Random question: where is Simo Hayha buried?

[Balog]

Girl I know is preparing to goto Finland and Norway on vacation. I was thinking of asking her to stop by his grave and take some pics for me. Does anyone know if it's a public monument? Also, any good Winter War memorial places I can recommend to her?

[Viking]

Girl I know is preparing to goto Finland and Norway on vacation. I was thinking of asking her to stop by his grave and take some pics for me. Does anyone know if it's a public monument? Also, any good Winter War memorial places I can recommend to her?

I've occasionally talked to some Finns on a Swedish forum, I could ask them if they know. Are you in a hurry to find out?

[Balog]

I've occasionally talked to some Finns on a Swedish forum, I could ask them if they know. Are you in a hurry to find out?

Not really, she's not leaving for a couple weeks I believe.

[Viking]

Not really, she's not leaving for a couple weeks I believe.

Understood. I just sent off a message to three people on that forum who might have a clue. I'll run a search in the Weapons & Military sub-forum there as well to see if I can dig up anything on war memorials.

[Viking]

I found a couple of links, if war museums and old battlefields are of interest to her.
http://www.frontmuseum.fi/index.html
http://www.jatkosota.fi/rintamamuseo/ (unfortunatly in Finnish only)
http://www.torpintykit.suntuubi.com/?cat=9
http://www.suomenlinna.fi/en/ not a war memorial, or a place where the war was fought, but still looks interesting.
http://www.panssarimuseo.fi/kehys-e.html
http://www.joensuu.fi/mekri/sotahistoria/warhistory.htm

[AZRedhawk44]

His grave is at a church in a town called Ruokolahti.

[Sergeant Bob]

Great google e moogli!

Random question: where is Simo Hayha buried?

The answer was right there on the same page as your question! 

[DonTron]

Simo Häyhä (December 17, 1905 – April 1, 2002), nicknamed "White Death"  by the Red Army, was a Finnish sharpshooter. Using a standard iron-sighted, bolt action rifle in the Winter War, he has the highest recorded number of confirmed kills in any major war.

... except, perhaps, for Paul Tibbets.

[Balog]

I'd imagine almost any bomber crewman in WWII killed more people than any three snipers put together. Not really the same thing though...

[RevDisk]

I'd imagine almost any bomber crewman in WWII killed more people than any three snipers put together. Not really the same thing though...

And you'd be right.   Except for when it's Simo.  700+ kills are his confirmed.  Most folks think it was undoubtedly higher.

[Balog]

And you'd be right.   Except for when it's Simo.  700+ kills are his confirmed.  Most folks think it was undoubtedly higher.

I dunno, each bombing run probably killed hundreds of people, and you had to do what, 20 or 25 runs before you were off the hook?

[RevDisk]

I dunno, each bombing run probably killed hundreds of people, and you had to do what, 20 or 25 runs before you were off the hook?

That assumes each bombing run was against a city.  And that the load hit the city. 

[Northwoods]

I dunno, each bombing run probably killed hundreds of people, and you had to do what, 20 or 25 runs before you were off the hook?

According that most accurate of sources, Wikipedia, the top end estimate of German civilian casualities due to strategic bombing was 600,000.  The bombing sorties totaled 754,818 just for the USA, plus another 687k for the Brits.  Now, those casualities don't include non-Germans, or soldiers.  But even if you assumed (of course incorrectly) that all German civilian and soldier deaths were due to strategic bombing (for a total of 6.95mil dead - 5.3mil soldiers, 1.65mil civilians) that's an average of 4.8 kills per sortie.

Even if you assume that half of the sorties failed to drop their bombs on the target, that's still less than 10 kills per sortie that makes it to the target.  Condsidering how few crews survived their 25 mission tour of duty, especially early on, that's not that many kills per crew.  And if you figure 10 man crew for a bomber, that's 1 kill each on average per sortie that makes it to the target.  Lots of snipers match or exceed that rate, even with a survival rate as bad or worse than the bomber crews.

[Balog]

Huh, interesting. I always assumed the bombing casualties were higher.

[Northwoods]

Huh, interesting. I always assumed the bombing casualties were higher.

The point of the bombing, in many cases at least, was not to kill people.  It was to destroy production facilities, oil refineries, and other infrastructure.  That people (whether civilian or soldier) were killed in the process was a byproduct (i.e. collateral damage), though not necessarily one considered undesirable.  High death rates due to bombing were also looked at as favorable due to the effect on the morale of the civilian population.  As such it was thought to help undermine support for that country's leadership.

Some bombing of course would target troop concentrations, or was done as a matter of close air support.  In those cases, of course, killing was a prime objective.

[Balog]

Right, and Dresden had a factory for ball bearings or some such iirc. Lottla people still died. Did the Allies ever directly bomb population centers with no direct strategic value, aside from in Japan?

[Scout26]

Right, and Dresden had a factory for ball bearings or some such iirc. Lottla people still died. Did the Allies ever directly bomb population centers with no direct strategic value, aside from in Japan?

Yes and No.  Yes, we did bomb population centers, but all population centers had some factories/communications centers/transport hubs that were either strategic or at least tactical targets.