World War 2: Snipers: WWII Famous Snipers and Sniper Battles Revealed (World War 2, WWII, World War II, Snipers, Eastern Front, Vassili Zaitsev, White Death Book 1) by Ryan Jenkins

Author:Ryan Jenkins [Jenkins, Ryan]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Success First Publishing
Published: 2014-06-03T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6: Vasily Zaytsev

Vasily Grigoryevich Zaytsev was a hero of the Soviet Union and Soviet sniper who is well remembered for his service during the Second World War. Zaytsev was born into a peasant family in Yeleninskoye, Orenburg Governorate. He grew up in the valleys of the Ural Mountains. It was here that he developed his marksmanship, as he had to hunt deer and other small animals for food, along with his younger brother and grandfather. His natural talent as a marksman was first realized when he bagged a wolf at the age of 12.

The most commendable thing about this achievement is that he felled the beast with a single bullet fired from a big, single shot Berdan rifle. The size and dimensions of the rifle made it quite heavy and awkward for a twelve year old to use with ease. Coming from a poor family, he did not have the luxury of access to a lot of bullets. He was taught to pull the trigger just once for each animal. In this way, young Zaytsev was already training to be a sharpshooter without his knowledge.

It was in 1937 that Zaytsev was inducted into the red army. He started his career by serving as a clerk in the Soviet Navy, positioned in the Pacific near Vladivostok. When the Nazi forces invaded the Soviet Union, Zaytsev along with many of his comrades volunteered to go join the army and serve in the frontline. He was posted as a senior warrant officer in the army. He served in the 1047th rifle regiment of the 184th “Tomsk” Rifle Division. On 17 September, 1942 this regiment eventually went on to become part of the 62nd army at Stalingrad. During his service with the regiment, one day his commanding officer called him and asked him to take down an enemy officer who was standing at a window about eight hundred meters away. Vasily then had a standard issue Mossin-Nagant rifle. However, this handicap did not stop him from taking down the enemy officer at the window with a single shot. His skill was showcased furthermore as he felled two more enemy soldiers who came to check on their fallen colleague. He achieved this with just one bullet per person.

For this incident, he was awarded the Medal for Valor along with a sniper rifle. He became very well known among the Soviet lines as being the sniper who had 225 verified kills to his name. Among this number eleven were other snipers. Following this, the Soviets formed a school of snipers located in a metal hardware factory. This marked the beginning of the sniper movement in the red army.

During his career as a sniper, he was well known for his dangerous tactics. He was adept in changing positions with a great deal of variety, a skill that made him extremely dangerous and unpredictable. He was a master at concealing himself on high round, under rubble, water pipes and so on. He would never stay in the same place after a few successful kills.

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