The snipers
The Red Army entered WWII with a significant number of well trained and trained snipers. It was also at that time that a first employment doctrine emerged, which distinguished two specific categories of "snaypery": those belonging to the RVGK (Rezerva Verkhovnogo Glavnogo Komandovaniya), or the Reserve of the Supreme High Command, and those organically inserted in the infantry regiments/battalions. Despite this distinction, however, there is nothing in common between the Russian dichotomy and the one used in modern Western armies to distinguish the sniper or scout sniper (precision marksman) from the designated marksman (skilled marksman).
The RVGK snipers were grouped into brigades, one of which was made up only of women, each divided into battalions, companies and platoons, which could be deployed in specific sectors of the front (it is a type of organization that it has never been used in Western armies). The infantry departments, on the other hand, had their own snipers or "snaypers", inserted in the basic weapon platoons, two for each platoon to be precise (standard personnel), or 18 in each battalion. The snipers of the standard infantry departments were both male and female: in 1943, in fact, about 2,000 women served in the Red Army as snipers, of which over 2/3 were killed in combat. One of them, Ludmila Mikhailovna Pavlitchenkova, who served in the 542 Rifle Regiment, was credited with 309 victories, or 309 enemy killed in combat, including 36 snipers.
In the Red Army the sharpshooters then operated in pairs; each element armed with Mosin-Nagant 1891/1930 in 7,62 x 53 mm R, equipped with PU 3,5x22 or PM optics, and with PPSh-41 type SMG in 7,62x25 mm for self-defense. Although heavy to carry, with their relative ammunition, these weapons, on the other hand, offered the combination considerable firepower in case of direct contact with the enemy. The fact of equipping the observer - or spotter - with the same type of armament as the sniper/sniper made it possible to immediately double the shot if the latter missed the target. For the record, a famous duo, made up of two women, Natalia Venediktovna Kovchova and Maria Semionovna Polinovna, under the 528th Rifle Regiment, was credited with 300 victories (on 12 August 1942, wounded and surrounded by the enemy in the Novgorod sector, both committed suicide with a hand grenade).
Between 1943 and 1945 the number of sharpshooters in the Red Army increased significantly. In the meantime, the infantry departments, equipped with Mosin-Nagant, had received a large quantity of PPSh-41 and PPS-43 machine guns, the practical range of which did not exceed 150-200 m, thus forcing the department commanders to use their own sharpshooters to engage targets at longer ranges. In fact, the latter carried out the same task as today's designated marksmen of the western infantry departments, while those under the RVGK were closer, in terms of employment doctrine, to the modern scout sniper. Just to conclude the chapter of the Great Patriotic War we recall that the Russian sniper or sniper credited with the highest number of victories is not Vasily Grigorevic Zaytsev, under the 22 Battalion, 1047th Rifle Regiment of the 284th Rifle Division (62nd Army), who became famous worldwide with the film "Enemy at the Gates" by Jean-Jacques Annaud, credited with a total of 400 victories, of which 242 during the battle of Stalingrad alone (July 1942-February 1943) but Mikhail llyich Surkov of the 12 Battalion, 392 Rifle Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division, credited by Soviet sources with killing 702 enemy soldiers. Although this is probably a number slightly inflated by Soviet propaganda to counterbalance the more than 500 confirmed victories of the Finnish sniper Sino Hàyhà during the Winter War of 1939-1940, there are still quite a few Russian snipers who have been credited with over 400 victories during the Second World War.
The best snipers of the Red Army on the Eastern Front 1941 -1945
Soviet snipers are those who have accumulated the most number of enemies killed in combat during the Second World War. Besides Mikhail llyich Surkov of the 4th Infantry Division, several other Red Army snipers have been credited with over 400 victories. Between these:
- Vladimir Gavrilovic Salbiev, 71st Guards Rifle Division, 602 victories.
- Vassily Pavlovitc Kvachantiradze, 259th Infantry Regiment, 534 victories.
- Ahat Abdulhakovic Ahmetianov, 2602 Rifle Regiment, 502 victories.
- Ivan Mikha'ilovich Sidorenko, 11222 Rifle Regiment, 500 victories.
- Nikolai Lakovlevich llyin, 502 Guards Rifle Regiment, 494 victories.
- Ivan Mikhailovich Kulbertinov, 7- Guards Parachute Regiment, 487 victories.
- Vladimir Nikolayevich Pshelintsev, 112 Rifle Regiment, 456 victories,
- Piotr Alexeievich Gontsharov, 442 Guards Rifle Regiment, 441 victories.
- Mikhail Ivanovich Budenkov, 592 Guards Rifle Regiment, 437 victories.
- Fiodor Matvéievitch Okhlopkov, 2592 Guards Rifle Regiment, 429 victories.
- Fiodor Trofimovich Dyashenko, 187th Guards Rifle Regiment, 425 victories.
- Afanasiy lemelianovich Gordienko, 136th Guards Rifle Division, 425 victories.
- Vasili Ivanovich Golosov, 812 Guards Rifle Regiment, 422 victories.
- Stepan Vasilievich Petrenko, 592 Guards Rifle Regiment, 422 victories.
- Nikolai Ivanovich Galushkine, 50th Division, 418 victories.
- Kuzma Danilovich Smolenskiy, 2592 Rifle Regiment, 414 victories.
- Vasily Grigorevich Zaytsev, 1047th Rifle Regiment, 400 victories.
Among the women snipers of the Red Army, the record is held by Ljudmyla Mychajlivna Pavlichenkova, who served in the 542nd Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division, with 309 victories, followed by Liba Rugova (274), Yakateria Zuraova (155), Inna Semyonovna Mudretsova (143), Tatiana Igantovna Kostrynia (120) and Nina Petrova (107). The latter, who served in the 12 Infantry Battalion, 2842 Regiment of the 86th Rifle Division, is the only female sniper to have been awarded the Order of Glory of the First Degree (only 4 women were awarded during the Second World War this high military award), while 6 of them were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, which includes the Order of Lenin.
German snipers
On the other side, the snipers credited with the most confirmed victories are Matthaiis Hetzenauer and Josef “Sepp” Allerberger, who both served in the 1442 Mountain Hunter Regiment (Gebirgsjàgerregiment 144) of the Wehrmacht's 3rd Mountain Division (3. Gebirgs Division). , with 340 and 257 enemy killed in combat respectively, and Bruno Sutkus, of the 68th Infantry Division, credited with 209 confirmed victories. For the record, Matthaus Hetzenauer apparently holds the record for shooting at the greatest distance during the Second World War, i.e. just under 1,200 m with a Mauser Karabiner 98 K equipped with a Zielfernrohr model 1941 or ZF41 scope. Note that the existence of Erwin Kònig or Heinz Thorvald, the German sniper killed by Vasily Zaytsev during the Battle of Stalingrad, is historically disputed. Even Zaytsev himself, in an interview released in 1960, said he had never been aware of a German sniper sent specifically to Stalingrad to eliminate him personally. Before the start of the war against the Axis powers, during the conflict against Finland (November 30, 1939-March 13, 1940), always on the opposite front, the sniper credited with the greatest number of enemies killed in combat was instead Simo Hàyhà, who with his M28/30, a modified Finnish version of the Mosin-Nagant, he scored 542 victories, of which 505 were confirmed. Nicknamed "the White Death", Simo Hàyhà also used the Suomi KP-3 machine pistol for close combat, with which he allegedly killed another 200 Red Army soldiers during the battle of Kollaa, during which he served in the 63 Company of 342 Hunters Regiment (Jalkavàkirykmentti 34) of 12th Division.