Finnish snipers of World War II. Finnish cuckoos. Finns in the Winter War and the Siege of Leningrad

During the Finnish war, Simo Häyhä was nicknamed the White Death by the Red Army. He was, according to the Finns, the most productive sniper in all wars in the world. According to some reports, during the 100 days of the war, he killed 500-750 people. This means that every day he took the lives of 5-8 Red Army soldiers. Could it be? After all, he was followed by a real hunt, in which more than a dozen of the best counter-snipers of the Red Army participated, and they, by all accounts, were the most productive in the world.

Myth or reality

Probably, the Finnish sniper Simo Häyhä was a good shooter, but Finnish propaganda clearly outdid both the Soviet and the fascist taken together. For the sniper, nicknamed the White Death, there was a real hunt, this is confirmed by his severe wound. The Finnish side simply could not not know this. Most likely, Hyayuhya himself knew about this. So, starting from the middle of the war, he did not shoot as much as he hid.

No one argues that snipers from the Finnish side really raged in the first days of the war. But this is for the time being. Soviet snipers also worked along the entire front line. If at the beginning, as always, they blundered a little, then by the middle of the campaign there was no such revelry. It is also necessary to take into account the length of the front line. It was insignificant, just a little less than 400 kilometers. Someone will object that the Finns are excellent forest hunters, but Russia is not deprived of them either. There were also taiga dwellers who, without any optics, hit a squirrel in the eye.

And one more important fact. It was the winter war, when any trace was imprinted in full view. In severe frosts, there are no snowfalls that hide traces. And the cold was almost the whole of December 1939. And yet, shooting in the Union has always been given due attention, there were special courses for snipers. In the NKVD alone, there were more than 25,000 of these specialists on staff.

Of course, no one but the sniper himself could and cannot confirm this "record". In addition to Simo Häyhä, other shooters also worked from the Finnish side. Professionals also worked from the Soviet side. Interestingly, the 100 best Soviet snipers during the years of World War II destroyed 25,500 enemy soldiers and officers, which is an average of 255 people per shooter. There were also those who had an account of more than 500 killed, but this, it is worth emphasizing, was over four and a half years.

Childhood and youth

The son of a peasant, Simo was born on December 17, 1905 in Rautjärvi, located in Finland (Russian Empire). There were eight children in the family, he was the seventh. Together with his older brothers, he went fishing and hunting. These activities were the main occupation of the family. He graduated from the public school in Mietilä. When he was 17 years old, he entered the Shchyutskor security corps, where he was engaged in shooting. He even participated in the shooting competition in Viipuri, where he became the first.

Military career

The future sniper Simo Häyhä, at the age of twenty, served in the second bicycle battalion stationed in Valkyarvi. He graduated from the non-commissioned officer school and received the rank of non-commissioned officer of the 1st cyclist battalion in the town of Terijoki. Noting his good performance in shooting, he was sent to Kouvola, where he studied at the Utti Fortress in sniper courses in 1934.

War between Finland and the USSR

After training, he served in the 34th Infantry Regiment. During the war, since December 7, 1939, the regiment has been participating in the battles of Ladoga Karelia, near Mount Kolla. During the hostilities, there were severe frosts, the air temperature reached -40 degrees Celsius.

The soldiers of the Red Army at the beginning of the war did not have winter equipment (white coats) and were excellent prey for Finnish snipers. This gap was quickly filled. In addition, myths were launched about the elusive Finnish "cuckoos" who allegedly shot from trees. At first, this played a significant role.

Special tactics of Finnish snipers

Equipped platforms in the trees, "cuckoos", which at first were mistaken for the positions of snipers, were a kind of observation posts. Snipers advanced to positions on skis. The rookeries were equipped in advance and carefully masked. Warm woolen clothes protected in the most severe frost and evened out the pulse. Simo Häyhä's small stature allowed him to feel good in the cramped snow holes.

Simo's little tricks

As a weapon, Hyayhya used the "Sako" M / 28-30 spitz - the Finnish analogue of the Mosin rifle. He did not use a telescopic sight, as it left a glare that could give him away. In addition, the windows "wept", and frost covered them in the cold. When using optics, the sniper's head rose higher, which also made him vulnerable. He also used the Suomi KR/31 submachine gun.

Another nuance: he had his position at a short distance, about 450 meters from the enemy’s location, taking into account the fact that they would not look for him so close. By mid-February, the unit commander recorded 217 Red Army soldiers killed by a sniper rifle on his account. And according to one version, he killed 200 people with a machine gun. Why were Simo Häyhä feared? Because they were afraid not only of him, but of any other human hunter. Everyone wants to live.

Wound

The Red Army called him the White Death. On him, as well as on others, the hunt began, to which the best snipers of the Soviet Union were attracted. At the very beginning of March 1940, he was seriously wounded. An explosive bullet hit him in the lower part of the face, turned his cheekbone and shattered his bones. Having lost consciousness, the sniper came to his senses only a week later. The treatment was hard and long. He endured many surgeries and survived. Due to his injury, he did not participate in the war of 1941-1944. But he was promoted to second lieutenant. The post-war photos of Simo Häyhä show that his face is very different from the images in the pre-war pictures.

Häyhä's image is a weapon of propaganda

At the very beginning of the military campaign, the Finnish press created the image of a hero who kills a myriad of enemies. The most interesting thing is that at critical moments at the front, when it was necessary to raise the morale of the soldiers, the Finnish command announced that a great sniper was arriving in their unit, who killed 25 Red Army soldiers in one day. Often he actually appeared in this place. This was done to raise the spirit of ordinary and war-weary soldiers. Simo's "achievements" were skillfully used as a propaganda weapon. Most likely, he was in fact a good sniper, but not the way they are trying to present him to us today.

The Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-40 ended with the fact that the territorial claims of the USSR to Finland were satisfied.

However, this victory was obtained at the cost of very serious losses of the Soviet side. And one of the reasons for these losses was the famous cuckoo snipers. They were almost elusive and very effective. Not surprisingly, their deadly activities have given rise to many myths.

Myths about cuckoo snipers

Soviet fighters talked about hundreds and thousands of Finnish snipers, who lay in wait for their victims, sitting in trees, and talking in the “bird language”. That's why they were called "cuckoos". They talked about their ability to literally disappear, how to fall through the ground. They just spotted a "cuckoo" on a pine tree, began shelling from all sides with machine guns, literally cutting the trunk in half in bursts. And so, the tree falls, but no trace of the cuckoo. Only a small flooring of boards in the branches. And where is the shooter himself - look for him! Political workers, however, told stories of a completely opposite nature: that the “cuckoos” were chained to their “nest” tightly - with chains.
In any case, chained or, on the contrary, free as birds, these "cuckoo" snipers inspired genuine fear in our fighters. And the reason for it was mainly their incomprehensible accuracy and elusiveness.
In fact
Stories about hundreds and thousands of snipers are, of course, an exaggeration. There is evidence that the entire Finnish army at that time was armed with only 200 sniper rifles. It would be more correct to say that a lot of shooters fought on the Finnish side, and not snipers in the strict sense of the word. These shooters were part of the divisions of the shutskor - structures akin to our people's militia. All these people were hunters before the war, in wooded Finland every man is a hunter. The Shyutskorovites built their “nests” on hills, in the attics of houses, and much less often in trees. They often worked in pairs. While one sat with a weapon in the “nest”, the other slept in a bunker arranged below, at the foot of a tree or somewhere nearby. If the "cuckoo" was spotted, and it became necessary to leave, the shooter slid off the barrel along the rope and hid in a shelter. It was not a problem for the Finns to go into the forest on skis. The entire population of Finland are excellent skiers, the Shutskor people were both at home in the forest, and legends about instantaneous disappearances were born. The stories about snipers chained to the trunks of pine trees were partly generated by Soviet propaganda, which had to somehow explain the effectiveness of the Finnish shooters, partly by the fact that sometimes the shooters actually insured themselves by tying themselves to the trunk with a rope or chain. The "bird talk" of snipers is also from the category of myths. It is likely that the arrows gave each other some kind of signals, imitating bird calls, but since it was winter, they hardly used the calls of the cuckoo for this, the bird, as you know, is a migratory one.
For the entire period of the Soviet-Finnish war, only one officially documented episode of the destruction of the Finnish “cuckoo” sniper is known. It was January 3, 1940. Soldiers of the 1st company of the 1st battalion of the 4th border regiment shot down the shooter. He actually sat on a tree.
The story of one sniper
Finnish cuckoo shooters fought against the Red Army, but, nevertheless, one cannot help but admire the courage and dexterity with which they defended their country. Here is the story of one of these people who, in a sense, became the embodiment of the Finnish national spirit. This is sniper Simo Häyhä. He became one of the most productive snipers in the history of wars. According to various estimates, Simo destroyed from 542 to 742 Red Army soldiers. Experts calculated that in order to achieve such a result, Simo had to kill 5 people a day, taking into account the short winter day - one per hour. Much of what Simo Häyhä used for camouflage is still used by special forces soldiers today. For example, in order not to give himself away with his breath - in the cold when breathing, clouds of steam inevitably arise - he sucked snow. The trick is simple, but it saved his life, and is currently saving many fighters conducting special operations in winter conditions. This very short man, he was only one and a half meters tall, was a well-aimed shooter and a brave soldier. At the end of the war, in hand-to-hand combat, he was wounded in the face, which permanently disfigured him. After the war, Häyhä lived modestly in his small estate, bred dogs, and hunted. He died in 2002.

The Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-40 ended with the fact that the territorial claims of the USSR to Finland were satisfied. However, this victory was obtained at the cost of very serious losses of the Soviet side. And one of the reasons for these losses was the famous cuckoo snipers. They were almost elusive and very effective. Not surprisingly, their deadly activities have given rise to many myths.

Snipers "cuckoo" in the Finnish war 1939-1940

The term "cuckoo" is repeatedly found in the book "Fighting in Finland. Memoirs of participants”, published in the USSR in 1941, in which the “cuckoo” was most often described precisely as a sniper firing from a tree.

Mentions of the Finnish snipers-"cuckoos" are quite often found in the memoirs and memoirs of the participants in the Finnish war from the Soviet side, as well as in the Soviet press. They are mentioned, in particular, General E. F. Ivanovsky (during the Finnish war, a former lieutenant, tank commander), Marshal K. A. Meretskov (during the Finnish war - commander of the 2nd rank, commander of the 7th army), marshal N. N. Voronov.

This is how Deputy Political Commissar G. Shchuklin described his combat experience:

I looked up but didn't see anyone. The snow tightly covered the tops of the trees, and the shooting was heard everywhere, and it was not possible to quickly determine where they were hitting. Suddenly I saw junior lieutenant Kolosov crawling up to a tree. Wounded, he continued to fire his pistol upwards. Rushing towards him, I noticed a Shutskor man on the branches, firing from a machine gun. It was junior lieutenant Kolosov who fought with him. I quickly took aim and pulled the trigger. The Shutskor man dropped his machine gun and hung on a branch. They immediately started shooting at me. I crawled back and hid behind a fallen tree. From here I noticed the second "cuckoo". On a tall pine tree, almost at the very storehouse, stood a full-length Shutskor man in a gray jacket. He stood on the bridge of the boards and fired from a light machine gun .

According to contemporary sources, Finnish soldiers used shooting from trees " much less often than it seemed to the Red Army ... This way of conducting single combat operations left the soldier sitting on a tree almost no chance to retreat, and even a slight wound could lead to a fatal fall» .

It is believed that the legend of snipers in the trees appeared in conditions when the echo of a shot from a hidden sniper, repeatedly reflected from the trees in the forest, disoriented the survivors.

Also, it is believed that at least part of the references to the arrows, "cuckoo" refers to observation posts equipped in trees. During the Finnish war, such observation posts (in the form of a platform) were equipped by Finnish border guards, observers and artillery spotters. They were used in the future.

Nevertheless, at least isolated cases of firing from trees are known from history.

In addition, shooting from a position equipped on a tree (platform or "hunt") is used by hunters.

Cuckoo snipers in other wars and armed conflicts

there is a mention that during the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet sniper Vodopyanov shot dead a German officer and several soldiers in the village they occupied, firing from a position on a spruce. Since the first shots were fired during a firefight on the front line, he was not noticed by the enemy, but later, the Germans stopped moving through the area under fire and put up signs "attention, sniper!" .
According to the memoirs of a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, corporal of the reconnaissance platoon of the 70th Marine Rifle Brigade V. V. Anisimov, in April 1942, during defensive battles on the Svir River, they shot a Finnish sniper who was on a tree, and a few days later on the same on the front, during the artillery shelling of Finnish positions, another Finnish soldier fell from a tree, who, apparently, was caught by shrapnel. However, the second person killed could be an observer.
in the autumn of 1942, in the defensive battles for the North Caucasus, Soviet troops equipped and used positions in the trees for snipers and machine gunners
In early November 1942, at the edge of the forest near the village of Berech (in the vicinity of Kovel), in preparation for the battle with the SS, partisans from the detachment of Jozef Sobiesiak (“Max”) equipped carefully camouflaged positions in the trees for 12 submachine gunners. At the moment when the SS marching column moving along the road was under the trees, the "cuckoos" opened fire on the column from the trees, and the rest of the partisans opened fire from an ambush. The “cuckoo” submachine gunners caused confusion among the enemy (almost immediately they killed 20 SS men), as a result, the SS men suffered significant losses and retreated (nevertheless, two “cuckoo” partisans died in a shootout with the enemy who came to his senses). At the battlefield, the partisans collected 2 light machine guns, 13 machine guns and 35 rifles.
In January 1943, during the fighting in New Guinea, units of the 163rd Regiment of the 41st Infantry Division of the United States encountered Japanese snipers who fired from the ground and from the trees. To fight the enemy in one of the battalions of the 163rd regiment, in addition to camouflaged sniper ambushes on the front line of defense, sniper positions were equipped in the trees on the flanks and in the rear of their own troops.
in 1943, before the start of the battle on the Kursk Bulge, an attempt to shoot a German officer from a sniper rifle from a position on a tree was made by an army intelligence officer G.F. Egorov. Since the tree immediately began to fire from small arms, he did not have time to evaluate the results of the shot - as he was forced to immediately jump from the tree and hide in a trench. A minute later, the Germans fired ten mortar mines on the tree on which the position was equipped.
Lieutenant V. Gerlach from the 654th Eastern Battalion of the Wehrmacht mentions in his memoirs that in the second half of 1944, in one of the clashes in France, he and his subordinates encountered French partisans - "poppies" who fired from trees.
On the night of July 27-28, 1944, before the assault on Brest by Soviet troops, several Soviet snipers from the group of Hero of the Soviet Union I. D. Pavlenko equipped positions in attics and trees, from which, after the start of the assault, several German machine gunners and crews were destroyed on the opposite bank of the Bug two guns.
In September 1944, during the battles on the territory of Latvia, the Germans, during the retreat, repeatedly left single snipers in camouflaged positions along forest roads - they let the advancing units and large subunits pass and began to shoot at single vehicles, liaison officers, wagon trains (" when retreating, the Nazis leave well-camouflaged snipers in the trees and in other places ... the decision is not only daring, but also insidious. If the cleansing flurry of war has already passed through the area, then a person moves there less carefully than on the front line - only occasionally looks under his feet so as not to run into a mine, but in general, vigilance is dulled. This is what the "foundlings" used"). One of these snipers, who was setting up a position in a tree, was discovered and shot dead by Soviet intelligence officers at the moment when he opened fire on another group of Soviet soldiers.
On April 15, 1945, Jan Zyzha, a private of the 26th Infantry Regiment of the 9th Infantry Division of the 2nd Army of the Polish Army, was shot dead by a German sniper who was on a tree on the front line near the city of Rotenburg. After the first shot, the sniper was located and destroyed by fire from an anti-tank rifle.
According to the memoirs of the veteran of the Great Patriotic War A. I. Ustinova, who participated in the battle for Manchuria, in August 1945, Soviet soldiers repeatedly met Japanese soldiers firing from trees (at the same time, in order not to fall, the Japanese tied themselves to a tree trunk with a rope)

Notes

Literature and sources

P. A. Belyakov. In the sight "Brown Bear". - M.: Military Publishing, 1977.

Links

Finnish cuckoo, legend or reality? // site "Vyborg. About past and present

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .

Cuckoo, shooter Dictionary of Russian synonyms. sniper n., number of synonyms: 4 cuckoo (26) mark ... Synonym dictionary

I Forest migratory bird, usually not making nests and laying eggs in other people's nests. II well. unfold 1. A small shunting locomotive (from the letter designation of its K series). 2. A small local train running on various branch lines ... ... Modern explanatory dictionary of the Russian language Efremova

AND; pl. genus. shek, dat. shkam; and. 1. Forest migratory bird, usually not making its own nest and laying eggs in others. Listen to the cuckoo in the forest. Live like a cuckoo clock (which signals the time not by striking, but by cuckooing). Swap a cuckoo for a hawk... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

cuckoo- and; pl. genus. shek, dat. shkam; and. see also cuckoo 1) Forest migratory bird, usually not making its own nest and laying eggs in others. Listen to the cuckoo in the forest. Live like a kuku/shka. Cuckoo clock (which signals the time not by striking, but by cuckooing) ... Dictionary of many expressions

White Pantyhose, or "White Stocking" is the slang name for a squad of female snipers of predominantly Baltic origin who allegedly fought on the side of anti-Russian forces and separatist regimes in war zones on the territory ... Wikipedia

Remus 22-08-2005 22:40

In some old movie, a German machine gunner chained to something appeared. Once I was interested in such things in terms of the psychology of extreme situations. Everything in life is possible, but there was no reliable evidence.

bader 23-08-2005 18:25

Somewhere such a topic slipped that towards the end of the war such cases of chaining took place. I don’t know about the “cuckoos”, but I came across machine gunners in the literature. But I haven’t seen official confirmation anywhere, so it’s most likely nonsense, although .... in life, and even more so in war, anything can happen.

Mosinman 23-08-2005 21:50

The Germans practiced this even in the First World War. The idea is that first you will shoot yourself, and then, even if it comes to your mind to surrender, you will know that they will not be taken alive, because you have beaten a lot of people. Therefore, you will shoot to the end.
It seems that on the Zeelovsky Heights and the Dnieper, such machine gunners met.

ranger 02-09-2005 14:05

This is not bullshit. This is history. This was the case with the Germans in both wars and the Japanese. Moreover, even before 1941, and even in WW2 and even more so - and not only against us, but also on the islands against the amers.

------------------
Shoot fast and think - you'll live longer... If you survive!

Sissy 18-09-2005 02:23

No, I can say quite officially that garbage. There were snipers, yes, but to a rock or a tree only if you are from a psychiatric ward. The Germans had their own grouping in Finland, but strictly under their command, and for example, their power was not extended to the Finns. It was strictly there, yes, there were many cases that German sentries fired on Finnish long-range detachments, and for this, as a rule, death followed the tribunal. In general, the Germans were poorly prepared for the warriors in these latitudes and therefore fought almost only trench battles and stood at the expense of their technical strength.
There were personal beds, yes, for example, the Finnish sniper Simo Häyhä, whose account in the army was +500, according to some information, the exact 542 (in the Finnish army, only a partner or officer could be a witness), he used an open sight (I hope everyone understands) crawled at least 40 % of cases (it is worth saying that the melting in the forest is from 30-150m maximum). And it's not about cuckoos, but about the ability and choice of personnel, as a rule, loners worked. Legends were born later as well as after the First World War about German snipers.

ASlon 18-09-2005 02:35

Sissy
could you give a link (or advise other sources) with some information about this sniper. (Simo Hayha) You can even in Finnish .. I am fond of the history of the Winter War and the actions of the Finnish army in particular. I will be very grateful.

Sissy 18-09-2005 02:48

Yes, you don’t need links, just the name and surname Simo Häyhä, and then just choose the language, there are many links to English on it or on its statistics, there are opinions that there are no equals, but not Zaitsev, of course. There was no promotion for the whole world, and again, the score is not kept by soldiers, there is not enough smoke like that of fighters. If I'm short of time or too lazy, then I can sit, if there are wishes for languages, then write.

ASlon 18-09-2005 02:59

Sissy
I’m not very good with English, but I’ll try to search, there is a link by name, maybe you can indicate other sources with interesting (or little-known) facts on this issue. Really interesting.

Sissy 18-09-2005 03:07

Well, I forgot where I have it. Here is everything you need, at least according to statistics.
http://www.snipercentral.com/snipers.htm#WWII

ASlon 18-09-2005 03:26

Thanks a lot! Indeed As. Strange that I had never heard of him before.

Sissy 18-09-2005 03:32

And in Finland, few people know about it. This is how it says to an amateur / connoisseur / historian or for learning.

Sissy 18-09-2005 13:12

If he asks a male from 18-30 years old, then they know who they are talking about somewhere 50/50, but I’m already silent about the female part.

Remus 18-09-2005 23:15

Then all is not lost.
Legends naturally appear later. For different reasons. According to the archives, at the beginning of the war, the Finnish army had only about 200 rifles with optical sights. Naturally, I had to turn around. Simo Häyhä himself explained the work from an open sight very simply - you need to stick your head out less.

Sissy 02-10-2005 21:29

Yes, there are enough legends, but the brightest ones are about Lauri Törni and Simo Häyhä.

apple 03-10-2005 01:13

What CAVE IGNORANCE!!! The tale of the chaining of machine gunners (snipers ???, grenade launchers ???, radio operators ???, tankers ???, pilots ???, officers of the General Staff ???) really originates in WWI. Famous "children's" uniformologists Fred and Lilian Funken (republished from AST) suggested that the legend originates from the fact that members of the machine gun crews of the German army were equipped with wide leather belts with metal carbines, designed for emergency carrying of machine guns on the battlefield . And, they say, the soldiers found the killed enemy machine gunners and, based on these belts, they made a conclusion about chaining. I don’t know how the “chained” comrades are, but after such an outrage I wouldn’t shoot, but yelled until I was hoarse: “They are shissen!!! (French) captivity!!!" But everything is much more banal. WWI was not only the first world, but also the first ideological. Some lucky journalist came up with the idea, among other inventions about the atrocities of the enemy, to ascribe to the Germans such things! And I went for a walk through the pages of various "Russian invalids" and "Niv" another fairy tale ... In their hatred, people did not want to advance further than a convenient stamp. So "The Terrible Tale" is also mentioned by the Strugatskys, the historian Rodin attributed the "rite of chaining" to the Austro-Hungarians, the director Rodin made a film in which they chained (???) a sniper (???) "finnik" in a German uniform (??? ) SS troops (???) ...

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven!

Student 03-10-2005 02:51

Yeah .. One of the roots of such legends is misunderstandings, sort of like with a machine gun harness.
For example, in Krymskaya, the French press wrote that a Russian soldier is so patriotic and superstitious that he always carries a bag with his native land with him. In fact, this "land" was grated rye crackers - they fed disgustingly in the besieged city. And the legend of the native land still roams.

Sincerely, Student

Kalmar 10-10-2005 02:37

I agree that there is no point in chaining a sniper. He is a free hunter, a valuable fighter who will not be sacrificed. As for the machine gunner, it is quite possible at the request of the riveted. Like a kamikaze. To not be afraid.

apple 10-10-2005 22:16

quote: Originally posted by Kalmar:
I agree that there is no point in chaining a sniper. He is a free hunter, a valuable fighter who will not be sacrificed. As for the machine gunner, it is quite possible at the request of the riveted. Like a kamikaze. To not be afraid.
On mobilization, many Finns came with their own rifles. There were not enough weapons for everyone in the army. Most are hunters. Perhaps that is why there were so many good snipers among the Finns. And civilians always have weapons of higher quality than army ones.

2. It is unlikely that army snipers were armed with their own rifles. After all, already from the middle of the 19th century, the best hunting samples were alterations of the army ones. For example, the famous "berdanka". Yes, a huge minus of mass weapons is low quality. But a giant plus is the mass production of ammunition.

Student 11-10-2005 13:16

A simple aspect - the chain can be interrupted by a bullet. And you can’t fight with the chain from the Admiralty anchor. Here it is, the reason.

Sincerely, Student

Kalmar 12-10-2005 12:18

quote: Originally posted by apple:
1. Still not logical. If a sniper is not allowed, then why is it possible to weld a tanker in a tank or rivet a pilot to the skin of an aircraft? Why was it necessary to spend gigantic funds and efforts on maintaining the NKVD detachments, if it was possible to learn from the experience of German comrades and chain the minelayers themselves in the trenches? Why is it possible to bring up a heap of literature on kamikaze or selflessness in general, but nowhere in serious studies do they talk about chaining? Maybe because it didn't exist at all?

So after all, no one brought the facts. All this is at the level of rumors.

quote: 2. It is unlikely that army snipers were armed with their own rifles. After all, already from the middle of the 19th century, the best hunting samples were alterations of the army ones. For example, the famous "berdanka". Yes, a huge minus of mass weapons is low quality. But a giant plus is the mass production of ammunition.

But this, excuse me, is a historical fact. The Finns came with their rifles. Just like American contractors are in Iraq today. And their weapons are much more abrupt than the army ones. I myself have a weapon of higher quality and more expensive than the army. Read what weapons the forum users own. No army will run away. Just compare the quality of match weapons and army ones.

Student 12-10-2005 13:26

Gentlemen, Finland is an interesting country. With a modest military budget, there were many enthusiasts, there were also paramilitary organizations - shutskor and the women's "lotta-svard", and so they were also engaged in sports shooting. From military weapons, i.e. Mosinok. And the trunks were placed there not very simple, I mean sporting rifles. And they will be extremely stupid to argue that the sports Mosinka of a Shutskor shooter with a big name has worse accuracy than an army rifle. Meanwhile, a rifle could also be a prize at competitions, exactly the one with excellent barrel processing. And there is nothing strange if the owner or owner took their Mosinka to the front - the cartridge is the same, and the rifle itself is also an analogue of the army. At higher quality.
An analogy for the type of Soviet weapons - few people will compare the accuracy of 1891 \ 30 with AV or AVL. Although both are essentially Mosinka.

Sincerely, Student

Sergey-M 15-10-2005 16:50

Grandfather told. Before the war, they lived in a border village in western Ukraine. The bunkers of the Vladimir-Volyn UR, hastily built the day before, were located in the district. A couple of months before the start of the war, residents were evacuated hundreds of kilometers from the border, so as not to fall under the distribution. When the front line swept through them to the east and people returned to their village, in these same bunkers they found dead Red Army soldiers chained. The name of one of these hero-machine gunners now bears the local frontier post. Maybe a fable about chains, but I heard from several eyewitnesses of those events.
By the way, the outpost then held out for a day, but there is no information about the UR.

VOYAKA 20-10-2005 07:25

Student, excuse my ignorance, but it seems to me that chains are interrupted by a bullet only in films ... Moreover, as you put it, anchors ... Correct me if I'm wrong.
Sincerely.

apple 20-10-2005 15:32

Student, excuse my ignorance, but it seems to me that chains are interrupted by a bullet only in films ... Moreover, as you put it, anchors ... Correct me if I'm wrong.

Aha! That is, the problem is not whether this is a propaganda myth, but in the thickness of the chain? Well ... Also an option !!!

bucherets 20-10-2005 16:23

quote: Originally posted by VOYAKA:
... it seems to me that chains are interrupted by a bullet only in films ...

Here in this film the hero Ville Haapsalo just tried to do it. He didn't succeed.
And if you approach the matter purely practically, what is the use of chaining a sniper. With a machine gunner still back and forth, but here's a sniper? The essence of a sniper: shot once or twice - changed position. Otherwise, they will be discovered and destroyed. Those. a chained sniper simply won't shoot.

Student 20-10-2005 19:38

If a 7.62 rifle bullet calmly hits three or four millimeters of steel, then you can rivet the chain!
Another thing is that it will cut with fragments of the shell, and you can catch a ricochet. You can ... But it's better than the guaranteed death of the "chain sniper".

Sincerely, Student

pasha333 20-10-2005 19:39

Machine gunner - the same thing - if not from Ukrp. fire points - also fill up.

Well, what's the point? If they chain him up and he wants to survive anyway, it’s better to wave something white right away when they come up - there will be more chances to survive than to shoot to the last.

By the way, how many German sources I re-read - I have never seen anything like this either about ours or about theirs. About the Japanese - yes, the Finns, in my opinion, too.

Finnish war

The cruel lesson of the Red Army was taught by the Finns during the winter campaign of 1939. The Finnish command was well prepared for the war. During the attack of the Soviet infantry, the Finnish snipers purposefully knocked out the officers - fortunately, they stood out sharply in the infantry line with their white officer coats and shiny criss-cross belts.

During the Finnish war, Soviet commanders encountered an inexplicable and terrible phenomenon - "cuckoo" snipers. Their work was extraordinarily effective and recognized as the most effective sniper practice. The combat tactics of the "cuckoo" snipers were incomprehensible for their non-standard, restlessness and deceit. The Finns were the first to point out that there were no forbidden tricks in sniper practice. There were no number of these techniques, and they hardly repeated each other.

Winter disguise sniper

The Finnish snipers got the name "cuckoo" because at first they fired from the trees and spoke with bird voices. Sitting comfortably on the mighty branches of a century-old pine tree, the Finn waited for the appearance of a more important target and “filmed” it. On the tree where the sniper's nest was located, the Red Army opened heavy fire from all trunks, but the sniper was no longer there - the cunning Finn on a rope immediately descended under the cover of a thick pine trunk into a previously dug dugout, where he waited for the shelling. Sometimes, according to circumstances, in order to calm the enemy, the Finn pulled the rope and pulled a scarecrow in a camouflage suit with a rifle from the sniper's nest, which fell very beautifully, waddling from branch to branch, or stuck between branches in the most unnatural pose. After the shelling, the sniper got out of the dugout, climbed a tree and again set to work.

They started shooting at the tree again. Usually, from the Maxim machine guns (it is stable when firing and provides a very accurate and aimed fight), the tree was shot up and down until it fell. But while the machine gunners, deaf from the shooting, were enthusiastically “sawing” the tree, another Finn from the side shot everyone who was behind the machine gunners, and then took on them. The machine gunners perfectly jammed the shots of the Finnish sniper.

Finnish "cuckoos" sat in the trees in turn - while one looked out for prey, the other calmly slept downstairs, in a warmed dugout. In this way, round-the-clock duty was provided on the forest roads, which prevented the penetration of Soviet reconnaissance and sabotage groups beyond the front line.

For Finnish snipers there was no difference on which side of the front line to shoot - on their own or adjacent. During the offensive of the Red Army, many Finnish snipers remained camouflaged in snowdrifts, near the predicted location of strategically important objects of the Red Army: airfields (on lakes covered with ice), artillery batteries, headquarters, communication centers, communications, transport interchanges, concentration of manpower, etc. e. Usually these were flat places in the forests, protected along the perimeter by terrain folds, which were quite easy to calculate.

Finnish snipers, after waiting for time, began to act at the most unexpected moment. The reconnaissance units thrown to capture and capture the "cuckoos" were blown up by mines, with which the Finn surrounded the position in advance. But even the survivors returned with nothing. The Finnish sniper got up on his skis and went to his own. It was common for a Finn who grew up in the north to ski 100–120 km in winter and spend the night in snow at a temperature of minus 40 °.

But the Soviet leadership did not recognize the martial art of “cuckoo” snipers and blamed junior commanders for failures (who were afraid to take the initiative and take a step to the right and left of the charters). The high authorities became thoughtful only when the "cuckoos" shot down several staff vehicles with representatives of the command, along with the retinue accompanying them. The executions took place in different places, but according to one scenario: a Finnish sniper shot through the rear wheel, immobilizing the car, and calmly shot everyone who was in it. Only after that the command began to understand that it was necessary to organize oncoming ambushes on the ways of advancing Finnish snipers. But it was too late. The Finnish campaign is over. The Finnish snipers suffered few casualties and none were captured alive.

The "cuckoo" snipers, who moved freely in the forests, caused the Red Army a lot of trouble in terms of sabotage. The pilots told how the "cuckoos" opened the floodgates of the lake, on the ice of which they located the airfield. In the moonlight, more than two dozen combat aircraft began to fall through the ice. The sight was terrible. The fire of sniper rifles prevented the Finns from approaching the locks and closing them.

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

The tactics of sniper work developed by the Finns in the winter turned out to be so successful that both Russians and Germans subsequently used it. And even now there is practically nothing to add to it.

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