Ummm.. and now: something completely different!

Along with thanks for the inspiration, this piece is dedicated to ~scars-and-stripes, who is a mighty Slayer of windows. (the variety that’s made of glass, and not of conflicting bits of bad code – the latter sort is quite capable of slaying itself unaided on a regular basis ) Anyway, she reminded me of this legendary war hero a cople of days ago and suddenly i just got an inspiration to draw him today. Must be the lack of sleep..

So, this is Simo Häyhä, the greatest sniper in history, whom the Russians named "Belaja smert" (= "White Death"). He fought in the Winter War of 1939-40, defending Finland from Soviet invasion.

Here he is aiming his trusty old Sako m/28-30 “Pystykorva” (Finnish Mosin-Nagant variant) somewhere in the Kollaa front, in the crisp Finnish winter weather of -40 centigrade . I’m more a pistol shooter myself, but I bow down low before his skills with the rifle.

Quite an easy one for a change, drawing snow is always a bugger though (i mean how do you give structure to something that's just white.. ). 0.5mm HB mechanical pencil and about 2 hours.

---A boring history lesson follows---

According to the Finnish Army records of the Kollaa battles, Häyhä tallied 542 sniper kills alone, and another 200+ with his favourite sidearm, the Lahti M/31 “Suomi” submachine gun -- All this in a period of three months before he was wounded by an explosive bullet to the jaw, one week before the end of the short war. He woke up from coma on the day the peace treaty was signed. He didn't fight in the Continuation War or the Lapland War and it wasn’t until 2002 that he died, at the age of 96.

None but Nikolay Ilyin and Erwin König come even close to his record.. Even the famous Vasily Zaitsev made “only” 225 kills (and they made a movie about him! –where’s the Simo Häyhä movie, huh?) It is noteworthy also that Häyhä shot his kills using just the fixed iron sights of the rifle while all other top-ranking snipers used telescopic sights.

Even though I wish that 500+ kill record will never be bested, it’s only because I wish there never was any reason to kill so many people (or even just one for that matter) again.. But looking at how the world goes there isn’t much hope for that. People will always find their reasons for violence, I guess..

But I have to add that only because of the stubborn resistance and sacrifice of war veterans like Häyhä the independence of Finland was preserved and we, the following generations, had the privilege of being born in a free and democratic country. For this, I’m forever in their debt.

Even if they were all conscripts, poorly equipped and heavily outnumbered, they managed to fight off and stop the invasion. And although Soviet Union “won” the war, stealing large areas of territory, they did so with heavy losses. Of the 1 500 000 men they sent for the invasion, over 1 million were killed and more than 1000 planes and 2300 tanks were lost, while the Finnish losses were 25 000 dead and 55 000 wounded.

Ok, I’ll stop writing now lest I bore you to death (I most likely did already.. )


EDIT: Better scan