#Wehrmacht Snipers

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

IF YOU WON'T COME TO ALLIED FREEDOM, THEN, ALLIED FREEDOM WILL COME TO YOU.

PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on two reported Wehrmacht snipers surrendering to American G.I.'s of the 3rd Army in Koblenz, Germany, c. 1944, with the youngster on the right having been wounded by U.S. return fire. Colorized by Alex Lim.

INTERESTING/WWII FACT: The Red Army took no snipers prisoner; they were invariably shot on sight.

Source: www.reddit.com/r/wwiipics/comments/wwre2r.

[theworldatwar]

German soldiers force their way into a suspected snipers hideout - Eastern Front Sept 1941

[robcoopz]

Sniper Elite 5: German Officers

[msfbgraves]

After watching "Band of Brothers", and suddenly acquiring a taste for heroic company leaders guiding their men through battle ("F*** yeah! Tactics!") I wanted to see something like that from the German side, and remembered "Hey! Wasn't Wilhelm in "Generation War"* a company leader?" I mean, I would have watched the battle for the Grebbeberg - the only position in The Netherlands where the Dutch Army withstood the Wehrmacht effectively during the Nazi invasion - but we haven't made that movie, somehow. Too expensive, no doubt. So, time to see what it might have been like for my German grandfather in Russia instead, forced to enlist all of 17 years old. Was he Nazi? He was too young to vote for them, had he wanted to, but was raised by them during his entire adolescence. So here we see a boy his age, Friedhelm, sent to fight for Führer and Fatherland, and well, I wanted some scenes of camaraderie, not gonna lie. But what immediately struck me...

That scene in Band of Brothers where the German officer praises his men is all well and good but the reality this German series shows is much closer to what I've heard family talk about, and compared to the American series it is quite chilling.

First - nobody enlisted completely voluntarily. You could choose to become SS special forces, but you would have had to really have drunk the genocidal koolaid and I know many hadn't. So, like, morale outside of there? Decidedly lower. Secondly, this was a dictatorship. Which means you're constantly in danger from your own company. Anyone who disliked you could call you defeatist and have court marshalled for that reason alone. Thirdly, there was no safe home front, either, because dictatorship. "Loose lips sink ships"? (OK now, in Germany that was a positive in the U Boat war, but I digress...) Loose lips could get your sister killed, if she repeated anything and was hanged for "Wehrkraftzersetzung" (mental sabotage). Nice. Plus everything is still rationed. And then there's all the war crimes you get to facilitate when the SS comes to town. Also minefields.

Of course Opa didn't refuse being sent to Austria to study when he was wounded in Russia. It was probably the furthest you could get away from Nazi doctrine, and there is no "getting back to your buddies" when your buddy might be more dangerous to you than an enemy sniper. I'm sure they also bonded, but unless you were a sadist, I think there was absolutely nothing to fight for.

No wonder the only actual camaraderie was on a submarine. You can't shoot your crewmate for being defeatist, you'll drown. And no SS roping you into war crimes for the glory of the Third Reich until you get desensitised.

The Allied and the German soldiers fought very different wars.

*Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter - our mothers, our fathers

[farahfriday]

someone’s tags replying to someone elses tags… YOU JOKE BUT i’ve been wondering for a while if könig’s name and character lore are references to Erwin König, a Nazi sniper in the SS or Wehrmacht who may or may not have actually existed, orrr just been Soviet propaganda.

either way he featured in multiple books and movies, both nonfictional and fictional, in video games, has action figures made of him and is quite firmly cemented in pop history. some freak’s even made an AI chatbot. he’s got fanart on dA.

all that is to say that I would 100% believe könig from cod is either a reference to him or (worse lol??) he’s implied to have been inspired by him in some way with his callsign and trying to become a sniper.

please do NOT run with this shit as fact. that would drive me up the fucking wall. it’s also not my ~headcanon~ it’s just something about character inspiration that i am curious about

self harm can be getting into a video game series about the white male fantasy of slaughtering people from the Middle East when ur favourite character is an Arab woman and the fandom gets outraged if u suggest they don’t actually give a shit about her or the black man who is the other protagonist of the game and they will pull out a 50 mile long list of reasons why they are 20 million times more invested in konig, a character who doesn’t even have a personality or show up in the actual games, than the protagonists, and they will get even angrier at the idea that there could possibly be any kind of subconscious bias at play with their preferences, and you are calling them a RACIST MISOGYNIST every time you point out the insane skew towards the white men in the series, and trying to make them feel bad on purpose when nobody can help what characters they like. it can also be getting wasted

[sjvllsblog]

Soviet sniper and a Hero of the Soviet Union Vasily Zaytsev (left), Stalingrad, 1942.

Between 10 November 1942 and 17 December 1942, during the Battle of Stalingrad, he killed 225 soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht and other Axis armies, including 11 enemy snipers.

(Colour by Olga Klimbim)

[tehuti88-art]

4/12/24: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is "Saint Olga" (real name never given), without garrison cap (top drawing) and with garrison cap (bottom drawing). She's a character too new to be on my "to-draw" list yet (sigh) though some backstory has emerged. She's a Red Army sniper whose single-minded motivation for revenge earns her the nickname St. Olga, after Olga of Kiev/Kyiv, who BTW is my 33x great-grandmother. There'll be more about her later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se.

Regarding her design, I wanted interesting/distinctive colors, these were inspired by the black/gold theme in some of St. Olga's art. Her hairstyle is loosely based on Roza Shanina's.

TUMBLR EDIT: Saint Olga is more of an occasionally appearing character, I can't really call her a background character, so I haven't delved a lot into deep development for her. What little info is available is given by characters like Boris, who've heard stories that she lost her husband to the Germans, who tortured and killed him (a sticking point for Boris, who was himself tortured and assaulted by Sgt. Lange and his guys). Her husband was a Red Army sniper; following his death, Saint Olga took up the rifle and assumed the role. Thus her nickname. German sniper Lt. Ratdog, who isn't especially big on book learning, doesn't understand the relation, so Capt. Himmel, who IS big on book learning, fills him in: Olga was a Viking princess, wife of Igor the Prince of Kiev (I'm using the historic name rather than the modern Kyiv, this was in the state once known as Kievan Rus'), who, following her husband's assassination by enemy forces, engaged in a brutal campaign of revenge which killed thousands. "And they made her a saint...?" Ratdog inquires, perplexed; Himmel tersely replies, "The church can be forgiving."

(And yes, this scary lady is one of my direct ancestors, through Anna Yaroslavna's/Anne of Kiev's marriage to Henry I of France, via a gateway ancestor of my maternal grandfather. Alas, I am not, so far, descended from Otto the Great...I'm descended from his sister Hedwig. *grumbles*)

Olga makes repeat, brief appearances throughout the story, never sticking around for long. She's fueled by nothing other than hatred and rage. She has a run-in with Ratdog, who is actually not much different from her--he's motivated to take up his rifle as a weapon following the death of his son, which he incorrectly blames on the Americans (based on false info fed to him by Wehrmacht sergeant Udo Eisen--actually, his employer General Schavitz is to blame)--yet, even though he empathizes with her for this reason and avoids killing her, she expresses no such magnanimity in return--her shot misses when her gun malfunctions, but she vows that she'll kill him the next chance she gets. Ratdog has a strict honor code that prohibits him from killing others under certain circumstances; Olga has no such honor code. Cross her, and you're dead.

Her relationship with other Allied characters is complicated in that she refuses to collaborate with them, and considers even some of them the enemy. Romani sniper Didrika is basically on her side, but Didrika is also German, and Olga despises Germans. Even worse is that Didrika, Ratdog, and Ratdog's companion PFC Klemper, despite being enemies, share a grudging respect for and occasionally even assist each other (Ratdog opposes the Nazi regime, and Klemper follows wherever he goes); to Olga, this makes Didrika a Nazi sympathizer, even though neither Ratdog nor Klemper is a Nazi. Lie down with (rat)dogs, as they say. Then there's Boris, a literal Red Army Russian. It isn't bad enough that he's taken up with Didrika. He did so after deserting the Red Army with some of his men, so although he's still loyal to the communist cause and hates most of the Germans himself, to Olga, he's no better than a traitor. Olga does give these two one pass, but just to give them a warning, that the next time they meet, they shouldn't expect any mercy. Didrika's reaction is much like Ratdog's; Boris, on the other hand, understands where she's coming from, and says that if he were in her shoes, "I would kill me, too."

Olga's spite isn't limited to combatants, either. When a German target uses a civilian woman as a human shield, Olga shoots and kills both without a second thought. On another occasion, she opens fire on a public gathering and just misses hitting Leopoldine Jäger (Himmel shields her and is slightly wounded in the process). Ratdog and company even come across evidence that she set fire to a homestead, shades of what Lange's company did to Klemper's and some other homes; difference is, even Lange never gunned down the fleeing occupants. Olga? She has no such qualms. The Germans and even the Americans (who are equally unsuccessful in getting her to work with them) find her brutality breathtaking.

Result of all this is that most of the other characters, Axis and Allied alike, are frequently mystified by Saint Olga's morals, since most of them have certain lines they won't cross, while Olga appears willing and ready to kill anyone at a moment's notice. There's no appeal to her better nature, no way to get on her good side, no means of working with her. She will either pass on by or consider you a target. Almost everyone learns to outright avoid trying to interact with her for this reason. Essentially, she's a chaos agent, and even the rest of the Red Army doesn't bother trying to rein her in.

Olga pops up at random throughout the story to target...pretty much anyone, and throw everything in disarray, which occasionally helps one party or other depending on who she's targeting, though of course this is never intentional. She never succeeds in killing Ratdog though this is based far more on blind luck and his own sniper skills combined. She does ALMOST kill him one time when he declines to try the same since she's wounded, and is spared only when Klemper tries taking the shot instead; Klemper is not a sniper, so he misses, and Olga escapes to go tend to her injuries. Klemper scoffs at the rattled Ratdog, "Your heart is too soft."

Olga eludes death numerous times, sometimes just barely, but at last, during a confrontation where Ratdog finally attempts to shoot her yet runs out of ammunition, someone else takes the shot--Olga lets out a small noise and drops to the ground. She's still alive, making it clear that her shooter isn't a sniper; Ratdog and Klemper hear bootsteps, and Maj. Jäger and Capt. Himmel appear. Jäger's gun is drawn--he's the shooter. The look on his face makes it pretty clear he hasn't forgotten nearly losing his beloved Leopoldine. He approaches the wounded Olga and looks down at her coldly. When he says, "This crusade you have, to avenge your husband at any cost; what exactly has it gotten you? Has it brought him back?" Olga, panting and bleeding, gives a weak laugh and replies, "You...you know nothing about family."

Jäger stares at her a moment, then lifts his pistol and shoots her in the forehead. Himmel and Ratdog flinch at the report. They and Klemper stand by silently as Jäger holsters his gun and turns away from Olga's body, saying, "And that's how you take care of pests," heading back toward his vehicle. Himmel hesitates briefly before crossing himself and following. Ratdog and Klemper are left behind; after a moment Ratdog approaches Olga's body and kneels to look her over. He carefully removes the medals from her breast; Klemper comes forward now and asks, "What are you doing...?"

"Maybe she has family somewhere," Ratdog muses, looking at the medals. "Maybe they'll want these back. Someday."

Klemper is briefly silent before saying, "She's probably like us, and has no family anymore," and turning away. Ratdog feels a pang--thinking of just how many of them have no one left, why Saint Olga fought as hard and as viciously as she did--then stands, pauses a moment more (he feels like he should offer a prayer, except he doesn't believe in God and doesn't know any prayers, so all he can do is offer a moment of silence), and follows Klemper away.

I don't know what becomes of Saint Olga's body. Some time after the war has ended, Ratdog--now mourning Klemper's death (by sniper fire) and going by his civilian name, Adel--at last has the chance to return the medals to Olga's cousin, the closest member of her family still surviving. He asks the woman what was Olga's real name. She pauses before replying that Olga is now her real name; her cousin effectively died when she lost her husband, so Saint Olga is who she became. Adel, who gave up his own name while his heart was full of hate, understands, and doesn't press further. Before she leaves with the medals, Olga's cousin pauses and addresses him by his German nickname, Rattenhund--this was the name Olga had used to refer to him, as an exact translation was lacking in Russian. She had mentioned her enemy and counterpart, the German sniper, before; while it couldn't be said that she respected him, still, she'd heard of the death of his son, and she understood him. "One thing that make you two different," her cousin says in stilted German, "she lose her heart for good...you get your heart back." She taps her fingers against Adel's chest. "Look after it," she says, thanks him again for the medals, and leaves.

Adel, whose heart is no longer full of hatred yet is still raw from loss, finds he has no words left to say.

[Saint Olga 2024 [‎Friday, ‎April ‎12, ‎2024, ‏‎12:00:17 AM]]

[Saint Olga 2024 2 [‎Friday, ‎April ‎12, ‎2024, ‏‎12:00:28 AM]]

[valkyries-things]

PVT. NATALYA KOVSHOVA // SNIPER

“She was a Soviet female sniper who fought in WWII. She fought with her friend Mariya Polivanova who acted as her spotter. She fought bravely throughout the war; she was killed fighting German Wehrmacht forces near Novgorod in August 1942. She was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 14 Feb 1943.”

(with Mariya Polivanova)

[olivia2010kroth]

Lessons of Russian History - Remembering heroic Soviet sniper Aliya Moldagulova, 80 years after her death

Lessons of Russian History: Remembering heroic Soviet sniper Aliya Moldagulova, 80 years after her death ln 1941, when the Nazi Wehrmacht invaded the Soviet Union, young people from all of the Soviet Republics took up arms, trained as fighters and participated in the Great Patriotic War to defeat the enemy and save the Motherland. One of those young people was the famous female sniper…

[hanspanzer]

Mauser K 98k

[theworldatwar]

German snipers clean their weapons during a break in the fighting - Romania, August 1944

[robcoopz]

Sniper Elite 5: German Army

[pattern-53-enfield]

Wehrmacht scharfschutze Bruno Sutkus in the Carpathians, 1944.

Of Lithuanian and German descent, he is credited with 209 confirmed kills and fought in the Lithuanian anti-communist resistance. Tortured by the KGB and sent to various collectives and prisons, he did not return to Lithuania until 1971. He relocated to Germany in 1997, and passed away in 2003.

From his “Diary of a Sniper”:

"If you can live legally, you'll grow to be eighty years old. Joining the guerrillas, you will die. They will torture your parents and send them to Siberia. We can't achieve anything because the Soviet predominance is crushing. We're constantly hunted. We have no area for retreat, no supplies, and no food. Large Soviet forces are searching the woods. Often we are starving, and the wounded get no treatment. The people who support us are arrested, viciously tortured, and sent to Siberia. Sooner or later, the Soviets will choke the whole Lithuanian resistance in blood. We're all going to die. They will throw our desecrated bodies into the marketplace. Reconnaissance planes are often flying over the woods to take pictures. Spies are infiltrating our ranks. Day and night we can't feel safe in the bunkers and are therefore always moving, to, again and again, like rats, dig new bunkers in the soil. There's no other way. One of us shall survive to be able to tell how we lived, fought, and died."

[marching-together-to-victory]

[army-of-idiots]

Worlds best snipers……Vasily Grigoryevich

Zaytsev (RussianMarch 23, 1915 - December

15, 1991) was a Soviet sniper during World War

I, notable particularly for his activities

between November 10 and December 17,

1942, during the Battle of Stalingrad. He killed

225 soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht

and other Axis armies, including 11 enemy

snipers.

Prior to November 10, he had already killed 32

Axis soldiers with the standard-issue Mosin-

Nagant rifle.[1] Between October 1942 and

January 1943, Zaytsev made an estimated

400 kills.

[saviorangell2]

Wehrmacht sniper