Sniper is one of the most difficult and unusual military professions. Although the most ordinary guys join it.
Find out the five toughest male shooters, whose accuracy and resourcefulness terrified the enemy.
5. Carlos Norman (05/20/1942-02/23/1999)
Source: top5s.net
One of the most famous snipers in the history of the US military. He became famous for his participation in the Vietnam War. Considered one of the legendary figures of the United States Marine Corps. He has 93 enemy lives to his name.
4. Adelbert F. Waldron (03/14/1933-10/18/1995)
Source: top5s.net
Famous American sniper. Participated in the Vietnam War. Waldron holds the record for confirmed victories among US shooters. He has 109 victories. In the 1970s, Waldron taught sniper training at the SIONICS training camp in Georgia. One of the few who was twice awarded the Order for Distinguished Military Service.
3. Vasily Zaitsev (03/23/1915 - 12/15/1991)
Source: top5s.net
Sniper of the 62nd Army of the Stalingrad Front, Hero of the Soviet Union. During the Battle of Stalingrad between November 10 and December 17, 1942, he killed 225 soldiers and officers of the German army and their allies, including 11 snipers. He developed several sniper hunting techniques that are used by the current generation of snipers.
2. Francis Peghamagabo (9.03.1891-5.08.1952)
Source: top5s.net
Hero of the Second World War. Canadian Francis killed 378 German soldiers, was awarded a medal three times and was seriously wounded twice. But after returning home to Canada, one of the most effective snipers of World War II was forgotten.
1. Simo Häyhä (12/17/1905-04/1/2002)
For those interested: a little history about individuals who became famous thanks to their mastery of the art of marksmanship.
Rosa Egorovna Shanina (1924-1945)
She was known for her ability to accurately shoot at moving targets and recorded 59 confirmed kills of enemy soldiers and officers (12 of them were snipers). She participated in hostilities for less than a year; Allied newspapers called Shanina “the invisible horror of East Prussia.” She died on January 28, 1945 during the East Prussian operation, protecting the seriously wounded commander of an artillery unit.
Thomas Plunket (?-1851)
Baker rifle
Plunkett is an Irishman from the British 95th Rifles Division who became famous for one episode. It was in 1809, Monroe's troops were retreating, but a battle took place at Kakabelos: Plunket managed to “remove” the French general Auguste-Marie-François Colbert. The enemy felt completely safe, since the distance to the enemy was about 600 meters (at that time, the British shooters used Brown Bess muskets and more or less confidently hit the target at a distance of about 50 m).
Plunkett's shot was a miracle: using Baker's rifle, he exceeded the best results at that time by 12 times. But even this seemed not enough to him: he proved his skill by accurately hitting the second target from the same position - the general’s adjutant, who rushed to the aid of his commander.
Shooting from a Brown Bess musket, 3 shots in 46 seconds:
Sergeant Grace
Grace is a sniper from the 4th Georgia Infantry Division who killed the highest ranking member of the Union Army during the American Civil War.
On May 9, 1864, General John Sedgwick led the Union artillery at the Battle of Spotsylvaney. Confederate snipers began hunting him from a distance of about a kilometer. The staff officers immediately lay down and asked the general to take cover. However, Sedgwick expressed doubt that accurate fire was possible from such a distance, and said that the officers were acting like cowards. According to legend, he had not even finished speaking when Grace's bullet hit him under his left eye and blew his head off.
Simo Häyhä
Born in 1905 (died in 2002) on the border of Finland and Russia in a family of farmers, he fished and hunted as a child. At the age of 17 he joined the security detachment, and in 1925 he entered the Finnish army. After 9 years of service, he completed sniper training.
During the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940, he killed 505 Soviet soldiers in less than 3 months. There are some discrepancies in its performance. This is due to the fact that the corpses of those killed were on enemy territory, in addition, Simo shot perfectly with both a pistol and a rifle, and hits from these weapons are not always taken into account in the overall standings.
During the war he received the nickname "White Death". In March 1940 he was seriously wounded: a bullet shattered his jaw and disfigured his face. It took a long recovery. He was unable to go to the front during World War II due to the consequences of his wounds.
Simo's effectiveness is explained primarily by his talented use of the peculiarities of the theater of military operations. Häyhä used an open sight, since optical sights become covered with frost in the cold and produce glare, which is used by the enemy to detect them, requiring the shooter to have a higher head position, as well as a longer aiming time. He prudently poured water on the snow in front of the firing position (so that a shot would not cause a cloud of snow to rise into the air, unmasking the position), cooled his breath with ice so that steam would not be noticeable, etc.
Vasily Zaitsev (1915-1991)
The name of Vasily Zaitsev became famous all over the world thanks to the film “Enemy At The Gates”. Vasily was born in the Urals in the village of Eleninka. He served in the Pacific Fleet from 1937 as a clerk, then as head of the financial department. From the first days of the war, he regularly submitted reports of transfer to the front.
Finally, in the summer of 1942, his request was granted. He began his work at Stalingrad with a “three-line”. In a short time, Zaitsev managed to hit more than 30 opponents. The command noticed a talented shooter and assigned him to the sniper squad. In just a few months, he had 242 confirmed hits. But the real number of enemies killed during the Battle of Stalingrad reached 500.
The episode from Zaitsev’s combat biography covered in the film took place in reality: at that time, a German “super sniper” was sent to the Stalingrad area to fight Soviet snipers; when he was killed, it turned out that his rifle was equipped with optics with 10x increase. A 3-4x scope was considered the norm for shooters of that time, since it was difficult to handle more.
In January 1943, as a result of a mine explosion, Vasily lost his sight, and only with the enormous efforts of doctors was it possible to restore it. After that, Zaitsev led a sniper school and wrote two textbooks. It is he who owns one of the “hunting” techniques used to this day.
Lyudmila Pavlichenko (1916-1974)
Since 1937, Lyudmila was involved in shooting and gliding sports. The beginning of the war found her in graduate practice in Odessa. Lyudmila immediately went to the front as a volunteer - she became one of 2,000 female snipers (a thousand of our female snipers, according to official data alone, destroyed more than 12 thousand fascists during the war).
She hit her first targets in the battles near Belyaevka. She took part in the defense of Odessa, where she destroyed 187 enemies. After that, she defended Sevastopol and Crimea for eight months. At the same time, she trained snipers. Throughout the war, Lyudmila Pavlichenko eliminated 309 fascists. After being wounded in 1942, she was recalled from the front and sent with a delegation to Canada and the USA. After returning, she continued training snipers at the Vystrel school.
Some data on the performance of our snipers during WWII:
Real sniper counts are actually higher than verified ones. For example, Fyodor Okhlopkov, according to estimates, destroyed more than 1000 (!) Germans in total, also using a machine gun.
The first ten Soviet snipers killed (confirmed) 4,200 soldiers and officers, and the first twenty – 7,400.
In October 1941, a sniper of the 82nd Rifle Division, Mikhail Lysov, shot down a Ju87 dive-bomber using an automatic rifle with a sniper scope. Unfortunately, there is no data on the number of infantrymen he killed.
And the sniper of the 796th Rifle Division, Sergeant Major Antonov Vasily Antonovich, in July 1942 near Voronezh, shot down a twin-engine Ju88 bomber with 4 rifle shots! There is also no data on the number of infantrymen he killed.
Charles Mawhinney, born 1949
Since childhood, I have been interested in hunting. In 1967 he joined the Marine Corps. Mawhainni went to Vietnam as part of the United States Marine Corps.
The usual working distance for a sniper shot was 300-800 meters. Charles became the best sniper of the Vietnam War, hitting his targets from a distance of a kilometer. He has 103 confirmed defeats. Due to the difficult military situation and the risk of searching for those killed, another 216 casualties are considered probable.
Charles Mawhinney today.
Rob Furlong, born 1976
Rob Farlang not long ago held the record for the range of a confirmed successful shot. He hit his target from a distance of 2430 meters!
In 2002, Furlong participated in Operation Anaconda, as part of a team of two corporals and three master corporals. They spotted three armed al-Qaeda militants in the mountains. While the opponents set up camp, Furlong took one of them at gunpoint with his McMillan Tac-50 rifle.
The first shot missed the target. The second bullet hit one of the militants. But at the moment the second bullet hit, the corporal had already fired the third shot. The bullet had to cover the distance in 3 seconds - this time is enough for the enemy to take cover. But the militant realized that he was under fire when the third bullet had already pierced his chest.
Craig Harrison
A new record in sniper shooting - 2477 m - was set in Afghanistan by a British sniper who shot two Taliban machine gunners. He fired from an L115A3 Long Range Rifle 8.59 mm sniper rifle, which has a standard firing range of about 1100 m. However, Corporal Harrison, a veteran of the Royal Cavalry Regiment, destroyed an enemy machine gun crew at a range of more than a kilometer exceeding the standard range.
The sniper was shooting from a nearby car: he saw two machine gunners opening fire on the soldiers and his commander, and destroyed the enemy with two shots. “The first shot hit the machine gunner in the stomach. When he fell, the second Taliban tried to raise his weapon, but received a bullet in the side,” says the corporal. “The conditions for shooting were ideal, calm weather, excellent visibility.”
The bullet took about three seconds to reach its target.
This rifle, which caused the death of many Taliban, is called the “Silent Killer” in Afghanistan.
The corporal killed 12 Taliban and wounded seven, his helmet had already been hit by a bullet once, and both of his arms were broken by a roadside bomb, but after recovery he returned to serve in Afghanistan. Craig is married with one child and is originally from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
Highly skilled snipers were worth their weight in gold during World War II. Fighting on the Eastern Front, the Soviets positioned their snipers as skilled marksmen, noticeably dominant in many ways. The Soviet Union was the only one that trained snipers for ten years, preparing for war. Their superiority is confirmed by their “death lists.” Experienced snipers killed many people and, undoubtedly, were of great value. For example, Vasily Zaitsev killed 225 enemy soldiers during the Battle of Stalingrad.
10. Stepan Vasilyevich Petrenko: 422 killed.
During World War II, the Soviet Union had more skilled snipers than any other country on Earth. Because of their continued training and development during the 1930s, while other countries were cutting down their specialist sniper teams, the USSR had the best marksmen in the world. Stepan Vasilyevich Petrenko was well known among the elite.
His highest professionalism is confirmed by 422 killed enemies; The effectiveness of the Soviet sniper training program is confirmed by accurate shooting and extremely rare misses.
During the war, 261 marksmen (including women), each of whom killed at least 50 people, were awarded the title of outstanding sniper. Vasily Ivanovich Golosov was one of those who received such an honor. His death toll is 422 enemy killed.
8. Fedor Trofimovich Dyachenko: 425 killed.
During World War II, 428,335 people are believed to have received Red Army sniper training, of whom 9,534 used their qualifications in lethal experience. Fyodor Trofimovich Dyachenko was one of those trainees who stood out. Soviet hero with 425 confirmations, received a medal for outstanding service “high heroism in military operations against an armed enemy.”
7. Fedor Matveevich Okhlopkov: 429 killed.
Fedor Matveevich Okhlopkov, one of the most respected snipers of the USSR. He and his brother were recruited into the Red Army, but the brother was killed in battle. Fyodor Matveevich vowed to avenge his brother. Who took his life. The number of people killed by this sniper (429) did not include the number of enemies. Which he killed with a machine gun. In 1965 he was awarded the Order of the Hero of the Soviet Union.
6. Mikhail Ivanovich Budenkov: 437 killed.
Mikhail Ivanovich Budenkov was among those snipers that few others could only aspire to. Amazingly successful sniper with 437 kills. This number did not include those killed by machine guns.
5. Vladimir Nikolaevich Pchelintsev: 456 killed.
This number of casualties can be attributed not only to skill and skill with a rifle, but also to knowledge of the terrain and the ability to properly camouflage. Among these skilled and experienced snipers was Vladimir Nikolaevich Pchelintsev, who killed 437 enemies.
4. Ivan Nikolaevich Kulbertinov: 489 killed.
Unlike most other countries during World War II, women could be snipers in the Soviet Union. In 1942, two six-month courses attended exclusively by women yielded results: almost 55,000 snipers were trained. 2,000 women took an active part in the war. Among them: Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who killed 309 opponents.
3. Nikolai Yakovlevich Ilyin: 494 killed.
In 2001, a film was shot in Hollywood: “Enemy at the Gates” about the famous Russian sniper Vasily Zaitsev. The film depicts the events of the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942–1943. A film about Nikolai Yakovlevich Ilyin has not been made, but his contribution to Soviet military history was just as important. Having killed 494 enemy soldiers (sometimes listed as 497), Ilyin was a deadly marksman for the enemy.
2. Ivan Mikhailovich Sidorenko: approximately 500 killed
Ivan Mikhailovich Sidorenko was drafted in 1939 at the beginning of World War II. During the 1941 Battle of Moscow, he learned to snipe and became known as a bandit with lethal aim. One of his most famous acts: he destroyed a tank and three other vehicles using incendiary ammunition. However, after an injury received in Estonia, his role in subsequent years was primarily teaching. In 1944 Sidorenko was awarded the prestigious title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
1.Simo Hayha: 542 Killed (possibly 705)
Simo Haiha, a Finn, is the only non-Soviet soldier on this list. Nicknamed “White Death” by the Red Army troops because of its camouflage disguised as snow. According to statistics, Heiha is the bloodiest sniper in history. Before taking part in the war he was a farmer. Incredibly, he preferred an iron sight to an optical sight in his weapon.
– josser
A good sniper can undermine the enemy's morale by taking out key figures. They can prevent the enemy from completing his task.
But the next ten people aren't just good snipers; these are great snipers. They are the best of the best. They are the Military Channel's top 10 snipers.
Navy SEAL snipers
After pirates failed to capture his ship, the Maersk Alabama, Captain Richard Phillips surrendered to the bandits in order to guarantee the safety of his crew.
The pirates kept Captain Phillips aboard a lifeboat for several days while attempting to negotiate with the US Navy. But eventually the boat ran out of fuel and the pirates agreed to allow the US Navy to attach a tow rope from the USS Bainbridge to the boat.
This was their fatal mistake.
This step allowed three US Navy SEAL snipers to take positions on the overhang of the Bainbridge's stern - just 75 feet (23 m; hereinafter - approx..).
Overcome by seasickness and in an excited state, the pirates became more and more aggressive. The command on the spot, concerned about the mortal danger threatening Phillip, gave the snipers the go-ahead to destroy the pirates to save the life of the captain.
The SEALs had to fire synchronized shots in order to take down the pirates and keep the captain alive. The snipers were on a ship sailing on the ocean, and their targets were in a boat bouncing on the waves, and they only had one chance to do everything right.
The snipers had their sights on the heads of two pirates in the control room window. But they were not sure about the whereabouts of the third pirate. The third sniper was expecting visual contact.
Once he gets it, they can all fire. And now, an opportunity - the third pirate, tormented by seasickness, sticks his head out of the boat window.
The third cat transmits - the target has been detected. All three snipers take their shots.
Rob Furlong
Canadian Corporal Rob Furlong (not pictured here) holds the record for the longest target hit by a sniper. He killed a member of an al-Qaeda mortar crew from a distance of 2,340 meters.
Not bad for a Canadian, huh?
Chuck Mawhinney
Even his own wife had no idea that Chuck Mawhinney (not pictured here) was one of the best snipers in the US Marine Corps in Vietnam until his friend wrote a book detailing Mawhinney's service.
The book “Dear Mother. Vietnam Snipers" shed light on Mawinney's record of 103 confirmed kills in Vietnam, with another 213 unconfirmed. This is a disgusting record, one that Mawhinney was in no hurry to make public, believing that no one would be enthusiastic about it.
Mawhinney left Vietnam in 1969, after 16 months as a sniper, when a military chaplain thought Mawhinney might be suffering from battle exhaustion. After a short period of service as a fire instructor at Camp Pendleton, Mawhinney left the Marines and returned home to rural Oregon.
“I just did what I was taught,” he told The Standard. – I was in a very hot place outside the USA for a long time. I didn't do anything special." Come on, don't be modest, Chuck. You're still in the top ten.
Snipers of the American Revolution
It would not be too much of a sin to say that the United States owes its independence to the sniper.
No, seriously, that's how it was.
The Battle of Saratoga was a turning point in the Revolutionary War. And one of the main turning points in the battle was the death of British Army General Simon Fraser from a shot by sniper Timothy Murphy on October 7, 1777.
Murphy, one of Daniel Morgan's Kentucky Fusiliers, hit General Frazier at a range of about 500 yards using one of the famous Kentucky long guns.
The United States owes its independence to another sniper - this time due not to a well-aimed shot, but to the lack of one.
During the Battle of Brandywine, just months before Murphy killed Frazier, Captain Patrick Ferguson held a tall, distinguished American officer at gunpoint with his rifle. The officer's back was to Ferguson, and the sniper decided that it would be ungentlemanly to shoot in such a situation.
Only later did Ferguson learn that George Washington was on the battlefield that day.
Vasily Zaitsev
Several of our top 10 snipers were portrayed in movies or served as inspiration for movie characters, but none of them ultimately became more famous than Vasily Zaitsev, whose recordings formed the basis of the 2001 film Enemy at the Gates.
You know, if a recognizable actor with great looks like Jude Law plays you in a movie about your life, then you managed to leave your mark on history.
It is a pity that the fight at the center of the picture was fictitious.
Professional historians, as well as amateur researchers, tried to figure out whether the fight between the Russian ace sniper and his equivalent German shooter even took place. Documentary evidence on this issue is contradictory, and ordinary common sense says that the Soviet media invented the duel as a propaganda tool. However, she didn't need to fuss too much.
Zaitsev’s combat achievements speak for themselves: 149 confirmed killed enemy soldiers and officers, despite the fact that the number of unconfirmed killed could reach 400.
Lyudmila Pavlichenko
When Russian sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko was interviewed by Time magazine in 1942, she ridiculed the American media.
“One journalist even criticized the length of the skirt of my military uniform, saying that in America women wear shorter skirts, and besides, my uniform makes me look fat,” she said.
Surely the length of the skirt did not matter to the 309 Nazi soldiers whose deaths were attributed to Pavlichenko, or to the many Russians whom she inspired with her courage and skill.
According to the Financial Times, Pavlichenko was born on July 12, 1916 in southern Ukraine and had a boyish disposition from the very beginning. Forget about playing with dolls - Pavlichenko had to hunt sparrows with a slingshot; and of course, in this activity she was superior to most boys of her age.
When Germany declared war on Russia in 1941, Pavlichenko wanted to fight. But once she got to the front, everything turned out to be not as simple as it had previously seemed.
“I knew that my task was to shoot living people,” she recalled in a Russian newspaper. “In theory everything was smooth, but I knew that in practice it would be completely different.” She turned out to be right.
Although Pavlichenko could see the enemy from where she crouched on the ground during her first day on the battlefield, she could not bring herself to fire.
But everything changed when a German shot a young Russian soldier who was near Pavlichenko. “He was such a good, happy boy,” she said, “And he was killed right next to me. After that, nothing could stop me.”
Francis Peghamagabo
The exploits and achievements of World War I sniper Francis Peghamagabo sound like they were straight out of a comic book or a summer blockbuster.
Ojibois warrior Peghamagabo, who fought alongside the Canadians at the battles of Montsorrel, Passchendaele and Scarpe, is credited with 378 kills as a sharpshooter.
As if that weren't enough, he was also awarded medals for serving as a signalman under heavy enemy fire, leading a critical rescue operation when his commander was incapacitated, and for delivering his squad's missing ammunition under enemy fire.
The Toronto Star suggested that Peghamagabo brought to the war the skills he had honed as a child on the Shawanaga Reservation near Georgian Bay, but historian Tim Cook had a different theory about why Peghamagabo and other Canadian First Nations went to war. war and fought so selflessly across the seas: “They felt that their sacrifice would give them the right to demand more rights in society.”
But this was not the case with Peghamagabo. Although he was a hero among his comrades in Europe, once he returned home to Canada, he was practically forgotten.
Adelbert F. Waldron III
Try searching for information about the top US snipers and you'll come across a couple of names. Carlos Hascock is a legend, but he doesn't have the highest body count. Charles Benjamin "Chuck" Mawhinney is undoubtedly a talented sniper, but he is not a champion either.
And who then? Staff Sergeant Adelbert F. Waldron III. He is one of the most successful snipers in US history, with 109 confirmed kills.
Excerpt from the book “In the Crosshairs. Snipers in Vietnam" by Colonel Michael Lee Lanning describes how good Waldron's shot was: "One day he was sailing down the Mekong River on the Tango when an enemy sniper on the shore struck the ship. While everyone else on the boat was struggling to find the enemy, who was firing from the shoreline 900 meters away, Sergeant Waldron took his rifle and with one shot took down the Viet Cong from the top of a coconut tree (and this from a moving platform). Such were the abilities of our best sniper."
Waldron is one of the few to have been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross twice, both of which he received in 1969.
He died in 1995 and was buried in California.
Simo Häyhä
Finn Simo Häyhä may be one of the most successful snipers of all time. But don't be too upset if you've never heard of it. Almost unknown outside his home country, Häyhä applied his skills to a war that American children never experienced in school.
When the Russians invaded Finland during the Winter War of 1939-1940, Häyhä hid in the snow and killed over 500 Russians in a short three-month period. He was known as the "White Death".
He was shooting the old fashioned way, without laser sights or .50 caliber ammunition. All Häyhä had was his senses and an ordinary rifle with open sights and a bolt action.
In the end, Finland lost the Winter War, but for Russia it was not a real victory. The Finns suffered 22,830 casualties compared to 126,875 casualties for the Russians, who had an invading army of one and a half million men.
As one Red Army general recalled, “We conquered 22,000 square miles of territory. Just enough to bury your dead.”
Carlos Hascock
Even if he doesn't hold the records for the number of confirmed hits or the longest shot, the legend of Carlos Hascock lives on. He is the Elvis of snipers, he is Yoda.
The Marine Corps' highest marksmanship award bears his name; as well as the shooting range at Camp Ligen (Marine Corps training center in North Carolina; approx.). The Marine Corps Library in Washington was dedicated in his honor. The Virginia unit of the Civil Air Patrol decided to name itself after him.
Hascock, sometimes called "White Feather" for the feather he wore in his hat, joined the Marines at age 17. The Corps didn't have to wait long to realize that the broke boy from Arkansas had talent. While still in training, he proved himself to be an excellent shooter and almost immediately began winning prestigious shooting competitions. But the military had their own plans for Hascock, which involved more than simply winning cups; in 1966 he was sent to Vietnam.
According to the Los Angeles Times, during his two tours of duty, Hascock volunteered for so many missions that his superiors were forced to keep him in the barracks so he could rest.
“It was a hunt that I enjoyed,” he once told the Washington Post. - Engage in a duel with another person. In Vietnam they didn't give you second place—second place was a body bag. Everyone was scared, but those who weren’t were lying. But fear can be used to your advantage. It makes you more alert, more sensitive, that's what I came up with. He pushed me to be the best."
And he was the best. During his two tours of duty, Hascock had 93 confirmed kills; actual total may be higher. Hascock's unconfirmed hits are believed to number in the hundreds. However, the numbers were so high that North Vietnam at one point offered a $30,000 bounty on his head.
Ultimately, neither the bounty nor the enemy sniper could do anything about Carlos Hascock. He died in 1999 at the age of 57 after a battle with multiple sclerosis.
