Medic's ramblings about Finland

[Medic]

Originally Posted by Targan

Simo Häyhä has been talked about on these forums before, and any web search focussing on military sniping records will turn up his name. I agree that a film detailing his exploits would be exceelent to see.

Simo Häyhä didn't even consider himself much of a hero - he was, in his own eyes, just a decent marksman and a soldier. As for why Americans have not heard of him, I can only state that I've run in to Americans, who think polar bears walk the streets of Helsinki (the Finnish capital) and that we live in igloos (and I'm not even kidding or making his up, you know). Besides, from the American point of view, he fought on the wrong side.

As for the movie, Finland was considered an Axis nation after the war and being located right next to Soviet Union, not too many films about the war were made before the fall of the Soviet Union. Though Finland was never occupied, the Soviet threat forced us to adopt appeasement policy and certain things were pretty much censored on the level of taboo. However, now that Soviet Union is no longer, HBO is making a documentary/drama, Hemingway&Gellhorn, in which Simo Häyhä will appear, portrayed by Steven Wiig.