Voices of Snipers by John Walter

Author:John Walter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Big Sky Publishing
Published: 2022-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

SHOOT IF YOU CAN!

Using a rifle and an optical sight effectively was clearly vital to any sniper, but decisions often had to be made in the blink of an eye as circumstances changed. Training, if undertaken properly, helped to avoid mistakes which could be fatal. Klavdiya Panteleyeva gave an insight into the process:

The rifle could shoot two kilometers in a straight line. But you could observe up to 800 meters. At the school we fired at 200, and 300. There was night target practice. Different kinds of shooting, though we didn’t shoot at night at the front or in moonlight: we went to our position as soon as it dawned, but returned as soon as it got dark. We stayed not in the trenches, but at the regiment commander’s command post.

We only fired one shot from each position, you couldn’t do two in case the enemy fired back: we could be killed! Some days we didn’t even fire a single shot. In daytime, we stood in the trenches while the soldiers were resting. However, though we weren’t supposed to participate in attacks, we did.

Roza Shanina says nothing specific about her firearms training in her diary, but other graduates of the Central Women’s Sniping School have been more forthcoming. For example, Yuliya Zhukova, writing in Girl with a Sniper Rifle, remembered that:

The programme included training in tactics, firearms, parade drill, physical development and politics. We were supposed to know by heart the Red Army regulations and the ins and outs of all types of firearms ... We were taught how to set up fox-holes, including reserve holes and decoys; we had to know how to camouflage ourselves and sit in hideouts for lengthy periods, to familiarize ourselves with a new locality and to crawl on our elbows. There were special exercises to improve our powers of observation and memory, sharpen our vision and develop firmness of hand ...

Usually we would spend the whole day there [on the shooting range], setting off there straight after breakfast and only returning to the barracks in time for supper ... We fired at targets from full, waist and chest height – at both moving and stationary targets, open and camouflaged. We fired standing, lying and kneeling, with and without support for the rifle; we fired both on the move and while standing still. All in all, you could not complain that the exercises lacked variety.

And Bruno Sutkus, one of the most successful of the Wehrmacht’s snipers, remarked that there was much to remember:

I used to put out at a hundred metres distance a small label marked with a red spot smaller than my thumb. Then I made sure I could get a five-round group on the red spot. The sniper must be able to estimate distance accurately and gauge the wind speed and direction. Every detail is important ... [for example] range always had to be estimated when on the march or in the trenches for there was no automaticranging facility available. Target seeking involved inspecting the terrain from top to bottom, left to right and back.

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