Simo looked around and shook his head.
Speaker 2: They cut an RSVP. He had already buried them. Very
Speaker 2: Special Episodes is made by some very special people. Today's
Speaker 2: episode was produced in partnership with School of Humans. This
Speaker 2: show is hosted by Zaren Burnett, Danish Schwartz, and Jason English.
Speaker 2: Today's episode was written by Lucas Riley. Our senior producers
Speaker 2: are Josh Fisher and Amelia Rock. Additional production by Etily's Perez.
Speaker 2: Our story editor is Virginia Prescott, editing, sound design, mixing
Speaker 2: and mastering by Jesse Niswanger, Research in fact checking by
Speaker 2: Austin Thompson and Lucas Riley. Got to give major props
Speaker 2: to our excellent cast who brought this one to life.
Speaker 2: Starring Niska Kayanos as Simo Haukra. Additional voices provided by
Speaker 2: Tuamas Achva Home, Tuamas Brock, and Touka Ra. Special thanks
Speaker 2: to Sirifa Rista Marquis Brock. Original music by Alise McCoy
Speaker 2: and Jesse Niswanger. Show logo by Lucy Quintanilla. Executive producers
Speaker 2: of today's episode are Virginia Prescott and Jason English. Very
Speaker 2: Special Episodes is a production of iHeart Podcasts. If you're
Speaker 2: a fan of the show, go give us a rating
Speaker 2: or review on your favorite podcast platform