Snipers aces of the second world war. Snipers of the Great Patriotic War

The best snipers of World War II. German, Soviet, Finnish arrows played a rather important role in wartime. And in this review, an attempt will be made to consider those that have become the most effective.

The emergence of sniper art

Starting from the moment when personal weapons appeared in the armies, which made it possible to hit the enemy at long distances, well-aimed shooters began to be singled out from the soldiers. Subsequently, separate divisions of rangers began to form from them. As a result, a separate type of light infantry was formed. The main tasks that the soldiers received included the destruction of the officers of the enemy troops, as well as the demoralization of the enemy due to marksmanship at considerable distances. To do this, the shooters were armed with special rifles.

In the XIX century there was a modernization of weapons. Changed, respectively, and tactics. This was facilitated by the emergence during the First World War, snipers were part of a separate cohort of saboteurs. Their goal was to quickly and effectively defeat a living enemy force. At the very beginning of the war, snipers were mainly used by the Germans. However, over time, special schools began to appear in other countries. In the context of protracted conflicts, this "profession" has become quite in demand.

Finnish snipers

In the period from 1939 to 1940 Finnish shooters were regarded as the best. The snipers of World War II learned a lot thanks to them. Finnish shooters were nicknamed "cuckoos". The reason for this was that they used special "nests" in the trees. This feature was distinctive for the Finns, although trees were used for this purpose in almost all countries.

So who exactly are the best snipers of World War II indebted to? The most famous "cuckoo" was considered Simo Heihe. It was nicknamed the "white death". The number of confirmed murders committed by him exceeded the mark of 500 liquidated soldiers of the Red Army. In some sources, his indicators were equal to 700. He received a rather severe wound. But Simo was able to recover. He died in 2002.

Propaganda played its part

The best snipers of the Second World War, namely their achievements, were actively used in propaganda. Quite often it happened that the personalities of the shooters began to grow into legends.

The famous domestic sniper was able to destroy about 240 enemy soldiers. This figure was average for effective shooters of that war. But due to propaganda, he was made the most famous Red Army sniper. At the present stage, historians seriously doubt the existence of Major Koenig, Zaitsev's main opponent in Stalingrad. The main merits of the domestic shooter include the development of a training program for snipers. He personally took part in their preparation. In addition, he formed a full-fledged sniper school. Its graduates were called "bunnies".

Top scoring shooters

Who are they, the best snipers of World War II? The names of the most productive shooters should be known. In the first position is Mikhail Surkov. They destroyed about 702 enemy soldiers. Following him on the list is Ivan Sidorov. He destroyed 500 soldiers. Nikolay Ilyin is in the third position. They killed 497 enemy soldiers. With a mark of 489 killed, Ivan Kulbertinov follows him.

The best snipers of the USSR of World War II were not only men. In those years, women also actively joined the ranks of the Red Army. Some of them later became quite effective shooters. about 12 thousand enemy soldiers were destroyed. And the most productive was Lyudmila Pavlichenkova, on whose account there were 309 killed soldiers.

The best snipers of the USSR in the Second World War, of which there were quite a lot, have in their account a large number of successful shots. About fifteen arrows destroyed more than 400 soldiers. 25 snipers killed over 300 enemy soldiers. 36 shooters destroyed more than 200 Germans.

There is little information about enemy shooters

There is not so much information about "colleagues" from the enemy side. This is due to the fact that no one tried to boast of their exploits. Therefore, the best German snipers of the Second World War in ranks and names are practically not known. We can only say for sure about those shooters who were awarded the Knight's Iron Crosses. It happened in 1945. One of them was Friedrich Payne. They killed about 200 enemy soldiers. The most productive, most likely, was Matthias Hetzenauer. They destroyed about 345 soldiers. The third sniper who was awarded the order was Josef Olerberg. He left memoirs, in which quite a lot was written about the activities of the German shooters during the war. The sniper himself killed about 257 soldiers.

sniper terror

It should be noted that in Normandy in 1944 there was a landing of the Anglo-American allies. And it was in this place that the best snipers of the Second World War were located at that time. German arrows killed many soldiers. And their performance was facilitated by the terrain, which was simply replete with shrubs. The British and Americans in Normandy faced real sniper terror. Only after that did the allied forces think about training specialized shooters who could work with an optical sight. However, the war has already come to an end. Therefore, the snipers of America and England were never able to set records.

Thus, the Finnish "cuckoos" taught a good lesson in their time. Thanks to them, the best snipers of World War II served in the Red Army.

Women fought alongside men

Since ancient times, it has developed so that men are involved in the war. However, in 1941, when the Germans attacked our country, the whole people began to defend it. Holding weapons in their hands, being at the machines and on the collective farm fields, Soviet people fought against fascism - men, women, old people and children. And they were able to win.

There is a lot of information in the annals about women who received And the best snipers of the war were also present among them. Our girls were able to destroy more than 12 thousand enemy soldiers. Six of them received a high rank And one girl became a full cavalier of a soldier

Legend girl

As mentioned above, the famous sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenkova destroyed about 309 soldiers. Of these, 36 were enemy shooters. In other words, she alone was able to destroy almost an entire battalion. Based on her exploits, a film called "The Battle for Sevastopol" was made. The girl went to the front voluntarily in 1941. She took part in the defense of Sevastopol and Odessa.

In June 1942, the girl was wounded. After that, she no longer took part in the hostilities. The wounded Lyudmila was carried from the battlefield by Alexei Kitsenko, with whom she fell in love. They decided to file a marriage registration report. However, the happiness did not last too long. In March 1942, the lieutenant was seriously wounded and died in the arms of his wife.

In the same year, Lyudmila joined the delegation of Soviet youth and left for America. There she made a splash. After returning, Lyudmila became an instructor at a sniper school. Under her leadership, several dozen good shooters were trained. Here they were - the best snipers of the USSR in World War II.

Establishment of a special school

Perhaps, Lyudmila's experience was the reason that the country's leadership began to teach shooting art to girls. Courses were specially formed in which girls were in no way inferior to men. Later, it was decided to reorganize these courses into the Central Women's School of Sniper Training. In other countries, only men were snipers. In World War II, girls were not taught this art professionally. And only in the Soviet Union did they comprehend this science and fight on an equal footing with men.

The cruel attitude was towards the girls from the enemies

In addition to a rifle, a sapper shovel and binoculars, women took grenades with them. One was intended for the enemy, and the other for himself. Everyone knew that German soldiers treated snipers cruelly. In 1944, the Nazis managed to capture the domestic sniper Tatyana Baramzina. When our soldiers discovered her, they could only recognize her by her hair and uniforms. The enemy soldiers stabbed the body with daggers, cut out the breasts, gouged out the eyes. They stuck a bayonet in the stomach. In addition, the Nazis shot the girl at close range with an anti-tank rifle. Of the 1885 graduates of the school of snipers, about 185 girls could not survive to the Victory. They tried to save them, they did not throw them on particularly difficult tasks. But still, the glare of optical sights in the sun often gave out shooters, who were then found by enemy soldiers.

Only time has changed attitudes towards female shooters

Girls - the best snipers of World War II, whose photos can be seen in this review, experienced a terrible thing at one time. And when they returned home, they were sometimes met with contempt. Unfortunately, in the rear, a special attitude was formed towards the girls. Many of them were unfairly called field wives. Hence the contemptuous glances that were awarded to female snipers.

For a long time they did not tell anyone that they were at war. They hid their awards. And only after 20 years the attitude towards them began to change. And it was at this time that the girls began to open up, talking about their many exploits.

Conclusion

In this review, an attempt was made to describe those snipers who became the most productive during the entire time that World War II was going on. There are enough of them. But it should be noted that not all shooters are known. Some tried to spread as little as possible about their exploits.

Here is another interesting infa (already posted), but it is in this post that readers will be interested.
Said the commander of the Corvette company of the Marine Corps, he is also the commander of the landing group, incl. and brazen Corvettes to uninhabited islands:

Hand-to-hand combat instructor - cadets:
- To engage in hand-to-hand combat, a special forces soldier must *****@ be on the battlefield: machine gun, pistol, knife, waist belt, shovel, body armor, helmet. Find a flat area where not a single stone or stick is lying around. Find on it the same raspiya. And even then engage in hand-to-hand combat with him! ..

And he is about snipers

Former KGB officer Yuri Tarasovich recently pleased with an old story about the war, which he heard at dacha gatherings from a friend of Maxim.
Grandfather Maxim managed to win back the entire war with a sniper and at the same time survive, although he has a whole German cemetery scattered from Stalingrad to Prague ... By the way, when he traveled with veteran delegations to the GDR, he liked to insert on occasion: “I volunteer went to war, destroyed a German company in full strength and returned home to his mother ... "" German friends "in response, smiled sourly, and this sour smile every time made Grandfather Maxim very happy.
But the story is not about that.
Sitting in Tarasych's garden, the grandfathers argued: which country had better weapons? They argued for a long time, even cursed, so they didn’t come to anything and decided that everyone would say about his own, in which he understands. There were no pilots among them, so they decided not to argue about the planes. We started with grandfather Maxim: “Whose sniper rifle was the best?” Grandfather cleared his throat and reported:
- I worked with both German and English, and, of course, with three-rulers, but I won’t say right off the bat which one is better. Each has its own "weak point".
Everyone hummed in disappointment:
- Maxim, well, you blurted out ... we can do that too. You also say that it all depends on the person ...
Grandfather Maxim:
- And I'll tell you. Of course, from a person. Here’s what ball you don’t slip into ours, but they won’t play football ... And vice versa - people can work such miracles with a three-ruler that cannot exist.
When I was already an experienced sniper, ridiculous rumors began to reach me about some kind of Ukrainian sniper, who knocks down the Germans who looked out of the trench from a distance of 1000 meters! I understood that five hundred or six hundred meters is already the limit, and at a distance of a kilometer you need to foresee so much: air temperature, and humidity, and the bullet moving to the right due to rotation, not to mention the speed and direction of the wind .. .and this is with ideal weapons and ammunition. Of course, I didn't believe it.
But the crest-sniper acquired more and more new legends, they came from those people whom I could not disbelieve, then I had to think about it - how does he do it?
And imagine what it was like for the Germans: at first they thought that the Russian sniper had an invisibility cap, he always hits, but he himself was nowhere to be found and, judging by the terrain, it couldn’t be ... Then, when they realized that the sniper was sitting a kilometer away from them, became even more worried. Apparently, the Russians have a secret rifle that will change the whole tactics of the war.
Our colonels begged each other for a Ukrainian sniper even for a day. The sniper came to the “tour”, clicked a couple of officers from a kilometer and left for another sector of the front. After that, for another week it was possible to safely walk along the front line in full growth and pick mushrooms - the Germans perceived this as a bait and pressed their heads into the ground even more.
Finally, I myself met the legendary sniper when he arrived on a "tour" to our neighbors. I had to walk ten kilometers through the forest, but I could not help getting to know each other. His last name was Kravchenko. And of course he had a secret...
It turned out that this Kravchenko was not a person ... but a whole family: an uncle and three nephews, and all Kravchenkos.
Well, of course, I'll tell you, they really were real artists: they carried with them almost a "lorry" with weapons and tools. Here you have turntables - to measure the speed of the wind - and telescopes, and stereo tubes, and all sorts of darn-darned dolls on strings. I even envied. It got to the point that they had a doll that “pulled” another doll by the strings.
They treated weapons like porcelain services - they carried rifles only in boxes, they almost slept with cartridges so that the gunpowder would not become damp.
But the most important thing is their “signature” style: they occupied a position of four side by side to each other, the uncle measured, calculated and gave everyone different corrections - one “click” to the right, another to the left, the third - keep it up, yourself somehow ... And they developed such coherence that, almost without saying a word, all four “sculpted” in one salvo, so the Germans perceived them as one sniper, and no matter how the bullets spread, always one out of four hit the target. Kravchenko's personal account of the killed Germans was replenished strictly in turn - after all, it is not known whose bullet the German had in the head ...
The most amazing case of their work was when they killed a senior German officer through a steel barge.
The grandfathers moved:
- Maxim, do not breach! How - through the barge? Come on, it can't be...
Grandfather Maxim continued:
- So, the German, like you, also thought that he couldn’t, that’s why he was killed ... Imagine: the front line was along the river, the Germans dug in on one side, and they knew that our snipers were guarding them on the other, and the distance is decent - 800-900 meters, all around the plain. The Kravchenkos killed several soldiers and spent the whole day grazing the protruding officer's stereotube, but they never fired so as not to give themselves away. Waiting for the head. But the officer, too, was not a fool, and did not look out. At least cry. Suddenly they see: a long, rusty, charred, half-flooded barge is dragging along the river, and when, while sailing, it completely blocked the officer from snipers, the German “did not disappoint” - he decided to stretch his arms and legs that had become stiff during the day and straightened up to his full height. The Kravchenkos immediately killed him, although they did not see through the barge, but they felt that they should look out of the trench. It’s just that the German, like you, was not a sniper and did not know that at such a distance the bullet describes such a high arc that even a barge of a meter and a half or two meters high will fit under it ... http://filibuster60.livejournal.com/398155.html

When it comes to sniping during the Second World War, they usually think of Soviet snipers. Indeed, such a scope of sniper movement, which was in the Soviet Army in those years, was not in any other army, and the total number of enemy soldiers and officers destroyed by our arrows is in the tens of thousands.
And what do we know about German snipers, "opponents" of our shooters from the other side of the front? Previously, it was officially not customary to objectively evaluate the merits and demerits of the enemy, with whom Russia had to wage a very difficult war for four years. Today, times have changed, but too much time has passed since those events, so much of the information is fragmentary and even doubtful. Nevertheless, we will try to bring together the few information available to us.

As you know, during the First World War, it was the German army that was the first to actively use accurate rifle fire from snipers specially trained in peacetime to destroy the most important targets - officers, messengers, machine gunners on duty, artillery servants. Note that already at the end of the war, the German infantry had at its disposal up to six sniper rifles per company - for comparison, it must be said that the Russian army of that time had neither rifles with optical sights nor trained shooters from this weapon.
The German army instruction stated that “a weapon with an optical sight is very accurate at a distance of up to 300 meters. It should be issued only to trained shooters who are able to eliminate the enemy in his trenches, mainly at dusk and at night. ... The sniper is not assigned to a specific place and a specific position. He can and should move and position himself in such a way as to fire at an important target. He must use an optical sight to observe the enemy, write down in a notebook his observations and the results of observation, the consumption of ammunition and the results of his shots. Snipers are exempt from additional duties.

They have the right to wear special insignia in the form of crossed oak leaves above the cockade of the headdress.
German snipers played a special role precisely in the positional period of the war. Even without attacking the front line of the enemy, the Entente troops suffered losses in manpower. As soon as a soldier or officer inadvertently leaned out from behind the parapet of a trench, a sniper's shot instantly clicked from the side of the German trenches. The moral effect of such losses was extremely great. The mood of the Anglo-French units, losing several dozen people killed and wounded in a day, was depressed. There was only one way out: to release their "super-sharp shooters" to the forefront. In the period from 1915 to 1918, snipers were actively used by both warring parties, thanks to which the concept of military sniping was basically formed, combat missions for "super-accurate shooters" were defined, and basic tactics were worked out.

It was the German experience in the practical application of sniping in the conditions of established long-term positions that served as the impetus for the emergence and development of this type of military art in the Allied forces. By the way, when from 1923 the then German army - the Reichswehr began to be equipped with new Mauser carbines of the 98K version, then each company received 12 units of such weapons equipped with optical sights.

Nevertheless, in the interwar period, snipers were somehow forgotten in the German army. However, there is nothing unusual in this fact: in almost all European armies (with the exception of the Red Army), sniper art was considered simply an interesting, but insignificant experiment of the positional period of the Great War. The future war was seen by military theorists primarily as a war of engines, where motorized infantry would only follow tank attack wedges, which, with the support of front-line aviation, would be able to break through the enemy front and quickly rush there in order to reach the flank and operational rear of the enemy. In such conditions, there was practically no real work left for snipers.

This concept of the use of motorized troops in the first experiments seemed to have confirmed its correctness: the German blitzkrieg swept across Europe with frightening speed, sweeping away armies and fortifications. However, with the beginning of the invasion of Nazi troops on the territory of the Soviet Union, the situation began to change rapidly. Although the Red Army retreated under the onslaught of the Wehrmacht, it offered such fierce resistance that the Germans repeatedly had to go on the defensive in order to repel counterattacks. And when already in the winter of 1941-1942. snipers appeared on the Russian positions and the sniper movement began to actively develop, supported by the political departments of the fronts, the German command remembered the need to train their "super-sharp shooters" as well. Sniper schools and front-line courses began to be organized in the Wehrmacht, and the “share” of sniper rifles in relation to other types of light small arms gradually began to grow.

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 an optical 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 3,276 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 by no means meet the requirements of combat. 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 Wehrmacht soldiers.

By the way, the ZF41 optical sight with a magnification of 1.5x was attached to a guide specially machined on the aiming block, so that the distance from the shooter’s eye to the eyepiece was about 22 cm. from the shooter's eye to the eyepiece, should be quite effective, since it allows you to aim the crosshair at 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 objects observed through the sight and on top of it. In addition, this option for placing optics allows you to load a rifle with clips without losing sight of the target and the muzzle of the barrel. But naturally, a sniper rifle with such a low-powered scope 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.

Produced since 1943, the 7.92 mm self-loading rifle G43 (or K43) also had its own sniper version with a 4x optical sight. The German military leadership required that all G43 rifles have a telescopic sight, but this was no longer possible. Nevertheless, out of 402,703 issued before March 1945, almost 50,000 had an optical sight already installed. In addition, all rifles had a bracket for mounting optics, so in theory any rifle could be used as a sniper weapon.

Given all these shortcomings in the weapons of German shooters, as well as numerous shortcomings in the organization of the sniper training system, it is hardly possible to dispute the fact that the German army lost the sniper war on the Eastern Front. This is confirmed by the words of the former Lieutenant Colonel of the Wehrmacht Eike Middeldorf, author of the well-known book "Tactics in the Russian Campaign", that "the Russians were superior to the Germans in the art of night combat, combat in wooded and swampy areas and combat in winter, in the training of snipers, as well as in equipping the infantry with machine guns and mortars.
The famous duel between the Russian sniper Vasily Zaitsev and the head of the Berlin sniper school Connings, which took place during the Battle of Stalingrad, became a symbol of the complete moral superiority of our "super sharp shooters", although the end of the war was still very far away and many more Russian soldiers would carry German bullets to the grave shooters.

At the same time, on the other side of Europe, in Normandy, German snipers were able to achieve much greater success, repulsing the attacks of the Anglo-American troops that had landed on the French coast.
After the landing of the allies in Normandy, almost a whole month of bloody battles passed before the Wehrmacht units were forced to begin a retreat under the influence of ever-increasing enemy strikes. It was during this month that the German snipers showed that they, too, were capable of something.

American war correspondent Ernie Pyle, describing the first days after the landing of the allied forces, wrote: “Snipers are everywhere. Snipers in trees, in buildings, in piles of ruins, in the grass. But mostly they hide in the high, dense hedges that stretch along the Normandy fields, and are on every roadside, in every alley. First of all, such a high activity and combat effectiveness of German shooters can be explained by the extremely small number of snipers in the Allied forces, who were unable to provide a quick response to sniper terror from the enemy. In addition, a purely psychological moment cannot be discounted: the British and especially the Americans, for the most part, subconsciously still perceive war as a kind of risky sport, so it is not surprising that many Allied soldiers were severely amazed and morally depressed by the very fact of having some invisible enemy, stubbornly unwilling to abide by the gentlemanly "laws of war" and shooting from an ambush. The morale effect of sniper fire was indeed quite significant, since, according to some historians, in the first days of the fighting, up to fifty percent of all losses in American units were at the expense of enemy snipers. A natural consequence of this was the lightning-fast spread of legends about the combat capabilities of enemy shooters through the “soldier telegraph”, and soon the panic fear of soldiers in front of snipers became a serious problem for officers of the allied forces.

The tasks that the Wehrmacht command set for its "super sharp shooters" were standard for army sniping: the destruction of such categories of enemy military personnel as officers, sergeants, artillery observers, signalmen. In addition, snipers were used as reconnaissance observers.

American veteran John Huyton, who was 19 at the time of the landings, recalls his encounter with a German sniper. When his unit was able to move away from the landing point and reached the enemy fortifications, the gun crew tried to install their gun on the top of the hill. But every time another soldier tried to get up to the sight, a shot clicked in the distance - and the next gunner sank with a bullet in his head. Note that, according to Hayton, the distance to the German position was very significant - about eight hundred meters.

The following fact speaks of the number of German “super-shooters” on the shores of Normandy: when the 2nd battalion of the “Royal Ulster Fusiliers” moved to capture the commanding heights near Perrier-sur-le-Dene, after a short battle, they captured seventeen prisoners, seven of them turned out to be snipers.

Another unit of British infantry moved up from the coast to Cambrai, a small village surrounded by dense forest and stone walls. Since observation of the enemy was impossible, the British jumped to the conclusion that there must be little resistance. When one of the companies reached the edge of the forest, it came under heavy rifle and mortar fire. The effectiveness of the German rifle fire was strangely high: the orderlies of the medical department were killed while trying to carry the wounded from the battlefield, the captain was killed on the spot with a shot in the head, one of the platoon commanders was seriously wounded. The tanks supporting the unit's attack were powerless to do anything because of the high wall surrounding the village. The battalion command was forced to stop the offensive, but by this time the company commander and fourteen other people had been killed, one officer and eleven soldiers were wounded, four people were missing. In fact, Cambrai turned out to be a well-fortified German position. When, after processing it with all kinds of artillery - from light mortars to naval guns - the village was nevertheless taken, it turned out to be filled with dead German soldiers, many of whom had rifles with telescopic sights. One wounded sniper from SS units was also captured.

Many of the riflemen that the Allies encountered in Normandy received good marksmanship training from the Hitler Youth. Before the start of the war, this youth organization strengthened the military training of its members: all of them without fail studied the device of military weapons, trained in shooting from small-caliber rifles, and the most capable of them purposefully studied sniper art. When later these “children of Hitler” entered the army, they received full-fledged sniper training. In particular, the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitler Youth, which fought in Normandy, was manned by soldiers from among the members of this organization, and officers from the SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, notorious for its atrocities. In the battles in the Cannes region, these teenagers received a baptism of fire.

In general, Cannes was almost an ideal place for a sniper war. Working together with artillery spotters, the German snipers had complete control of the area around this city, the British and Canadian soldiers were forced to carefully check literally every meter of the territory to make sure that the area was really cleared of enemy "cuckoos".
On June 26, an ordinary SS man named Peltzmann, from a well-chosen and carefully camouflaged position, destroyed the Allied soldiers for several hours, holding back their advance in his sector. When the sniper ran out of ammunition, he got out of his prone, smashed his rifle against a tree and shouted to the British: "I finished off enough of yours, but I ran out of ammunition - you can shoot me!" Perhaps he could not have said this: the British infantrymen gladly complied with his last request. The captured Germans who were present at this scene were forced to gather all the dead in one place. One of these prisoners later claimed to have counted at least thirty British dead near Peltzmann's position.

Despite the lesson learned by the Allied infantry in the very first days after the landing in Normandy, there were no effective means against the German "super sharp shooters", they became a constant headache. The possible presence of invisible shooters, ready to fire a bullet at anyone every minute, exhausted the nerves. Clearing the area of ​​snipers was very difficult, sometimes taking a whole day to completely comb the area around the field camp, but without this no one could vouch for their safety.

Allied soldiers gradually learned in practice the basics of precautions against sniper fire that the Germans themselves learned three years ago, finding themselves in the same situation under the guns of Soviet fighters. In order not to tempt fate, the Americans and the British began to move, bending low to the ground, dashing from cover to cover; the rank and file stopped greeting the officers, and the officers, in turn, began to wear field uniforms, very similar to the soldier's - everything was done in order to minimize the risk and not provoke the enemy sniper to shoot. Nevertheless, the sense of danger became a constant companion of the soldiers in Normandy.

German snipers melted into the difficult landscape of Normandy. The fact is that most of this area is a real maze of fields, fenced with hedges. These hedges date back to Roman times and were used to mark the boundaries of land. The land here was divided by hedges of hawthorn, brambles and various creepers into small fields, which strongly resembled a patchwork quilt. Some of these fences were planted on high embankments, in front of which drainage ditches were dug. When it rained—and it rained often—mud stuck to soldiers' boots, cars got stuck and had to be pulled out with tanks, and all around was darkness, a dull sky, and shaggy hedges.

Not surprisingly, such terrain provided an ideal battlefield for sniper warfare. Moving into the depths of France, the units left a lot of enemy shooters in their tactical rear, who then began the systematic shooting of careless rear soldiers. The hedges made it possible to view the area only two or three hundred meters away, and from such a distance even a novice sniper can hit the head figure from a rifle with an optical sight. Dense vegetation not only limited the view, but also allowed the “cuckoo” shooter to easily escape from the return fire after a few shots.

The fighting among the hedgerows was reminiscent of Theseus' wanderings in the labyrinth of the Minotaur. Tall, dense bushes along the roads made the soldiers of the allied forces feel like they were in a tunnel, in the depths of which an insidious trap was set up. The terrain presented numerous opportunities for snipers to choose "prone" and equip shooting cells, while their opponent was in the exact opposite situation. Most often, in the fences on the paths of the most probable movement of the enemy, Wehrmacht snipers arranged numerous “prone” positions from which they fired harassing fire, and also covered machine-gun positions, set up surprise mines, etc. - in other words, there was a systematic and well-organized sniper terror. Single German shooters, finding themselves deep in the rear of the Allies, hunted enemy soldiers and officers until they ran out of ammunition and food, and then ... simply surrendered, which, given the attitude of the enemy military personnel towards them, was quite a risky business.

However, not everyone was willing to surrender. It was in Normandy that the so-called “suicide boys” appeared, who, contrary to all the canons of sniper tactics, did not at all seek to change position after a few shots, but, on the contrary, continued to fire continuously until they were destroyed. This self-destructive tactic in many cases allowed them to inflict heavy casualties on Allied infantry units.

The Germans did not only set up ambushes among hedges and trees - road junctions, where such important targets as senior officers often met, were also convenient places for an ambush. Here the Germans had to fire from fairly large distances, since it was the intersections that were usually tightly guarded. Bridges were exceptionally convenient targets for shelling, since the infantry crowded here, and only a few shots could cause panic among the yet unfired reinforcements moving to the front. Separate buildings were too obvious places to choose a position, so snipers usually camouflaged away from them, but the numerous ruins in the villages became their favorite place - although here they had to change position more often than in normal field conditions, when it is difficult to determine the location of the shooter .

The natural desire of any sniper was to be located in a place from which the whole area would be clearly visible, so water pumps, mills and bell towers were ideal positions, but it was these objects that were primarily subjected to artillery and machine gun fire. Despite this, some German "super sharp shooters" were still stationed there. Destroyed by Allied guns, the Norman rural churches became a symbol of German sniper terror.

Like the snipers of any army, the German riflemen tried first of all to hit the most important targets: officers, sergeants, observers, gun servants, signalmen, tank commanders. One captured German during interrogation explained to the interested British how he could distinguish officers at a great distance - after all, British officers had long worn the same field uniform as privates and did not have insignia. He said, "We just shoot people with mustaches." The fact is that in the British army, officers and senior sergeants traditionally wore mustaches.
Unlike a machine gunner, a sniper did not reveal his position when firing, therefore, under favorable circumstances, one competent “super accurate shooter” could stop the advance of an infantry company, especially if it was a company of unfired soldiers: when they came under fire, the infantrymen most often lay down and did not even try to shoot back . A former commanding officer of the American army recalled that “one of the main mistakes that recruits constantly made was that, under fire, they simply lie down on the ground and do not move. Once I ordered a platoon to advance from one hedge to another. While moving, the sniper killed one of the soldiers with his first shot. All the other soldiers immediately fell to the ground and were almost completely killed one by one by the same sniper.

In general, 1944 was a turning point for sniper art in the German troops. 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 of “shooters plus an 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. The head of the "black order" 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: Sniper in Combat" and "Field Training of Snipers" were filmed for use in training ground units. Both films were shot quite competently and very high quality, even from today's height: here are the main points of special sniper training, the most important recommendations for operations in the field, and all this in a popular form, with a combination of game elements.

A memo widely circulated at that time called "The Ten Commandments of the Sniper" read:
- Fight selflessly.
- Fire calmly and carefully, concentrate on each shot. Remember that rapid fire has no effect.
- Shoot only when you're sure you won't be detected.
- Your main opponent is an enemy sniper, outwit him.
- Do not forget that a sapper shovel prolongs your life.
- Constantly practice in determining distances.
- Become a master of terrain and disguise.
- Train constantly - on the front line and in the rear.
- Take care of your sniper rifle, don't let it fall into anyone's hands.
- 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 such a concept that allowed E. Middeldorf in the post-war period to propose the following practice in his book: “In no other issue related to infantry fighting, there are such big contradictions as in the issue of using snipers. Some consider it necessary to have a full-time sniper platoon in every company, or at least in a battalion. Others predict that snipers operating in pairs will have the greatest success. We will try to find a solution that satisfies the requirements of both points of view. First of all, it is necessary to distinguish between "amateur snipers" and "professional snipers". It is desirable that each squad has two non-professional amateur snipers. They need to give the assault rifle a 4x optical sight. They will remain ordinary shooters who have received additional sniper training. If it is not possible to use them as snipers, then they will act as ordinary soldiers. As for professional snipers, there should be two in each company or six in the company control group. They must be armed with a special sniper rifle with a muzzle velocity of more than 1000 m/s, with a telescopic sight with a 6-fold increase in large aperture. These snipers will generally "free hunt" within the company's area. If, depending on the situation and terrain conditions, the need arises to use a platoon of snipers, then this will be easily feasible, since there are 24 snipers in the company (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.

Allied soldiers and low-ranking officers, most of all suffering from sniper terror, developed various methods of dealing with enemy invisible shooters. Yet the most effective way was still to use your snipers.

Statistically, during World War II, it usually took 25,000 shots to kill a soldier. For snipers, the same number was on average 1.3-1.5.

As for the theme of the army of fascist Germany, I can remind you of the history of such figures as The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -

10. Stepan Vasilyevich Petrenko: 422 killed.
During World War II, the Soviet Union had more skilled snipers than any other country on Earth. Due to their continued training and development during the 1930s, while other countries cut back on their teams of specialist snipers, the USSR had the best marksmen in the world. Stepan Vasilyevich Petrenko was well known among the elite.

His highest professionalism is confirmed by 422 killed enemies; the effectiveness of the Soviet sniper training program is confirmed by accurate shooting and extremely rare misses.

9. Vasily Ivanovich Golosov: 422 killed.
During the war, 261 shooters (including women), each of whom killed at least 50 people, were awarded the title of outstanding sniper. Vasily Ivanovich Golosov was one of those who received such an honor. His death list is 422 killed enemies.

8. Fedor Trofimovich Dyachenko: 425 killed.
During World War II, 428,335 people are believed to have received Red Army sniper training, of which 9,534 used their qualifications in death experience. Fedor Trofimovich Dyachenko was one of those trainees who stood out. Soviet hero with 425 confirmations, received the Distinguished Service Medal for “high heroism in military operations against an armed enemy.”

7. Fedor Matveevich Okhlopkov: 429 killed.
Fedor Matveyevich Okhlopkov, one of the most respected snipers in the USSR. He and his brother were recruited into the Red Army, but the brother was killed in action. Fyodor Matveyevich vowed to avenge his brother by those. Who took his life. The number of people killed by this sniper (429 people) did not include the number of enemies. Which he killed with a machine gun. In 1965 he was awarded the Order of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

6. Mikhail Ivanovich Budenkov: 437 killed.
Mikhail Ivanovich Budenkov was among those snipers that few others could only aspire to. Surprisingly successful sniper with 437 killed. This number does not include those killed by machine guns.

5. Vladimir Nikolaevich Pchelintsev: 456 killed.
Such a number of dead can be attributed not only to the skill and mastery of the rifle, but also to the knowledge of the landscape and the ability to competently disguise. Among these skilled and experienced snipers was Vladimir Nikolaevich Pchelintsev, who killed 437 enemies.

4. Ivan Nikolaevich Kulbertinov: 489 killed.
Unlike most other countries during World War II, women could be snipers in the Soviet Union. In 1942, two semi-annual courses in which only women were trained paid off: almost 55,000 snipers were trained. 2,000 women took an active part in the war. Among them: Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who killed 309 opponents.

3. Nikolai Yakovlevich Ilyin: 494 killed.
In 2001, a film was made in Hollywood: "The Enemy at the Gates" about the famous Russian sniper Vasily Zaitsev. The film depicts the events of the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942-1943. A film about Nikolai Yakovlevich Ilyin has not been made, but his contribution to Soviet military history was just as important. Having killed 494 enemy soldiers (sometimes listed as 497), Ilyin was a deadly shooter for the enemy.

2. Ivan Mikhailovich Sidorenko: approximately 500 killed
Ivan Mikhailovich Sidorenko, was drafted in 1939 at the beginning of World War II. During the 1941 Battle of Moscow, he learned to snipe and became known as a gunman with a deadly aim. One of his most famous exploits is that he destroyed a tank and three other vehicles using incendiary ammunition. However, after his injury in Estonia, his role in the following years was primarily teaching. In 1944 Sidorenko was awarded the prestigious title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

1. Simo Hayha: 542 Killed (probably 705)
Simo Hayha, a Finn, is the only non-Soviet soldier on this list. Nicknamed "White Death" by the troops of the Red Army because of the camouflage disguised as snow. According to statistics, Hayha is the bloodiest sniper in history. Before taking part in the war, he was a farmer. Incredibly, in weapons, he preferred an iron sight to an optical one.