Women Warriors - Snipers

     During World War Two, the two countries that used snipers the most were Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union Russia.  Although we had snipers both in the Army and the Marine Corps, we did not employ snipers as widely as the Germans and the Russians.  In fact, all adversaries during that terrible blood-letting had snipers, but none like the Germans and Russians, and Russians were the only ones to employ female snipers.
     As already explained in the previous blogs, the Russians were forced to use women in combat because of the losses they suffered at the outset of the war and manpower shortages were critical.  Women snipers were probably one of the first female combat troops used by the Soviet Union and they were also the only women snipers in the war.  There may have been some female snipers with some of the resistance/partisan groups in other countries, but not quite like the Soviet women sniper corps!
     Fighter pilots were considered "aces" if they shot down 5 or more enemy aircraft.  Snipers did not have an "ace" category, but some sort of a yardstick had to be established to determine the effectiveness or success of a sniper.  The number 50 was used to establish the bona fide or "qualifications" of a sniper.  There were many snipers with kills in the single and double digits, but not all that many with numbers that reached 50. 
     Each kill had to be verified by another, usually the sniper's assistant, since snipers worked in pairs for the most part.  However, snipers also worked solo and those kills could not be officially recognized.  For instance, Vasily Zaitsev, the Soviet sniper of the Enemy at the Gates movie fame, had 242 officially recognized kills, those that were verified by his assistant sniper.  But Vasily claimed over 400 kills, but they were unverified, therefore, never officially recognized.  The top sniper of World War Two was the Russian Mihail Surkov with 702 confirmed kills. The top German sniper was Simo Hayha with 505 kills.
     There were over 25 women snipers with kills over 50!  The top woman sniper was Ludmila Pavlichenko with 309 confirmed kills.  Another woman sniper, Liba Rugova had 242 confirmed kills, the same as Vasili Zaitsev!  But the poster girl for Russian women snipers was the beautiful blond Roza Shanina.  She registered only 54 kills, but what is remarkable about her record is that she captured 6 German soldiers single handedly, and also killed 12 German snipers!  Roza was a highly successful anti-sniper sniper! Only Ludmila Pavlichenko had higher sniper kill with 30, but she didn't capture any German soldiers like Roza!  One of the reasons that Roza's numbers weren't as gaudy as Ludmila's and others was because after her success, especially the capture of German soldiers, she was used to recruit other female snipers.  She was brought back to the rear to pose for photograph sessions and to recruit new snipers.  Roza became a sniper at 19, and she was killed when she was only 21 in an artillery bombardment, not as a sniper!
     Ludmila's 309 kills and Liba's  242 may not impress some, but consider that we did not have any snipers in World War Two that exceeded the kill number over 50.  Our top snipers of Vietnam War (where we used snipers extensively) were, Adelbert Waldren of US Army with 109 kills and Carlos Hathcock of US Marines with 93 kills. When you compare those numbers with that of the Russian women's numbers, then the significance of their accomplishment becomes quite apparent. 
     Russian sniper instructors found that women made excellent shooters.  Women seem to have a better sense of trigger and breath control, two of the most important elements of good shooting. Male egos may suffer from hearing this, but anyone who has done any shooting instruction of mixed groups will tell you that women are easier to teach good shooting fundamentals.  Some men seem to feel that somehow shooting ability is in their province, a sort of a god given right, that shooting ability somehow "belongs" to men! Obviously that is not so, as the Russians learned and employed so many women snipers, manpower shortage notwithstanding!  It shouldn't be surprising.  After all, the most remarkable shooter in our recent (or not so recent) past was Annie Oakley, a tiny woman who stood barely at five feet in her stockings!