The best snipers of the Second World War: list. Wehrmacht snipers

The best snipers of World War II. German, Soviet, Finnish riflemen played quite an important role in wartime. And in this review an attempt will be made to consider those of them 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 an optical sight. 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, special schools began to appear 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 the "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 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 Vasily Zaitsev 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. At the present 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. Soviet women killed about 12 thousand enemy soldiers. 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” taught a good lesson in their time. 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 women who received military awards. 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 high rank Hero Soviet Union. And one girl became a full holder of the Soldier's Order of Glory.

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 Tatyana 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.

For a long time they did not tell anyone that they were at war. 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 that the Second World War was going on. 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.

Among historians, there is an opinion that the Germans only when faced with “sniper terror” on the Eastern Front “came to their senses” and began to substantively engage in sniping in 1942. However, this is an absolutely erroneous statement. Having “harassed” its opponents with sniper warfare during the First World War, according to the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was deprived of the right not only to have snipers, but also to produce sniper rifles and scopes. Not forgetting the importance of the sniper at the front, with the formation of SS structures, the German command cleverly hid snipers in these paramilitary detachments and secretly trained them. Sniper training was also hidden under airfield security even in Luftwaffe units. It should be noted that the training of snipers, the production of rifles and sights were personally supervised by Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Goering. Sniper training in pre-war Germany lasted at least two years. Therefore, it is completely incorrect to consider this approach to sniping in Germany as oblivion.

In the post-war years, the Germans only managed to slightly improve the design of optical sights, increasing the image amplification factor. New 4x and 8x scopes, in theory, made it possible to confidently hit targets at distances of up to 800 m, but during the Second War, most German sniper rifles still had scopes with 3x and 4x magnification. The design of the optical sight lenses themselves has been improved, making shooting in limited light conditions possible.

At the beginning of the war, the Wehrmacht had a sufficient number of snipers and rifles with sights, but there was no subject for their use. Neither in Poland, nor in France, nor in Norway, nor in Crete were there targets for the mass use of snipers. They carried out ordinary statutory tasks, which were not particularly noticeable in offensive battles. Naturally, the German command did not see the need to increase the number of snipers or increase the number of their training.

German sniper and observer near Voronezh. 1941

It is also important to emphasize that the basics of sniper training in both the Red Army and the Wehrmacht were practically the same. The instructions of both armies took into account the experience of the Soviet-Finnish war. It was this experience that pushed the USSR to a sharp increase in the training of the number of snipers, which was either “overslept” by German intelligence, or did not appreciate the next reform of the Soviets. As a result, indeed, in the winter of 1941-1942, when the Wehrmacht first went on the defensive, the balance of snipers was not on its side. The German command began to take decisive measures, orders appeared, sniper schools were opened, and cadets were selected at the fronts. This was all accepted by historians as a fact of the appearance of sniping in the Wehrmacht.

In 1942, numerous three-month courses were launched, the duration of which was subsequently increased to six months. At the front, the most successful shooters were selected, as a rule, those who already had at least 20 victories. Shooters from the Jaeger units also trained here, where, usually, soldiers who were well familiar with weapons served. civil life. Short-term training of riflemen was also carried out at front-line courses. The cadets received rifles and scopes that remained with them forever. Sniper schools conducted daily exercises in shooting, camouflage, observation, enemy detection, etc. By 1944, the development of German sniping had reached its peak. In particular, at least 30 sniper schools were formed. By order of the Luftwaffe command, educational films “Invisible Weapon: Sniper in Combat” and “Field Training of Snipers” were filmed for use in training ground units. Both films were shot quite competently and of very high quality, even from the heights of today: here are the main points of special sniper training, the most important recommendations for actions in the field, and all this in a popular form, with a combination of game elements. A memo, widely circulated at the time, called “The Ten Commandments of the Sniper” read:

- Fight selflessly.
- Fire calmly and carefully, concentrate on each shot. Remember that rapid fire has no effect.
- Shoot only when you are sure that you will not be detected.
- Your main opponent is the enemy sniper, outsmart him.
— Don’t forget that a mining shovel prolongs your life.
— Constantly practice determining distances.
- Become a master of terrain and camouflage.
— Train constantly - on the front line and in the rear.
- Take care of your sniper rifle, don’t give it to anyone.
— Survival for a sniper has nine parts – camouflage and only one – shooting.

It is necessary to note the tactical developments of German sniping, which are still used today by many armies of the world. For the first time, the Germans proposed to distinguish between “amateur snipers” (field snipers in today’s sense) and “professional snipers.” Each rifle squad was staffed by two amateur snipers - ordinary soldiers who knew how to shoot accurately. Their standard rifle was equipped with a 4x optical sight. Whenever possible, they received additional sniper training. As snipers, they could only be used when necessary. Each company was assigned two professional snipers, who were armed with a sniper rifle with a 6x optical sight (if available, high aperture, for shooting in the dark). These same snipers, if necessary, could create a sniper group with the involvement of amateur snipers. However, in practice it was difficult for the Germans to implement this theory.

German snipers were most effective in Normandy in June 1944 during the landing of the Anglo-American allies, where they faced the same “sniper terror” as the Red Army soldiers once did on the Mannerheim Line. German snipers knew the terrain well and skillfully camouflaged their positions. Hedges became their favorite shelter. Snipers dug in near them, mined the approaches, and set traps in the bushes. The best method The only way to combat them was to use mortar and artillery strikes on the intended position. Here, the Allies encountered unusual German tactics. A common sniper tactic is to fire a shot, rarely two, and change position to avoid enemy return fire. But in Normandy, German snipers fired continuously, without even trying to move. In the end, they were destroyed, but before that such a “suicide” managed to inflict very serious damage.

Snipers always worked in pairs - one shoots, the other conducts observation. Frequent changes of position and camouflage were considered the key to a sniper’s survival. The most common tasks were: the destruction of observers, spotters, commanders, machine gunners and gun crews. Snipers followed the attacking forces and engaged the most fortified enemy positions, machine gun nests and crews anti-tank guns. Often, snipers crossed the front line before the advance of their troops and during their artillery preparation, destroying enemy commanders. In defense, the sniper's primary task was to destroy attacking commanders at long distances, which often stopped the offensive. Sniper duels were considered a dangerous but necessary activity and were fought until the enemy was completely destroyed.

German snipers preferred to work at medium distances - up to 500 m. They fired more at the body than at the head, which, firstly, increased the likelihood of hitting with the first shot, thereby increasing the shooter’s chances of not being detected, and, secondly, the target it was still guaranteed to fail. When repelling the attack, the snipers did not pay attention to the first three or four lines of attackers, and tried to hit as many of the soldiers advancing behind them in the stomach as possible. Hearing the piercing screams of the wounded behind them, those advancing in the front ranks lost their presence of mind, and the attack began to choke. At this moment, snipers were shooting at the first lines of the enemy. Soldiers who were closer than fifty meters to the sniper were shot in the head or heart - they were afraid to leave the wounded close to them. Those retreating were shot in the kidney area, which brought them unbearable pain. In these cases, the wounded began to literally scream and howl like an animal. As a result, the attack often ended abruptly. In such battles, the sniper hit up to 20 people, although these victories were not credited to the sniper account.

Snipers preferred camouflage jackets with a “fragmentation” pattern or with a pattern in the form oak leaves. Face masks were also used, although on a limited scale. The helmets were covered with camouflage fabric or mesh. The Germans believed that shooters with low and average levels of training hit better shots using sights with low magnification - up to 4x. Stronger scopes could only be used by high-class snipers.

German gunsmiths did not spoil snipers with a variety of sniper rifles. The main weapon was the Mauser 98 rifle. Adopted in 1898, it was produced until 1945. More than 18 thousand rifles were converted into sniper rifles before World War II. To install an optical sight, the bolt handle was bent down.

Mauser Gew rifle. 98 with optical sight

Based on the Mauser 98 rifle, a carbine was created in 1935 under the designation Mauser 98k. For use as sniper weapons From standard carbines, specimens were selected that gave maximum accuracy. About 200 thousand carbines were equipped with optical sights.

Mauser 98k carbine with ZF-41 optical sight

In 1943, under the impression of the Soviet SVT-40 rifle, the production of the Gewehr 43 self-loading rifle was launched in Germany. By the end of the war, 53.4 thousand rifles received “optics”. The rifle was superior to the outdated Mauser Gew. 98", but was significantly inferior to the Mauser 98k carbine.

Sniper rifle with optical sight G-43 (W)

It should be noted that German snipers, in the absence of the coveted “Gewehr 43”, tried to get a captured Soviet Mosin sniper rifle, which was converted to a German cartridge. And in this form, the rifle showed better results than in the original version. And considering that the captured goods were not even counted in thousands of guns, there was plenty to choose from.

In contrast to the limited range of sniper rifles, the German industry produced a good dozen telescopic sights for them. The first type of telescopic sight, officially adopted in 1939 by the German army, was the four-fold "ZF-39" with graduations at a distance of up to 1200 m. In 1941, another sight was adopted - the "ZF-41" with one and a half times increase. A rifle with such a scope was positioned as a rifle for high-precision shooting, and not as a sniper. In 1942, various commercial sights with magnification from 4X to 6X, poorly suited for military service, were adopted under the designation “ZF-42”. In 1943, a cheap and reliable telescopic sight “ZF-4” or “ZF-43” with a 4X magnification, designed under the influence of the Soviet PU sight, appeared. It was intended for the G43 self-loading rifle, but it was not possible to produce the G43 in sufficient quantities and the sight had to be adapted to the Kar.98k rifle. There were other types of sights: the Opticotechna, Dialytan, Hensoldt & Soehne and the rare Carl Zeiss Jena Zielsechs. However, it was not possible to identify the incredible ten-fold Zeiss optics of German snipers, captured in numerous stories by both front-line soldiers and historians. The collapse of another legend.

When it comes to sniping during the Second World War, people usually think about Soviet snipers. Indeed, such a scale of sniper movement, which was in Soviet Army in those years, there was no other army, and the total number of enemy soldiers and officers destroyed by our riflemen is in the tens of thousands.
What do we know about German snipers, “opponents” of our shooters on the other side of the front? Previously, it was not officially accepted to objectively assess the merits and demerits of an enemy with whom Russia had to wage a difficult war for four years. Today, times have changed, but too much time has passed since those events, so much information is fragmentary and even doubtful. Nevertheless, we will try to bring together the little information available to us.

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

They have the right to wear special signs differences in the form of crossed oak leaves above the cockade of the headdress.”
German snipers played a special role during the positional period of the war. Without even attacking leading edge enemy, the Entente troops suffered losses in manpower. As soon as a soldier or officer carelessly leaned out from behind the parapet of the trench, a sniper’s shot instantly clicked from the direction of the German trenches. The moral effect of such losses was extremely great. The mood of the Anglo-French units, which lost several dozen people killed and wounded per day, was depressed. There was only one way out: to release our “super-sharp shooters” to the front line. In the period from 1915 to 1918, snipers were actively used by both warring parties, thanks to which the concept of military sniping was basically formed, combat missions for “super marksmen” were defined, and basic tactics were developed.

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

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

This concept of using motorized troops in the first experiments seemed to confirm its correctness: the German blitzkrieg swept across Europe with terrifying speed, sweeping away armies and fortifications. However, with the beginning of the invasion of Nazi troops into the territory of the Soviet Union, the situation began to change quickly. Although the Red Army was retreating under the pressure of the Wehrmacht, it put up such fierce resistance that the Germans repeatedly had to go on the defensive to repel counterattacks. And when already in the winter of 1941-1942. snipers appeared in Russian positions and the sniper movement began to actively develop, supported by the political departments of the fronts, the German command remembered the need to train their “super-sharp shooters.” In the Wehrmacht, sniper schools and front-line courses began to be organized, and gradually began to grow " specific gravity» sniper rifles in relation to other types of small arms.

A sniper version of the 7.92 mm Mauser 98K carbine was tested back in 1939, but this version began to be mass-produced only after the attack on the USSR. Since 1942, 6% of all carbines produced had a telescopic sight mount, but throughout the war there was a shortage of sniper weapons among German troops. For example, in April 1944, the Wehrmacht received 164,525 carbines, but only 3,276 of them had optical sights, i.e. about 2%. However, according to the post-war assessment of German military experts, “type 98 carbines equipped with standard optics could in no case meet the requirements of combat. Compared to Soviet sniper rifles... they were significantly different for the worse. Therefore, every Soviet sniper rifle captured as a trophy was immediately used by Wehrmacht soldiers.”

By the way, the ZF41 optical sight with a magnification of 1.5x was attached to a specially machined guide on the sighting block, so that the distance from the shooter’s eye to the eyepiece was about 22 cm. German optics experts believed that such an optical sight with a slight magnification, installed at a considerable distance from the shooter's eye to the eyepiece, should be quite effective, since it allows you to aim the crosshairs at the target without stopping monitoring the area. At the same time, the low magnification of the sight does not provide a significant discrepancy in scale between objects observed through the sight and on top of it. In addition, this type of optics placement allows you to load the rifle using clips without losing sight of the target and the muzzle of the barrel. But naturally, a sniper rifle with such a low-power scope could not be used for long-distance shooting. However, such a device was still not popular among Wehrmacht snipers - often such rifles were simply thrown onto the battlefield in the hope of finding something better.

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

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

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

American war correspondent Ernie Pyle, describing the first days after the landing of the Allied forces, wrote: “Snipers are everywhere. Snipers in trees, in buildings, in piles of ruins, in the grass. But mostly they hide in the tall, thick hedges that line the Norman fields, and are found on every roadside, in every alley.” First of all, such a high activity and combat effectiveness of German riflemen can be explained by the extremely small number of snipers in the Allied forces, who were unable to quickly counteract sniper terror from the enemy. In addition, one cannot discount the purely psychological aspect: the British and especially the Americans for the most part subconsciously still perceive war as a kind of risky sport, so it is not surprising that many Allied soldiers were severely amazed and morally depressed by the very fact of being at the front some invisible enemy who stubbornly refuses to comply with the gentlemanly “laws of war” and shoots from an ambush. The morale effect of sniper fire was indeed quite significant, since, according to some historians, in the first days of the fighting, up to fifty percent of all losses in American units were due to enemy snipers. A natural consequence of this was the lightning-fast spread of legends about the combat capabilities of enemy shooters through the “soldier’s telegraph,” and soon the soldiers’ panicky fear of snipers became a serious problem for officers of the Allied forces.

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

American veteran John Highton, who was 19 years old during the landing days, recalls his meeting with a German sniper. When his unit was able to move away from the landing point and reached the enemy fortifications, the gun crew attempted to set up their gun on the top of the hill. But every time another soldier tried to stand up to the sight, a shot clicked in the distance - and another gunner ended up with a bullet in his head. Note that, according to Highton, the distance to the German position was very significant - about eight hundred meters.

The number of German “high marksmanship” on the shores of Normandy is indicated by the following fact: when the 2nd battalion of the “Royal Ulster Fusiliers” moved to capture command heights near Periers-sur-les-Den, after a short battle they captured seventeen prisoners, seven of them turned out to be snipers.

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

Many of the marksmen the Allies encountered in Normandy had received extensive marksmanship training from the Hitler Youth. Before the start of the war, this youth organization strengthened military training of its members: all of them were required to study the device military weapons, trained in shooting from small-caliber rifles, and the most capable of them were purposefully trained in the art of sniper. When these “children of Hitler” later entered the army, they received full sniper training. In particular, the 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitlerjugend" that fought in Normandy was staffed with soldiers from members of this organization, and officers from the SS Panzer Division "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler", notorious for its atrocities. In the battles in the Cannes region, these teenagers received a baptism of fire.

In general, Cannes was an almost ideal place for sniper warfare. Working together with artillery spotters, German snipers completely controlled the area around this city, British and Canadian soldiers were forced to carefully check literally every meter of the territory to make sure that the area was truly cleared of enemy "cuckoos".
On June 26, an ordinary SS man named Peltzmann, from a well-chosen and carefully camouflaged position, destroyed Allied soldiers for several hours, holding back their advance in his sector. When the sniper ran out of cartridges, he got out of his “bed”, smashed his rifle against a tree and shouted to the British: “I finished off enough of yours, but I’m out of cartridges - you can shoot me!” He probably didn’t have to say this: the British infantrymen gladly complied with his last request. The German prisoners present at this scene were forced to collect all those killed in one place. One of these prisoners later claimed to have counted at least thirty dead Englishmen near Peltzmann's position.

Despite the lesson learned by the Allied infantry in the first days after the Normandy landings, there were no effective means against the German “super sharpshooters”; they became a constant headache. The possible presence of invisible shooters, ready to shoot anyone at any moment, was nerve-wracking. Clearing the area of ​​snipers was very difficult, sometimes requiring a whole day to completely comb the area around the field camp, but without this no one could guarantee their safety.

The Allied soldiers gradually learned in practice the basic precautions against sniper fire that the Germans themselves had learned three years earlier, finding themselves in the same situation at the gunpoint of Soviet fighter shooters. In order not to tempt fate, the Americans and British began to move, bending low to the ground, dashing from cover to cover; the rank and file stopped saluting the officers, and the officers, in turn, began to wear a field uniform, very similar to a soldier's - everything was done in order to minimize the risk and not provoke the enemy sniper to shoot. Nevertheless, the feeling of danger became a constant companion for the soldiers in Normandy.

German snipers disappeared into the difficult landscape of Normandy. The fact is that most of this area is a real labyrinth of fields surrounded by hedges. These hedges appeared here during the Roman Empire and were used to mark the boundaries of land plots. The land here was divided into small fields by hedges of hawthorn, blackberry and various creeping plants, which strongly resembled patchwork quilt. Some such enclosures were planted on high embankments, in front of which drainage ditches were dug. When it rained - and it rained often - the mud would stick to the soldiers' boots, the cars would get stuck and had to be pulled out with the help of tanks, and all around there was only darkness, a dim sky and shaggy hedge walls.

It is not surprising that such terrain provided an ideal battlefield for sniper warfare. Moving into the depths of France, the units left many enemy riflemen in their tactical rear, who then began the systematic shooting of careless rear soldiers. The hedges made it possible to view the terrain at only two to three hundred meters, and from such a distance even a novice sniper could hit the head figure with a rifle with a telescopic sight. Dense vegetation not only limited visibility, but also allowed the “cuckoo” shooter to easily escape return fire after several shots.

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

However, not everyone wanted to surrender. It was in Normandy that the so-called “suicide boys” appeared, who, contrary to all the canons of sniper tactics, did not at all strive to change their position after several shots, but, on the contrary, continued to fire continuously until they were destroyed. Such tactics, suicidal for the riflemen themselves, in many cases allowed them to inflict heavy losses on the Allied infantry units.

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

The natural desire of every sniper was to position himself in a place from which the entire area would be clearly visible, so water pumps, mills and bell towers were ideal positions, but it was these objects that were primarily subject to artillery and machine-gun fire. Despite this, some German “high marksmen” were still stationed there. Norman village churches destroyed by Allied guns became a symbol of German sniper terror.

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

In general, 1944 was a turning point for sniper art in the German troops. The role of sniping was finally appreciated by the high command: numerous orders emphasized the need for the competent use of snipers, preferably in pairs of “shooter plus observer”, various types of camouflage were developed and special equipment. It was assumed that during the second half of 1944 the number of sniper pairs in the grenadier and people's grenadier units would be doubled. The head of the “Black Order” Heinrich Himmler also became interested in sniping in the SS troops, and he approved a program of specialized in-depth training for fighter shooters.

In the same year, by order of the Luftwaffe command, educational films “Invisible Weapon: Sniper in Combat” and “Field Training of Snipers” were filmed for use in training ground units. Both films were shot quite competently and of very high quality, even from the heights of today: here are the main points of special sniper training, the most important recommendations for actions in the field, and all this in a popular form, with a combination of game elements.

A memo, widely circulated at the time, called “The Ten Commandments of the Sniper” read:
- Fight selflessly.
- Fire calmly and carefully, concentrate on each shot. Remember that rapid fire has no effect.
- Shoot only when you are sure that you will not be detected.
- Your main opponent is the enemy sniper, outsmart him.
- Don’t forget that a mining shovel prolongs your life.
- Constantly practice determining distances.
- Become a master at using terrain and camouflage.
- Train constantly - on the front line and in the rear.
- Take care of your sniper rifle, don’t give it to anyone.
- Survival for a sniper has nine parts - camouflage and only one - shooting.

In the German army, snipers were used at various tactical levels. It was the experience of applying such a concept that allowed E. Middeldorff in his book to propose the following practice in the post-war period: “In no other issue related to infantry combat are there such great contradictions as in the issue of the use of snipers. Some consider it necessary to have a full-time platoon of snipers in each company, or at least in the battalion. Others predict that snipers operating in pairs will have the greatest success. We will try to find a solution that satisfies the requirements of both points of view. First of all, one should distinguish between “amateur snipers” and “professional snipers.” It is advisable that each squad have two non-staff amateur snipers. They need to be given assault rifle 4x optical sight. They will remain regular shooters who have received additional sniper training. If using them as snipers is not possible, they will act as regular soldiers. As for professional snipers, there should be two of them in each company or six in the company control group. They must be armed with a special sniper rifle with initial speed bullets over 1000 m/sec., with an optical sight with a 6-fold increase in high aperture. These snipers will typically "free hunt" the company area. If, depending on the situation and terrain conditions, the need arises to use a platoon of snipers, then this will be easily feasible, since the company has 24 snipers (18 amateur snipers and 6 professional snipers), who in this case can be united together.” . Note that this concept of sniping is considered one of the most promising.

Allied soldiers and lower-ranking officers, who suffered most from sniper terror, developed various methods of dealing with enemy invisible shooters. And yet the most in an efficient way there was still the use of their snipers.

According to statistics, during the Second World War it typically took 25,000 shots to kill a soldier. For snipers, the same number was on average 1.3-1.5.

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

The sniper is a long knife into the enemy's heart;
too long and too cruel to handle
not to be considered.

A. Potapov, “The Art of the Sniper”

If you think about it, it’s quite understandable why there is an order of magnitude, or even two, less information about German snipers of the Second World War than about Soviet ones. Still, “Nazi sniper” is a label that few survivors of the war would like to wear after defeat.
And yet, even taking this into account, the situation remains quite strange. Historians on both sides claim that the sniper movement in their armies arose after they faced massive attacks by enemy snipers.
The German version looks like this: in its plans, the command of the German army relied primarily on tank strikes and rapid advances deep into enemy territory. In this situation, there was simply no place left for the sniper in the army - he was already considered a “relic of the trench battles of the First World War.” And only in the winter of forty-one, after it became clear that the “lightning war” had failed and German units were increasingly forced to move from attack to defense, and snipers began to appear in the positions of Soviet troops, the command “remembered” the need for training and their “super sharp shooters”.

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

In fact, it can be said with reasonable certainty that German snipers were on the Eastern Front from the very beginning. Yes, their use was not as widespread as that of the Finns in the Winter War or later in Soviet troops. Nevertheless, even armed with a Mauser rifle with a 1.5-fold scope, a sniper is capable of performing combat missions to suppress (especially psychologically) enemy troops. But for some reasons that are not always clear, history has not preserved their names, much less the number of “confirmed murders” they committed.
About whom we know for sure are three snipers who were awarded knight's crosses, and all three received this award already in 1945.

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

Interview with Wehrmacht snipers

This general interview with two of the Wehrmacht's most successful snipers. To get a broader overview of the experience, an interview with a third, also very good sniper, has been added.
The fact is that these three soldiers had really good training and a lot of experience to give accurate and informative answers to the questions.
During the interview they will be referred to as A, B and C. During the war they were all in the 3. Gebirgsdivision.
Brief information about the respondents.

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

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

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

What weapon did you use?:

A: K98 with 6x scope, G43 with 4x scope

B: Captured Russian Sniper Rifle with Scope, K98 with 6x

C: K98 with 1 1/2x and 4x scopes, G43 with 4x scope.

What scopes did you use?

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

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

C: 11/2x was not effective enough and was replaced by the better performing 6x.

What do you think about high magnification?

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

C: 4x is enough for most missions.

What is the maximum firing distance at which you could hit the following targets?

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

Embrasure: A: up to 600m

B, C: up to 400m

Human figure: A: 700m - 800m

B, C: about 600m

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

A, B: only for the best snipers

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

B: Adds: in reality, 100% damage is only possible up to 600m.

What was the furthest target you hit and what was it?

A: It was a standing soldier at a distance of about 1100m. It's unlikely to hit at this range, but we wanted to show the enemy that he was not safe at this range. We also wanted to demonstrate our skills to the officers.

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

How many second shots were needed?

A: Almost never needed a second shot.

B: 1 or 2. The second shot was very dangerous because of the enemy snipers.

C: 1 or 2 at most.

If you could choose, which rifle would you prefer?

A) a hand-loading rifle like the K98:

A: K98 because of high precision

B) Self-loading rifle similar to G43:

A: Not the G43 because it's only good up to 400m and doesn't have much accuracy.

B: Not G43, too heavy.

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

If you could choose today between a semi-automatic rifle with the same accuracy as the K98 and the K98, which would you choose?

A: I would choose the K98 because a sniper who is used as a sniper does not need an autoloading rifle.

B: If it has the same weight....automatic.

C: Self-loading can fire faster when attacking.

How were you assigned to your units?

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

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

In each company, some soldiers were equipped with rifles with telescopic sights, but they had no special training. They shot reliably up to 400m and did a very good job. These soldiers served in their normal duty within companies and were not able to achieve the high lethality of real snipers.

Tactics and goals?

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

A: I had to sneak through enemy lines before our attack to eliminate enemy commanders and crews during our artillery preparation.

B) Attack at night:

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

C) Attack in winter:

A: I walked behind the attacking force in winter camouflage to counter the machine gun and anti-tank positions that were opposing our attack.

B, C: A good camouflage suit and warm clothing are necessary, otherwise the possibility of long-term observation will be reduced.

D) Defense

A, B, C: mainly free hunting in the company sector of defense. Typically all targets or only the most important targets were to be destroyed. When the enemy attacked, their commanders were easy to identify because they had different equipment, camouflage uniforms, and so on. So we fired them at long distances and so that the enemy advance was stopped. (One day A remembers that he destroyed the commanders of eight attacks).

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

Snipers take their positions before sunrise and remain there until sunset.

Sometimes, if the path to one's own position was blocked by the enemy, one had to remain in that position for two or three days without support.

E) Defense at night

A, B, C: Snipers were not used during the night. They weren't allowed to be security guards or anything like that. Sometimes during the night they would set up their position to be ready during the day.

Did you use moonlight when shooting?
A: Yes, if the moonlight was strong enough and I used a 6x scope, it was possible.

G) Holding battle:

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

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

What tactics have you had the most success with?

A: A sniper's success is not measured by the people he kills, but by the impact he has on the enemy. For example, if the enemy loses commanders in an offensive, the offensive must be stopped. We had the highest kill rates, of course, in defensive battles, when the enemy attacked several times a day.

B: On the defensive, because the others destroyed were not confirmed.

C: Most great success during the longest period of trench warfare due to good opportunities observations.

Percentage destroyed for each distance:

Up to 400m: A: 65%

Up to 600m: A: 30%

Up to 800m: rest

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

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

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

How many shots did you fire from one position?

A, B, C: as many as needed

B) Defense at an equipped position:

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

C) Enemy attack:

A, B, C: each, worth it, goals.

D) Confrontation with enemy snipers:

A, B, C: 1 or 2

E) delaying fight

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

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

What else is important besides excellent shooting?

A: Apart from normal sniper skills, intelligence always wins. A person's "small tactics" win the battle. To achieve a high kill rate, it is also important that the sniper is not used for any duty other than sniping.

B: Calm, superior, brave.

C: Patience and service life, excellent observation ability.

Who were the snipers recruited from?

A: Only those born as “lone fighters”, like hunters, poachers and so on.

B: I don't remember. I had 27 kills with my Russian rifle before I was cleared for sniper training.

C: Only soldiers with combat experience, superior shooting skills and two years of service were allowed into sniper training.

What sniper courses have you completed?

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

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

Did you use binoculars and what gain?

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

B: Binoculars as needed to complement the optical sight on the rifle.

C: Every sniper had binoculars, and this was necessary. Up to 500m 6x30 was sufficient.

Would you rather watch through a periscope from a trench?

A: It was good addition. We had one Russian.

C: If it was found among the trophies, it was used.

Were there any scissor telescopes in use?

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

B: No

What camouflage did you use?

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

B: I have been using an umbrella for two years. I colored it to match the surroundings. At the beginning I painted my hands and face very carefully, at the end less so.

Have you used other things to deceive the enemy?

B: Yes, such as decoys with rifles that fire using wire structures.

C: No

Have you used some screen?

A, B, C: No

What do you think about tracer cartridges?

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

They were used in training and rifle testing. Each sniper also had a few to check the distance.

Did you use the so-called sighting cartridges that explode when they hit the ground?

A, B, C: Yes, a small flame appears when they hit the target, so you can see if there was a hit. We also used them to set fire to a wooden building to flush out the enemy. They have been used at distances up to 600m.

How did you work in crosswinds?

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

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

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

Do you still remember the recommendations for shooting at moving targets?

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

Have you used anti-tank rifles?

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

B, C: No

How did you confirm those destroyed?

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

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