Whats wrong with communism? - - - (And now for something completely different)

Nothing wrong with Russian women...they produced some damn fine snipers...many unnamed

June 1942




some famous in their time...

A Record That Still Stands

By mid 1942, Lieutenant Pavlichenko had killed 309 German soldiers with her 1891/30 Moisin-Nagent sniper rifle. The 5-shot bolt-action rifle fired a 148-grain bullet at about 2,800 fps. The Moisin-Nagent with a P.E. 4-power scope was effective out to 600 yards.

Pavlichenko was wounded by mortar fire in June and pulled from the front lines in July. She was sent on goodwill tours in the United States and Canada where she received a hero’s welcome at the White House in Washington, D.C. In Canada, Pavlichenko was presented with an optically equipped Winchester rifle, which is on display today at the Central Museum of the Armed Forces in Moscow. She also took home a Colt semi-automatic .45-caliber pistol, presented to her when in the United States



Roza Yegorovna Shanina

Born 1924 – January 28, 1945 (age: 21)
She was a Soviet sniper during the Great Patriotic War. She was responsible for 54 confirmed kills, including 12 enemy snipers.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jrGHiFSox0

with anything other than a huge grain of salt is a mistake. They were fine warriors and amazing marks. . . persons, but their kill totals were wildly exaggerated for wartime propaganda purposes.

She was good.




THE GIRL WITH THE RIFLE

By L. OSEROV

It reminded one rather of a scene from a puppet show. The German sat behind a screen of thick, impenetrable bushes; he seemed to be playing some grotesque game.

First he placed his steel helmet in front of him. Rusty and dented, with a hole in the left corner, the helmet lay there on the ground, but from time to time it began to dance about as though possessed. Then Ludmilla Pavlichenko noticed, near a solitary poplar tree, the sudden appearance of an artificial dummy representing a German soldier. It was wearing a khaki tunic and boots which had been elaborately smeared with mud. This scarecrow soldier was even carrying a rifle and had been posed in a casual attitude characteristic of a live man.

“All set, comrade observer?” Pavlichenko said, “The Boche won’t be able to keep it up for long.”

Soon there was a movement in the bushes. The German cautiously lifted his head, peered through an opening in the hedge, listened, and took over again. A minute later he looked out again, this time through his field glasses. Ludmilla Pavlichenko squeezed the trigger of her rifle. A shot rang out. The German dropped the field glasses and fell on his face.

The observer pulled out his notebook. “That made one hundred and fifty-eight,” he said.

Ludmilla Pavlichenko spent that night in the machine-gunners’ hut. Lying down on the floor, she covered herself over with her coat, put her inseparable rifle under her head and began to doze. The enemy gun-fire echoed in the distance, and there was a continuous crump of exploding mines from mortars. The fragile hut was shaking with the vibration, but the girl did not move. The stalking of that German had lasted eight and a half hours; she was exhausted and soon fell into a deep sleep.

At dawn, Ludmilla again set off for the post. The terrain was familiar – forest, ravines, trampled vineyards, a meadow. Nothing threatened her as yet, but with a sniper’s caution she moved from bush to bush, bending low and carefully scrutinizing every hillock. Her caution was not superfluous: she had almost reached her destination when a bullet whistled past her, then another, and another. The shots came from a German automatic rifle.

The girl jumped to one side, fell flat on the ground and kept a sharp look-out. A pair of captured Zeiss binoculars enabled her to detect a faint track on the slope of the hill. Following this with her eyes, Ludmilla crawled forward and soon spotted a Fascist ambush.

Five tommy-gunners were lying near the road on which supplies and ammunition for the Soviet troops were due to pass. Taking careful aim, Pavlichenko killed one German with her first shot. The other four scattered, but soon rallied, re-formed and opened fire violently. Bullets were whizzing in front, behind and from the side. Still lying flat on the ground, Ludmilla kept her eyes fixed on one German who was firing from a hollow in the ground. At her first shot the German waved his arms and collapsed. She changed her position, took aim again, and shot a third tommy-gunner. The remaining two gave up and took to their heels. They ran across the thicket down into the valley. Ludmilla sent two bullets after them, and killed one. The fifth man succeeded in taking over.

The girl got to her feet. Leisurely she shook the dust off her uniform and began to collect her booty. She arrived at battalion headquarters with four automatic rifles, dozens of rounds of ammunition, and a bundle of revealing soldiers’ letters. Her whole body ached. She could hardly stand up for fatigue. Resting in the hut, Ludmilla remembered the history professor under whom, before the war, she had worked on her thesis on Bogdan Khmelnitzky. Then she fell asleep.

At dawn, Pavlichenko and another sniper, Kizenko, were called to company headquarters. The conversation was brief. Soviet scouts had spotted an enemy strong point. The snipers’ assignment was to get as close to it as possible, ambush and kill the officers.

A thick, impenetrable fog hung over the front. The snipers skirted a ravine, crossed some fields and turned into a wood. They took up their positions. The fog began to lift, and Ludmilla saw telephone wires vibrating in the air. Almost simultaneously, Leonid Kizenko, who was watching the crest of a hill, spotted a lean German soldier carrying a big tea-tray.

As an experienced sniper, Ludmilla was not only a crack shot, but also an expert observer and a trained scout. Following the direction of the telephone wires and of the soldier, she was able to locate precisely the enemy strong point.

Both snipers advanced about fifty yards and took cover. There they waited until they saw two men go up to the side entrance of the officers’ hut. Ludmilla whispered, “Now!” Two shots rang out and the two men collapsed. A whiskered N.C.O. hurried over to them; another shot rang out, and he, too, fell to the ground.

For some time there was silence. The corpses lay outside the hut, but nobody attempted to remove them. At last the door opened and a tall officer appeared.

Ludmilla took aim, waited until the officer stepped out of the doorway, and fired. He fell over backwards. He was obviously somebody important, because several men appeared on the scene in great agitation.

Several bullets whistled through the air, and three more Germans met their death.

The snipers’ accurate shooting infuriated the enemy and the mortars surrounding the strong point went into action. Both snipers changed position, but went on firing – even when a mine exploded a dozen yards from them. Meanwhile the enemy strong point was in a state of confusion, and having lost a group of officers and observers, the Germans decided they had chosen too hot a spot.

Back in the hut, Ludmilla Pavlichenko looked up at the wall on which hangs a thick sheet of parchment on which is inscribed in gold letters:


DIPLOMA

Issued to Senior Sergeant Pavlichenko, Ludmilla Mikhailovna, to certify that she is an able sniper and an exterminator of the German Fascist invaders.

Up to April 6th, 1942, comrade Pavlichenko has annihilated 157 Fascists.
(Signed) The Military Council of the Red Army

But leadership was generally horrible and winning largely by swamping your enemy with unorganized waves of men and material is not terribly impressive.

The sheer waste of Red Army lives lost due to absolute incompetence of command is mind boggling.

The staggering losses the Red Army took in the failed Soviet counter attacks after Kursk alone probably kept the Nazi's in business for at least an additional 6 months.

And yes, if the Soviets claimed one of their snipers had 300 confirmed kills, they probably actually took out half that number or less (probably far less).

WW2 in Europe was decided almost entirely on the Eastern Front and the Soviets bore the brunt of that so we owe them an enormous debt of gratitude, but the all too common incompetence of the Red Army and the nations communist leadership was appalling.

Russia's losses in WWII estimated at some 27 million people

Some 27 million Russians died during the Second World War, a Russian daily said on Thursday, citing estimates by a Russian interdepartmental commission.

According to Vremya Novostey newspaper, the total fatalities of the Soviet Union, both soldiers and civilians, were 26.6 million people, of those an estimated 8,668,400 soldiers died.

Contrary to conventional claims that Russia simply sacrificed its soldiers, the ratio of combat losses of the Red Army to the Wehrmacht was 1.3:1. However, if non-combat losses are taken into account, the ratio changes radically. German losses have been estimated at around 6 million people and its allies (Italy, Austria, Japan, etc.) lost some 806,000.

The deadliest war ever claimed over 60 million lives in total.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100506/158896419.html

A song in honor of "Miss Pavlichenko," written and sung by Woody Guthrie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHKjOl9ocR0

(American anti-fascist folk musician Woody Guthrie recorded a song in 1946 entitled "Miss Pavlichenko" as a tribute to Russian sniper Ludmila Pavlichenko)

Love them old time tunes

caught his fancy. Hee!

But of course, the men were much more deadly...


Vasily Zaytsev, Soviet sniper, who was made famous by the movie “Enemy At The Gates” and the siege of Stalingrad, had only 242 confirmed kills with an estimated non-confirmed number of upwards of 500.

The most prolific sniper of all time was a Finnish soldier by the name of Simo Häyhä, also known as the “White Death”, with a confirmed kill tally of 505.

they fought for home and Motherland.

They gave their all. You can't deny their patriotism.

which was seemingly the point of the OP. . .

It was convoluted point, I'll agree.

68 years ago is a long time