5 ms·

> The method that actually worked was to get a few boys with rifles up on the parapet and have them shoot down into the trenches, killing everyone they could. F

> The method that actually worked was to get a few boys with rifles up on the parapet and have them shoot down into the trenches, killing everyone they could. Faster, more efficient, and no silly buggers with grenades flying back and forth. It sounds so easy when written this way :-/ Also if anyone is interested in WW2 sniping the Finnish sniper "white death" might be an interesting starting point. He went to extreme lengths - and was very successful.

ovi256 5y ago
Simo Hayha, nicknamed "The White Death", was not just a successful sniper, using a rifle, but also a successful ambusher, surprising enemy small groups like patrols and devastating them using an automatic submachinegun.
- jacobwilliamroy 5y ago
  How many times do you think he pooped or peed in his pants?
- unwind 5y ago
  Wikipedia knows more [1] as usual. Häyhä is believed to have killed over 500 men during the Winter war (inculding 259 killed by sniper rifle), the highest number of sniper kills in any major war. That is just ... gruesome. I was confused when I looked at this article, I misread the URI as "gnu.org" (laptop screen too far away, thanks Covid WFH) and started trying to figure out the analogy they were making for a paragraph or two. :) [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4
  - skinkestek 5y ago
    > That is just ... gruesome. Yep. But the alternative were worse. Anyone who hasn't been occupied by Stalin era Soviet should be very happy. As a kid I heard a bunch of stories from my dad who had friends in Finland and also from my friends who had been there. One was that the Finnish soldiers always carried a backpack on night patrol so they could safely backstab anyone they came up behind in the night and couldn't identify as if it was one of theirs it would end in a blanket or something anyway. Another was that of Finnish troops not being to careful when they packed the hay they slept in so some of it would fall on the ground. Only there would also often be a mine there as well. Oh, and most of the time the Russians stopped to examine the hay there was just hay on the ground but sniper fire from the hillside behind it. As Wikimedia points out: the Finnish were lucky because of Stalins great purge, but still they should not be messed with. Oh, another one, from air combat, this one I learned later from a book probably: according to that source the planes the Russians used for the invasion of Finland had landing gear that had to be lowered using a pulley system. Again, according to that source, some Russian planes were lost after the Finnish pilots figured out this and started ambushing them while they approached landing.
    - handrous 5y ago
      That last one smells a bit, since landing and take-off are great times to ambush an aircraft regardless, so if you can do it (that is, the enemy is very bad at deploying AA to protect their airfields and aren't otherwise maintaining air superiority near their airfields) then you already would be, no matter how they deploy their landing gear.
  - quickthrowman 5y ago
    > That is just ... gruesome. Finland ended WW2 as an independent country, the only European one that borders Russia (along with Norway I guess, but the bulk of Finland is far closer to Russia) The alternative would’ve been substantially worse
Mauricebranagh 5y ago
Yes standing exposed on top would expose you to fire from the support trenches.
grugq 5y ago
The Finnish war gave us the term “Molotov cocktail.” When the Russians began bombing Helsinki they claimed that the bombers were dropping food to the Finnish people. The Finns made a joke that bombs were Molotov’s bread baskets, or picnic baskets, etc. Molotov was the Soviet Foreign Minister. When the Finns started using glass bottles with gasoline and a burning rag as anti tank weapons, they made the joke that these were Molotov cocktails to go with the Molotov bread baskets. It’s strange how Soviet propaganda (“we’re dropping food!”) lives on in English by way of a Finnish joke from 80 years ago.
pchristensen 5y ago
I love this account of the Russo-Finnish Winter War - https://ar.to/2010/08/red-blood-white-snow https://ar.to/2010/08/red-blood-white-snow

ovi256 5y ago

Simo Hayha, nicknamed "The White Death", was not just a successful sniper, using a rifle, but also a successful ambusher, surprising enemy small groups like patrols and devastating them using an automatic submachinegun.

jacobwilliamroy 5y ago
How many times do you think he pooped or peed in his pants?
unwind 5y ago
Wikipedia knows more [1] as usual. Häyhä is believed to have killed over 500 men during the Winter war (inculding 259 killed by sniper rifle), the highest number of sniper kills in any major war. That is just ... gruesome. I was confused when I looked at this article, I misread the URI as "gnu.org" (laptop screen too far away, thanks Covid WFH) and started trying to figure out the analogy they were making for a paragraph or two. :) [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4
- skinkestek 5y ago
  > That is just ... gruesome. Yep. But the alternative were worse. Anyone who hasn't been occupied by Stalin era Soviet should be very happy. As a kid I heard a bunch of stories from my dad who had friends in Finland and also from my friends who had been there. One was that the Finnish soldiers always carried a backpack on night patrol so they could safely backstab anyone they came up behind in the night and couldn't identify as if it was one of theirs it would end in a blanket or something anyway. Another was that of Finnish troops not being to careful when they packed the hay they slept in so some of it would fall on the ground. Only there would also often be a mine there as well. Oh, and most of the time the Russians stopped to examine the hay there was just hay on the ground but sniper fire from the hillside behind it. As Wikimedia points out: the Finnish were lucky because of Stalins great purge, but still they should not be messed with. Oh, another one, from air combat, this one I learned later from a book probably: according to that source the planes the Russians used for the invasion of Finland had landing gear that had to be lowered using a pulley system. Again, according to that source, some Russian planes were lost after the Finnish pilots figured out this and started ambushing them while they approached landing.
  - handrous 5y ago
    That last one smells a bit, since landing and take-off are great times to ambush an aircraft regardless, so if you can do it (that is, the enemy is very bad at deploying AA to protect their airfields and aren't otherwise maintaining air superiority near their airfields) then you already would be, no matter how they deploy their landing gear.
- quickthrowman 5y ago
  > That is just ... gruesome. Finland ended WW2 as an independent country, the only European one that borders Russia (along with Norway I guess, but the bulk of Finland is far closer to Russia) The alternative would’ve been substantially worse

Mauricebranagh 5y ago

Yes standing exposed on top would expose you to fire from the support trenches.

grugq 5y ago

The Finnish war gave us the term “Molotov cocktail.” When the Russians began bombing Helsinki they claimed that the bombers were dropping food to the Finnish people. The Finns made a joke that bombs were Molotov’s bread baskets, or picnic baskets, etc. Molotov was the Soviet Foreign Minister. When the Finns started using glass bottles with gasoline and a burning rag as anti tank weapons, they made the joke that these were Molotov cocktails to go with the Molotov bread baskets. It’s strange how Soviet propaganda (“we’re dropping food!”) lives on in English by way of a Finnish joke from 80 years ago.

pchristensen 5y ago

I love this account of the Russo-Finnish Winter War - https://ar.to/2010/08/red-blood-white-snow https://ar.to/2010/08/red-blood-white-snow