A History Teacher Reacts | "The White Death - The Best Sniper Known to Man" by Infographics

[Music] YouTube welcome back to another history teacher reacts video mr. Terry's that get taking my search for historical knowledge found here on YouTube alright today's video is about the famous finnish sniper the white death who I believe is know to have the most confirmed kills I think of any sniper and I know very little far as real specifics I know you know sniper was Finnish and was fighting early on and they they call up a white war kind of the Winter War I mean with Finland and with Russia and so early part of World War two so 1939 1940 I think but a lot of the specifics I don't know and this when this was when this came up I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to learn and as always try to add any context if I can because I know that's what you're here for as well so this gets mentioned a lot a lot of people talking about you know famous warriors they go down in history the white death gets put up there so let's add to our knowledge a little bit and get started alright this is from the infographic show awesome channel that I really haven't covered I don't know if I have at all I don't know why because I've known about it for for a long time and they have great content so if you like this original video go down below click the link that says original video it will take you to the original video give that a view like subscribe and all that stuff then come back over here and sub if you haven't enabled notifications come hang out with us let's go get started so the best sniper known to man see we got when we say the best sniper we could be referring to who had the best shot in terms of distance or who had the most kills to his or her name today we'll focus more on the most prolific sniper the person with the biggest body count you've probably all heard of Chris Kyle the American soldier who was the inspiration behind the movie American sniper the Department of Defense tells us he had 160 kills to his name ironically Kyle was later that's so I mean yes understand you talk about with DES this isn't Call of Duty right this is people out in the front lines and and another sniper so sometimes they're not necessarily in the front lines but out there risking themselves and the thing about sniper training is it's not yeah it's not call of duty it's not running around and 360noscope and people they take so much skill strategy patience precision skill all of these things to do that and having numbers what do you say 160 or something I mean that truly is amazing to have here in the modern sense and when our weapons of course are so good now and stuff like that so when you go the further and further go back it's almost like the more impressive it can get with the skill that would have been required to to fight so that's that's already starting off and setting a very high standard shot and killed at a shooting range in the US the British media in 2015 reported that a Royal Marine was the world's deadliest sniper with 173 kills though they didn't name him but none of these sniper upstarts have anything on the man we're going to talk about today in this episode of the infographic show the best sniper in history if you look around the web the consensus is that the focus of today's show is indeed the deadliest sniper that ever lived his name was seemed oh hey ha and he was a Finnish army second lieutenant we are told he killed somewhere between five hundred five and five hundred forty two people we're just giving the Chris Kyle guy so much credit and I know ever this mysterious British sniper is 163 505 to 542 so in the 500s during the war that's crazy I've learned more too about how like things are confirmed and stuff like that is a dollar system I don't know what they do but even if you're yeah even if it's less than that a little bit that's amazing let's see what made this guy so good his victims were Russian and they were killed during the winter war this was a conflict between Finland and the Soviet Union that started in 1939 and lasted just over three months that's a short amount of time but it was enough time to Ament a name in history so that okay in three months and he probably fought less than that 500 something kills in three months that's unreal gosh the Russians just walking down some hallway and he just unloads the number of casualties in those three months was reportedly around twenty five thousand nine hundred Finnish deaths and one hundred twenty six thousand nine hundred Russian you got to give props to the Finns on this holy cow look at this lob sighted victory it gets so a union chose a Stalin doesn't get talked about enough does it as all the all the the finish of viewers are saying finally mr. Terry finally there they're crediting us why'd you forget about us yes we know the twenty million Russians are gonna die in World War two but holy cow let's look at some success there cuz hey remember Russians are good at fighting the winner you better believe the Finns are as well okay finished people they are they're gonna fight there too so it's just like best soldier right you can't just die and we're gonna draw you out into the cold and then you'll die yeah not cold versus cold yes hey how're skills were even recorded by the Finnish military the document states how many people he had killed up until that day not how many people he killed on that day it's thought his biggest ally on one day was about 25 deaths on December 22nd 1939 the document states that he killed 138 people On January 26 1940 he killed 199 people On February 17th 1940 he killed 217 people and on March 7 1940 he killed 259 people look at that two hundred wait in kaolin so 28 22 days we get that that's not in one day right that's just what he's at total he killed 259 p.m. enemy 207 only get to see killed 199 people On February 17th 1940 he killed 217 people and on March 7 nineteen forty he killed 259 people that day wasn't the best day of his life as he was very seriously wounded he wait so it's 259 in one day and he was hurt did fifty nine people that day wasn't the best day of his life as he was very seriously wounded he took a Red Army bullet right to the face and that's why photos of him that circulate around the web depict a monstrous looking man sorry dude took a shot to the face and then shot 259 people about being so blunt Simo the wound didn't slow him down so much though and he lived a long life he was born in 1905 and lived until the ripe old age of 97 dying in 2002 but dudes 97 dudes 97 take a shot in the face on the same day I'm gonna go ahead and make this claim cuz I just think it's gonna be cool he got shot in the face and then he took the bullet and put it in his gun and then and then and then shot it shot shot one of the Soviet soldiers we're gonna go and put that someone update Wikipedia for me okay but who was this man well the finish told all kinds of stories about him as he was the focus of a lot of propaganda back in those days war heroes were an important piece of national storytelling in many countries used to ferment pride in the public and give people hope he was born in Finland very close to the border with Russia at the age of 20 he became a volunteer in the Finnish Civil Guard and it was certain he was going to be of some use prior to signing up he was said to be an excellent hunter but he'd also won awards for his marksmanship in many shooting competitions apparently he had amassed so many trophies his house was full of them sorry he's already this guy's already got training he didn't just walk in and become the best sniper in the world something a lot of hunting in that area you know he's in what noir kind of right in the central center of Finland there so yeah I probably out doors he activities he was later enlisted as a sniper in the Finnish army and his battle ground was mostly in the snow hence many photos of him are dressed in all white looking a bit like James Bond apparently the Soviets were a bit behind the Finnish in this respect and their army was decked out in normal army clothing this made them very easy to spot and kill while lucky hey was extremely difficult to see okay why you're the you're the Russians you live in Russia it's cold how do you not have winter camouflage snow camouflage and you're just Soviets come on now the British media jumped on this calling him the invisible soldier and giving him the sobriquet white death what else do we know about him according to Business Insider the Nordic version he was humble the same source says he would wait for his victims sometimes as far as 300 meters away but usually around 150 meters away hard to spot in his camouflage you couldn't even see his breath and the cold as he put snow in his mouth the BBC interviewed him on a few occasions and so we know the following okay wait okay so before the interview so you can see the prep work that separates him probably from normal snipers obviously the closer you get as a sniper the better your shots gonna be but also the more exposed you could be because sniping is all about obviously having kind of being hidden but the element of surprise right so the closer you get yeah it's gonna make your shot better but there's a risk/reward factor right and then yes small little things I know I know what sniping there's so many little things you have to do you move I can inch every so often and it's just you don't do it and even yeah getting your breath hidden by putting snow in his mouth that's that's crazy so you can see this guy isn't just a lucky shot right he he knows he knows how to hunt that's kind of what he's doing apparently hey how was what we might call a Finnish hick and enjoyed a life in the wilderness his hobbies according to interviews were skiing hunting and shooting the same article says that the Russians feared this man so much they once tried to kill him by just bombarding the area he was in with hails of bullets and mortar but they missed and the white death walked away so they saw the Russians they knew who he was huh still couldn't get him can't him they once dropped an artillery shell on him too and apparently all that happened - hey huh was his coat got ripped and he again walked away with a minor scratch it said he treated his occupation as a sniper like he would hunting once telling the press that he felt no guilt about killing I only did my duty and what I was told to do as as I could so I mean this guy this guy's a killer I mean he's a killer hey doesn't feel guilty about killing he's a killer that's how killers feel right and if you're gonna be I guess a successful sniper at war time you have to do that it has to be desensitizing again like shooting an animal or something like that said as for his modus operandi the BBC writes he also became a master of using sounds smoke and artillery fire to cover his movements when changing position ok so master of using sound smoke artillery fire two covers moving is positioned with maps very scarce during the war high air relied on his memory to find the best hiding positions ok so this comes yeah it comes back to him having all that outdoors experience he knows the terrain probably like the back of his hand he's probably been all over all of these parts right where the fighting is and yeah that's such an advantage to be fighting in a place that of course you know um I wonder what kind of stuff he did for sounds and smoke and that kind of stuff and disguising himself with maps very scarce during the war heyhow relied on his memory to find the best hiding positions it said he was always careful and even obsessive about finding the right position making sure his gun wouldn't jam and generally setting up the place where he would be shooting from the strange thing is his M 28-30 gun didn't even have a telescopic sight but this was the same gun that he ha had hunted with throughout his life and so he was very familiar with it makes sense you know ya use what you used before but again we were talking about how guys like Chris Kyle on that like they had they have such good technology the guns are more accurate and get good distance and all that stuff so this guy's doing it off just pure skill I mean all those guys are skilled but just it's skill it's not the technology it's said that as a kid he would hunt birds in the forests and to hunt this small prey you needed to have a remarkable shot we are told that this is one of the reasons why hunters so often make the best snipers you can't focus on moving targets at the army shooting range so experience killing animals is a must the smaller the better the BBC writes as a young man he also learned to estimate the effects of wind and rain on shooting and conditions in forests alas our meritorious marksman was finally hit in the face and the shot took off much of his jaw it said that he spent the rest of his life in near constant pain not to mention looking something like sloth from the Goonies he had 26 surgical operations but his face would never be the same again he would carry on hunting however and his eyesight was always just as good as it was during the war his victims were never again human and perhaps as moose was his favorite animal to kill he wouldn't miss very often he even did some hunting trips with one Finnish president there is a book about him out called the white sniper if you want to know more we'll leave you with a quote right from the horse's mouth war is not a pleasant experience but who else would protect this land unless we are willing to do it ourselves so have you ever shot a gun before do you think you have what it would take to become a professional sniper let us know your thoughts in the comments also be sure to check out our other video called US f-35 versus Russian su-35 fighter jet which would win thanks for watching and as always don't forget to Like share and subscribe I don't already know I wouldn't be I've done I got shot before and I'm I'm left-handed but I have I'm right like right eye dominant and when you do that you're already screwed up so I already already know this because I've tested this stuff the floor but the eye again the amount of patience and skill involved I mean yeah you don't just learn to be a sniper right it takes I mean this guy is training his whole life and you could see what happens but it's more than that it's more than there at all the other deceptive stuff that he had there so he had the skills the the marksmanship the other skills to set up your shot to set up your enemy to divert your enemy plus he had the mentality like he was saying about how he kind of decent off you want to call it desensitize but he removed the human element of what he was doing with the sniper shots and it seems like you to get to that level that signal is at you have to have all those elements okay so anyway I don't know what do you guys think this is this is a great story I had no idea that his numbers were that much and I was really fascinated to see a little bit it was just a short little thing but about his strategies and what yeah what he used he wasn't even using it looks like the best technology even for 1939-1940 he was still using old technology just because he was used to it he didn't even need that stuff but any wonder man how much better could he how much better could somebody like this be with modern technology with modern sniping technology maybe I wouldn't change it all but fascinating to think about with that so well this was great I've heard the bike death and I've heard just about him in passing but seep some of those details was was really really neat to to see that so all you guys that have brought him up thanks for kind of keeping him in my memory so I could get a video out learning about that stuff so cool with this video being kind of shorter I'm sure there's other stuff that you guys know I know a lot of you are really in the military history and if you have stuff to share do it add comments down in the youtube comment section there or better yet come over to our discord server and come join the few thousand people we have over there that love to talk about all kinds of history topics on a daily basis alright before we head out today thank you for watching this video make sure you go down in the original or in the video description click on the original video link go over there get that a view like subscribe if you like what happening over there and then sub know to let naval notifications you have over here special shout out as always to our patreon pledgers and channel members and people that have been contributing in other ways thank you but always thank you just for being here being a part of our history community and being a part of history education all right with that we'll see you next time bye [Music] you

Channel: Mr. Terry History

Views: 150,611

Keywords: react, history, finland, military

Id: WSlLK7PUpQ8

Length: 17min 4sec (1024 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 23 2020