Soviet snipers of the Great Patriotic War. The podium in the sniper art of the great war is unconditionally occupied by Soviet shooters
Soviet snipers actively worked on all fronts of the Great Patriotic War and sometimes played great importance at the end of the battle. Sniper work was dangerous and hard. The guys had to lie for hours or even days in constant tension and full combat readiness in a wide variety of terrain. And it didn’t matter that it was a field, a swamp or snow. this post will be dedicated to Soviet soldiers - snipers and their heavy burden. Glory to the heroes!
Former cadet of the Central Women's Sniper Training School A. Shilina said:
“I was already an experienced fighter, having 25 fascists under my belt, when the Germans got a “cuckoo”. Every day, two or three of our soldiers are missing. Yes, it shoots so accurately: from the first round - in the forehead or temple. They called in one pair of snipers - it didn’t help. It doesn't take any bait. They order us: whatever you want, but we must destroy it. Tosya, my best friend, and I dug in - the place, I remember, was swampy, with hummocks and small bushes all around. They began to conduct surveillance. We spent a day in vain, then another. On the third, Tosya says: “Let's take it. Whether we stay alive or not, it doesn’t matter. The soldiers are falling..."
She was shorter than me. And the trenches are shallow. He takes a rifle, attaches a bayonet, puts a helmet on it and begins to crawl, run, crawl again. Well, I should look out. The tension is enormous. And I’m worried about her, and I can’t miss the sniper. I see that the bushes in one place seem to have moved slightly apart. He! I immediately took aim at him. He shot, I was right there. I hear people shouting from the front line: girls, hurray for you! I crawl up to Tosa and see blood. The bullet pierced the helmet and grazed her neck with a ricochet. Then the platoon commander arrived. They lifted her up and off to the medical unit. It all worked out... And at night our scouts pulled out this sniper. He was seasoned, he killed about a hundred of our soldiers...” 
In the combat practice of Soviet snipers, there are, of course, better examples. But it was not by chance that he started with the fact that front-line soldier Shilina told about. In the previous decade, at the instigation of the Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich, some publicists and researchers in Russia have been trying to establish in society the opinion that the sniper is an overly inhumane front-line specialty, making no distinction between those who set the goal of exterminating half of the world’s population and those who opposed this goal . But who can condemn Alexandra Shilina for the fact given at the beginning of the essay? Yes, Soviet snipers came face to face with Wehrmacht soldiers and officers at the front, sending bullets at them. How else? By the way, the German fire aces opened their account much earlier than the Soviet ones. By June 1941, many of them had destroyed several hundred enemy soldiers and officers - Poles, French, and British. 
...In the spring of 1942, when there were fierce battles for Sevastopol, a sniper of the 54th Infantry Regiment of the 25th Division of the Primorsky Army, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, was invited to a neighboring unit, where the Nazi shooter brought a lot of trouble. She entered into a duel with the German ace and won it. When we looked at the sniper book, it turned out that he destroyed 400 French and British, as well as about 100 Soviet soldiers. Lyudmila’s shot was extremely humane. How many people did she save from Nazi bullets! 
Vladimir Pchelintsev, Fedor Okhlopkov, Vasily Zaitsev, Maxim Passar... During the Great Patriotic War, these and other names of snipers were widely known among the troops. But who won the right to be called the number one ace sniper?
The Central Museum of the Armed Forces of Russia, among many other exhibits, houses a Mosin sniper rifle of the 1891/30 model. (number KE-1729) “In the name of Heroes Soviet Union Andrukhaeva and Ilyina.” Initiator of the 136th sniper movement rifle division Southern Front political instructor Khusen Andrukhaev died heroically in heavy battles for Rostov. In his memory, a sniper rifle named after him is being established. During the days of the legendary defense of Stalingrad, the best sniper of the guard unit, Sergeant Major Nikolai Ilyin, used it to defeat the enemy. For short term With 115 destroyed Nazis, he increases the score to 494 and becomes the best Soviet sniper during the Great Patriotic War.
In August 1943, near Belgorod, Ilyin died in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. The rifle, now named after two heroes (Nikolai Ilyin was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on February 8, 1943), was traditionally awarded to the best sniper of the unit, Sergeant Afanasy Gordienko. He brought his count from it to 417 destroyed Nazis. This honorable weapon failed only when it was hit by a shell fragment. In total, about 1,000 enemy soldiers and officers were killed with this rifle. Nikolai Ilyin fired 379 accurate shots from it.
What was characteristic of this twenty-year-old sniper from the Lugansk region? He knew how to outwit his opponent. One day Nikolai tracked down an enemy shooter all day. It was clear from everything that an experienced professional was lying a hundred meters away from him. How to remove a German "cuckoo"? He made a stuffed animal out of a padded jacket and a helmet and began to slowly lift it. Before the helmet had time to rise even halfway, two shots rang out almost simultaneously: the Nazi shot through the scarecrow, and Ilyin through the enemy. 
When it became known that graduates of the Berlin sniper school had arrived at the front near Stalingrad, Nikolai Ilyin told his colleagues that the Germans were pedants and had probably studied classical techniques. We need to show them Russian ingenuity and take care of the baptism of Berlin newcomers. Every morning, under artillery fire and bombing, he sneaked up on the Nazis for a sure shot and destroyed them without missing a beat. At Stalingrad, Ilyin’s tally increased to 400 enemy soldiers and officers killed. Then there was the Kursk Bulge, and there he again flashed his ingenuity and ingenuity.
Ace number two can be considered a Smolensk resident, assistant chief of staff of the 1122nd Infantry Regiment of the 334th Division (1st Baltic Front), Captain Ivan Sidorenko, who destroyed about 500 enemy soldiers and officers and trained about 250 snipers for the front. In moments of calm, he hunted the Nazis, taking his students with him on the “hunt.”
Third on the list of the most successful Soviet sniper aces is the sniper of the 59th Guards Rifle Regiment of the 21st Division (2nd Baltic Front) Guard, Senior Sergeant Mikhail Budenkov, who killed 437 Nazi soldiers and officers. This is what he said about one of the battles in Latvia:
“There was some kind of farmstead on the offensive path. German machine gunners settled there. It was necessary to destroy them. In short dashes I managed to reach the top of the height and kill the Nazis. Before I had time to catch my breath, I saw a German running into the farm in front of me with a machine gun. A shot - and the Nazi fell. After some time, a second man with a machine gun box runs behind him. He suffered the same fate. A few more minutes passed, and hundreds of one and a half fascists ran from the farmstead. This time they ran along a different road, further away from me. I shot several times, but realized that many of them would escape anyway. I quickly ran up to the killed machine gunners, the machine gun was working, and I opened fire on the Nazis from their own weapons. Then we counted about a hundred killed Nazis.”
Other Soviet snipers were also distinguished by amazing courage, endurance and ingenuity. For example, Nanai Sergeant Maxim Passar (117th Infantry Regiment, 23rd Infantry Division, Stalingrad Front), who accounted for 237 killed Nazi soldiers and officers. While tracking an enemy sniper, he pretended to be killed and spent the entire day lying in no man's land in an open field, among the dead. From this position, he fired a bullet at the fascist shooter, who was under the embankment, in the water drainage pipe. Only in the evening Passar was able to crawl back to his own. The first 10 Soviet sniper aces destroyed over 4,200 enemy soldiers and officers, the first 20 - more than 7,500. Vasily Zaitsev, Legendary Sniper Great Patriotic War Vasily Zaitsev during Battle of Stalingrad, in a month and a half, destroyed more than two hundred German soldiers and officers, including 11 snipers. 
The Americans wrote: “Russian snipers showed great skill on the German front. They prompted the Germans to produce optical sights on a large scale and train snipers.” Of course, one cannot help but say how the results of Soviet snipers were recorded. Here it is appropriate to refer to the materials of the meeting held in the summer of 1943 with the Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars K.E. Voroshilova. According to the recollections of ace sniper Vladimir Pchelintsev, those present at the meeting proposed introducing a single, strict procedure for recording the results of combat work, a single “Sniper’s Personal Book” for everyone, and in the rifle regiment and company - “Logs of combat activity of snipers.”
The basis for recording the number of killed fascist soldiers and officers should be the report of the sniper himself, confirmed by eyewitnesses (company and platoon observers, artillery and mortar spotters, reconnaissance officers, officers of all ranks, unit commanders, etc.). When counting the destroyed Nazis, each officer is equated to three soldiers. In practice, this is basically how the records were kept. Perhaps the last point was not observed.
Special mention should be made about female snipers. They appeared in the Russian army during the First World War, most often they were widows of Russian officers who died in the war. They sought to take revenge on the enemy for their husbands. And already in the first months of the Great Patriotic War, the names of girl snipers Lyudmila Pavlichenko, Natalya Kovshova, Maria Polivanova became known to the whole world. 
Lyudmila, in the battles for Odessa and Sevastopol, destroyed 309 Nazi soldiers and officers (this is the highest result among female snipers). Natalya and Maria, who accounted for over 300 Nazis, glorified their names with unparalleled courage on August 14, 1942. On that day, not far from the village of Sutoki (Novgorod region), Natasha Kovshova and Masha Polivanova, repelling the onslaught of the Nazis, were surrounded. With the last grenade they blew themselves up and the German infantry surrounding them. One of them was 22 years old at the time, the other was 20 years old. Like Lyudmila Pavlichenko, they were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Following their example, many girls decided to master sniper skills in order to participate in battles with weapons in their hands. They were trained in super marksmanship directly in military units and connections. In May 1943, the Central Women's Sniper Training School was created. More than 1,300 female snipers emerged from its walls. During the fighting, the students exterminated more than 11,800 fascist soldiers and officers.
...At the front, Soviet soldiers called them “private soldiers without a mistake,” like, for example, Nikolai Ilyin at the beginning of his “sniper career.” Or - “sergeants without a miss”, like Fyodor Okhlopkov... Here are lines from letters from Wehrmacht soldiers that they wrote to their relatives: “A Russian sniper is something terrible. You can't hide from him anywhere! You can't raise your head in the trenches. The slightest carelessness and you’ll immediately get a bullet between the eyes...”
“Snipers often lie in one place for hours in ambush and take aim at anyone who shows up. Only in the dark can you feel safe.”
“In our trenches there are banners: “Caution! A Russian sniper is shooting!” 
Many soldiers and officers of the Red Army became heroes of the Great Patriotic War. It is perhaps difficult to single out military specialties that would be especially prominent when awarding military awards. Among the famous Heroes of the Soviet Union there are sappers, tank crews, pilots, sailors, infantrymen and military doctors.
But I would like to highlight one military specialty that occupies a special place in the category of feat. These are snipers.
A sniper is a specially trained soldier who is fluent in the art of marksmanship, camouflage and observation, hitting targets with the first shot. Its task is to defeat command and communications personnel and destroy camouflaged single targets.
At the front, when special military units (companies, regiments, divisions) act against the enemy, the sniper is an independent combat unit.
We will tell you about the sniper heroes who made a significant contribution to the common cause of victory. You can read about women snipers who participated in the Great Patriotic War in ours.
1. Passar Maxim Alexandrovich (08/30/1923 - 01/22/1943)
A participant in the Great Patriotic War, a Soviet sniper, killed 237 enemy soldiers and officers during the fighting. Most of the enemies were eliminated by him during the Battle of Stalingrad. For the destruction of Passar, the German command assigned a reward of 100 thousand Reichsmarks. Hero Russian Federation(posthumously).
2. Surkov Mikhail Ilyich (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, sergeant major, holder of the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Star.
3. Natalya Venediktovna Kovshova (11/26/1920 - 08/14/1942)
Participant in the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union.
On the personal account of sniper Kovshova there are 167 killed fascist soldiers and officers. During her service, she trained soldiers in marksmanship. August 14, 1942 near the village of Sutoki Novgorod region died in an unequal battle with the Nazis.
4. Tulaev Zhambyl Yesheevich (02(15/05/1905 - 17/01/1961)
Participant of the Great Patriotic War. Hero of the Soviet Union.
Sniper of the 580th Infantry Regiment of the 188th Infantry Division of the 27th Army of the North-Western Front. Sergeant Major Zhambyl Tulaev killed 262 Nazis from May to November 1942. Trained more than 30 snipers for the front.
5. Sidorenko Ivan Mikhailovich (09/12/1919 - 02/19/1994)
The assistant chief of staff of the 1122nd Infantry Regiment, Captain Ivan Sidorenko, distinguished himself as the organizer of the sniper movement. By 1944, he personally killed about 500 Nazis with a sniper rifle.
Ivan Sidorenko trained more than 250 snipers for the front, most of whom were awarded orders and medals.
6. Okhlopkov Fedor Matveevich (03/02/1908 - 05/28/1968)
Participant of the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union.
By June 23, 1944, Sergeant Okhlopkov killed 429 Nazi soldiers and officers with a sniper rifle. Was wounded 12 times. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin were awarded only in 1965.
7. Moldagulova Aliya Nurmukhambetovna (25.10.1925 - 14.01.1944)
Participant in the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously), corporal.
Sniper of the 54th separate rifle brigade of the 22nd Army of the 2nd Baltic Front. Corporal Moldagulova destroyed several dozen enemies in the first 2 months of participation in battles. On January 14, 1944, she took part in the battle for the village of Kazachikha, Pskov region, and led the soldiers into the attack. Having broken into the enemy’s defenses, she destroyed several soldiers and officers with a machine gun. She died in this battle.
8. Budenkov Mikhail Ivanovich (05.12.1919 - 02.08.1995)
Participant of the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union, senior lieutenant.
By September 1944, Guard Senior Sergeant Mikhail Budenkov was a sniper in the 59th Guards Rifle Regiment of the 21st Guards Rifle Division of the 3rd Shock Army of the 2nd Baltic Front. By that time, he had 437 enemy soldiers and officers killed by sniper fire. He entered the top ten best snipers of the Great Patriotic War.
9. Etobaev Arseny Mikhailovich (09/15/1903- 1987)
Participant of the Great Patriotic War, Civil War 1917-1922 and the conflict in the Chinese East railway 1929. Knight of the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Star, full holder of the Order of the Patriotic War.
The sniper killed 356 German invaders and shot down two planes.
10. Salbiev Vladimir Gavrilovich (1916- 1996)
Participant of the Great Patriotic War, twice holder of the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree.
Salbiev's sniper account includes 601 killed enemy soldiers and officers.
11. Pchelintsev Vladimir Nikolaevich (30.08.1919- 27.07.1997)
Participant of the Great Patriotic War, sniper of the 11th Infantry Brigade of the 8th Army of the Leningrad Front, Hero of the Soviet Union, sergeant.
One of the most successful snipers of World War II. Destroyed 456 enemy soldiers, non-commissioned officers and officers.
12. Kvachantiradze Vasily Shalvovich (1907- 1950)
Participant of the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union, sergeant major.
Sniper of the 259th Infantry Regiment of the 179th Infantry Division of the 43rd Army of the 1st Baltic Front.
One of the most successful snipers of the Great Patriotic War. Destroyed 534 enemy soldiers and officers.
13. Goncharov Pyotr Alekseevich (01/15/1903- 31.01.1944)
Participant of the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union, Guard Senior Sergeant.
He has more than 380 killed enemy soldiers and officers as a sniper. He died on January 31, 1944 while breaking through enemy defenses near the village of Vodyanoye.
14. Galushkin Nikolai Ivanovich (07/01/1917- 22.01.2007)
Participant of the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Russian Federation, lieutenant.
Served in the 49th Infantry Regiment of the 50th Infantry Division. According to available information, he destroyed 418 German soldiers and officers, including 17 snipers, and also trained sniper business 148 fighters. After the war he was active in military-patriotic work.
Participant of the Great Patriotic War, commander of the sniper company of the 81st Guards Rifle Regiment, guard lieutenant.
By the end of June 1943, already the commander of a sniper company, Golosov personally destroyed about 420 Nazis, including 70 snipers. In his company, he trained 170 snipers, who in total destroyed more than 3,500 fascists.
He died on August 16, 1943 at the height of the battles for the village of Dolgenkoye, Izyum district, Kharkov region.
16. Nomokonov Semyon Danilovich (08/12/1900 - 07/15/1973)
Participant of the Great Patriotic War and the Soviet-Japanese War, twice holder of the Order of the Red Star, Order of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner.
During the Great Patriotic War, he destroyed 360 German soldiers and officers, including one major general. During the Soviet-Japanese War, he destroyed 8 soldiers and officers Kwantung Army. The total confirmed count is 368 enemy soldiers and officers.
17. Ilyin Nikolai Yakovlevich (1922 - 08/04/1943)
Participant of the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union, sergeant major, deputy political instructor.
In total, the sniper had 494 killed enemies. On August 4, 1943, in a battle near the village of Yastrebovo, Nikolai Ilyin was killed by machine gun fire.
18. Antonov Ivan Petrovich (07/07/1920 - 03/22/1989)
Participant of the Great Patriotic War, shooter of the 160th separate rifle company of the Leningrad naval base of the Baltic Fleet, Red Navy man, Hero of the Soviet Union.
Ivan Antonov became one of the founders of the sniper movement in the Baltic.
From December 28, 1941 to November 10, 1942, he destroyed 302 Nazis and trained 80 snipers in the art of accurate shooting at the enemy.
19. Dyachenko Fedor Trofimovich (06/16/1917 - 08/08/1995)
Participant of the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union, major.
By February 1944, Dyachenko had destroyed 425 enemy soldiers and officers with sniper fire, including several snipers.
20. Idrisov Abukhadzhi (Abukhazhi) (05/17/1918- 22.10.1983)
Participant of the Great Patriotic War, sniper of the 1232nd Infantry Regiment of the 370th Infantry Division, senior sergeant, Hero of the Soviet Union.
By March 1944, he already had 349 fascists killed, and he was nominated for the title of Hero. In one of the battles in April 1944, Idrisov was wounded by a fragment of a mine that exploded nearby and was covered with earth. His comrades dug him up and sent him to the hospital.
Best snipers World War II. German, Soviet, Finnish shooters played enough important role V wartime. And in this review An attempt will be made to consider those that have become the most effective.
The emergence of sniper art
Since the emergence of personal weapons in armies, which provided the opportunity to hit the enemy at long distances, accurate shooters began to be distinguished from soldiers. Subsequently, separate units 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 officers of enemy troops, as well as the demoralization of the enemy through accurate shooting at significant distances. For this purpose, shooters were armed with special rifles.
In the 19th century, modernization of weapons occurred. The tactics changed accordingly. This was facilitated by the emergence of During the First World War, snipers were part of a separate cohort of saboteurs. Their goal was to quickly and effectively defeat enemy personnel. At the very beginning of the war, snipers were mainly used by the Germans. However, over time, they began to appear special schools and in other countries. In conditions protracted conflicts this “profession” has become quite in demand.
Finnish snipers
Between 1939 and 1940, Finnish marksmen were considered the best. World War II snipers learned a lot from them. Finnish riflemen were nicknamed “cuckoos”. The reason for this was that they used special “nests” in trees. This feature was distinctive for the Finns, although trees were used for this purpose in almost all countries.
So who exactly do the best snipers of World War II owe to? The most famous “cuckoo” was Simo Heihe. He was nicknamed "white death". The number of confirmed murders he committed exceeded the mark of 500 liquidated Red Army soldiers. In some sources, his indicators were equal to 700. He was quite seriously wounded. But Simo was able to recover. He died in 2002.
Propaganda played its role
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 acquire legends.
The famous domestic sniper was able to destroy about 240 enemy soldiers. This figure was average for effective marksmen of that war. But due to propaganda, he was made the most famous Red Army sniper. On modern stage Historians seriously doubt the existence of Major Koenig, Zaitsev's main opponent in Stalingrad. The main achievements of the domestic shooter include the development of a sniper training program. He personally took part in their preparation. In addition, he formed a full-fledged sniper school. Its graduates were called “hares.”
Top marksmen
Who are they, the best snipers of World War II? You should know the names of the most successful shooters. Mikhail Surkov is in first position. He destroyed about 702 enemy soldiers. Following him on the list is Ivan Sidorov. He killed 500 soldiers. Nikolai Ilyin is in third position. He killed 497 enemy soldiers. Following him with the mark of 489 killed is Ivan Kulbertinov.
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 subsequently became quite effective shooters. About 12 thousand enemy soldiers were destroyed. And the most effective was Lyudmila Pavlichenkova, who had 309 killed soldiers.
The best snipers of the USSR in World War II, of which there were quite a lot, have to their credit large number effective shots. More than 400 soldiers were killed by approximately fifteen riflemen. 25 snipers killed more than 300 enemy soldiers. 36 riflemen killed more than 200 Germans.
There is little information about enemy shooters
There is not so much data about “colleagues” on 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 are practically unknown in ranks and names. One can only say with certainty about those shooters who were awarded the Knight's Iron Cross. This happened in 1945. One of them was Frederick Payne. He killed about 200 enemy soldiers. The most productive player was probably Matthias Hetzenauer. They killed about 345 soldiers. The third sniper who was awarded the order was Joseph Ollerberg. He left memoirs in which quite a lot was written about his activities German riflemen during the war. The sniper himself killed about 257 soldiers.
Sniper terror
It should be noted that the Anglo-American allies landed in Normandy in 1944. And it was in this place that the best snipers of the Second World War were located during that period. German riflemen killed many soldiers. And their effectiveness was facilitated by the terrain, which was simply replete with bushes. The British and Americans in Normandy faced real sniper terror. Only after this 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” at one time taught good lesson. Thanks to them in the Red Army military service The best snipers of the Second World War passed through.
Women fought equally with men
Since ancient times, it has been the case that men are engaged in war. However, in 1941, when the Germans attacked our country, the entire people began to defend it. Holding weapons in their hands, being at machines and on collective farm fields, they fought against fascism soviet people- men, women, old people and children. And they were able to win.
The chronicle contains a lot of information about the women who received it. 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 holder of the soldier's
Legend girl
As mentioned above, the famous sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenkova killed about 309 soldiers. Of these, 36 were enemy riflemen. In other words, she alone was able to destroy almost an entire battalion. A film was made based on her exploits called “The Battle of Sevastopol.” 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 hostilities. The wounded Lyudmila was carried from the battlefield by Alexei Kitsenko, with whom she fell in love. They decided to file a report on marriage registration. 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 became part of the delegation of Soviet youth and left for America. There she created a real sensation. After returning, Lyudmila became an instructor at a sniper school. Under her leadership, several dozen good shooters were trained. This is how they were - the best snipers of the USSR in World War II.
Creation of a special school
Perhaps Lyudmila’s experience was the reason why the country’s leadership began to teach girls the art of shooting. 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 Sniper Training School. In other countries, only men were snipers. During 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 basis with men.
The girls were treated cruelly by their enemies
In addition to the rifle, sapper shovel and binoculars, the women took grenades with them. One was intended for the enemy, and the other for oneself. Everyone knew that German soldiers treated snipers cruelly. In 1944, the Nazis managed to capture domestic sniper Tatiana Baramzina. When our soldiers discovered her, they could recognize her only by her hair and uniform. The enemy soldiers stabbed the body with daggers, cut out the breasts, and gouged out the eyes. They stuck a bayonet into my stomach. In addition, the Nazis shot at the girl point-blank with an anti-tank rifle. Of the 1,885 graduates of the sniper school, about 185 girls could not survive to Victory. They tried to protect them and did not throw them into particularly difficult tasks. But still, the glare of optical sights in the sun often gave away the shooters, who were then found by enemy soldiers.
Only time has changed the attitude towards female shooters
The girls, the best snipers of World War II, whose photos can be seen in this review, experienced terrible things in their time. And when they returned home, they sometimes encountered contempt. Unfortunately, in the rear of the girls it was formed special treatment. Many unfairly called them field wives. This is where the contemptuous looks that female snipers received came from.
They for a long time They didn’t tell anyone that they had fought. They hid their rewards. And only after 20 years did attitudes towards them begin 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 period of the Second World War. world war. There are quite a lot of them. But it should be noted that not all arrows are known. Some tried to talk about their exploits as little as possible.
World War II snipers were almost exclusively Soviet soldiers. After all, only in the USSR in the pre-war years was shooting training virtually universal, and since the 1930s there have been special sniper schools. So it is not surprising that in both the top ten and twenty best shooters There is only one foreign name from that war - Finn Simo Häyhä.
The top ten Russian snipers have 4,200 confirmed enemy fighters, the top twenty have 7,400. The best shooters of the USSR have more than 500 killed each, while the most productive sniper of the Second World War among the Germans has a count of only 345 targets. But real sniper accounts are actually higher than confirmed ones - about two to three times!
It is also worth recalling that the USSR is the only country in the world! - Not only men, but also women fought as snipers. In 1943, there were more than a thousand female snipers in the Red Army, who killed a total of more than 12,000 fascists during the war. Here are the three most productive: Lyudmila Pavlichenko - 309 enemies, Olga Vasilyeva - 185 enemies, Natalya Kovshova - 167 enemies. According to these indicators soviet women left behind most of their opponents' best snipers.
Mikhail Surkov - 702 enemy soldiers and officers
Surprisingly, but true: despite the largest number of defeats, Surkov was never awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, although he was nominated for it. The unprecedented score of the most successful sniper of the Second World War has been questioned more than once, but all defeats have been documented, as required by the rules in force in the Red Army. Sergeant Major Surkov actually killed at least 702 fascists, and taking into account the possible difference between real and confirmed defeats, the count could go into the thousands! Mikhail Surkov's amazing accuracy and amazing ability to track down his opponents for a long time, apparently, can be explained simply: before being drafted into the army, he worked as a hunter in the taiga in his homeland - in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
Vasily Kvachantiradze - 534 enemy soldiers and officers
Sergeant Major Kvachantiradze fought from the first days: in his personal file it is especially noted that he was a participant in the Great Patriotic War since June 1941. And he ended his service only after the victory, having gone through the entire great war without concessions. Even the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to Vasily Kvachantiradze, who killed over half a thousand enemy soldiers and officers, shortly before the end of the war, in March 1945. And the demobilized sergeant-major returned to his native Georgia as a holder of two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War 2nd degree and the Order of the Red Star.
Simo Häyhä - over 500 enemy soldiers and officers
If Finnish corporal Simo Häyhä had not been wounded by an explosive bullet in March 1940, perhaps the title of the most successful sniper of World War II would have belonged to him. The entire duration of the Finn's participation in the Winter War of 1939-40 was completed in three months - and with such a terrifying result! Perhaps this is explained by the fact that by this time the Red Army did not yet have sufficient experience in counter-sniper warfare. But even taking this into account, one cannot help but admit that Häyhä was a professional of the highest class. After all, he killed most of his opponents without using special sniper devices, but by shooting from an ordinary rifle with open sights.
Ivan Sidorenko - 500 enemy soldiers and officers
He was supposed to become an artist - but he became a sniper, having already graduated military school and command a mortar company. Lieutenant Ivan Sidorenko is one of the few sniper officers on the list of the most successful shooters of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War. Despite the fact that he fought hard: in three years on the front line, from November 1941 to November 1944, Sidorenko managed to receive three serious wounds, which ultimately prevented him from studying at the military academy, where his superiors sent him. So he entered the reserve as a major - and a Hero of the Soviet Union: this title was awarded to him at the front.
Nikolay Ilyin - 494 enemy soldiers and officers
Few Soviet snipers had such an honor: to shoot from a personalized sniper rifle. Sergeant Major Ilyin earned it by becoming not only a sharp shooter, but also one of the initiators of the sniper movement on the Stalingrad front. He already had more than a hundred killed fascists on his account when, in October 1942, his superiors handed him a rifle named after Hero of the Soviet Union Khusein Andrukhaev, an Adyghe poet and political instructor who was one of the first during the war to shout out in the face of the advancing enemies, “The Russians do not surrender!” Alas, less than a year later Ilyin himself died, and his rifle began to be called the rifle “In the Name of Heroes of the Soviet Union Kh. Andrukhaev and N. Ilyin.”
Ivan Kulbertinov - 487 enemy soldiers and officers
There were many hunters among the snipers of the Soviet Union, but there were few Yakut hunters and reindeer herders. The most famous of them was Ivan Kulbertinov, the same age as Soviet power: he was born exactly on November 7, 1917! Having arrived at the front at the very beginning of 1943, already in February he opened his personal account of killed enemies, which by the end of the war increased to almost five hundred. And although the chest of the sniper hero was decorated by many honorary awards, he never received the highest title of Hero of the Soviet Union, although, judging by the documents, he was nominated twice. But in January 1945, his superiors gave him a personalized sniper rifle with the inscription “To the best sniper, senior sergeant I.N. Kulbertinov from the Military Council of the Army.”
Vladimir Pchelintsev - 456 enemy soldiers and officers
The best Soviet snipers. Vladimir Pchelintsev. Source: wio.ru
Vladimir Pchelintsev was, so to speak, a professional sniper who graduated from sniper training and received the title of master of sports in shooting a year before the war. In addition, he is one of two Soviet snipers who spent the night in the White House. This happened during a business trip to the USA, where Sergeant Pchelintsev, who had been awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union six months earlier, went in August 1942 to the International Student Assembly to tell how the USSR was fighting fascism. He was accompanied by fellow sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko and one of the heroes of the partisan struggle, Nikolai Krasavchenko.
Pyotr Goncharov - 441 enemy soldiers and officers
Pyotr Goncharov became a sniper by accident. A worker at the Stalingrad plant, at the height of the German offensive he joined the militia, from where he was taken into the regular army... as a baker. Then Goncharov rose to the rank of transport carrier, and only chance made him a sniper, when, once on the front line, he set fire to an enemy tank with accurate shots from someone else’s weapon. And Goncharov received his first sniper rifle in November 1942 - and did not part with it until his death in January 1944. By this time, the former worker was already wearing the shoulder straps of a senior sergeant and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, which he was awarded twenty days before his death.
Mikhail Budenkov - 437 enemy soldiers and officers
The biography of Senior Lieutenant Mikhail Budenkov is very vivid. Having retreated from Brest to Moscow and reached East Prussia, fought in a mortar crew and became a sniper, Budenkov, before being drafted into the army in 1939, managed to work as a ship mechanic on a motor ship sailing along the Moscow Canal, and as a tractor driver on his native collective farm... But his calling nevertheless made itself felt: the accurate shooting of the mortar crew commander attracted the attention of his superiors, and Budenkov became a sniper. Moreover, he was one of the best in the Red Army, for which he was eventually awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in March 1945.
Matthias Hetzenauer - 345 enemy soldiers and officers
The only one German sniper In the top ten most successful snipers of the Second World War, he was not included in the number of enemies killed. This figure leaves Corporal Hetzenauer far outside even the top twenty. But it would be wrong not to give credit to the enemy’s skill, thereby emphasizing what a great feat the Soviet snipers accomplished. Moreover, in Germany itself, Hetzenauer’s successes were called “phenomenal results of sniper warfare.” And they were not far from the truth, because the German sniper achieved his result in just less than a year, having completed sniper courses in July 1944.
In addition to the above-mentioned masters of shooting art, there were others. The list of the best Soviet snipers, and this is only those who destroyed at least 200 enemy troops, includes more than fifty people.
Nikolay Kazyuk - 446 enemy soldiers and officers
The best Soviet snipers. Nikolay Kazyuk.
The author is rightfully considered one of the best snipers of the Great Patriotic War - he has killed 324 fascists, including a general. For military merits, the Military Council of the Leningrad Front presented Evgeny Nikolaev with a personalized sniper rifle.
“Listen, Vovka,” I once said to Dudin, “tomorrow I decided to sit in one good location. Do you know a broken tram in neutral? So I’ve been hanging around there for two days now, preparing a firing position. Today I will have it finished. It’s convenient - it’s a stone’s throw from the Germans, everything is clearly visible, and not a single bullet will hit me. Almost equipped under the tram!
Make sure you don’t make a mistake,” Dudin answers. - The landmark is also very good for the Germans!
I thought about it myself, but I’m not going to sit there for more than two days - I’ll change my position.
Here he is, the veteran tram. Standing there, an orphan, without glass in the windows. Its yellow-red sides are riddled with bullets, pierced by shrapnel from shells - you won’t find a living place! It bristled with splinters of wooden parts. Inside it, the wind whistles through all the openings. They said that the last trip of this tram car was unsuccessful: all its passengers were captured and the Nazis shot them. The first to suffer was the carriage driver, who tried to resist the Nazis.
Now this broken tram was probably the Germans' landmark No. 1... I've been here more than once before, everything here is familiar to me down to the smallest detail.I make myself comfortable in my deeply dug shooting hole - to the right of the tram line and slightly in front of the carriage. My NP is well camouflaged from the enemy’s side, and you probably won’t find anything from above. Our soldiers have long learned the art of camouflage, especially we snipers. It is common knowledge that the careless, lazy and careless do not survive at the front.
... A few more agonizing minutes passed, and then somehow hesitantly, cautiously, as if embarrassed that with his appearance the machine guns would rumble again and people would die again, the sun came out. It has already become quite light.
I've been keeping an eye on the enemy's defense for a long time. I see hills that are familiar to the smallest detail - these are German dugouts. No, no, and someone will pass near them, bending towards the ground. Let them not worry today; they are not the ones that interest me now. I take a closer look at the rear: there, as the scouts told me, their headquarters should be somewhere. That's what I'm trying to find. Previously, any fascist headquarters could be easily identified by communication lines. Now the Germans became more careful: they began to pull wires along the ground and bury them in snow.
I'm waiting for those who either run or walk quickly. About two hours later I discovered these, and among them were two or three people who, no matter where they went and no matter how far they went, always returned to the same dugout. I began to take a closer look at her - she stood out among the others both in size and height. On the side I see a door - like in real houses, big. There is a window towards our trenches. It is also wide, but low. And most importantly, there is a sentry walking back and forth near the dugout... “It looks like this is their headquarters!” - I think and finally turn all my attention here.
I figured it was about seven hundred meters away. The figures are small, but clearly visible: my optical sight magnifies them four times. But distance by eye is one thing, but you need to check it! I set the scope to seven hundred meters and load the rifle with a bullet with a tracer cartridge. Apart from the door, I don’t find any particularly noticeable landmark. I choose the moment when cutting edge The machine guns started talking, and under their noise I fired a single shot - the bullet traced a path right to the door threshold. Everything is exactly right! Now just make a small adjustment on the sight drum - and you can wait for the catch. Visibility today is as ordered!
And yet I fired my first shot at the wrong dugout. About forty meters away there was another one. No windows or doors facing my direction. But I immediately saw three Nazis coming out from behind the white mound of the dugout. One of them was naked to the waist, and the other two were without overcoats, in uniforms. He, half naked, raised his hands up and began to walk back and forth. “To whom is he surrendering as a prisoner? Oh, you bastard, he’s out doing some exercises!” - I guessed. The other two began to wash themselves with snow.
Having waited for the moment when the half-naked man finally stopped and began to crouch, he fired his first shot. The fascist sat down and... fell on the snow, lay down, seemed to be getting ready to sunbathe, overjoyed bright sun. The two continued to rub snow on their faces. Then one of them turned, looked at the man lying down and apparently said something to the other. He also turned around. Both stood, looked at the man stretched out in the snow, then approached and began to lift him. And then, realizing what was happening, they began to look around in confusion, not realizing where the bullet could have come from. They didn’t even look at our trenches, apparently thinking that they were too far away. I didn't let them think too long and punched both of them.
“Not a bad start,” I thought and loaded the rifle again. And he carefully placed three cartridges from his pocket on the shelf - for counting. And he barely had time to prepare to fire again when he saw a motorcycle with a sidecar approaching the headquarters dugout.
The driver drove up dashingly and stopped dead at the door. A long German immediately jumped out of the back seat and began to help the fat Nazi get out of the carriage. While he was helpfully dragging out this apparently important official, I took care of the driver, he immediately seemed to lie down to rest on the steering wheel of the car and did not move anymore. And the long one kept dragging the fat man stuck in the cradle out. Finally he got out and began to mark time. I took the shot. Long topic In the meantime, he turned to the driver of the motorcycle, wanted, as I thought, to give him the command to drive off, but, seeing him as if he had fallen asleep at the wheel, he pushed, but, of course, in vain.
After my third shot, waving his arms, he fell backwards behind the motorcycle and was long.
“So... Let’s put in three more cartridges!” And I put them out of my pocket on the shelf. “What do we do next?” - I talked to myself, excited by such luck. And events developed with lightning speed. Before I had time to reload my rifle and get ready to fire again, the fascists, attracted by the noise of a motorcycle and perhaps expecting someone, jumped out of the dugout.
These were two officers in uniforms with orders glittering on their chests, wearing high-top caps. One of them rushed to that Hitlerite, who just a few minutes earlier was sitting in a cradle, and now lay dead in front of the dugout in the snow. The second one shouted something, calling for help from fellow countrymen. A third officer immediately jumped out and also rushed to the dead man. They began to lift him, trying to drag him into the dugout. I killed the one who was in charge first - I understood that he was more important than the two who were dragging the fat man. Following him, the others also found their deaths.
Excitement was excitement, but my mind still told me: “That’s enough for today! You can’t shoot from one place for so long - they’ll spot you!” I stop shooting for a while and just continue to watch the Nazis. One way or another, I still won't get out of here before dark.
But less than an hour had passed before the Nazis began to stir again. We began to make short dashes, from dugout to dugout, approaching the headquarters and the motorcycle... And my heart could not bear it: I again opened fire on these bandits. One fell, and then another froze. The rest fled - it was like the wind blew everyone away! I tried to set the motorcycle on fire - it worked! Two armor-piercing incendiary cartridges, hitting the gas tank, did their job.
“Eleven in a day! No, brother, such a record won’t go in vain!” And, remembering how I myself taught caution to young soldiers, future snipers, I give up not only shooting, but also observing the enemy. I sit down in my deep trench. It's cramped, and besides, I'm terribly thirsty. I wanted to sleep a little - apparently, nervous overstrain was taking its toll. “Well, we can relax a little.” But before I had time to close my eyes, a shell whistled past and exploded somewhere nearby. Jumping up instantly, I looked out of the trench and saw, about three hundred meters away, huge clods of earth falling from a height.
"Wow! They throw heavy things around! This seems to be a long-range weapon - you can hardly hear the shot!” I am glad that the enemy artillerymen hit poorly - they made a huge undershoot of about five kilometers. I am glad that the shell did not explode in Leningrad, but on an empty field, even if it was near our trenches.
A few minutes later I again heard the whistle of a flying shell. It was growing. Its rupture forced me to bend lower in my cell. This shell fell about a hundred meters from me and closer to the tram. Behind the explosion, I did not hear a third explosion, I only felt the ground shaking under my feet - it was the third shell that exploded somewhere nearby.
“Well, come on, come on, you disgusting fascist, hit me like that all the way!” Let the Leningraders rejoice at such “accuracy”!” It’s just unpleasant that my cell is crumbling little by little, the ground is crumbling, my trench is getting smaller. It’s simply impossible to work with a shovel now: the Germans will notice. But another shell that exploded somewhere behind and to the left of the tram makes me finally realize: “Yes, they’re the ones who are jacking up the tram!” It is he, or rather, I, who is their target!”
From such a guess it immediately became hot. “Oh, bastards! You guessed it, bastards! I’m too late...” The explosion of the next shell raises new tons of earth. A huge lump, like the lid of a saucepan, covers me in the shooting cell and lies heavily on my back. “That’s it,” it instantly flashes through my head, “I won’t be able to dig myself out: I have no strength, and something is pressing heavily on my back, and there’s a lot of earth in my ears, in my mouth, and in my nose.”
Something again dully hit the ground, and something heavy hit me on the head, fell on my shoulders... And for me there was complete silence, and darkness came, and my thoughts were cut short.
I woke up at the command post of our company - in a drainage, large-diameter cement pipe laid across the tram line, right under it. I sat on a stool, leaning my back against the pipe. Everything on me was unbuttoned, my arms hung relaxed like whips, my legs were spread wide apart, my head was buzzing. Some people were walking around me, I didn’t recognize them, but I recognized them - everything was in some kind of fog. They were talking to me - I saw it, but the voices did not reach my consciousness. “Maybe I’m deaf?” - I thought.
So I sat, staring blankly at the floor, under which water was flowing: the floor was plank, sparsely laid with fresh boards. I saw my commanders, a telephone operator with a receiver tied to his head near his ear, and I saw a smokehouse smoking on a shell box that had been installed instead of a table. I sat and for some reason trembled finely. There were no conscious thoughts in my head. A familiar man knelt down next to me. “Who does he look like? After all, I know him well!”
Finally it dawned on me that this was my friend, my fellow countryman, military paramedic Ivan Vasiliev. An open sanitary bag lay on the floor next to him. For some reason I see it especially clearly - green, with a red cross on the lid. I'm trying to figure something out, butnothing works out for me, and I close my eyes again, I fall somewhere... After some time, I open my eyes again, but there is no one around, the situation is still the same, only the smokehouse smokes terribly, and I am suffocating.
As they later told me, I slept at the company command post for eighteen hours straight. So I sat and slept. Nobody bothered me. And only the next day, when I came to my senses a little, they told me what happened that day. The German artillerymen, who were shooting specifically at the tram, fired exactly eleven heavy shells at this prominent target. The fire came from long-range guns from beyond Uritsk and Strelna.
Their task was to destroy the Russian sniper, who was holed up in the tram, as they thought. The sixth shell, which exploded almost next to my OP, buried me alive in my rifle cell. And only after the shelling, our guys with the orderlies, sent by battalion commander Morozov and military paramedic Ivan Vasilyev to help me, dug up and dragged me, almost lifeless, out of this grave and dragged me to command post companies.
And my rifle?.. - These were the first words that I, stuttering, uttered in the last two days.
Uh... darling! Enough! Yes, your rifle was so distorted - well, straight into three arcs! So now no specialist can fix it! Wait for the new one!
Well, for now,” said battalion commander Morozov, “rest.” You will go to the regimental medical unit and lie there if you don’t want to end up in the hospital. You are seriously shell-shocked, so you won’t be able to do without medicine!
At night I was escorted to the “deep rear” - to the regimental medical unit, where our Verochka was “raging”...
"SNIPERS"
To be continued