Today we have a very special matchup in our
Who Would Win series, two legendary snipers from different wars, both bringing their lethal
skills to a modern battlefield. In one corner is the legendary Simo Hayha,
nicknamed the White Death by the Russians he killed by the dozens. Responding to his country's call to arms after
an invasion by the Soviet Union in the 1930s, Simo Hayha proved himself to be one of the
deadliest men to ever wield a firearm, earning an estimated 259 confirmed kills. In the other corner we have the United State's
own Carlos Hathcock, a legend in his own right. With 93 confirmed kills and dozens more unconfirmed,
his body count may be lower but Hathcock is famous for undertaking some of the most dangerous,
and impossible, missions ever asked of any sniper. Hathcock would too earn his nickname from
his enemies, called the White Feather for the signature feather he wore on his bush
hat- something he wore on purpose in order to, in his own words, level the playing field
for the men attempting to kill him. Today the two lethal marksmen will be facing
off in our special battle arena, as we find out who would win in a fight to the death-
the White Death or the White Feather! In 1939 there was one thing the Soviet Union
feared more than anything else- an invasion by a modern and re-armed Germany. After suffering greatly at the hands of Germany
in the last world war, and then France during the Napoleonic wars before that, the Soviet
Union was determined that it would avoid at all costs another invasion of its territory. Fearing that war with Germany was inevitable,
the Soviet Union believed that it would be best to establish defensive positions far
ahead of important industrial centers such as Leningrad, and thus demanded that Finland
cede 19 miles (30km) along parts of its border with the Soviet Union so that an increased
buffer zone in case of invasion could be created. The Soviets also demanded the ceding of several
islands and permission to establish a military base on the Hanko Peninsula, to be operated
for thirty years. In exchange, the Soviet Union would cede the
municipalities of Repola and Porajarvi, an area roughly twice the size of that demanded
by the Soviets. The offer was taken up by the Finnish Parliament,
and the public voiced its opposition to the demands. Thus the Soviet secret police staged a false
flag operation against one of their own border posts, shelling it with artillery fire and
killing four guards while injuring nine other men. This provided the Soviets with a reason to
declare war, and soon what would become known as the Winter War of 1939 to 1940 began. Hayha was quickly enlisted into the military
and deployed to the front lines, where he showed an incredible aptitude for marksmanship. Having grown up hunting wild game all his
life, Hayha was a crack shot, and though he was offered a more modern rifle upon enlisting,
he refused and went to war with his old, but trusty Mosin-Nagant M91. Hayha would also refuse the use of telescopic
sights, having grown up his whole life shooting using just the rifle's iron sights. The fact that many of his kills were from
hundreds of meters away only makes his use of iron sights even more incredible. However a far more practical factor figured
into his use of iron sights only, and that is the many Finnish and Soviet snipers he
saw betrayed by the glinting of sunlight from the glass of a rifle's scope. Hayha very quickly made a name for himself
as a crack shot, and soon his superiors were dispatching him to eliminate high value targets. Though he often worked alone, he also worked
in cooperation with a spotter, and the two men would lie perfectly still in the snow
for hours, waiting for an opportune time to strike. In order to not give his position away with
his warm breath in the frigid winter air, Hayha would take a mouth full of snow so that
it chilled his exhaled breath. So that the blast of his rifle wouldn't blow
snow around and give him away, Hayha patiently built up banks of snow around himself and
froze the snow in front of him with water to turn it icy and hard. Hayha would stalk the killing fields of Finland's
eastern border for the duration of the war, once even weathering a Soviet artillery barrage
called down on his position just to eliminate him alone. With the temperature hovering around freezing,
Hayha was forced to endure the worst of the elements, and would have to trudge miles through
thick snow to find his way back to friendly lines after each successful mission. In the end, an enemy sniper scored a lucky
shot on Hayha with an explosive bullet, severely injuring him and forcing him to spend the
rest of the short war recuperating in a field hospital. Though Finland eventually lost the Winter
War, Hayha had done more than his share in defense of his homeland, and earned enough
confirmed kills to give him the highest body count of any sniper in history. When Finland joined with Germany in its invasion
of the Soviet Union in order to retake its lost territory, Hayha refused to rejoin the
military, claiming that he had no interest in invading another man's land. Decades later, Carlos Hathcock would find
himself waging his own one-man war. With the collapse of French forces in Vietnam,
the United States took up the fight against communism and soon committed combat troops
while still trying to leave the war mostly in the hands of a struggling South Vietnam. Before his involvement in Vietnam though,
Hathcock had grown up in Arkansas, where he would hunt with an old single-shot .22 in
order to help feed his poor family. Hathcock had grown up hearing stories about
the exploits of American marines in the Pacific during World War II, and as soon as he was
17 years old he enlisted in the US Marine Corps. In the years before shipping off to Vietnam,
Hathcock made a name for himself by winning several shooting championships, both in the
civilian world and between the military branches- even winning the prestigious Wimbledon Cup. In 1966 Hathcock was deployed to Vietnam as
a military policeman, but he quickly grew unsatisfied with the job and itched to be
sent ahead into combat. He would get his wish when a Corps wide initiative
tried to add at least one sniper to every infantry platoon, and Hathcock was singled
out for training as a sniper due to his many awards for marksmanship. It wouldn't be long before Hathcock would
be out in the field, hunting enemy snipers and taking out high priority enemy VIPs. On one of his most legendary missions, and
the most difficult any sniper in history may have ever undertaken, Hathcock volunteered
for an assignment that was so secret, the group of Marine snipers originally approached
to undertake it were simply told it would be an extremely dangerous mission with very
low probability of survival. By now Hathcock had become a sniper instructor,
and he volunteered for the mission, stating later that because he was the best sniper
the US had, it might as well be him that took the job. The mission would see hathcock travel alone
for days towards an enemy field encampment, and once there, he would crawl for almost
three days, moving just inches an hour, while avoiding enemy patrols- all so he could kill
one North Vietnamese general. The Vietcong and NVA soon named him Long Tr'ang,
or White Feather Sniper, for the distinctive white feather he always wore on his cap so
that as he figured, it would level the playing field for any man hunting him in return. A $30,000 bounty was placed on his head, and
no enemy sniper would live to claim it, though many attempted. One such sniper, known only as the Cobra,
hunted Hathcock down and the two dueled in the thick jungle for an entire day, each silently
trying to locate and kill the other. In the end as the sun was fading, a single
quick glint of light tipped Hathcock off to the Cobra's location, and he fired- putting
a bullet clean through the scope of the Cobra's rifle without even grazing the sides, and
killing him instantly. The White Death versus the White Feather,
two of the deadliest marksmen to have ever lived- who then would come out on top in a
sniper-on-sniper duel? Hayha's kill count has made him the deadliest
sniper of all time, but in truth the nature of the two different wars directly led to
Hayha's incredibly high kill count. In the Winter War, Finnish troops faced off
against massed Soviet formations, with over 1.5 million soviet forces advancing across
a very narrow strip of land on Finland's eastern border, Hayha enjoyed what is best called
a 'target rich environment'. Fighting from defensive fortifications and
repelling massive assaults, Hayha had no shortage of enemy soldiers to shoot at. Another major factor contributing to Hayha's
kill count is the fact that the Soviets had not issued any winter uniforms to their troops,
making Soviet soldiers stand out like practice targets against the white snow. By comparison, Hathcock's war was much different
in nature, and this best explains the disparity in kill counts. In Vietnam conflicts between large groups
of opposing forces were rare, and rather the bulk of the war took place at the company
level, between groups of dozens or hundreds of men at a time. The nature of the terrain- thick jungles versus
winter forests and frozen plains- also made Soviet-style large-scale wave attacks impossible. Though he did take part in defense of firebases,
Hathcock very often had to hunt for his prey, and tasked with the elimination of enemy VIPs,
Hathcock had to be very selective about who he shot at in order to not give himself away. Therefore, kill count alone is not going to
determine which was the superior sniper, though in truth both men have enough legendary exploits
that in all likelihood they were evenly matched in terms of skill. Hayha routinely scored kills on soldiers hundreds
of yards away using nothing more than iron sights, yet Hathcock famously shot an elite
enemy sniper straight through his own scope, the bullet never once even grazing the sides
of the scope. How then do their weapons match up? Hayha famously used an old M1891 Russian-built
rifle, chambered with a 7.62 round. The rifle featured an effective firing range
of 500 meters for point targets, and 800 meters for area targets- though both ranges could
be improved with optical sights. It weighed about 9 pounds (4 kg) and had a
barrel length of 29 inches (740mm). Hathcock meanwhile operated a Winchester Model
70, originally designed as a hunting rifle and adapted for use by military snipers. The rifle was chambered with a .30-06 round
and featured maximum effective ranges very similar to Hayah's M1891. Weighing between 6 and 8 pounds and with a
26 inch barrel, it was a little lighter and more wieldy in thick brush than Hayha's M1891
however. Weapons alone are clearly not going to dictate
the winner, as the two rifles are simply too close together in specs to give one a noticeable
advantage over the other. However Hathcock's larger .30-06 round would
definitely have been deadlier than Hayha's 7.62- but with such expert marksmen this would
likely not figure very much into the fight. Instead the battle would clearly be one of
battlefields. Hayha was an expert winter warrior, and knew
how to fight and conceal himself in winter snows. Hathcock meanwhile was an expert jungle fighter,
routinely out-stalking even native snipers who had grown up in those same jungles their
whole lives. As with any duel between professional snipers,
a victory would ultimately come down to who could put accurate fire on target first, and
in this case the skills of the two men are simply too close to call- so we're leaving
it up to the environment. In a jungle battlefield, Hathcock would likely
win this fight every time, but in a wintertime battlefield, Hayha's keen survival and camouflage
skills would see him the victor. In the end, despite Hayha's kill count being
artificially inflated by the nature of the war he fought, and the fact that he was shooting
at men wearing dark uniforms in white snow, the two men are still too closely matched
in terms of skill to dictate a winner, and we're going to go ahead and call this a draw. Who do you think would really have won between
Hathcock and Hayha? Who would truly be the best sniper of all
time? Let us know in the comments! And as always if you enjoyed this video don't
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