The White Sniper

The White Sniper
Author: Tapio A. M. Saarelainen
Publisher: Casemate
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2016-10-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 161200430X

The remarkable story of the Finnish marksman nicknamed “White Death” by the Red Army for his record number of confirmed kills. Simo Häyhä is the most famous sniper in the world. During the Winter War fought between Russia and Finland from 1939 to 1940, he had 542 confirmed kills with iron sights, a record that still stands today. A man of action who spoke very little, Simo Häyhä was hugely respected by his men and his superiors and given many difficult missions, including taking out specific targets. Able to move silently and swiftly through the landscape, melting into the snowbound surroundings in his white camouflage fatigues, his aim was deadly and his quarry rarely escaped. The Russians learned of his reputation as a marksman and tried several times to kill him by indirect fire. He was promoted from corporal to second lieutenant, and he was awarded the Cross of Kollaa. For sniping, Simo Häyhä only ever used his own M/28-30 rifle. Eventually, his luck ran out, and Simo received a serious head wound on March 6,1940, though he subsequently recovered. The White Sniper fully explores Simo Häyhä’s life, his exploits in the Winter War, the secrets behind his success, including character and technique, and also includes a detailed look at his rifle itself. There are appendices on the basics of shooting, the impact of fire on the battlefield, battles on the Kollaa Front during the Winter War, and a list of ranked snipers of the world. “No matter how many books on sniping you have read, this must be added to your list if you are serious about shooting.” —GunMart

White Death

White Death
Author: Robbie Morrison
Publisher: Image Comics
Total Pages: 112
Release: 2014-08-27
Genre: Comics & Graphic Novels
ISBN: 1632151901

In 1916, Pietro Aquasanta, an Italian rifleman, returns to his childhood home of the Trentino mountain range to find that it's no longer the realm of wonder and adventure he remembers, but has become a place of death and despair, where the elements are as great a threat as the enemy. No weapon of war was more feared than the White Death, thundering avalanches deliberately caused by cannon fire which consumed everything in their path

The White Death

The White Death
Author: Allen F. Chew
Publisher: Kiwe Publishing
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2007
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781931195225

This definitive English-language work on the 105-day war between Finland and Stalin's Soviet Union during the winter of 1939-1940 details the successful resistance of the Finnish forces against the massive Red Army.

War of the White Death

War of the White Death
Author: Bair Irincheev
Publisher: Stackpole Books
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2012
Genre: History
ISBN: 0811710882

On 30 November 1939 Stalin's Red Army attacked Finland, expecting to crush the outnumbered, ill-equipped Finnish forces in a matter of days. But, in one of the most astonishing upsets in modern military history, the Finnish defenders broke the Red Army's advance, inflicting devastating casualties and destroying some of the divisions that had been thrown against them. Eventually, in March 1940, the overhauled Red Army prevailed through the deployment of massive force. The Finns were compelled to cede territory and cities to their overbearing neighbour, but the moral victory was theirs. The courage and skill their army displayed in the face of the Soviet onslaught - and the chaotic and reckless performance of their opponents - had an important influence on the massive struggle that was about to break out between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. For this highly illustrated and original portrayal of this famously unequal struggle, Bair Irincheev has brought together a compelling selection of eyewitness accounts, war diaries, battle reports, and other records from the Finnish and Russian archives to reconstruct the frontline fighting, and he analyses the reasons for the Red Army's poor performance. Never before has the harsh reality of the combat in the depths of the northern winter been conveyed in such authentic detail. The arduous daily experience of the troops on both sides, the brutality of combat and the constant struggle against the elements are recalled in the words of the men who were there. AUTHOR: Bair Irincheev is an expert on the troubled twentieth-century history of Finland and Russia and has made a particular study of the Finnish army during the Winter War and the Continuation War that followed. He is based in Helsinki and recently compiled a highly illustrated survey of the Mannerheim Line which was Finland's principal defence against the Soviet Union. Among his previous publications is On the Roads of War: A Soviet Cavalryman on the Eastern Front. SELLING POINTS: * Compelling new account of the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union * Based on eyewitness testimony, was diaries, battle reports, and other records from the Finnish and Russian archives * Authentic portrayal of frontline fighting in the harshest of conditions ILLUSTRATIONS: 90 illustrations *

The White War

The White War
Author: Mark Thompson
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 466
Release: 2009-03-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 0786744383

In May 1915, Italy declared war on the Habsburg Empire. Nearly 750,000 Italian troops were killed in savage, hopeless fighting on the stony hills north of Trieste and in the snows of the Dolomites. To maintain discipline, General Luigi Cadorna restored the Roman practice of decimation, executing random members of units that retreated or rebelled. With elegance and pathos, historian Mark Thompson relates the saga of the Italian front, the nationalist frenzy and political intrigues that preceded the conflict, and the towering personalities of the statesmen, generals, and writers drawn into the heart of the chaos. A work of epic scale, The White War does full justice to the brutal and heart-wrenching war that inspired Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms.

The White Death

The White Death
Author: Thomas Dormandy
Publisher: Burns & Oates
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2002-03-01
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9781852853327

The victims of tuberculosis (usually known as consumption) included not only Keats, The Brontës, Chopin and Chekhov, but members of almost every family. It was a killer on a huge scale. The White Death is an outstanding history of tuberculosis. Thomas Dormandy's engrossing account of the search for a cure is complemented by a description of its complex natural history and by portraits of individual sufferers, including writers, artists, and musicians, whose lives and work were shaped (and often tragically curtailed) by the disease. But, tuberculosis is not just a disease of the past. In many parts of the world it is still a bigger killer than AIDS, while in America and Europe drug-resistant strains threaten its resurgence.

The White Death

The White Death
Author: Mckay Jenkins
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2001-02-13
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0385720777

In 1969, five young men from Montana set out to accomplish what no one had before: to scale the sheer north face of Mt. Cleveland, Glacier National Park's tallest mountain, in winter. Two days later tragedy struck: they were buried in an avalanche so deep that their bodies would not be discovered until the following June. The White Death is the riveting account of that fated climb and of the breathtakingly heroic rescue attempt that ensued. In the spirit of Peter Matthiessen and John McPhee, McKay Jenkins interweaves a harrowing narrative with an astonishing expanse of relevant knowledge ranging from the history of mountain climbing to the science of snow. Evocative and moving, this fascinating book is a humbling account of man at his most intrepid and nature at its most indomitable.

White Death - Blizzard of '77

White Death - Blizzard of '77
Author: Erno Rossi
Publisher: Seventy Seven Publishing
Total Pages: 372
Release: 1999
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780920926031

The Blizzard of 1977 was a deadly blizzard that hit the Western N.Y. state area upstate New York and Southern Ontario from January 28 to February 1, 1977. Daily peak wind gusts ranging from 46 to 69 mph were recorded by the National Weather Service Buffalo Office, with snowfall as high as 100 in recorded in areas, and the high winds blew this into drifts of 30 to 40 ft. There were 23 total storm-related deaths in western New York, with 5 more in northern New York. Certain pre-existing weather conditions exacerbated the blizzard's effects. November, December and January average temperatures were much below normal. Lake Erie froze over by December 14; an ice-covered Lake Erie usually puts an end to lake-effect snow because the wind cannot pick up moisture from the lake's surface, convert the moisture to snow and then dump it when the winds reach shore. Lake Erie was covered by a deep, powdery snow; January's unusually cold conditions limited the usual thawing and refreezing, so the snow on the frozen lake remained powdery. The drifted snow on roadways was difficult to clear because the strong wind packed the snow solidly.

In the Land of White Death

In the Land of White Death
Author: Valerian Albanov
Publisher: Modern Library
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2001-02-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0679642315

“One helluva read.”—Newsweek • “Gripping.”—Outside • “Spellbinding.”—Associated Press • “Powerful.”—New York In 1912, the Saint Anna, a Russian exploration vessel in search of fertile hunting grounds, was frozen into the polar ice cap, trapping her crew aboard. For nearly a year and a half, they struggled to stay alive. As all hope of rescue faded, they realized their best chance of survival might be to set out on foot, across hundreds of miles of desolate ice, with their lifeboats dragged behind them on sledges, in hope of reaching safety. Twenty of them chose to stay aboard; thirteen began the trek; of them all, only two survived. Originally published in Russia in 1917, In the Land of White Death was translated into English for the first time by the Modern Library to widespread critical acclaim. As well as recounting Albanov’s vivid, first-person account of his ninety-day ordeal over 235 miles of frozen sea, this expanded paperback edition contains three newly discovered photographs and an extensive new Epilogue by David Roberts based on the never-before-published diary of Albanov’s only fellow survivor, Alexander Konrad. As gripping as Albanov’s own tale, the Epilogue sheds new light on the tragic events of 1912–1914, brings to life many of those who perished (including the infamous captain Brusilov and nurse Zhdanko, the only woman on board), and, inadvertently, reveals one new piece of information—about the identity of the traitors who left Albanov for dead—that is absolutely shocking. “Poetic.”—The Washington Post • “A lost masterpiece.”—Booklist • “A jewel of polar literature.”—Seattle Post-Intelligencer • “Vivid . . . [a work of] terrifying beauty.”—The Boston Globe

40 Thieves on Saipan

40 Thieves on Saipan
Author: Joseph Tachovsky
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2020-06-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 1684510678

Winner of The 2020 Best Book Award for Military History -- American Bookfest An elite platoon of Marine Scout-Snipers, Lieutenant Frank Tachovsky’s “40 Thieves” were chosen for their willingness to defy rules and beat all-comers. When two Marines got into a fight, the loser ended up in the infirmary, the winner in the brig. Tachovsky wanted the winner on his team—a brush with military law was a recommendation. These full-blooded men were trained in a ruthless array of hand-to-hand killing techniques and then thrown into the battle for Saipan—Emperor Hirohito’s “Treasure” and the bulwark of the Japanese Empire in the Pacific—where they would wreak havoc in and around, but mostly behind, enemy lines. They witnessed inhuman atrocities; walked into an ambush after the cunning Japanese used wounded Marines as bait; endured body-punishing extremes of heat, hunger, and thirst; fought a relentless enemy who would not surrender; and watched best friends die. Now Tachovsky’s son Joseph tells their remarkable story—a story he didn’t even know until after his father’s death—reported from an extensive documentary record, including priceless mementos his father kept, and from exhaustive interviews with survivors who served under Lieutenant “Ski.” This is how America won the war in the Pacific, where “uncommon valor was a common virtue.” 40 Thieves on Saipan: The Elite Marine Scout-Snipers in One of World War II’s Bloodiest Battles is true history. It’s also an adventure you don’t want to miss.