Kiwi Medals

This Finland medal is awarded for service in the war against the Soviet Union in 1939 and 1940. The war started out well for Finland when she was able to use her terrain and the Mannerheim Line of fortifications to blunt and in places, slaughter the Soviet invaders. Eventually the weight of numbers told and Finland was forced to seek peace. There are a lot of bars for this medal, mostly regional. Only one bar could be awarded per medal.

Ensconced in the snow, his white camouflage suit rendering him invisible to the invading Soviet soldiers he stalked, Simo Häyhä steadied himself to fire. During the 1939–1940 Winter War, in temperatures as low as –40 °C, the Finnish sniper undertook a killing spree that saw him single-handedly take the lives of at least 700 men in less than 100 days. Over 500 of these he shot using a standard, bolt-action rifle with non-telescopic sights. Is it any wonder he earned the nickname White Death among his enemies? Meet the man who would take Rambo to the cleaners.

This entry was posted on May 2, 2013 at 9:12 PM and is filed under 1939-1945 Service Medals with tags Finland, Soviet Union, WW2. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.