Well-trained snipers have always been valued in all armies of the world, but especially the importance of snipers increased during the Second World War. The results of this war showed that the most trained and effective in their overwhelming majority were the snipers of the Red Army. Soviet sniper fighters in many respects were noticeably superior to snipers of the German Wehrmacht and not only them.

And this was not surprising, it turns out that the Soviet Union was almost the only country in the world where training in small arms business was put on stream, it practically covered the wide strata of the population of the whole country, trained citizens in shooting business even in peacetime, as part of pre-conscription training , the older generation probably still remembers the sign "Voroshilovsky shooter".

Soviet snipers practice ambush actions

The high quality of this training was soon tested by the war, during which Soviet snipers showed all their skills, this skill is confirmed by the so-called sniper "death lists", from which it can be seen that only one top ten Soviet snipers killed (according to confirmed data) 4200 soldiers and officers, and the top twenty - 7400, the Germans did not have such tens and twenty.

Despite the hardest defeats in the first months of the war, the training of the best riflemen in units and formations of the front line continued at an accelerated pace and did not stop for a minute. In addition, snipers were trained in reserve training units and on short-term courses directly in the combat formations of the troops.

However, the military command understood the need for centralized training of "super-sharp shooters". As early as September 18, 1941, a decree was issued on universal compulsory military training for citizens of the USSR, which made it possible to organize military training of the population without interrupting production. The training program was designed for 110 hours. In addition to other military specialties (machine gunner, mortarman, signalman), the training went along the line of sniping.

Sniper school cadets at a practical lesson

Still, it was extremely difficult to train snipers in such a short time, so it was soon decided to open special "schools of excellent sniper training" (SHOSSP) in the military districts. The training went on for 3-4 months already with a break from production. The Moscow Military District alone had three such schools. The instructors involved were sniping instructors from OSOAVIAKHIM, who, as in peacetime, continued to train sniper personnel in their schools.

In addition, it was decided to organize a centralized training of highly qualified snipers with instructor skills. For this, on March 20, 1942, a school of sniper instructors was created in Veshnyaki near Moscow.

Red Army snipers take position

Our opponents, the Germans, also had special sniper schools, but the Germans did not have such a wide coverage and such a serious approach to training snipers, and they ended up far behind the Red Army in the sniper business.

During World War II, much attention was paid to the sniper business in the troops of the anti-Hitler coalition, but the results of the Anglo-American snipers were much more modest than those of the Russians, Germans and Finns. The most trained snipers among the allies were mainly from the British, American snipers, in the main, distinguished themselves in battles with the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean.

Sniper labor was hard and dangerous, for hours, or even days, the soldiers had to lie in the snow or swamp, in constant tension and attention, the equipment of the Soviet sniper during the Great Patriotic War was rather stingy. In addition to an optical sight for monitoring targets, they had a variety of field binoculars (usually 6- and 8-fold) and trench periscopes TR and TR-8.

For self-defense in close combat, the sniper often took several hand grenades, a pistol and a knife with him on a mission. If a sniper group was ambushed, then the armament was also supplemented with a PPSh or PPS submachine gun. Throughout the war and after it, up to the adoption of the SVD (in 1963), the standard sniper rifle in our army remained the rifle arr. 1891/30 with a PU sight.

Unknown Soviet female snipers at the dugout. On overcoats sergeant shoulder straps, in the hands of a Mosin rifle with a PU telescopic sight (Sight Shortened)

In total, from 1941 to 1945, 53,195 sniper rifles of the 1891/30 model were produced in the USSR. and 48.992 SVT sniper rifles. For wartime, this is a rather large figure, but if you look at the real number of personnel snipers trained during the same time and make an allowance for the natural loss of weapons during hostilities, it becomes clear that all front-line "super-sharp shooters" simply could not be provided with special sniper weapon.

By the middle of 1942, Soviet snipers were actively working on all fronts of the Great Patriotic War, they unleashed a real sniper terror against the German troops, our snipers had a huge moral impact on the enemy soldiers, and this is understandable why, since our enemy soldiers were shot by our snipers almost every day and almost every minute.

The most famous Soviet sniper is undoubtedly the Hero of Stalingrad Vasily Zaitsev, who killed 242 German soldiers and officers, including the head of the Berlin sniper school, Major Konings. In total, Zaitsev's group destroyed 1,126 enemy servicemen in four months of fighting. Zaitsev's companions in arms were Nikolai Ilyin, who had 496 Germans on his account, Pyotr Goncharov - 380, Viktor Medvedev - 342.

It should be noted that the main merit of Zaitsev is not so much in his personal combat account as in the fact that he became a key figure in the deployment of the sniper movement among the ruins of Stalingrad, of course, the entire Soviet agitprop also worked for Zaitsev's group, so he and familiar.

Soviet sniper V.A. Sidorov at a firing position in August 1941. The Red Army soldier is armed with a Mosin sniper rifle with a PE telescopic sight of the 1931 model, it is also worth noting the "Halkingolka" helmet SSH-36 (Steel helmet 1936)

And the main record holder for the destruction of enemy soldiers according to the "death list" was the sniper Mikhail Ilyich Surkov (4th rifle division), 702 killed enemy soldiers and officers were recorded on his account, followed by the number of killed enemy soldiers in the top ten:

- Vladimir Gavrilovich Salbiev (71 Guards SD and 95 Guards SD) - 601 people.
- Vasily Shalvovich Kvachantiradze (259th rifle regiment) - 534 people.
- Akhat Abdulkhakovich Akhmetyanov (260 joint venture) - 502 people.
- Ivan Mikhailovich Sidorenko (1122 rifle regiment) - 500 people. + 1 tank, 3 tractors
- Nikolay Yakovlevich Ilyin (50th Guards rifle regiment) - 494 people.
- Ivan Nikolaevich Kulbertinov (23 separate ski brigades; 7 Guards air-des.p.) - 487 people.
- Vladimir Nikolaevich Pchelintsev (11th brigade) - 456 people (including 14 snipers)
- Nikolay Evdokimovich Kazyuk - 446 members
- Petr Alekseevich Goncharov (44th Guards rifle regiment) - 441 people.

In total, there are 17 Soviet snipers, whose number of killed enemy soldiers exceeds 400 people. Over 300 killed enemy soldiers were recorded at the expense of 25 Soviet snipers, 36 Soviet snipers killed more than 200 enemy soldiers.

The best of the enemy snipers are: Finnish sniper Simo Hayha is the fifth in the general list, he has more than 500 killed enemy soldiers on his account, from the Wehrmacht snipers the most productive is the twenty-seventh in the general list Mathias Hetzenauer, on his account 345 killed enemy soldiers and Sepp Allerberg on his account is 257 enemy soldiers and officers.

According to some researchers, the real accounts of many Soviet snipers are actually more than the confirmed ones. So, for example, Fedor Okhlopkov, a sniper of the 259th rifle regiment, according to some sources, destroyed more than 1000 (!) Germans in total, using a machine gun as well, however, on the official combat account he had only 429 killed enemy soldiers, probably the situation on the battlefield did not always make it possible to calculate their results more accurately.

In the diaries and letters found on the killed soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht, there are such phrases: “ The Russian sniper is something very terrible, you can't hide from him anywhere! You can't raise your head in trenches. The slightest carelessness - and you will immediately get a bullet between the eyes ... Russian snipers lie for hours in one place in ambush and take aim at anyone who appears. Only in the dark can you feel safe».

But it turns out that in the dark, the Germans, too, could not feel safe. So, the sniper of the 1st Guards Artillery Regiment, Ivan Kalashnikov (it turns out that the artillery also had its own snipers) out of 350 killed soldiers, 45 Nazis were destroyed at night - this shooter truly had a cat's vision!

By 1943, there were already more than 1,000 women among Soviet snipers, during the war they counted more than 12,000 killed Nazis, the best of the female snipers is considered Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlyuchenko, a sniper of the 54th rifle regiment, during the war she managed to destroy 309 enemy soldiers of them 36 were themselves snipers.

Soviet sniper Sergeant Tsyrendashi Dorzhiev of the 202nd Rifle Division at a firing position. Leningrad front. The combat score of Ts.Dorzhiev (Buryats by nationality) before his death in January 1943 was 270 killed soldiers and officers.

The "Combat Regulations of the Infantry" adopted by the Red Army in 1942 defined the range of combat missions to be solved by snipers at the front: Destruction of snipers, officers, observers, gun and machine-gun crews (especially flanking and dagger crews), crews of stopped tanks, low-flying enemy aircraft, and in general all important targets that appear for a short time and quickly disappear ... The sniper must also be able to show with a tracer bullet and in other ways infantry, artillery, mortars and anti-tank rifles, important targets that are not vulnerable to a bullet: tanks, bunkers (bunkers), guns».

And Soviet snipers clearly carried out all these assigned tasks. So the sniper, Marine Rubakho Philip Yakovlevich (393 battalion battalion) destroyed 346 enemy soldiers, 1 tank and put out of action the garrisons of 8 enemy bunkers. Sniper 849 S.p. Ivan Abdulov destroyed 298 German soldiers, of which 5 people were snipers themselves, plus the brave fighter also destroyed two enemy tanks with grenades. Sniper 283 Guards rifle regiment Anatoly Kozlenkov, in addition to the 194 people he killed. enemy soldiers, knocked out 2 tanks with grenades, and destroyed 3 German armored personnel carriers.

And there are many such examples, our snipers even managed to knock out German planes, as it is known that the sniper of the 82nd rifle division Mikhail Lysov in October 1941 from an automatic rifle with a sniper scope shot down a Ju-87 dive bomber. Unfortunately, there is no data on the number of infantrymen killed by him, and the sniper of the 796th rifle division, Sergeant Major Antonov Vasily Antonovich, in July 1942 near Voronezh, shot down a twin-engined Ju-88 bomber with 4 rifle shots! There is also no data on the number of infantrymen killed by him.

Sniper of the 203rd Rifle Division (3rd Ukrainian Front) Senior Sergeant Ivan Petrovich Merkulov at a firing position. In March 1944, Ivan Merkulov was awarded the highest award - the title of Hero Soviet Union, during the war years, the sniper destroyed more than 144 enemy soldiers and officers.

Even Hitler's generals died from the fire of Soviet snipers, so on account of the sniper Semyon Nomokonov among the 367 German soldiers and officers destroyed by him, one was in the rank of General of the Wehrmacht. On account of the sniper 14 s.p. troops of the NKVD Yevgeny Nikolaev also recorded a German general.

There were even snipers specifically designed to fight enemy snipers, so sniper 81 Guards rifle regiment Vasily Golosov killed 422 enemy soldiers in total, 70 of them were snipers themselves.

A special practice of using snipers existed at that time in the NKVD troops. After training and special training, "super-sharp shooters" went on combat training in the army. Such sniper teams usually numbered from 20 to 40 people, the duration of the trip was from 10 days to a month. Thus, a significant part of the personnel not only received special training, but also underwent running-in in real conditions of the front line. For example, in the 23rd division of the NKVD troops for the protection of railways during the war, 7283 snipers were trained.

Snipers of the unit of senior lieutenant F.D. Lunina fire salvo at enemy aircraft.

In the memorandum "On the combat activities of snipers of the NKVD troops of the USSR for the protection of important industrial enterprises for the period from October 1, 1942 to December 31, 1943" it says: “... Over the past period, units of the troops have undergone practice in the combat formations of the active Red Army, some of them 2-3 times. As a result of combat work, the snipers of the troops destroyed 39,745 enemy soldiers and officers. In addition, an enemy aircraft was shot down and 10 stereo tubes and periscopes were destroyed. Losses of our snipers: 68 people were killed, 112 people were wounded».

In total, during the war years, a total of 428,335 excellent snipers were trained - this is a huge number, no other army in the world had such a massive training of snipers, which significantly strengthened the combat formations of rifle units.
In addition, 9534 highly qualified snipers were trained in the training units of the central subordination.

I would especially like to recall and note Lieutenant General G.F. Morozov, it was he who made a great contribution to the organization of centralized training of sniper personnel, it was he, heading one of the departments of the General Staff, who accumulated and analyzed the combat experience of Soviet snipers throughout the war.

In total, during the war years, 87 snipers became Heroes of the Soviet Union, and 39 were full holders of the Order of Glory.

Female snipers of the 3rd Shock Army, 1st Belorussian Front. From left to right:
1st row from the viewer - senior sergeant V.N. Stepanova (on her account - 20 enemies), guard senior sergeant Yu.P. Belousov (80 enemies), senior sergeant A.E. Vinogradov (83 enemies);
2nd row - guard junior lieutenant E.K. Zhibovskaya (24 enemies), guard senior sergeant K.F. Marinkina (79 enemies), guard senior sergeant O.S. Marienkina (70 enemies);
3rd row - guard junior lieutenant N.P. Belobrova (70 enemies), guard lieutenant N.A. Lobkovskaya (89 enemies), guard junior lieutenant V.I. Artamonov (89 enemies), guard senior sergeant M.G. Zubchenko (83 enemies);
4th row - guard sergeant N.P. Obukhovskaya (64 enemies), guard sergeant A.R. Belyakova (24 enemies).

Sniper Rosa Shanina with her rifle. Roza Shanina has been in active service since April 2, 1944. On account of 54 confirmed killed soldiers and officers, including 12 snipers. Chevalier of the Orders of Glory, 2nd and 3rd degree. Killed in action on January 28, 1945, 3 km southeast of the village of Ilmsdorf, Rihau district, East Prussia.

Hero of the Soviet Union, sniper of the 25th Chapaevsk division Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko (1916-1974). Destroyed over 300 Nazi soldiers and officers.

Soviet sniper Maxim Alexandrovich Passar. An ethnic Nanaets, a sniper of the 71st Guards Rifle Division, killed over 230 Nazis. He died on January 17, 1943 in a battle near the village of Peschanka, Gorodishchensky district. On February 16, 2010 by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 199 he was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.

Date: 2011-03-22

In the first world war the work of a sniper has grown and developed into a whole independent branch of combat activity, in conditions of positional standing; but the experience of 1918 made it possible to evaluate the sniper in a field war. The Germans, the inventors of sniping, introduced one shooter with a rifle equipped with a telescopic sight into each light machine-gun link. German snipers, in the first period of trench warfare, incapacitated the British, along the entire front, several hundred people a day, which within a month gave a loss figure equal to the number of an entire division. The British quickly responded to the threat by creating their own sniper school and eventually completely suppressed the enemy shooters. Almost all participants in the world war, especially in the German sectors of the front, had to deal with one or another manifestation of the work of a German sniper. "I, personally, remember well the difficult atmosphere created in the regiments of the 71st Infantry Division, snipers (I think they were the German 208th division), literally making "Paradise valleys" from some parts of our trenches on the left bank of the Seret River (in Romania). the depth of the defeat of the trench), they literally did not allow to show half a head, not only because of the parapet, but even into the hole of the camouflaged under-belly machine-gun nest, not to mention the breaks of the trenches flanking from their position. also suggested, even then, the idea that someone was beating them, as they say, “at choice” - of course, they were beaten by snipers. "(E. N. Sergeev). It was on the fronts of the First World War that the basic principles and specific methods of sniping were determined (for example, sniper pairs - "fighter shooter" and an observer-target designator).

It was only later, in the Red Army, that it was possible to create our own Russian sniper school, putting the training of shooters on stream.

Despite the fact that during the First World War the Germans were the first to take the initiative in using specially trained soldiers and rifles with a telescopic sight, active work in the field of sniping began in the Wehrmacht only after the collision with the Soviet tactics of "sniper terror". In the winter of 1941-1942. snipers appeared on the Russian positions and the sniper movement began to actively develop, supported by the political directorates of the fronts. The German command remembered the need for training and its "super-sharp shooters". In the Wehrmacht began to organize sniper schools and front-line courses, gradually began to grow the "proportion" of sniper rifles in relation to other types of small arms.

In the 1930-1940s, the German army used a 7.92-mm Mauser rifle of the 1935 model (K98) with a one and a half-time sight of the 1941 model or a four-time Zeiss sight. In terms of its main combat properties, this weapon did not particularly differ from the Soviet Mosin rifle, so in terms of armament, the forces of the parties were approximately equal.

The sniper version of the 7.92-mm Mauser 98K carbine was tested back in 1939, but this version began to be mass-produced only after the attack on the USSR. Since 1942, 6% of all carbines produced had a telescopic sight bracket, but throughout the war, there was a shortage of sniper weapons in the German troops. For example, in April 1944, the Wehrmacht received 164,525 carbines, but only 3276 of them had optical sights, i.e. about 2%. However, according to the post-war assessment of German military experts, “Type 98 carbines equipped with standard optics could in no way meet the requirements of the battle. Compared to Soviet sniper rifles ... they were significantly different for the worse. Therefore, every Soviet sniper rifle captured as a trophy was immediately used by the Wehrmacht soldiers "(R. Lidshun, G. Vollert." Small arms yesterday ").
By the way, the ZF41 optical sight with a magnification of 1.5x was attached to a guide specially carved on the aiming block, so that the distance from the shooter's eye to the eyepiece was about 22 cm.German opticians believed that such an optical sight with a small magnification, installed at a considerable distance from the shooter's eye to the eyepiece, should be quite effective, since it allows you to direct the crosshair to the target without stopping the observation of the terrain. At the same time, the small magnification of the sight does not give a significant discrepancy in scale between the objects observed through the sight and over it. In addition, this option for the placement of optics allows you to load the rifle with clips without losing sight of the target and muzzle of the barrel. But naturally, a sniper rifle with such a low-power sight could not be used for long-range shooting. However, such a device was still not popular among Wehrmacht snipers - often such rifles were simply thrown onto the battlefield in the hope of finding something better for themselves.

Arsenal of the German sniper: rifle "Mauser-7.92", pistols "Walter PPK" and "Walter P-38"

German sniper scope with an increase of 2.5

German and Finnish snipers on ultra-precise Mauser-7.92 rifles had sights with an increase of only 2.5 times. The Germans (and they were smart people) believed that it was no longer necessary. German snipers had scopes with tenfold magnification, but only virtuosos fired with them. Such a sight was obtained as a trophy by the Russian sniper Vasily Zaitsev in a duel with the head of the Berlin school of snipers.

Low-to-medium shooters hit better with low magnification scopes. The process of aiming with a telescopic sight is very strict, when aiming one must be very collected and very attentive. The optical sight does not so much facilitate aiming as it mobilizes the efforts of a trained shooter to aim and hold the weapon. It is in this regard that the optical sight allows highly trained shooters to realize their reserve capabilities. The optical sight is a means of realizing the training of the shooter. And the greater the degree of training and the acquired stability the shooter has, the greater the increase in the sight he can afford. Only professional snipers with a well-set build, developed stability, with a nervous system balanced to complete indifference, with no pulsation and possessing hellish patience, can afford to work with a sight magnification of 6 times and higher. For such shooters, the target in the sight behaves calmly and does not try to control the shot. (A. Potapov "The Art of the Sniper")

Since 1943, the Wehrmacht has been using the Walter system self-loading carbine (model 1943), the 7.92-mm self-loading rifle G43 (or K43) had its own sniper version with a 4x telescopic sight. However, due to its low reliability and low accuracy, the Walther was not popular among the troops, just like the Tokarev SVT rifle in the Red Army. The German military leadership required all G43 rifles to have a telescopic sight, but this was no longer possible. Nevertheless, out of 402,703 issued before March 1945, almost 50 thousand had an already installed optical sight. In addition, all rifles had a bracket for mounting optics, so in theory any rifle could be used as a sniper weapon.

1944 was a turning point for the art of sniper in the German army. The role of sniping was finally appreciated by the high command: numerous orders emphasized the need for the competent use of snipers, preferably in pairs "shooter plus observer", various types of camouflage and special equipment were developed. It was assumed that during the second half of 1944 the number of sniper pairs in the grenadier and people's grenadier units would be doubled. Heinrich Himmler also became interested in sniping in the SS troops, he approved a program for specialized in-depth training of fighter shooters.
In the same year, by order of the Luftwaffe command, the training films "Invisible weapons: a sniper in battle" and "Field training of snipers" were filmed for use in training ground units.

A fragment from the educational film "Field training of snipers: masters of disguise".

Fragment from the training film "Invisible Weapon: Sniper in Battle"

Both films were shot quite competently and very high quality, even from the height of today: here are given the main points of special sniper training, the most important recommendations for action in the field, and all this in a popular form, with a combination of game elements.
The memo, widely circulated at this time, entitled "The Ten Commandments of the Sniper" read:
- Fight selflessly.
- Fire calmly and carefully, concentrate on each shot. Remember that fast shooting has no effect.
“Shoot only when you’re sure you won’t be detected.
- Your main enemy is an enemy sniper, outsmart him.
“Don't forget that the sapper's shovel prolongs your life.
- Constantly practice measuring distances.
- Become a master in terrain and camouflage.
- Train constantly - on the front line and in the rear.
- Take care of your sniper rifle, don't give it to anyone.
- Survival for a sniper in nine parts - camouflage and only one - shooting.
In the German army, snipers were used at various tactical levels. It was the experience of applying this concept that allowed E. Middeldorf in his book to offer the following practice in the post-war period: “In no other issue related to infantry combat operations, there are such great contradictions as in the issue of using snipers. Some consider it necessary to have a regular platoon of snipers in each company, or at least in the battalion. Others predict that snipers in pairs will be most successful. We will try to find a solution that meets the requirements of both points of view. First of all, one should distinguish between "amateur snipers" and "professional snipers". It is desirable that each squad has two non-standard amateur snipers. They need to be given a 4x telescopic sight to the assault rifle. They will remain regular shooters with additional sniper training. If using them as snipers is not possible, then they will act like regular soldiers. As for professional snipers, there should be two in each company or six in the company command group. They must be armed with a special sniper rifle with a muzzle velocity of more than 1000 m / sec., With a 6x high aperture optical sight. These snipers, as a rule, will conduct "free hunting" in the company area. If, depending on the situation and terrain conditions, the need to use a platoon of snipers arises, it will be easily feasible, since the company has 24 snipers (18 amateur snipers and 6 professional snipers), which in this case can be combined together " ... Note that this concept of sniping is considered one of the most promising. (Oleg Ryazanov "Super Sharp Shooters" from the Wehrmacht)

Matthaus Hetzenauer (1924-2004) with Kar98k rifle with 6x telescopic sight.
Sniper of the 3rd Mountain Rifle Division (Geb.Jg. 144/3. Gebirgs-Devision). From July 1944 to May 1945 - 345 confirmed killed soldiers of the Red Army. He was awarded the Knight's Cross with swords and oak leaves. One of the most productive snipers in Germany.

In World War II, "the Russians were superior to the Germans in the art of night combat, combat in wooded and swampy terrain and combat in winter, in training snipers, and also in equipping infantry with machine guns and mortars" (Eike Middeldorf "Tactics in the Russian Campaign").

German snipers:

Erwin Konig 400 / Heinz Thorvald

Matthаus Hetzenauer 345

Josef Sepp Allerberger257

Bruno Sutkus 209

Friedrich Pein 200

Gefreiter Meyer 180

Helmut Wirnsberger 64

An extremely interesting interview with three former Wehrmacht snipers gives some idea of \u200b\u200bthe German riflemen (Sniper's Notebook):

This is a shared interview with two of Wehrmacht's most successful snipers. Added an interview with a third, also very good sniper, to gain a broader overview of the experience.

The fact is that these three soldiers had really good training and a lot of experience to give accurate and informative answers to questions.

During the interview they will be named A, B and C. During the war they were all at 3. Gebirgsdivision.

Brief information about the respondents.

A: Matthaus H. from Tyrol, on the Eastern Front from 1943 until the end of the war, the most successful sniper in the Wehrmacht with 345 confirmed killed.

B: Sepp A. from Salzburg, was on the Eastern Front from December 1942 until the end of the war, second in rank with 257 confirmed.

C: Helmut W. of Styria, on the Eastern Front from September 1942 until the end of the war, with 64 confirmed destroyed. After he was injured, he was an instructor.

What weapon did you use ?:

A: K98 with 6x telescopic sight, G43 with 4x telescopic sight

B: Trophy Russian scoped sniper rifle, K98 with 6x

C: K98 with 1 1 / 2x and 4x telescopic sights, G43 with 4x telescopes.

What scopes did you use?

A: 4x scope was used up to 400m, 6x was good up to 1000m

B: I had a Russian sniper rifle for 2 years, and I don't remember exactly the type of sight, but it worked well. On the K98 I used 6x.

C: 1 1 / 2x was not efficient enough and was replaced by a better performing 6x.

What do you think about the high magnification?

A, B: 6x is enough, there was no need for a higher one.

C: 4x is enough for most missions.

The maximum shooting distance at which you could hit the following targets?

Head: A, B, C: up to 400m

Embrasure: A: up to 600m

Human figure: A: 700m - 800m

B, C: about 600m

Are these distances, which are acceptable for you personally, typical only for the best or for all snipers?

A, B: only for the best snipers

C: For me personally, but also for most German snipers. Some hit targets at longer distances.

B: Complements: really 100% defeat is possible only up to 600m.

What was the most distant target you hit and what was it?

A: It was a standing soldier about 1100m away. This distance is unlikely to reach, but we wanted to show the enemy that he was not safe at this distance. We also wanted to demonstrate our skills to the officers.

C: 600m, if there was a target further away, I waited until it closed the distance, because it was easier to shoot and it was easier to confirm. The G43 had insufficient ballistic capabilities, so I only shot up to 500m with it.

How many second shots were needed?

A: Almost never needed a second shot.

B: 1 or 2. The second shot was very dangerous due to enemy snipers.

C: 1 or 2 at most.

If you could choose which rifle would you prefer?

a) a manual reloading rifle like the K98:

A: K98 due to high precision

b) Self-loading rifle like G43:

A: Not the G43 because it is only good up to 400m and lacks precision.

B: Not G43, too heavy.

C: Yes, because it was reliable and not much worse than the K98.

If you could choose between a self-loading rifle today with the same precision as the K98 and K98, which one would you choose?

A: I would choose the K98 because a sniper that is used as a sniper does not need a self-loading rifle.

B: If it has the same weight .... self-loading.

C: Self-loading can fire faster when attacking.

How were you attached to your units?

All of them belonged to the snipergroup Btl .; C was the commander of this unit. This unit numbered up to 22 soldiers, of whom six were permanently with Btl., The rest were attached to companies. The results of observation, the use of ammunition and destroyed targets were reported daily to the Btl headquarters.

At the beginning of the mission, Btl. During the war, when there were fewer good snipers, they were sometimes ordered by the division headquarters.

In each company, some soldiers were equipped with rifles with telescopic sights, but they did not have any special training. They shot reliably up to 400m and did a very good job. These soldiers served in their normal duty within the companies and were not able to obtain that high "lethality" as real snipers.

Tactics and goals?

A, B, C: always in a team of two. One shoots, the other is watching. The most common missions are: kill enemy observers (for heavy weapons), commanders. Sometimes targets like anti-tank gun crews, machine gun crews, and so on. Snipers followed the attacking forces and fought against the most fortified enemy positions (with heavy weapons crews, and so on).

A: I had to make my way through the enemy line of defense before our attack to destroy the enemy commanders and crews during our artillery barrage.

b) Attack at night:

A, B, C: We didn't fight during the night because the snipers were too precious.

c) Winter attack:

A: I walked behind the attacking forces in a winter camouflage suit to counter the machine gun and anti-tank positions that opposed our attack.

B, C: A good camouflage suit and warm clothing are necessary, otherwise long-term observation is reduced.

d) Defense

A, B, C: mainly free hunting in the company defense sector. Usually all targets or only the most important targets were to be destroyed. When the enemy attacked, their commanders were easy to identify, because they had different equipment, camouflage uniforms, and so on. So we shot them at great distances and in such a way that the enemy offensive stopped. (In one day, A remembers that he killed the commanders of eight attacks).

As soon as enemy snipers appear, they are fought with until they are destroyed. These fights against enemy snipers caused many casualties in our ranks.

The snipers take their positions before sunrise and stay there until sunset.

Sometimes, if the path to your own position was blocked by the enemy, you had to stay for two or three days in this position without support.

e) Defense at night

A, B, C: The sniper was not used during the night. They were not admitted to the security service or anything like that. Sometimes during the night, they would create their position to be ready during the day.

f) Did you use moonlight when shooting?

A: Yes, if the moonlight was strong enough and I used a 6x telescopic sight it was possible.

g) Deterrent Combat:

A, C: Usually 4 to 6 snipers would shoot at every enemy soldier that appeared. In these rear units, machine guns were not often used, so one or two sniper shots detained the enemy for a long time, and their own positions were not unmasked.

B: No experience. In this situation, everyone shoots at everything.

What tactics have you had the most success with?

A: The success of a sniper is not measured by the people he killed, but by the influence he had on the enemy. For example, if the enemy loses commanders in an offensive, the offensive must be stopped. The highest rates of the destroyed we had, of course, in defensive battles, when the enemy attacked several times a day.

B: On the defensive, because other destroyed ones have not been confirmed.

C: Greatest success in the longest period of trench warfare due to good observation capabilities.

Percentage of destroyed for each distance:

Up to 400m: A: 65%

Up to 600m: A: 30%

Up to 800m: rest

A: 65% up to 400m was not because of the shooting distance, but because of the ability to identify the target as "worth it." So, I often waited until I could identify the target.

B: Doesn't remember the percentage, but most of the targets were hit up to 600m.

C: Did most of the shots up to 400m because it was a safe distance and it was easy to see if there was a hit or not.

How many shots did you fire from one position?

A, B, C: as much as needed

b) Defense in equipped position:

A, B, C: 1 to 3 at most.

c) Enemy attack:

A, B, C: for each worthwhile goal.

d) Confronting enemy snipers:

A, B, C: 1 or 2

e) delaying fight

A, B, C: 1 or 2 was enough because the sniper was not alone.

B: complements: during an attack or enemy attack, the killed are not confirmed.

What else is important besides superb shooting?

A: Apart from normal sniper skills, the mind always wins. Man's "little tactics" wins the battle. In order to obtain a high kill rate, it is also important that the sniper is not used for other types of duty besides shooting from cover.

B: Calm, superiority, courage.

C: Patience and durability, excellent observation ability.

Who were the snipers recruited from?

A: Only born to "solo fighters" like hunters, poachers and so on.

B: I don't remember. I had 27 killed with my Russian rifle before I was admitted to sniper training.

C: Only soldiers with combat experience, superior shooting skills and a two-year service life were admitted to sniper training.

What sniper courses did you take?

A, B, C: sniper course at Toepl Seetaleralpe.

C: I was there as a teacher (instructor).

Have you used binoculars and what amplification?

A: It was 6x30, but it wasn't enough for longer distances. Got 10x50 lateron and this one was good.

B: Binoculars as needed as an addition to the rifle scope.

C: Every sniper had binoculars and it was necessary. Up to 500m 6x30 was enough.

Would you rather watch from the trench through the periscope?

A: It was a nice addition. We had one Russian.

C: If caught among the trophies, then it was used.

Did you have scissor telescopes in use?

A, C: Yes, sometimes we used this with an artillery observer.

What camouflage did you use?

A, B, C: Camouflage suits, painted face and hands, camouflage on a rifle in winter with blenket and coloring.

B: I have used an umbrella for two years. I painted it similar to my surroundings. In the beginning I painted my hands and face very carefully, at the end less.

Have you used other things to deceive the enemy?

B: Yes, for example fake stance with rifles that shoot with wire structures.

Have you used some kind of screen?

What do you think of tracer cartridges?

A, B, C: should not be used in combat, because you cannot unmask your own position.

They were used in training and rifle testing. Also, each sniper had a few to check the distance.

Have you used so-called sighting cartridges that explode when they hit the ground?

A, B, C: Yes, small flames appear when they hit the target, so you can see if there was a hit. We also used them to set fire to a wooden building in order to smoke the enemy out of it. They were used up to 600m away.

How did you work with a crosswind?

A: Feeling and experience sometimes tested with tracer cartridges. The training at Seetaleralpe was very good because there was a lot of wind there.

B: Feeling, if there was a strong wind, we didn't shoot.

C: We didn't shoot if there was wind.

A, B, C: No, feeling, experience, fast aiming and fast shooting.

Have you used anti-tank rifles?

A: Yes, I disabled some weapon crews through their screen. It was possible to shoot at targets up to 300m because it was not a sufficiently accurate weapon. Very heavy and not used by snipers. Didn't use it against light targets.

How did you confirm the destroyed?

A, B, C: Either through an officer or two soldiers who watched the destruction.

So, the number of confirmed destroyed is much lower than the real number.

X. Hesketh-Pritchard: "Sniping in France" (SUPER SIGHTING SERVICE IN THE WORLD WAR ON THE WESTERN EUROPEAN FRONT). Translation from English edited and prefaced by E.N. SERGEEVA, 1925
http://www.snipercentral.com/snipers.htm#WWII
Oleg Ryazanov "History of sniper art" http://www.bratishka.ru/zal/sniper/
A. Potapov "The Art of the Sniper", 2002

The invasion of Russia was Hitler's biggest mistake in World War II, leading to the defeat of his predatory army. Hitler and Napoleon left out two important factors that changed the course of the war: the harsh Russian winters and the Russians themselves. Russia plunged into a war, where even village teachers fought. Many of them were women who fought not in open combat, but as snipers, who chalked up many Nazi soldiers and officers, while showing incredible skill in using a sniper rifle. Many of them became famous heroes of Russia, earning accolades and military distinctions. Below are the ten most dangerous Russian female snipers in military history.

Tanya Baramzina

Tatyana Nikolaevna Baramzina was a kindergarten teacher before becoming a sniper in the 70th Infantry Division of the 33rd Army. Tanya fought on the Belorussian front and was parachuted behind enemy lines to carry out a secret mission. Before that, she already had 16 German soldiers on her account, and during this mission she killed 20 more Nazis. She was eventually caught, tortured and executed. Tanya was posthumously awarded the Order of the Golden Star and was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on March 24, 1945.

Nadezhda Kolesnikova

Nadezhda Kolesnikova was a volunteer sniper who served on the Volkhov Eastern Front in 1943. She is credited with the destruction of 19 enemy soldiers. Like Kolesnikova, only 800,000 female soldiers fought in the Red Army as snipers, gunners, privates, machine gunners and even pilots. Not many participants in the hostilities survived: out of 2,000 volunteers, only 500 could survive. For her service, Kolesnikova was awarded a medal for courage after the war.

Tanya Chernova

Not many people know this name, but Tanya became the prototype of a female sniper with the same name in the film "Enemy at the Gates" (played by Rachel Weisz). Tanya was an American of Russian descent who came to Belarus for her grandparents, but they had already been killed by the Germans. Then she becomes a sniper of the Red Army, joining the sniper group "Hares", formed by the famous Vasily Zaitsev, who is also represented in the film mentioned above. He is played there by Jude Law. Tanya killed 24 enemy soldiers before being wounded in the stomach by a mine explosion. After that, she was sent to Tashkent, where she recovered for a long time from her injury. Fortunately, Tanya survived the war.

Ziba Ganieva

Ziba Ganieva was one of the most charismatic figures in the Red Army, being a Russian celebrity and Azerbaijani film actress before the war. Ganieva fought in the 3rd Moscow Communist Rifle Division of the Soviet Army. She was a brave woman who walked behind the front lines as many as 16 times and killed 21 German soldiers. She took an active part in the battle for Moscow and was seriously wounded. Her injuries prevented her from returning to duty after 11 months in the hospital. Ganieva was awarded the military orders of the Red Banner and the Red Star.

Rose Shanina

Rosa Shanina, who was called "The Invisible Horror of East Prussia", began to fight when she was not even 20 years old. She was born in the Russian village of Edma on April 3, 1924. She wrote to Stalin twice to be allowed to serve in a battalion or reconnaissance company. She became the first female sniper to be awarded the Order of Glory and participated in the famous Battle of Vilnius. On account of Rosa Shanina, there were 59 confirmed killed soldiers, but she did not live to see the end of the war. While trying to save a wounded Russian officer, she was seriously wounded by a shell fragment in the chest and died on the same day, January 27, 1945.

Lyuba Makarova

Guard Sergeant Lyuba Makarova was one of 500 lucky people who survived the war. Fighting in the 3rd Shock Army, she was known for her active service on the 2nd Baltic Front and the Kalinin Front. Makarova chalked up 84 enemy soldiers and returned to her native Perm as a military hero. For her services to the country, Makarova was awarded the Order of Glory, 2nd and 3rd degree.

Claudia Kalugina

Klavdia Kalugina was one of the youngest soldiers and snipers of the Red Army. She started fighting when she was only 17 years old. She started her military career by working at an ammunition factory, but soon she entered a sniper school and was subsequently sent to the 3rd Belorussian Front. Kalugina fought in Poland and then took part in the Battle of Leningrad, helping to defend the city from the Germans. She was a very well-aimed sniper and chalked up as many as 257 enemy soldiers. Kalugina remained in Leningrad until the end of the war.

Nina Lobkovskaya

Nina Lobkovskaya joined the Red Army after her father died in the war in 1942. Nina fought in the 3rd Shock Army, where she rose to the rank of lieutenant. She survived the war and even took part in the Battle of Berlin in 1945. She commanded a whole company of 100 female snipers there. Nina had 89 killed enemy soldiers on her account.

Nina Pavlovna Petrova

Nina Pavlovna Petrova is also known as "Mother Nina" and could very well be the oldest female sniper in World War II. She was born in 1893, and by the start of the war she was already 48 years old. After she entered the sniper school, Nina was assigned to the 21st Guards Rifle Division, where she actively carried out her sniper duties. Petrova chalked up 122 enemy soldiers. She survived the war, but died in a tragic accident just a week after the end of the war at the age of 53.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko

Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who was born in Ukraine in 1916, was the most famous Russian female sniper, nicknamed "Lady Death". Before the war, Pavlichenko was a university student and an amateur shooter. After graduating from sniper school at the age of 24, she was sent to the 25th Chapayevskaya rifle division of the Red Army. Pavlichenko was probably the most successful female sniper in military history. She fought in Sevastopol and Odessa. On her account there were 309 confirmed destroyed enemy soldiers, including 29 enemy snipers. Pavlichenko survived the war after she was fired from active duty due to her injuries. She was awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union, and her face was even depicted on a postage stamp.

Highly skilled snipers were worth their weight in gold during World War II. Fighting on the Eastern Front, the Soviets positioned their snipers as experienced marksmen, markedly dominant in many ways. The Soviet Union was the only one that trained snipers for ten years, preparing for war. Their superiority is confirmed by their "death lists" Experienced snipers have killed many people and, undoubtedly, were of great value. For example, Vasily Zaitsev killed 225 enemy soldiers during the Battle of Stalingrad.

Maxim Alexandrovich Passar(1923-1943) - Soviet, during the Great Patriotic War, destroyed 237 enemy soldiers and officers.
In February 1942 he volunteered for the front. In May 1942, he passed sniper training in parts of the North-Western Front. He destroyed 21 Wehrmacht soldiers. He joined the CPSU (b).
From July 1942 he served in the 117th Infantry Regiment of the 23rd Infantry Division, which fought in the 21st Army of the Stalingrad Front and the 65th Army of the Don Front.
He was one of the most effective snipers of the Battle of Stalingrad, during which he destroyed more than two hundred enemy soldiers and officers. For the elimination of M.A.Passar, the German command appointed a reward of 100 thousand Reichsmarks.

He made a great contribution to the development of the sniper movement in the Red Army, took an active part in the practical training of shooters. The snipers of the 117th Infantry Regiment trained by him killed 775 Germans. His speeches on the tactics of conducting sniper warfare were repeatedly published in a large-circulation newspaper of the 23rd Infantry Division.
On December 8, 1942, M.A.Passar received a shell shock, but remained in the ranks.

On January 22, 1943, in a battle near the village of Peschanka, Gorodishchensky district, Stalingrad region, he ensured the success of the offensive of the regiment's units, stopped by enemy flank machine-gun fire from camouflaged fortified positions. Covertly approaching a distance of about 100 meters, Senior Sergeant Passar destroyed the crews of two heavy machine guns, which decided the outcome of the attack, during which the sniper was killed.
MA Passar was buried in a mass grave on the square of the Fallen Fighters of the worker's settlement Gorodishche, Volgograd Region.

Mikhail Ilyich Surkov (1921-1953) - participant of the Great Patriotic War, sniper of the 1st battalion of the 39th rifle regiment of the 4th rifle division of the 12th army, foreman.
Before the war he lived in the village of Bolshaya Salyr, now the Achinsky district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. He was a taiga hunter.
In the Red Army since 1941, he was drafted by the Achinsk (in the award list - Atchevsky) RVC. Candidate to the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks since 1942. At the end of the war, he was transferred to the rear to train snipers.
After the war, Mikhail Ilyich returned to his native village. He died in 1953.

The best Soviet sniper of the Great Patriotic War, the number of destroyed enemies according to Soviet sources is 702. A number of Western historians question this figure, believing that it was fabricated by Soviet propaganda in order to neutralize the result of the Finnish sniper Simo Häyhä, which he achieved during the Soviet-Finnish wars of 1939-1940. However, Simo Häyhä became known in the USSR only after 1990.

Natalya Venediktovna Kovshova (November 26, 1920 - August 14, 1942) - Hero of the Soviet Union, sniper during the Great Patriotic War.

Natalya Venediktovna Kovshova was born on November 26, 1920 in Ufa. Subsequently, the family moved to Moscow. In 1940 she graduated from the Moscow school number 281 in Ulanskiy lane (now number 1284) and went to work in the trust of the organization of the aviation industry "Orgaviaprom", created in late autumn of the same year. She worked as an inspector of the personnel department. In 1941 she was preparing to enter the Moscow Aviation Institute. With the beginning of World War II, she volunteered for the Red Army. Graduated from sniper courses. At the front since October 1941.
In the battle near Moscow, she fought in the ranks of the 3rd Moscow Communist Rifle Division. (The division was formed on the critical days for Moscow in the autumn of 1941 from volunteer battalions, which included students, professors, elderly workers, schoolchildren). From January 1942, a sniper in the 528th Infantry Regiment (130th Infantry Division, 1st Shock Army, North-Western Front). On the personal account of the sniper Kovshova, 167 exterminated fascist soldiers and officers. (According to the testimony of her fellow soldier Georgy Balovnev, no less than 200; the award list specifically mentions that among the targets Kovshova hit were "cuckoos" - enemy snipers and the enemy's machine-gun crew). During the service, she taught the fighters the skill of marksmanship.

On August 14, 1942, near the village of Sutoki, Parfinsky District, Novgorod Region, together with her friend Maria Polivanova, she fought the Nazis. In an unequal battle, both were wounded, but did not stop the battle. Having shot the entire supply of cartridges, they blew themselves up with grenades along with the enemy soldiers who surrounded them.
She was buried in the village of Korovitchino, Starorussky district, Novgorod region. At the Novodevichy cemetery in the grave of her father - a cenotaph.
The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded posthumously on February 14, 1943 (together with M. S. Polivanova) for dedication and heroism shown in battle.

Zhambyl Yesheevich Tulaev(May 2 (15), 1905, Tagarkhai ulus, now Tunkinsky district, Buryatia - January 17, 1961) - participant of the Great Patriotic War, sniper of the 580th rifle regiment of the 188th rifle division of the 27th army of the North-Western Front, foreman

Born on May 2 (15), 1905 in the Tagarkhai ulus, now the village of Tunkinsky district of Buryatia, into a peasant family. Buryat. Graduated from 4th grade. He lived in the city of Irkutsk. He worked as the head of the packaging base. In the Red Army since 1942. In the army since March 1942. Member of the CPSU (b) since 1942. Sniper of the 580th Infantry Regiment (188th Infantry Division, 27th Army, North-Western Front), Sergeant Major Zhambyl Tulaev, from May to November 1942, exterminated two hundred and sixty-two Nazis. Prepared for the front three dozen snipers.
By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of February 14, 1943, for exemplary performance of combat missions of the command at the front of the struggle against the German invaders and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, Sergeant Major Tulaev Zhambyl Yesheevich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 847).
Since 1946, Lieutenant Zh. E. Tulaev is in reserve. He returned to his native Buryatia. He worked as chairman of a collective farm, secretary of the local village council. Died on January 17, 1961.

Ivan Mikhailovich Sidorenko September 12, 1919, Chantsovo village, Smolensk province - February 19, 1994, Kizlyar is a Soviet sniper who killed about 500 enemy soldiers and officers during the Great Patriotic War. The hero of the USSR

Member of the Great Patriotic War since November 1941. He fought in the 4th Shock Army of the Kalinin Front. He was a mortarman. In the winter counteroffensive of 1942, the mortar company of Lieutenant Sidorenko fought from the Ostashkovsky bridgehead to the town of Velizh, Smolensk region. Here Ivan Sidorenko became a sniper. In the battles with the Nazi invaders, he was seriously wounded three times, but each time he returned to duty.
Assistant Chief of Staff of the 1122nd Infantry Regiment (334th Infantry Division, 4th Shock Army, 1st Baltic Front) Captain Ivan Sidorenko distinguished himself as the organizer of the sniper movement. By 1944, he destroyed about 500 Nazis from a sniper rifle.

Ivan Sidorenko trained more than 250 snipers for the front, most of whom were awarded orders and medals.
By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 4, 1944, for the exemplary fulfillment of combat missions of the command on the front of the struggle against the Nazi invaders and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, Captain Ivan Mikhailovich Sidorenko was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal "(No. 3688).
I. M. Sidorenko finished his military career in Estonia. At the end of 1944, the command sent him to the preparatory courses of the military academy. But he did not have to study: old wounds opened, and Ivan Sidorenko had to go to the hospital for a long time.
Since 1946, Major I.M.Sidorenko has been in reserve. He lived in the city of Korkino, Chelyabinsk region. He worked as a mining foreman in a mine. Then he worked in various cities of the Soviet Union. From 1974 he lived in the city of Kizlyar (Dagestan), where he died on February 19, 1994.

Fyodor Matveevich Okhlopkov (March 2, 1908, Krest-Khaldzhai village, Bayagantaysky ulus, Yakutsk region, Russian Empire - May 28, 1968, Krest-Khaldzhai village, Tomponsky district, YaASSR), RSFSR, USSR - sniper of the 234th rifle regiment, Hero of the Soviet Union ...

Born on March 2, 1908 in the village of Krest-Khaldzhai (now located in the Tomponsky ulus of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)) in the family of a poor peasant. Yakut. Primary education. He worked as a miner-haulman of gold-bearing rocks at the Orochon mine in the Aldan region, and before the war as a hunter-fisherman, a machine operator in his native village.
In the Red Army since September 1941. From December 12 of the same year at the front. He was a machine gunner, squad commander of a company of machine gunners of the 1243rd rifle regiment of the 375th division of the 30th army, and from October 1942 - a sniper of the 234th rifle regiment of the 179th division. By June 23, 1944, Sergeant Okhlopkov destroyed 429 Nazi soldiers and officers from a sniper rifle. He was wounded 12 times.
On June 24, 1945 he took part in the Victory Parade over Nazi Germany on the Red Square of Moscow.
The title of Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin were awarded only in 1965.

Demobilized after the war. He returned to his homeland. From 1945 to 1949 - head of the military department of the Tattinsky RK CPSU. On February 10, 1946, he was elected a deputy of the Council of Nationalities of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. From 1949 to 1951 - director of the Tattinsky procurement office for the extraction and procurement of furs. From 1951 to 1954 - manager of the Tattinsky regional office of the Yakutsk meat trust. In 1954-1960 he was a collective farmer, a worker of a state farm. Since 1960 - retired. Died on May 28, 1968. He was buried in the cemetery of his native village.

It should be noted that in the list of 200 best snipers of World War II - 192 Soviet snipers, the first twenty snipers of the Red Army destroyed about 8400 enemy soldiers and officers, and on the account of the first hundred - about 25500. Thanks to our grandfathers for the Victory!

Everything mysterious gives rise to legends. The art of a combat sniper borders on mysticism. The effect of his work is terrible, and the ability to appear in the most unexpected place and disappear without a trace after the shot seems supernatural.

"Sniper" - english word, formed by the contraction of the phrase "snipe shooter", that is, "snipe shooter". The snipe is a small bird flying along an unpredictable trajectory, so not every hunter could get into it. The word itself appeared in the eighteenth century - for example, in the letters of British soldiers from India. Then, at the beginning of the First World War, the "sniper" passes from newspaper publications into the official vocabulary of the military and receives its current, narrow and deadly, meaning.

In those days, none of the countries provided for the massive use of snipers in hostilities, and even more so did not organize special training - sniper shooting remained the lot of gifted individuals. Snipers became a real mass phenomenon only during the Second World War. Almost all the countries participating in it had soldiers in the army trained in the use of a rifle with a telescopic sight and in camouflage. Even against the general background of huge losses in that war, the "combat score" of snipers looks impressive. After all, the number of people killed by one sniper can be in the hundreds.

It is interesting: on average, 18,000 - 25,000 bullets were spent on one killed enemy soldier in World War II. For snipers, this figure is 1.3-1.8 bullets.

"White death"

The tactics developed by the Finns for the work of snipers in the winter was so successful that later it was used by both the Russians and the Germans. And even now there is practically nothing to add to it.

A. Potapov, "The Art of the Sniper"

Perhaps it was the Finns who pioneered the successful use of sniper tactics during the 1939 winter campaign. Perfectly prepared and trained Finnish sniper "cuckoos" taught the Soviet army a cruel lesson that there are no forbidden techniques in war. Good knowledge of the terrain, adaptability to natural conditions, pre-prepared shelters and escape routes allowed the "cuckoos" to successfully complete combat missions and quietly retreat to new positions, disappearing without a trace in the snow-covered forests.

We have already told you about the most famous of all "cuckoos" - Simo Hayhe nicknamed "White Death". But speaking of snipers, it's hard not to mention him again. The number of "confirmed murders" in this case is estimated at five hundred or more. They were made in just a hundred days. According to some estimates, none of the snipers of the Second World War achieved greater efficiency.

If you try to imagine a fighter destroying one hundred enemy soldiers a day, the imagination obediently draws a powerful figure with an aviation six-barreled machine gun from Hollywood films. So, reality barely reaches the shoulder of an imaginary figure with its crown: the height of "White Death" was only a little more than one and a half meters. And instead of a heavy and uncomfortable "minigun", he preferred to use the Finnish shortened version of the Mosin-Nagant rifle, and giving up telescopic sight... A solar flare on the lens of optics could give it away, as it betrayed the position of Soviet snipers, which Hayha himself did not hesitate to use.

However, it is worth noting that the Soviet troops themselves presented a very tempting target. As one of the Finnish soldiers said: “I like fighting the Russians, they go on the attack in full height". The tactics of a massive offensive, the "human wave", turned into huge losses for the Soviet Union in that war.

On March 6, 1940, luck still turned away from the Finnish sniper - he received a bullet in the head. According to the recollections of colleagues, his face was disfigured beyond recognition, he fell into a coma for several days. Simo Hayha regained consciousness on March 11, just the day the war ended, and, despite being seriously injured, lived for another 63 years, having died in 2002.

Another name that sometimes appears in articles about Winter War snipers is Sulo Kolkka... The count of his "confirmed murders" is said to be four hundred in one hundred and five days. However, his name does not appear in the archives of the Finnish army and is not mentioned in the press of that time, just as his photographs do not exist.

Sulo Kolkka was the name of a military journalist who wrote about the successes of the "cuckoos". If we compare what is attributed to Kolkka the sniper with what Kolkka the journalist wrote about Simo Hayh, then much will coincide. It is likely that the foreign journalists who reprinted the Finnish articles mixed the name of the sniper and the journalist, creating another myth about that war.

Mosin 91/30

A rifle developed in 1891 by the captain of the Russian army S.I. Mosin, can be considered a symbol of an entire era. With minor modifications, it existed in service with the army of the Russian Empire, and after the Soviet army until the very end of World War II.

The rifle was adapted for firing three-line cartridges. The three lines in the old system were 7.62 millimeters. Hence the name "three-line" came from.

Initially, there were three versions of this weapon: infantry (main) with a long barrel and bayonet, dragoon (cavalry) with a shortened barrel and Cossack, which differed from the cavalry by the absence of a bayonet.

In the twenties of the last century, on the basis of the Mosin rifle, the first Russian sample of a sniper rifle was designed. In the same years, of the three versions of the "three-line" in service, it was decided to leave only one - the dragoon.

And finally, in 1930, the last pre-war modernization of the rifle took place - the bayonet mount was changed to reduce its loosening, which greatly impaired the accuracy of the previous models. In addition, the rifle scope is now calibrated in meters, instead of arshins. It is the modification of the thirtieth year, or the "Mosin 91/30 rifle" that becomes the main weapon of the Soviet army.

The sniper modification of the "three-line" was distinguished by the fact that it had mounts for an optical sight. Now, with the proliferation of self-loading magazine rifles, this phrase may seem commonplace, but in fact it was a very significant difference. The Mosin rifle was loaded using a clip of five rounds, which was inserted vertically from above. If a sight was attached to the rifle, loading with a clip became impossible, which means that one cartridge had to be loaded at a time.

Despite all its shortcomings, the Mosin rifle was exactly the weapon that was needed in the early years of the war. The design, simple and cheap to manufacture, made it possible to quickly establish the mass production of "three-rulers". In addition, according to ballistic data, this rifle did not lag behind, or even surpassed its German "enemy", the Mauser 98 sniper rifle.

The Tokarev self-loading rifle (SVT) was adopted by the Soviet army in 1938. In the fortieth year, the army received its lightweight modification, designated "SVT-40".

The magazine, which held ten rounds, and automatic reloading increased the rate of fire of the weapon and its overall firepower. The use of cartridges from the Mosin rifle allowed the SVT to be equipped with clips from the "three-line", for which special guides were provided in the receiver cover.

In the sniper version, the bracket for mounting the optical sight is located so as not to interfere with loading the rifle with clips. In addition, a hole has been made in the bracket, which allows the use of an open rifle scope when the optical one is installed.

The attitude to "Svetka" - as the soldiers called the SVT - was rather ambiguous. The rifle was criticized for the shorter range and accuracy of fire compared to the Mosin rifle. For excessive sensitivity to pollution and frost. For low reliability, finally.

But in the hands of a good fighter - for example, Lyudmila Pavlichenko - the SVT sniper version showed its best side. The problem was not so much in the rifle itself, but in how it was used and how well it was maintained.

"The main hare" and others

The art of sniper is the daring skill of the patient, the art of waiting for the right moment and instantly using it. The sniper tracks down the target, like a hunter on the field, and organizes the flow of events so as to make that target appear and substitute for the shot.

A. Potapov, "The Art of the Sniper"

Almost sixty-four years have passed since the end of World War II. It seems to be a small period of time for the history of mankind, but the events of those days have already managed to acquire a huge number of legends, propaganda slogans, contradictory and frankly false information. One side tried to use the successes at the front to inspire its soldiers, while the other tried to hide them so as not to undermine the notorious "fighting spirit". Therefore, now it is already difficult to assert something for sure, if the matter concerns not general issues, but the fate and actions of specific people.

Especially here the Soviet and German sources "differ", information from which is sometimes mutually exclusive.

One striking example is history Vasily Grigorievich Zaitsev, a sniper of the 1047th Infantry Regiment of the 284th Infantry Division of the 62nd Army of the Stalingrad Front.

Zaitsev was born in 1915 in the village of Elininsk, Agapovsky District, Chelyabinsk Region. From 1937 he served in the Pacific Fleet. The war found him in the position of chief of the financial department in the Preobrazhenie Bay. In September 1942, after five reports on the transfer to the front, Vasily finally got into the active army. In the period from November 10 to December 17, 1942, in the battles for Stalingrad, Zaitsev destroyed 225 enemy soldiers and officers. He did not receive special training - like most of the Soviet snipers of that time. The necessary skills were acquired already on the spot, in battle.

It is interesting: in addition to sniper activities, Zaitsev was also engaged in training snipers. On both sides of the front, his pupils were simply called "rabbits."

The case when the European champion in bullet shooting, the head of the Berlin school of snipers, Major Koenig, flew to Stalingrad to counter Soviet snipers. His main task was to destroy the "main hare". As Zaitsev writes in his memoirs, they could only judge the appearance of the German "super sniper" by the results of his activities - killed soldiers, most often snipers - "hares". It was not possible to determine its location - the German made several shots and disappeared without a trace. In the end, Zaitsev was able to roughly determine the section of the front on which the enemy sniper was at the moment.

The "games" continued for two days, when Zaitsev's assistant, Nikolai Kulikov, tried to attract the attention of the German so that he would reveal his location with a shot. On the third day, the enemy sniper could not stand it - he knocked down the helmet, which Kulikov carefully lifted from the trench on a stick, and, apparently considering that he had defeated the Soviet rifleman, looked out from behind the cover. Then he was found by the bullet of the "main hare".

It is interesting: this sniper duel became the basis of the plot for the film "Enemy at the Gates".

This version of events is set out in the memoirs of V.G. Zaitsev "There was no land for us beyond the Volga." From there, other Russian-language sources also reprint it. But even in them you can find many inconsistencies: the major is called either Koenig or Koenigs, then they write that "under the guise of Major Koenig there was a conspiratorial SS Standartenfuehrer Torvald" ... And this despite the fact that on the corpse of a "super sniper" his documents! In addition, Koenig-Torvald is sometimes called the "head of the Wehrmacht sniper school", or the sniper school - but already the SS. Either European champion, or Olympic bullet shooting champion ...

The last statement can be verified simply: the champion of neither Europe, let alone the Olympic Games, named Erwin Koenig or Heinz Torvald, did not exist in reality. As there was no Berlin school of snipers, the head of which he could be.

Vasily Zaitsev. Stalingrad, October 1942.

What is the result? And as a result - a beautiful heroic story about a three-day confrontation between two snipers-masters of their craft. Could this have happened? Not only could, but certainly took place more than once and in more than one Stalingrad. But Major Koenig most likely did not exist. Unless, of course, the Germans took the trouble to remove references to him from all possible documents - lists of personnel, lists of awarded, and the like.

And the sniper Vasily Zaitsev really existed, but his main merit was not in the number of killed German soldiers and not in the victory over the mythical “super sniper”. The main thing that Zaitsev did was teach thirty "rabbits", many of whom later became sniper instructors. As a result, a whole sniper school was created! And until the second half of the war, specialized training of snipers in the USSR was not conducted. Only in 1942, three-month courses began to work, the duration of which was increased to six months, but this was not enough. Snipers were mainly those who grew up in families where the main craft was hunting. It was the hunters, accustomed to reading tracks and tracking down the beast, who could determine the location of the target by the slightest changes in the situation - crushed grass, broken branches of trees.

One of these hereditary hunters was the foreman of the 4th rifle division of the 12th army Mikhail Ilyich Surkov... According to Soviet sources, he has more than seven hundred killed. If this figure is correct, then he is, without a doubt, the most productive of the Soviet snipers.

There is some doubt that Sergeant Major Surkov was not awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, unlike other snipers with much more modest results. It is possible that the number "700" appeared in wartime newspapers from the words of Surkov himself, and it can take into account both enemies killed from a machine gun and unconfirmed hits.

Another story about a hunter who became one of the best snipers of the Soviet army in World War II is associated with the name of a sergeant of the 234th Infantry Regiment of the 179th Infantry Division of the 43rd Army of the 1st Baltic Front Fyodor Matveevich Okhlopkov.

The future Hero of the Soviet Union was born in the village of Krest-Khaldzhai in Yakutia. Received only primary education, worked on a collective farm. At the age of thirty-three, he went to the front with his cousin Vasily. For two weeks, while the conscripts were getting from Yakutsk to Moscow, the Okhlopkov brothers studied the machine gun device and then, already at the front, made up a machine-gun crew.

In one of the battles, Vasily Okhlopkov was killed. Fyodor vowed to avenge his brother, which they did not fail to report in the political report to the command. So the name of Okhlopkov was first mentioned in military documents.

Soon after that, Fedor Okhlopkov was sent to sniper courses, and in October he returned to the front in a new capacity, changing the machine gun to a rifle with an optical sight.

It is interesting: they say that Yakut snipers always tried to shoot the enemy in the head, explaining that "the game must be beaten between the eyes."

During his service, until 1944, he brought the number of killed enemies to 429. Twelve times he was wounded and twice shell-shocked. For minor wounds, he preferred to be treated with folk methods - herbs and tree resin - just not to leave the front. However, a through wound to the chest, which he received in the battles for Vitebsk, could not be cured without hospitalization, and after it Fedor Matveyevich left the combat units.

The female face of war

In the war, time was compressed. The brutal necessity sharpened susceptibility and forced the human body to work on the brink of the impossible. What took years in peacetime, the war took months and weeks.

A. Potapov, "The Art of the Sniper"

On September 1, 1939, the law "On universal military service" was adopted. From that moment on, military service in the USSR became an honorable duty of every citizen, regardless of gender. Article 13 stated that the People's Commissariats of Defense and the Navy were given the right to register and recruit women into the army and navy, as well as to involve them in training camps. This is how it began in the Soviet Union that neither the adversaries in that war nor the allies managed to understand. A German or an Englishman simply did not fit into his head that a woman could go to the front line, that she could be a pilot, an anti-aircraft gunner or a sniper.

And yet, there were over a thousand women among Soviet snipers. During the war, he was credited with more than 12,000 killed Germans.

The most productive of them was Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko, a sniper of the 25th Chapaevskaya rifle division. She was in the army from the very first days of the war, the beginning of which found her in Odessa. In the battles in Moldova, in the defense of Odessa and Sevastopol, she brought the personal count of the killed to 309. Of these three hundred German soldiers and officers, thirty-six are enemy snipers.

In June 1942, Lyudmila was wounded, and she was recalled from the front line. After treatment, she wanted to return, but for her there was already a completely different task: Sergeant Pavlichenko went to the USA. The Soviet delegation was received personally by President Roosevelt.

Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko, the most successful female sniper in history.

It is interesting: at a press conference, American journalists bombarded Lyudmila Mikhailovna with questions: does she use powder, blush and nail polish? Does your hair curl? Why is she wearing a uniform that makes her so full? Pavlichenko's answer was short: "Do you know that we have a war there?"

After her return, Lyudmila did not go to the front: she was left as an instructor at the Vystrel sniper school.

When the war ended, a student at the Faculty of History at T.G. Shevchenko Lyudmila Pavlichenko was able to finally finish her thesis, which the war did not give her to write in 1941.

Natalia Kovshova and Maria Polivanova before the war they worked together in one of the scientific research institutes in Moscow. Together we went to sniper courses, together we went to the front. Completely different in character - the modest Maria and Natalia, active in public affairs - the friends made a good sniper pair. By August 1942, their "total count" was approaching three hundred dead enemies.

On August 14, the battalion, to which a sniper platoon was attached, which included Natalya and Maria, repelled attacks by German infantry near the village of Sutoki in the Novgorod region. In total, they withstood fifteen attacks. Already starting to lack ammunition, the platoon commander was killed, and Natalya took his place, stopping the soldiers already ready to retreat. They held out to the end, until the last bullet, until only two survived - Kovshova and Polivanova. The girls drew closer, firing back, until they converged back to back.

When they had only two grenades left, the girls decided. The explosion took the lives of not only two Soviet snipers, but also those Germans who had already hoped to take them prisoner.

Natalia Kovshova.

Maria Polivanova.

Lydia Semyonovna Gudovantseva, a graduate of the central Podolsk school of sniper training, reached almost to Berlin. Only a wound in a duel with a German sniper could stop her, which she later describes as follows:

“In the morning a German appeared and headed for the trees. But why without a sniper rifle, without a weapon at all? Thoughts worked: so, I think, he equipped himself with a place in the tree, leaves for the night with his own, and in the morning he returns and snaps our soldiers. I decided not to rush, to observe. He did climb a tree, but strangely, not a single shot was fired. And in the evening, already at dusk, he shed tears and went home. Some kind of mystery.

For three days I conducted intensive surveillance. Everything was repeated as scheduled. On the fourth day, tired, and nerves, I feel they are not the same, I decide: "Today I will take it off." As soon as Fritz appeared, I took him at gunpoint and was about to fire a shot. There was a dull click, and I felt a taste of blood in my mouth, and blood began to drip onto the rifle butt. She pressed her chin to the collar of her greatcoat in order to somehow delay the bleeding. And in my head a disturbing thought: "Is it really the end ?!" But she drove her away, mobilized her will: "I must take revenge on him, and then I can die." Frozen at the sight. At times it seemed to me that I was about to lose consciousness. Where the strength came from - I don't know.

It was afternoon. A little more, and twilight. Anxiety began to overcome me. Suddenly to the left of the tree, where that fascist climbed for three days in a row, a German jumped from one of the trees, and he was holding a sniper rifle in his hands. Here, it turns out, where he was! He clung to a tree and looks in my direction. Then I pulled the trigger. I see a Nazi settling on a tree trunk.

So my mortal duel ended in victory. She lay until dark, at times in some kind of oblivion. A scout crawled up to me and helped me get to my own. "

Another story, told by Lydia Semyonova in 1998, became the basis for one of the questions at the Brain Ring Games in Kiev. The question sounded like this: “While observing the enemy's defense, snipers Lidiya Gudovantseva and Alexander Kuzmin noticed a structure, the upper part of which was made up of Christmas trees connected from above. The next morning, noticing a German heading there, Kuzmina ran up to this building and burst into it with the words: "Hyundai hoh!" The German officer who was there did not resist and was safely delivered to the location of our troops. Attention, the question: what was this structure? "

The answer is simple: it was a toilet. And the German officer could not use his pistol for a completely understandable reason ...

Scharfschutzen

The sniper is a long knife in the heart of the enemy; too long and too cruel to be ignored.

A. Potapov, "The Art of the Sniper"

If you think about it, it is quite understandable why information about German snipers of World War II is an order of magnitude, or even two, less than about Soviet ones. Still, "Nazi sniper" is a label that few survivors of the war would like to wear after being defeated in it.

German sniper. Pay attention to the location of the scope.

Another German shooter, but with a normally placed optics.

And nevertheless, even considering this moment, the situation remains rather strange. Historians on both sides claim that the sniper movement in their armies emerged after they faced massive attacks by enemy snipers.

The German version looks like this: in their plans, the command of the German army relied primarily on tank strikes and rapid advance into the enemy's territory. In this situation, the sniper simply did not have a place in the army - he was already considered "a relic of the trench battles of the First World War." And only in the winter of 1941, after it became clear that the "blitzkrieg war" had failed and German units were increasingly forced to switch from attacks to defense, and snipers began to appear at the positions of the Soviet troops, the command "remembered" the need for training and their "super-sharp shooters."

There is only one question to this version: where did the German snipers come from that Vasily Zaitsev, Lyudmila Pavlichenko and other Soviet soldiers had to face at the beginning of the war?

In fact, it can be argued with reasonable certainty that German snipers were on the eastern front from the very beginning. Yes, their use was not as massive as that of the Finns in the Winter War or later in the Soviet troops. Nevertheless, even a sniper armed with a Mauser rifle with a 1.5-fold sight is capable of performing combat missions to suppress (especially psychological) enemy troops. But in history, for some reason, not always clear, neither their names nor the number of "confirmed murders" committed by them have survived.

Who we know for certain is about three snipers who were awarded knight's crosses, and all three received this award already in 1945.

The first was Frederick Payne, awarded in February of that year, after he brought his battle score to two hundred. The war ended for him with three wounds and captivity.

The second received the knight's cross Matthias HetzenauerPossibly the most prolific German sniper of WWII, apart from the semi-mythical Major König. The number of "confirmed kills" on his account is 345. Awarded in April 1945 for "repeatedly performing his tasks under artillery fire or during enemy attacks" in May, Matthias was captured and imprisoned in the USSR for five years.

Joseph "Sepp" Ollerberg. Autographed photo for memory.

The best sniper in Germany, Mathias Hetzenauer.

And finally, the third of the snipers who received the knight's cross - Joseph Ollerberg... There are no documents on his nomination for the award, but at the time it was not so unusual. Of all the former Wehrmacht snipers, Ollerberg is perhaps the most talkative. According to him, at first he was a machine gunner in the war, but after being wounded, in the hospital, out of boredom, he decided to experiment with a captured Soviet rifle. The experiments were so successful that Joseph was sent to the school of snipers after he shot twenty-seven people. So the machine gunner became a sniper.

German snipers achieved much greater success on the second European front in Normandy. The British and American military had little to oppose the well-trained Wehrmacht riflemen. The German scharfschutzen knew the area well, camouflaged their positions and staged a real "sniper terror".

Hedges became a favorite hideout for the Germans. Snipers dug in near them, mined approaches, set up traps in the bushes. The best method of dealing with them remained mortar and artillery strikes against the proposed position.

It is interesting:to the question: "How do you distinguish officers if they wear a regular field uniform without insignia and are armed with rifles, like ordinary soldiers?" - the captured German sniper replied: "We are shooting people with mustaches." Indeed, in the British army, traditionally only officers and senior sergeants wore mustaches.

The usual tactic of a sniper is to fire a shot, rarely two, and change position to get away from enemy return fire. But in Normandy, the British and Americans faced a completely different phenomenon - German snipers fired continuously without even trying to move. Naturally, in the end they were destroyed, but before that such a “suicide” managed to inflict serious damage.

Mauser Kar. 98k

In 1898, the German army adopted a new rifle developed by the Mauser brothers' arms company. This weapon had to undergo more than one modification and survive in the active army until the very end of World War II.

The most massive of its variants was the Karabiner 98 kurz, a short carbine released in 1935, which was then adopted by the Wehrmacht. It was he who became the most common weapon of the German army, contrary to the opinion that it was provided with automatic weapons.

The K98 magazine contained five cartridges of 7.92 Mauser caliber and was loaded using a clip inserted vertically from above. Starting with the K98a modification, the bolt handle was bent down to provide greater convenience when reloading the carbine.

The produced K98 sniper modifications were initially equipped with a one and a half times optical sight - it was assumed that a small increase should be enough to perform combat missions. In addition, the design was designed for the sniper to observe both the target and the surrounding environment at the same time. For this, the sight was located at a sufficiently large distance from the shooter's eye. The experience of using such rifles showed the fallacy of this decision, so later versions were already equipped with four or sixfold optics.

Self-loading rifles appeared in the German army only in 1941. These were the developments of the firms Mauser and Carl Walther Waffenfabrik, designated "G41". Both of them were not very successful - unreliable, too heavy, too sensitive to pollution.

Walter's rifle was later modified. The G41 gas outlet system was changed, borrowing the solution from the SVT-40. The rifle acquired a detachable magazine with a capacity of ten rounds. The changes were considered so significant that the name of the weapon was changed - now it was called the "43rd rifle", Gewehr 43. In 1944 it was renamed again - it became the "K43" carbine. The design, however, was not affected by this renaming.

The production of this rifle - including modifications with a telescopic sight - continued until the end of the war. Often the G43s had the simplest finishes, and their outer surfaces were roughly finished.

After the end of the war, a small number of carbines were used by the Czechoslovak army as sniper weapons.

Snipers of the second front

A sniper is not just a sniper rifle shooter. It is a super sharp long-range shooter.

A. Potapov, "The Art of the Sniper"

It so happened that the Americans did not have such a Winter War as the USSR, and they did not have to face such fierce resistance from skillful snipers as the Soviet troops in Finland. And, although their command generally understood the tasks that the "super sharp shooter" should perform, but too little attention was paid to special training. The main and sufficient quality of a sniper was the ability to shoot well. The experience of clashing with Japanese snipers on the Pacific Front changed little: the Japanese mostly chose positions in the crowns of trees, from where they were easy to knock out.

It was only after the landing in Normandy that American troops were able to fully feel what a real "sniper terror" is. They had to master the tactics of countering accurate German fire in a short time. To learn, like the Soviet army once did in Finland, not to move even in seemingly safe places in full growth, to pay more attention to observing possible hideouts of enemy snipers, to organize your own sniper squads.

English sniper in position.

And here, as on the eastern front, hunters and trackers moved to the front ranks - the Americans had Indians for them. Sniper Sergeant John Fulcher, a Sioux Indian, wrote that “half of the guys in the sniper squad were Indian, including two Sioux from the Black Hills. I have heard others call us savages. And when they said - "they went for scalps again", they said it with admiration, and we perceived these words that way. "

It is interesting: Fulcher and his Indians did scalp slain Germans from time to time, leaving them in a prominent place as a warning to others. Some time later, they learned that the Germans had decided to kill captured snipers or Indians on the spot.

Nevertheless, in the American troops, snipers were mainly used to cover their positions, when the sniper squads did not move away from the main forces, ensuring fire superiority. The main task was to suppress the machine-gun and mortar crews of the enemy, as well as his snipers. The destruction of soldiers and even officers of the enemy army was a secondary task.

The situation was better with the training of snipers in the British army. British snipers were taught to choose and mask a firing position correctly. For camouflage, both improvised material - branches, bricks - and specially made mobile sniper posts were used, for the creation of which engineers and artists were specially involved.

But when the British riflemen were finally able to test their skills, the war was already drawing to a close. Therefore, in the lists of the best snipers of World War II, the British are not ...

Game incarnation

In almost any game that uses firearms, there is a place for sniper rifles in one form or another. The specialty of the sniper is quite popular in online action films. But the vast majority of game snipers are fictional characters in fictional circumstances.

Only Vasily Zaitsev's duel with the German "super sniper" was relatively "lucky" here. After the release of the film Enemy at the Gates, this episode of the Battle of Stalingrad gained worldwide fame, sufficient for its individual details to "seep" into computer games.

First mission in the game Commandos 3: Destination Berlin is that the player in Stalingrad needs to destroy the German sniper.

In Game Call of duty 2 the mission, which takes place in Stalingrad, includes a moment from the film - luring an enemy sniper with an empty helmet.

IN Call of Duty: World at War the player will have to help Sergeant Reznov destroy the German General Amsel in Stalingrad. In the course of completing the task, you need to endure a duel with a German sniper hiding in the house.