Best sniper?

Because THC is in the business to make money. Not to educate. They buy the programs they brodcast from others in order to get people to watch. They do not make them themselves. They obvioulsy do not check them out beforhand for accuracy. It is all about ratings. There are too many mistakes to note. And the writers strike right now is hurting them LOL.

 

Once again I hate using Wiki LOL. But some good points there,

• No records of the SS ever being in Stalingrad have been found.
• No active sniper was ever given a rank as high as Major (Sturmbannführer), as snipers were expected to serve on the battlefield, not to lead.
• At the end of the war, Germany's best documented sniper was a 21-year-old Gefreiter named Matthäus Hetzenauer, with a total of only 345 confirmed kills, compared to König's supposed 400-plus confirmed kills.
• Soviet propaganda was rife with fictitious stories to boost morale during a time when the war was so uncertain. The Battle of Stalingrad was the turning point for the German offensive into Russia.

Erwin König - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Wow, I sparked a fire-storm with this one, eh?

 

Yeah, and it wasn´t the first time with this subject, actually. I guess Dresden still wins in times starting a row around here....

 

I tend to agree with the history channel. But saying that..I think it does have a little merit.

What would be the other choice for WW2 tv?

 

*stops laughing and clambers off the floor*

The 'Hitler Channel' is a farce, they cobble together odds and ends of footage whilst some non-entity rambles on about Hitlers sexual preferences/how awesome the SS were/how the allies managed to win the war despite the Nazis having such 'cool' uniforms.

Sensationalist twaddle for the most part with very little merit for the serious historian.

 

And he is the top guy on the site which I posted.

As for the most confirmed kills... That title goes to Mihail Ilyich Surkov ( Red Army ) with over 700 hundred!!!

 

I would not be surprised anyone could get more kills than Häyhä as his career was pretty short. But how come Surkov´s figures are so high within a year or so? Häyhä was the top scorer earlier. ANy details on Surkov´s action areas and how come the figures suddenly have got up? Just interested?!!

 

Actually im really not sure. Im trying to investigate now.....

Last time I checked, Hayha, was at the top but I guess the site constantly gets updated?

I will see what I can find out.

Oh and Kai, can you elaborate on him using strictly Iron Sights??? Does this mean he never used a scope?

 

Yes, Häyhä only used open sights, never a scope.

He was not a beginner but an experienced hunter when the war started, so shooting things was not a new thing.

 

In the "The American Soldier in WWII" by Chester G. Hearn, I read:

" A rifleman shot one who had been sniping into a perimeter. Standard operating procedure called for a body search to identify the enemy's unit. When going through a fallen enemy's shirt,the soldier's hand ran across a pair of breasts. There is no record of the number of women serving as Japanese snipers,but there was at least one on Guadacanal."

Has anyone else heard of this? I wonder ,if it is true,how the Japanese males would have thought of it? With Japanese society being so male dominated and orientated.

 

Makes sense to me, the best snipers in a war are usually hunters ( at least that was the case for the Red Army ).

But not using a scope is still very imressive. To sacrifice a larger target in order not to reveal an extra inch or two.

 

severl of the top German Heer snipers were also from the high mountain areas and accomplished hunters as well, look to see I believe the top 3 in the written histories are all in Gebirge units. I do estimate that really all the armed forces snipers credits may be fudged just a tad bit and possibly others with equivalent scores that werre never published into the top 10 of their countries

 

Agreed...

 

Sorry to harp back to the Konig /Thorwald debate but Erich is right it's complete rubbish , complete Soviet propaganda.

I have been to Stalingrad a few times now and met many Russian vets , every trip someone asks questions about this and the Russian vets laugh !!!!

As one of them who was an Infantry company commander who had snipers in his troop said how on earth through the mass of twisted metal / debris / smoke / explosions / gunfire etc etc in Stalingrad or any other Battle could a sniper know the name or identity of the man he had just shot. The kill counts were simply that , numbers stacking up , you didn't go over to get the other fellows pay book and details otherwise you'd end up dead yourself !!

By the way got to agree about the history channel some appalling historical disrepancies both in film and narrative some of these so called historina should be ashamed of them themselves,

Regards

Paul

 

YouTube - russian female sniper, ww2, gudovantseva

 

intresting never knew this is there documented evidence on female japenese snipers?

 

Personally I think most sniper tallies are over exaggerated in the extreme for propaganda.

How anyone can claim 700 'confirmed' kills is beyond me. Im sure they killed a fair few but I think the totals need a pinch of salt or three.

 

Must say I these days at least partly agree still. However when I read the German sniper´s book ( sorry forgot the name by now but it is in the What did you read section ) some occasions where sniper could really make big kill numbers were shown on the Eastern front. The sniper went to the other side of "canyon" and own troops started driving the enemy to that direction with their attack. The sniper had a clear view and killed some 20-30 enemies in one hour....