The book "Sniper "elite" III Reich. Confessions of the killers "includes memoirs three people- Bauer Günther, Syutkus Bruno, Ollerberg Josef. All of them lived during the Second World War and were excellent snipers. They were able to survive where no one could. The best German snipers look back on their lives and talk about how it all began and how they became those who bring death.

Each of them was once a simple boy, with whole life ahead. They wanted to live with their family and raise children, but the war came. They had to become brutal killers because war knows no compassion. The one who shoots first survives.

Three professional killers openly talk about the horrors of war. They killed hundreds Soviet soldiers. Although snipers fought in different directions, each of them had their own destiny, their stories differ in many ways, but they have one thing in common - ruthlessness. Each of these men could watch and track his victim for hours, their actions were precisely verified and every step was calculated. They themselves were more than once on the verge of death, but survived in monstrous conditions. These men were able to go through the war and return home, becoming brutal killers who have no equal.

On our site you can download the book "Sniper "elite" of the III Reich. Revelations of the killers" Ollerberg Josef, Bauer Günther, Syutkus Bruno for free and without registration in fb2, rtf, epub, pdf, txt format, read the book online or buy the book on the Internet -shop.

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

As you know, during the First World War, it was the German army that was the first to actively use accurate rifle fire specially trained back in Peaceful time 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 from this weapon.
The German army instruction stated that "weapons with optical sight 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 certain place and a specific position. He can and should move and position himself in such a way as to fire at an important target. He must use an optical sight to observe the enemy, write down in a notebook his observations and the results of observation, the consumption of ammunition and the results of his shots. Snipers are exempt from additional responsibilities.

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

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

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

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

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

By the way, the ZF41 optical sight with a magnification of 1.5x was attached to a guide specially machined on the aiming block, so that the distance from the shooter's eye to the eyepiece was about 22 cm. German specialists according to optics, it was believed that such an optical sight with a small increase, installed at a considerable distance from the shooter's eye to the eyepiece, should be quite effective, since it allows you to point the crosshair at the target without stopping observation of the terrain. At the same time, the small magnification of the sight does not give a significant discrepancy in scale between objects observed through the sight and on top of it. In addition, this option for placing optics allows you to load a rifle with clips without losing sight of the target and the muzzle of the barrel. But naturally, a sniper rifle with such a low-powered scope could not be used for long-range shooting. However, such a device was still not popular among Wehrmacht snipers - often such rifles were simply thrown onto the battlefield in the hope of finding something better for themselves.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Despite the lesson learned by the Allied infantry in the very first days after the landing in Normandy, there were no effective means against the German "super-shooters", they became a constant headache. Possible presence invisible shooters, ready every minute to put a bullet in anyone, exhausted the nerves. Clearing the area from snipers was very hard work, sometimes it took a whole day to completely comb the area around the field camp, but without this no one could vouch for their safety.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In general, 1944 was a turning point for sniper art in German troops. The role of sniping was finally appreciated by the high command: numerous orders emphasized the need for the competent use of snipers, preferably in pairs of “shooters plus an observer”, developed different kinds camouflage 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, he approved a specialized program in-depth training fighter shooters.

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

A memo widely circulated at that time called "The Ten Commandments of the Sniper" read:
- Fight selflessly.
- Fire calmly and carefully, concentrate on each shot. Remember that rapid fire has no effect.
- Shoot only when you're sure you won't be detected.
- Your main opponent is an enemy sniper, outwit him.
- Do not forget that a sapper shovel prolongs your life.
- Constantly practice in determining distances.
- Become a master of terrain and disguise.
- Train constantly - on the front line and in the rear.
- Take care of your sniper rifle, don't let it fall into anyone's hands.
- Survival for a sniper in nine parts - camouflage and only one - shooting.

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

Allied soldiers and low-ranking officers, most of all suffering from sniper terror, worked out various methods fight against enemy invisible arrows. Yet the most effective way was still to use your snipers.

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

Regarding the theme of the army Nazi 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 is made -

When it comes to the sniper business of the first half of the 20th century, the Soviet snipers of the Great Patriotic War immediately come to mind - Vasily Zaitsev, Mikhail Surkov, Lyudmila Pavlichenko and others. This is not surprising: the Soviet sniper movement at that time was the most extensive in the world, and the total score Soviet snipers during the years of the war is several tens of thousands of enemy soldiers and officers. However, what do we know about the well-aimed shooters of the Third Reich?

AT Soviet time studying the advantages and disadvantages armed forces Nazi Germany was strictly limited, and sometimes simply tabooed. Who, however, were the German snipers, who, if they are portrayed in our and foreign cinema, are only expendable, extras who are about to grab a bullet from the main character from the Anti-Hitler coalition? Is it true that they were that bad, or is that a winner's point of view?

Snipers of the German Empire

In the First World War, it was the Kaiser's army that first began to use aimed rifle fire as a means of destroying officers, signalmen, machine gunners and artillery servants of the enemy. According to the instructions of the German Imperial Army, weapons equipped with an optical sight only work perfectly at a distance of up to 300 meters. It should only be issued to trained shooters. As a rule, these were former hunters or those who had passed special training even before the start of hostilities. The soldiers who received such weapons became the first snipers. They were not assigned to any place or position, they had relative freedom of movement on the battlefield. According to the same instructions, the sniper had to take a suitable position at night or at dusk in order to start acting with the onset of the day. Such shooters were exempted from any additional duties or combined arms outfits. Each sniper had a notebook in which he carefully recorded various observations, ammunition consumption and the effectiveness of his fire. They were also distinguished from ordinary soldiers by the right to wear special signs over the cockade of their headdress - crossed oak leaves.

By the end of the war, the German infantry had about six snipers per company. At that time Russian army, although it had experienced hunters and experienced shooters in its ranks, did not have rifles with a telescopic sight. Such an imbalance in the equipment of the armies became noticeable rather quickly. Even in the absence of active hostilities, the Entente armies suffered losses in manpower: it was enough for a soldier or officer to peek out slightly from behind the trench, as he was immediately "shot" by a German sniper. This had a strong demoralizing effect on the soldiers, so the allies had no choice but to release their “super-shooters” to the forefront of the attack. So by 1918, the concept of military sniping was formed, tactics were worked out and combat missions were defined for this kind of soldier.

Revival of German snipers

In the interwar period, the popularity of sniper business in Germany, in fact, as in most other countries (with the exception of the Soviet Union), began to fade. Snipers were treated like interesting experience trench warfare, which has already lost its relevance - military theorists saw the coming wars exclusively as a battle of engines. According to their views, the infantry faded into the background, and the championship was for tanks and aircraft.

The German Blitzkrieg seemed to be the main proof of the advantage of the new way of warfare. European states one after another capitulated, unable to withstand the power of German engines. However, with the entry of the Soviet Union into the war, it became clear that you could not win the war with tanks alone. Despite the retreat of the Red Army at the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Germans still often had to go on the defensive during this period. When in the winter of 1941 on Soviet positions snipers began to appear, and the number of killed Germans began to grow, in the Wehrmacht they nevertheless realized that aimed rifle fire, for all its archaism, is effective method waging war. German sniper schools began to appear and front-line courses were organized. After the 41st, the number of optics in the front-line units, as well as people who professionally use it, began to gradually grow, although until the very end of the war, the Wehrmacht did not manage to match the quantity and quality of training of its snipers with the Red Army.

From what and how they shot

Since 1935, the Wehrmacht was armed with Mauser 98k rifles, which were also used as sniper rifles - for this, specimens with the most accurate battle were simply selected. Most of these rifles were equipped with a 1.5x ZF 41 sight, but there were also 4x ZF 39 sights, as well as even rarer varieties. By 1942, the share of sniper rifles from total number produced was approximately 6, but by April 1944 this figure had fallen to 2% (3276 pieces out of 164,525 produced). According to some experts, the reason for this reduction is that the German snipers simply did not like their Mausers, and at the first opportunity they preferred to change them to Soviet sniper rifles. The G43 rifle that appeared in 1943, which was equipped with a four-fold ZF 4 sight, a copy of the Soviet PU sight, did not correct the situation.

Mauser 98k rifle with ZF41 scope (http://k98k.com)

According to the memoirs of Wehrmacht snipers, the maximum firing distance at which they could hit targets was as follows: head - up to 400 meters, human figure - from 600 to 800 meters, embrasure - up to 600 meters. Rare professionals or lucky ones who got hold of a ten-fold scope could lay down enemy soldier at a distance of up to 1000 meters, but everyone unanimously considers a distance of up to 600 meters as a distance that guarantees hitting the target.

Defeat in the East–victory in the west

Wehrmacht snipers were mainly engaged in the so-called " free hunting» for commanders, signalmen, gun crews and machine gunners. Most often, snipers were team players: one shoots, the other observes. Contrary to popular belief, German snipers were forbidden to engage in combat at night. They were considered valuable personnel, and because of Bad quality German optics, such battles, as a rule, did not end in favor of the Wehrmacht. Therefore, at night they were usually engaged in searching for and arranging an advantageous position for striking at daylight hours days. When the enemy went on the attack, the task of the German snipers was to destroy the commanders. With the successful completion of this task, the offensive stopped. If a sniper of the Anti-Hitler coalition began to operate in the rear, several Wehrmacht “super-sharp shooters” could be sent to search for and eliminate him. On the Soviet-German front such duels ended most often in favor of the Red Army - there is no point in arguing with the facts that the Germans lost the sniper war here almost outright.

At the same time, on the other side of Europe, German snipers were at ease and struck fear into the hearts of the British and american soldiers. The British and Americans still treated combat as a sport and believed in the gentlemanly rules of warfare. According to some researchers, about half of all losses in American units in the first days of hostilities were the direct merit of Wehrmacht snipers.

You see the mustache - shoot!

An American journalist who visited Normandy during the Allied landings wrote: “Snipers are everywhere. They hide in trees, hedges, buildings and piles of rubble." As the main reasons for the success of snipers in Normandy, researchers cite the unpreparedness of the Anglo-American troops for the sniper threat. What the Germans themselves understood well during the three years of fighting on the Eastern Front, the Allies had to master in a short time. The officers now wore a uniform that did not differ from the soldier's. All movements were carried out in short dashes from cover to cover, bending as low as possible to the ground. Privates didn't give back anymore military salute officers. However, these tricks sometimes did not save. So, some captured German snipers admitted that they distinguished English soldiers by rank due to facial hair: at that time, mustaches were one of the most common attributes among sergeants and officers. As soon as they saw a soldier with a mustache, they destroyed him.

Another key to success was the landscape of Normandy: by the time the Allies landed, it was a real paradise for a sniper, with many hedges stretching for kilometers, drainage ditches and embankments. Due to frequent rains, the roads became muddy and became an impassable obstacle for both soldiers and equipment, and soldiers trying to push out another stuck car became a tasty morsel for the cuckoo. The allies had to move very carefully, looking under every stone. An incident that occurred in the city of Cambrai speaks of the incredibly large scale of the actions of German snipers in Normandy. Deciding that there would be little resistance in the area, one of the British companies got too close and fell victim to heavy rifle fire. Then almost all the orderlies of the medical department died, trying to carry the wounded from the battlefield. When the battalion command tried to stop the offensive, about 15 more people died, including the company commander, 12 soldiers and officers received various injuries, and four more went missing. When the village was nevertheless taken, many corpses of German soldiers were found with rifles that had an optical sight.

An American sergeant looks at a dead German sniper in the street of the French village of Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer
(http://waralbum.ru)

German snipers–mythical and real

At the mention of German snipers, many will surely remember the famous opponent of the Red Army soldier Vasily Zaitsev - Major Erwin Koenig. In fact, many historians are inclined to believe that no König existed. Presumably, he is a figment of the imagination of William Craig - author of the book "Enemy at the Gates". There is a version that sniper ace Heinz Thorwald was given for Koenig. According to this theory, the Germans were extremely annoyed at the death of the head of their sniper school at the hands of some village hunter, so they covered up his death, saying that Zaitsev had killed a certain Erwin Koenig. Some researchers of the life of Thorvald and his sniper school in Zossen consider this to be nothing more than a myth. What is true in this, and what is fiction - is unlikely to become clear.

Nevertheless, the Germans had aces of sniping. The most productive of them is the Austrian Matthias Hetzenauer. He served in the 144th regiment of mountain rangers of the 3rd mountain rifle division, and on his account about 345 enemy soldiers and officers. Oddly enough, Josef Allerberger, No. 2 in the rating, served in the same regiment with him, on whose account there were 257 victims by the end of the war. Third in the number of victories is the German sniper of Lithuanian origin Bruno Sutkus, who destroyed 209 Soviet soldiers and officers.

Perhaps if the Germans, in their pursuit of an idea lightning war paid due attention not only to engines, but also to the training of snipers, as well as the development of decent weapons for them, we would now have a slightly different history of German sniping, and for this article we would have to collect material bit by bit about little-known Soviet snipers.

Joseph Ollerberg

Sniper "elite" III Reich. Confessions of assassins

Gunter Bauer. Death through a scope

Chapter one. draft summons

September, 1937

That day, as always, I was in the bakery that belonged to our family. My mother Anna and my pregnant wife Ingrid worked with me there. Ingrid and I were both eighteen years old. We got married just two months earlier.

I helped my mother run the bakery business for several years, and as I got older it became our family business. Mother was glad that I shifted some of her worries onto my shoulders.

Two elderly women entered the bakery. They looked at different cakes and cookies for a long time, quietly discussing among themselves what they should buy. In the end, they made a choice and made a purchase. At the exit, the postman, who was heading towards us, helpfully held the door for them.

“I brought you a summons, Gunther,” he said as he entered.

Hearing these words, I felt that in an instant my life had changed drastically. I knew that two years ago in Germany universal military duty, but treated it somehow detachedly, not imagining that it would affect me myself.

The postman handed me a small yellow envelope with my name and address printed on it.

- Thank you, Walter, - I said and handed him a cake: - Help yourself.

Taking the cake, the postman smiled:

“Thank you, Gunther.” Lifting his hat, he bowed to my mother and Ingrid and left the bakery.

My mother's face immediately became very concerned, she looked at me with concern.

“Mom, everything will be fine.” I tried to reassure her and forced myself to smile.

“Your father died in the war,” she sighed.

“But we are not at war with anyone now,” I objected.

Opening the envelope, I began to read the agenda. It informed me that I had to report to the recruiting station within three days, and that if I did not do so, I would be arrested. In addition, the summons included the address of my recruiting office, which, as it turned out, was located a few kilometers from our bakery.

Three next day flew by very quickly. All this time my mother gave me all sorts of advice, which she thought might help me avoid army service:

Tell them you just got married. Tell them you're about to have a baby...

However, she herself was very afraid that none of these arguments would change anything. And my mother repeated to me several times during these three days:

“Gunther, I beg you, don’t try to be a daredevil if you ever find yourself in a war. Your father was a brave man and he is no longer with us. And you must return home safe and sound.

My mother's anxieties were transmitted to Ingrid. One evening, when we were alone, her face became very serious and sad. She said, barely holding back her tears:

“Promise me that you will return, Gunther.

- Of course, I'll be back! I answered with mock gaiety. “But then you, too, promise that you will wait for me.”

She promised and put my hand to her stomach:

“Tell our child that you will definitely come back.”

I kissed Ingrid on the stomach and, smiling, said to the one who was inside:

“Baby, your dad is telling you this. I promise you and mom that I'll be back. We will be together again, and everything will be fine with us!

Ingrid accompanied me all the way to the recruiting station. When I got there, I saw a long line of young people. Some of them stood with their wives, girlfriends and mothers. There were even a few small children in the crowd who were brought in to see their fathers off.

I got in line. Ingrid didn't want to leave and squeezed my hand.

“Don’t worry, we’ll most likely just be sent to guard the border,” I said, not fully believing in the veracity of my words.

In those days, many foresaw that Germany would face severe trials. Life in the country has changed dramatically in just a few recent years. With the advent of Hitler to power in 1933, the planting of Nazi ideology began. disagreement with ruling regime gradually suppressed more and more harshly. Eventually it got to the point where even an innocent joke about Hitler or his party could lead to arrest. However, I myself was too young then to think about such things. The only thing that caught my eye was that about two years before I received the summons, several Jews who had previously been regular customers stopped visiting our bakery. But at that time I did not attach much importance to this. Perhaps these people managed to escape the country, or they suffered a much worse fate.

I myself have never been a Nazi. But I remember well that by the mid-thirties German people divided into their supporters and those who could only be silent and afraid. The Nazis were everywhere. Even near the recruiting station, several of them walked around in black shirts with a swastika on the sleeve and handed out propaganda leaflets. When one of them was handed to me, I took it with a polite smile. I didn't need any more trouble.

Soon my turn came. I hugged my wife tightly.

“Ingrid, everything will be fine. I'll be back soon, trust me!

She almost burst into tears and once again said that she loved me very much and would wait. We kissed, and I entered the corridor of the recruiting office. Ingrid looked after me, but the door was spring-loaded and slammed as soon as I entered.

There was also a line in the corridor that led to a massive table. A corpulent sergeant towered over the table. He took summons from conscripts and asked each of them a series of formal questions.

When I finally got to the table, the sergeant asked me my name, address, age, weight, and the like. When asking questions, he did not pause. His voice was monotonous and his face expressionless. He even seemed to me not a man, but a kind of machine.

Everything that happened next also resembled a conveyor belt. In the next huge room, we went through a medical examination, taking turns moving from one doctor to another. After that, another sergeant handed me a document to sign, according to which I was drafted into the army for four years. I had no choice but to put my signature.

Shortly thereafter, each of us was given personal soldier's books, which we had to carry with us at all times. In addition, we received special forms in which each of us had to indicate the names and addresses of the closest relatives, as well as write what he did in previous years and what skills he has. Proceeding from this, our military specialty was subsequently determined.

Nothing better came to my mind than to write that I worked in a bakery, and also that I have marksmanship skills. I learned how to shoot a rifle at school. The teacher said that I was the most accurate boy of all with whom he had to deal. And it really was.

When we filled out all the paperwork, we were lined up in the yard behind the recruiting station. Army trucks were already there. We plunged into them and were taken to the station. Soon we were already sitting on the train, which took us away from our native Hamburg. However, our journey lasted only a few hours. And then we unloaded at the station, where again army trucks were waiting for us.

It was already getting dark when we arrived at the training camp. We were lined up on the parade ground in front of the barracks. Sergeant Krauss, who was later responsible for our training, delivered a speech, the general meaning of which was that he would make us real fighters who would guard the interests of Germany, the Fuhrer and the people. After that, we were placed in the barracks, where we were to live for the next three months.

... The next day we were given a uniform. It included a gray-green field jacket, gray trousers, high knee-high boots, and an oval soldier's medallion, which consisted of two halves. The medallion had to be worn on a chain around the neck. In addition, we received belts and helmets.

The epaulettes on my field jacket were clean, without stripes, as befits privates. The jacket had two outer pockets and one inner pocket, made specially so that each of us could put his personal soldier's book in it, which I immediately did.

The inscription on the badge of my belt read: "God is with us!" In addition, three cartridge bags were placed on the belt, each of which contained ten rounds. Also, on the belt, I had to wear on the left side of the back a folding infantry shovel issued to me. They also gave me a duffel bag, a flask and a tin mug. In general, everything is as it should be. But among the things there was something that at first seemed to me completely useless - a gas mask, filters for it and pills that had to be taken in case gas attack. Why is all this necessary in peacetime? For a moment I remembered my mother's fears. But after a few more moments bad thoughts flew out of my head. Youth is youth.