Cuckoo snipers in the Finnish war. A sniper nicknamed "White Death" and a sniper nicknamed "Black Death" (4 photos)

“Cuckoo” snipers in the Finnish war of 1939-1940

The term “cuckoo” appears repeatedly in the book “Fighting in Finland. Memoirs of Participants,” published in the USSR in 1941, in which the “cuckoo” was most often described as a sniper shooting from a tree.

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

This is how deputy political instructor G. Shchuklin described his combat experience:

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

As modern sources note, Finnish soldiers used shooting from trees “ much less often than it seemed to the Red Army soldiers... This method of conducting single combat operations left almost no chance for a soldier sitting on a tree to retreat, and even a slight injury could lead to fatal fall » .

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

Also, there is an opinion that at least some of the references to “cuckoo” shooters refer to observation posts equipped in trees. During the Finnish war, such observation posts (in the form of a platform) were equipped by Finnish border guards, observers and artillery spotters. They were used in the future.

However, at least isolated cases of shooting from trees are known from history.

In addition, shooting from a position equipped on a tree (platform or “bush”) is used by hunters.

“Cuckoo” snipers in other wars and armed conflicts

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

see also

Notes

Literature and sources

• P. A. Belyakov. In sight " Brown bear" - M.: Voenizdat, 1977.

Links

• Finnish cuckoo, legend or reality? // website “Vyborg. About the past and present"

Wikimedia Foundation.

2010. Cuckoo, shooter Dictionary of Russian synonyms. sniper noun, number of synonyms: 4 cuckoo (26) marksman ...

Synonym dictionary I A forest migratory bird that usually does not build nests and lays eggs in other people's nests. II decomposition 1. A small shunting steam locomotive (from the letter designation of its series K). 2. A small local train operating on various branch lines... ... Modern Dictionary

Synonym dictionary Russian language Efremova

Modern explanatory dictionary of the Russian language by Efremova AND; pl. genus. shek, dat. shkam; and. 1. Lesnaya migrant , usually does not build its own nest and lays eggs in others. Listen to the cuckoo in the forest. Live like a cuckoo clock (giving a signal of time not by striking, but by cuckooing). Exchange the cuckoo for a hawk... ...

encyclopedic Dictionary cuckoo - And; pl. genus. shek, dat. shkam; and. see also cuckoo 1) A forest migratory bird that usually does not build its own nest and lays eggs in others. Listen to the cuckoo in the forest. Live like a cuckoo. Cuckoo clock (signaling time not by striking, but by cuckooing) ...

Dictionary of many expressions

White tights, or “White Stocking” is a slang name for a squad of female snipers of predominantly Baltic origin, who allegedly fought on the side of anti-Russian forces and separatist regimes in combat zones on the territory of ... Wikipedia The Finns taught the Soviet troops a terrible lesson during the winter campaign of 1939-40. The Finnish leadership prepared well for the war and took into account a lot in order to resist large forces with small forces. Soviet armies

, they also counted on the competent use of well-aimed shooters, that is, snipers. terrible phenomenon- cuckoo snipers. Their actions were unusually effective and are recognized as a particularly effective sniper practice of all times and peoples. The combat cunning of the cuckoo snipers was incomprehensible due to its non-standard nature, lack of regulations and deceit. The Finns were the first to point out that there are no prohibited techniques in sniper practice. These techniques were countless, and they rarely repeated each other.

Finnish snipers got the term “cuckoo” because they first shot from trees and spoke in bird voices. Deftly perched on the mighty branches of a century-old pine tree, the Finn waited for a more important target to appear and “filmed” it. In the tree where the sniper's nest was located, the Russians opened heavy fire from all the trunks, but the sniper was no longer there - the insidious Finn on a rope instantly descended under the cover of a thick pine trunk into a pre-dug dugout, where he waited out the shelling. Occasionally, depending on the circumstances, in order to calm the enemy, the Finn pulled the rope and pulled from the sniper’s nest a stuffed animal in a camouflage suit with a rifle, which very artistically fell, rolling from branch to branch, and sometimes even got stuck between the branches in the most unnatural position. After the shelling, the sniper climbed out of the dugout, climbed a tree and again began his work.

They started shooting at the tree again. As a rule, machine guns were used to shoot a tree up and down until it fell. But while the machine gunners, carried away by the shooting and deaf from it, were “sawing” the tree, the second Finn from the side shot everyone who was behind the machine gunners, and later took on them themselves. The machine gunners did an excellent job of suppressing the Finnish sniper’s shots, which was exactly what they needed.

Finnish “cuckoos” sat in the trees taking turns - while one was looking out for prey, the other was peacefully sleeping below, in an insulated dugout. In this way, round-the-clock duty was ensured on forest paths, which prevented the penetration of Russian reconnaissance and sabotage groups behind the front line.

For Finnish snipers, it made no difference which side to shoot on - their own or the neighboring one. During the large-scale offensive of the Soviet troops, many Finnish snipers remained camouflaged in insulated Finnish snowdrifts, not far from the predicted location of strategically important objects of the Red Army: airfields (on ice-covered lakes), artillery battery locations, headquarters, communication centers, communications, transport interchanges, concentration manpower, etc. As a rule, these were flat places in the forests, protected along the perimeter by folds of the terrain, which were quite easy to decipher.

Finnish snipers, having waited their time, began to work at the most unexpected moment. The consequences of their work were terrifying. The reconnaissance units, thrown to capture and seize the “cuckoos,” were blown up by mines with which the Finn had previously surrounded the position. But even the survivors returned with nothing. The Finnish shooter got on his skis and went to his own. For a Finn who grew up in the north, traveling 100-120 kilometers in winter on skis and spending the night in the snow at a temperature of minus 40° and trained in military affairs was a common thing.

Undoubtedly, martial art The high Soviet leadership did not recognize the “cuckoo” snipers and blamed junior commanders for failures (who were afraid to take the initiative and take a step right or left from Stalin’s regulations). High leadership I began to think about it only when the “cuckoos” shot several staff vehicles with representatives of the command along with their retinue accompanying them. The executions took place in different places, but according to one scenario: a Finnish shooter shot out the rear wheel, immobilizing the car, and cold-bloodedly shot everyone who was in it. Only after this did the high authorities begin to understand that it was necessary to create counter ambushes along the advance routes of the Finnish snipers. But it was too late. The Finnish war ended in victory with terrible losses. Of the Finnish snipers, few were killed and none were captured alive.

“Cuckoo” snipers, moving freely in the forests, caused the advancing Red Army units a lot of trouble in terms of sabotage. Pilots who were in that war told how “cuckoos” opened the floodgates of the lake, on the ice of which the Russians established an airfield. In the moonlight, more than two dozen warplanes began to collapse into the ice. The sight was terrible. By fire sniper rifles The Finns did not allow us to approach the locks and close them.

The tactics of snipers developed by the Finns winter time It turned out to be so successful that it was later used by both Soviet and German troops. And even now there is practically nothing to add to it.

snipers who received such nicknames are among the top 20 snipers of the Second World War: Simo Häyhä and Tulegali Abdybekov

Simo Häyhä

Born in 1905 in a small village near the modern border between Russia and Finland. The main occupation in the family was fishing and hunting. Upon reaching the age of 17, Simo Häyhä took part in several sniper competitions and won prizes. This was followed by service in the Finnish army.

With the outbreak of the Soviet-Finnish War in 1939, Simo Häyhä became a sniper. On the first day alone, Simo scored 25 victories, and two days later the score exceeded fifty. As a result of active propaganda, the fame of the invincible Finn spread far beyond the front line. The Soviet government placed a bounty on Simo's head, and the sniper himself was dubbed the “White Death.”

Simo Häyhä's height is 161 cm, which was an advantage in his craft. The sniper dressed all in white, which made him practically invisible against the background of snow. Simo could remain in position for several hours, waiting for the enemy. And this is at temperatures from -20 ° C to -40 ° C. When preparing the ambush site, Simo compacted the snow so that it would not fly apart during shots, giving away his location. The sniper kept snow in his mouth so that there would be no steam when exhaling. Simo was in a better position because he knew the area like the back of his hand.

But the most surprising thing is that the marksman did not use an optical sight. Firstly, Simo believed that the glare from the sun could give him away, and secondly, with very low temperatures The sight glass froze. The weapon used by the sniper was a Finnish modification of the Mosin M/28-30 rifle under No. 60974. It killed 219 enemies. He also used the Lahti Saloranta M-26 machine gun, with which he killed at least 300 enemy soldiers.

In the first 100 days of the war, the Finnish sniper killed more than 500 enemies. A squad of elite Soviet snipers was sent to capture Simo Häyhä. On March 6, 1940, the bullet finally caught the Finn.
The sniper was evacuated. An explosive bullet hit him in the left side of his face. The lower part of his face was disfigured and his jaw was crushed. Häyhä was evacuated in an unconscious state to the rear, and he woke up only on March 13, 1940, the day the war ended. After Häyhä was wounded, rumors spread among the troops that he had died from his wounds. He received treatment in Jyväskylä and Helsinki. The wound required long-term care and frequent operations after the war. The jaw was restored with bone taken from Häyuha's thigh. As a result of a serious injury, Häyhä was not taken into service in the war of 1941-1944, despite his petitions.
Häyhä lived until 2002 and died at 96 years old

sniper Abdybekov in a combat position, 1944

native of the Kazakh SSR
staff Sergeant
sniper of the 8th Guards rifle division, personal combat count of 397 fascists, including 20 Wehrmacht snipers
participant in the Battle of Stalingrad
Awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, the Red Star and the Red Banner.

Tuleugali Abdybekov

Most often, people became snipers at the front this way: the commander noticed that the soldier was shooting accurately, and sent him to the regimental school for two weeks, where a seasoned sniper taught the basics of the craft. Then the marksman received a rifle with optics and was placed 200 meters in front of the trenches to perform the function of a sniper: defeating enemy command and communications personnel, destroying important emerging, moving, open and camouflaged single targets (enemy snipers, officers, etc.). The mortality rate among young snipers was especially high. If the enemy spots a sniper, he starts firing mortars at the square...

Enemies hated snipers most of all; they did not take prisoners. And although the Germans had incomparably better training in schools, ours were superior in number of shooters. If the sniper did not die after the first battle, then on average the sniper won three victories. Ten - you are already a good shooter, thirty - an ace. There were units who accounted for more than a hundred enemies, they were proud of them, the arrival of such a seasoned warrior on the front line inspired the fighters much more than the presence of a dozen commissars and political officers...

The best snipers were those who were hunters in civilian life. This is how Tuleugali Abdybekov ended up among the snipers. He was born in the Semipalatinsk region, and since childhood he went hunting with his father. Times were hard, hungry, and any small booty was a great help for the family. In his youth he moved to the village of Pakhta-Aral near Chimkent, where he worked as a cotton grower. From here he was drafted into the army, served in Far East. Dexterous, savvy, he amazed his colleagues and commanders with his accurate shooting, all ten bullets were exactly on target. He constantly took prizes at regional competitions.

He became famous after one battle, when he was thrown in front of our positions on a high-rise building, and 25 Germans went to it. In a few minutes he shot almost all the enemies, only two managed to escape. But it is a mistake to think that snipers shot at everyone. They had their own unspoken rules, which both the Germans and ours tried to observe, a kind of etiquette of honor. It was not good to shoot at orderlies picking up the wounded, at soldiers collecting the dead. But shooting a machine gunner or an officer was considered honorable. And the coolest thing is to destroy the enemy sniper. Sometimes snipers were given specific instructions - for example, to stop an enemy attack. Then experienced shooters tried not to kill, but to injure the attackers. And in painful places - in the kidneys or liver. Then the man screamed heart-rendingly, demoralizing his comrades.

The fame of Tuleugali Abdybekov grew from battle to battle. In the battles for the city of Kholm, he sat down in a damaged tank and thwarted several enemy counterattacks, shooting 58 enemy soldiers and officers. German soldiers gave him the nickname "Black Death". Enemy counter-snipers were hunting for him, artillery and mortars fired at suspicious places with heavy fire, but luck did not leave the fighter. He was the first to use a trick that became popular among snipers. At night, a captured cigarette was lit, raised on a wire over the top of the trench, a rubber tube was attached to the filter, through which a partner puffed, and a white sheet of paper rose behind the cigarette. In the darkness it looked like someone was smoking. The enemy sniper fired, the shot was detected, the rest was a matter of technique.
Died on January 23, 1944 best friend and Tuleugali’s partner, Grigory Postolnikov, who closed the pillbox embrasure in the battle. Over the grave of a friend, the sniper swore an oath to take revenge on his enemies. At that time, Abdybekov already had 393 victories in his combat account. But without a trusted partner it was difficult. Moreover, the Germans called in their best counter-snipers to destroy the Black Death. Exactly a month later, on February 23, a sniper duel took place near the Nasva station. That day Tuleugali was not feeling well; he caught a cold and sneezed. This is what let him down. The enemy was ahead by a moment and sent the first bullet. The wounded Abdybekov was dragged to the medical battalion, where he died without regaining consciousness. The sniper count stopped at 397.
Today, many say that the Germans’ sniper scoring system was more truthful - the sniper’s victory had to be confirmed by either an officer or two soldiers. But our snipers were also required to confirm victory. And considering special departments and the number of informers, there was no point in making notes - you could end up in a penal battalion. Abdybekov, by his nature, could not lie at all, even for his own benefit. He was nominated several times for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but he honestly wrote in the questionnaires that he had a repressed relative - an uncle. He never received the Hero's Star, despite the fact that all the best shooters from the first hundred received it...

Abdybekov’s sniper rifle No. 2916 was handed to his student, a young aspiring sniper Ashirali Osmanaliev, who vowed to avenge the death of his mentor. He fulfilled his oath, destroying 127 enemy soldiers and officers and becoming one of the 100 best snipers in the world...

Remus 22-08-2005 22:40

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

bader 23-08-2005 18:25

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

Mosinman 23-08-2005 21:50

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

ranger 02-09-2005 14:05

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

------------------
Shoot quickly and think - you will live longer...If you survive!

Sissi 18-09-2005 02:23

No, I can say quite officially that it’s bullshit. There were snipers, yes, but to a rock or a tree only if you were from a mental hospital ward. The Germans had their own group in Finland, but strictly under their command, and for example, their power did not extend to the Finns. It was strictly there, yes, there were many cases where German sentries shot at Finnish long-range detachments, and for this, as a rule, death followed the tribunal. In general, the Germans were poorly prepared for warfare in these regions and therefore fought almost only trench battles and stood at the expense of their technical power.
There were personal beds, for example, the Finnish sniper Simo Häyhä, whose score in the army was +500, according to some information, exact 542 (in the Finnish army only a partner or officer could be a witness), he crawled with an open sight (I hope everyone understands) at least 40 % of cases (it is worth saying that melting in the forest is from 30-150m maximum). And it’s not a matter of cuckoos, but a matter of skill and selection of personnel; as a rule, single workers worked. Legends were born later, just like after the First World War, about German snipers.

ASlon 18-09-2005 02:35

Sissi
Could you provide a link (or recommend other sources) with some information about this sniper. (Simo Hayha) It’s even possible in Finnish.. I’m interested in history Winter War and the actions of the Finnish army in particular. I would be very grateful.

Sissi 18-09-2005 02:48

Yes, there is no need for links, just the first and last name Simo Häyhä, and then just choose the language, there are many links in English about him or according to his statistics, there are opinions that there are no equals, but not Zaitsev, of course. There was no promotion to the whole world, and again the counting is not carried out by soldiers; there is not enough smoke like fighter jets. If I’m short on time or too lazy, I can sit, if you have any language requests, write me.

ASlon 18-09-2005 02:59

Sissi
My English is not very good, but I’ll try to search, there is a link by name, maybe other sources with interesting (or little-known) facts about this issue please indicate. Really interesting.

Sissi 18-09-2005 03:07

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

ASlon 18-09-2005 03:26

Thanks a lot! Really Ace. It's strange that I haven't heard anything about him before.

Sissi 18-09-2005 03:32

And few people in Finland know about it. This is, as they say, for the amateur/expert/historian or for training.

Sissi 18-09-2005 13:12

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

Remus 18-09-2005 23:15

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

Sissi 02-10-2005 21:29

Yes, there are plenty of legends, but the brightest remain those of Lauri Törni and Simo Häyhä.

apple 03-10-2005 01:13

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

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

Student 03-10-2005 02:51

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

Best regards, Student

Kalmar 10-10-2005 02:37

I agree that there is no point in chaining a sniper. He is a free hunter, a most valuable fighter who will not be sacrificed. As for the machine gunner, it is quite possible at the request of the person being chained. Kind of like a kamikaze. So as not to be afraid.

apple 10-10-2005 22:16

quote: Originally posted by Kalmar:
I agree that there is no point in chaining a sniper. He is a free hunter, a most valuable fighter who will not be sacrificed. As for the machine gunner, it is quite possible at the request of the person being chained. Kind of like a kamikaze. So as not to be afraid.

Upon mobilization, many Finns came with their own rifles. There weren't enough weapons for everyone in the army. Most are hunters. This is probably why there were so many Finns good snipers. And civilians always have weapons of higher quality than army ones.

2. It is unlikely that army snipers armed themselves with their own rifle bikes. After all, since the middle of the 19th century, the best hunting models were alterations of army ones. For example, the famous "Berdanka". Yes, a huge minus mass weapons- low quality. But a huge plus is the mass production of ammunition.

Student 11-10-2005 13:16

A simple aspect - the chain can be broken by a bullet. But you can’t fight with a chain from an Admiralty anchor. This is the reason.

Best regards, Student

Kalmar 12-10-2005 12:18

quote: Originally posted by apple:

1. Still not logical. If you can’t have a sniper, then why can you weld a tanker into a tank or rivet a pilot to the skin of an airplane? Why was it necessary to spend enormous amounts of money and effort on maintaining the NKVD barrage detachments, if it was possible to adopt the experience of German comrades and chain the barrages themselves in the trenches? Why is it possible to bring up a bunch of literature on kamikazes or selflessness in general, but nowhere in serious research do they talk about chaining? Maybe because it wasn't there at all?

Well, no one brought any facts. All this is at the level of rumors.

quote: 2. It is unlikely that army snipers armed themselves with their own rifle bikes. After all, since the middle of the 19th century, the best hunting models were alterations of army ones. For example, the famous "Berdanka". Yes, a huge disadvantage of mass-produced weapons is low quality. But a huge plus is the mass production of ammunition.

And this, excuse me, historical fact. The Finns came with their rifles. Just like American contractors in Iraq today. And their weapons are much cooler than the army ones. I myself have weapons of higher quality and more expensive than army ones. Read what weapons the forum members own. No army can be hijacked. Just compare the quality of match weapons and army weapons.

Student 12-10-2005 13:26

Gentlemen, Finland is an interesting country. With a modest military budget, there were many enthusiasts, there were also paramilitary organizations - the Shooting Corps and the women's "Lotta-Svärd", and so they were also involved in sports shooting. From military weapons, i.e. Mosinok. And the barrels they installed there were not very simple, I mean sporting rifles. And it will be extremely stupid to argue that the sports Mosinka has a Shyutskor shooter with big name accuracy is worse than that of a military rifle. Meanwhile, the rifle could be a prize in competitions, just the one with excellent barrel processing. And it’s not strange if the owner or owner took his Mosinka to the front - the cartridge is the same, and the rifle itself is also an analogue of the army one. With higher quality.
The analogy is based on the type of Soviet weapon - few people will compare the accuracy of the 1891\30 with the AB or AVL. Although both are essentially Mosinka.

Best regards, Student

Sergey-M 15-10-2005 16:50

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

VOYAKA 20-10-2005 07:25

Student, excuse my ignorance, but it seems to me that chains are broken by a bullet only in films... Especially, as you put it, anchor ones... Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Sincerely.

apple 20-10-2005 15:32

Student, excuse my ignorance, but it seems to me that chains are broken by a bullet only in films... Especially, as you put it, anchor ones... Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Yeah! That is, the problem is not whether this is a propaganda myth, but the thickness of the chain? Well... That's also an option!!!

bucherets 20-10-2005 16:23

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

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

Student 20-10-2005 19:38

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

Best regards, Student

pasha333 20-10-2005 19:39

The machine gunner is the same - if not from the Ukrp. fire the points will also be filled up.

Well, what's the point? If he is pinned down, and he still wants to survive, it is better to immediately wave something white when they approach - there will be a better chance of surviving than to shoot until the last minute.

By the way, no matter how many German sources I have read, I have never seen anything like this either about ours or theirs. About the Japanese - yes, the Finns, too, in my opinion.

Finnish War

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

During the Finnish War, Soviet commanders were faced with an inexplicable and terrible phenomenon - “cuckoo” snipers. Their work was extremely effective and is recognized as the most effective sniper practice. Combat tactics“cuckoo” snipers were incomprehensible for their unconventionality, non-regulation and deceit. The Finns were the first to point out that there are no prohibited techniques in sniper practice. These techniques were countless, and they rarely repeated each other.

Winter sniper disguise

Finnish snipers got the name “cuckoo” because they initially shot from trees and spoke in bird voices. Comfortably sitting on the mighty branches of a century-old pine tree, the Finn waited for a more important target to appear and “filmed” it. At the tree where the sniper's nest was located, the Red Army soldiers opened hurricane fire from all barrels, but the sniper was no longer there - the cunning Finn on a rope immediately descended under the cover of a thick pine trunk into a pre-dug dugout, where he waited out the shelling. Sometimes, due to circumstances, in order to calm the enemy, the Finn pulled the rope and pulled from the sniper’s nest a stuffed animal in a camouflage suit with a rifle, which fell very beautifully, rolling from branch to branch, or got stuck between the branches in the most unnatural position. After the shelling, the sniper climbed out of the dugout, climbed a tree and again began his work.

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

Finnish “cuckoos” sat in the trees one at a time - while one was looking for prey, the other calmly slept below, in an insulated dugout. In this way, 24-hour duty was ensured on forest roads, which prevented the penetration of Soviet reconnaissance and sabotage groups behind the front line.

For Finnish snipers, it made no difference which side of the front line they shot on - their own or the neighboring one. During the advance of the Red Army, many Finnish snipers remained camouflaged in the snowdrifts, near the predicted location of strategically important objects of the Red Army: airfields (on ice-covered lakes), artillery batteries, headquarters, communications centers, communications, transport interchanges, concentrations of manpower, etc. d. Usually these were flat places in the forests, protected along the perimeter by folds of the terrain, which were quite easy to calculate.

Finnish snipers, having waited their time, began to act at the most unexpected moment. The reconnaissance units, thrown to capture and seize the "cuckoos", were blown up by mines with which the Finn had surrounded the position in advance. But even the survivors returned with nothing. The Finnish sniper got up on his skis and went to his own. For a Finn who grew up in the north, skiing 100–120 km in winter and spending the night in the snow at temperatures of minus 40° were commonplace.

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

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

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

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

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