The book “Sniper “Elite” of the Third Reich. Revelations of Murderers" includes memoirs of three people - Bauer Gunther, Sytkus Bruno, Ollerberg Joseph. They all lived during the Second World War and were excellent snipers. They were able to survive where no one could. The best German snipers remember their lives and talk about how it all began and how they became those who bring death.

Each of them was once a simple boy with a whole life ahead of him. They wanted to live with their family and raise children, but the war came. They had to become brutal killers because war knows no compassion. The one who shoots first survives.

Three professional killers speak candidly about the horrors of war. They killed hundreds of Soviet soldiers. Although snipers fought in different directions, each of them had their own fate, their stories differ in many ways, but they have one thing in common - ruthlessness. Each of these men could spend hours watching and tracking their prey, their actions were precisely calibrated and every step was calculated. They themselves were on the verge of death more than once, but survived in monstrous conditions. These men were able to go through the war and return home, becoming brutal killers who have no equal.

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When it comes to the sniper business of the first half of the 20th century, the Soviet snipers of the Great Patriotic War are immediately remembered - Vasily Zaitsev, Mikhail Surkov, Lyudmila Pavlichenko and others. This is not surprising: the Soviet sniper movement at that time was the most extensive in the world, and the total number of Soviet snipers during the war years was several tens of thousands of enemy soldiers and officers. However, what do we know about the marksmen of the Third Reich?

In Soviet times, the study of the advantages and disadvantages of the armed forces of Nazi Germany was strictly limited, and sometimes simply taboo. Who, however, were the German snipers, who, if depicted in our and foreign cinema, are only as expendable material, extras who are about to take a bullet from the main character from the Anti-Hitler coalition? Is it true that they were that bad, or is this the winner's point of view?

Snipers of the German Empire

In the First World War, it was the Kaiser's army that was the first to use aimed rifle fire as a means of destroying enemy officers, signalmen, machine gunners and artillery personnel. According to the instructions of the Imperial German Army, weapons equipped with an optical sight are only effective at a distance of up to 300 meters. It should only be issued to trained shooters. As a rule, these were former hunters or those who had undergone special training before the start of hostilities. The soldiers who received such weapons became the first snipers. They were not assigned to any place or position; they had relative freedom of movement on the battlefield. According to the same instructions, the sniper had to take a suitable position at night or at dusk in order to begin to act with the onset of day. Such shooters were exempted from any additional duties or combined arms orders. Each sniper had a notebook in which he carefully recorded various observations, ammunition consumption and the effectiveness of his fire. They were also distinguished from ordinary soldiers by the right to wear special signs over the cockade of their headdress - crossed oak leaves.

By the end of the war, the German infantry had approximately six snipers per company. At this time, the Russian army, although it had experienced hunters and experienced shooters in its ranks, did not have rifles with optical sights. This imbalance in the equipment of the armies became noticeable quite quickly. Even in the absence of active hostilities, the Entente armies suffered losses in manpower: a soldier or officer only had to look slightly from behind a trench and a German sniper would immediately “picture” him. This had a strong demoralizing effect on the soldiers, so the Allies had no choice but to release their “super marksmanship” to the forefront of the attack. So by 1918, the concept of military sniping was formed, tactical techniques were worked out and combat missions were defined for this type of soldier.

The revival of German snipers

During the interwar period, the popularity of snipers in Germany, in fact as in most other countries (with the exception of the Soviet Union), began to wane. Snipers began to be treated as an interesting experience in trench warfare, which had already lost its relevance - military theorists saw future wars solely as a battle of engines. According to their views, the infantry faded into the background, and the primacy lay with tanks and aviation.

The German blitzkrieg seemed to be the main proof of the advantages of the new method of warfare. European states capitulated one after another, unable to resist the power of German engines. However, with the entry of the Soviet Union into the war, it became clear: you cannot win the war with tanks alone. Despite the retreat of the Red Army at the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Germans still often had to go on the defensive during this period. When snipers began to appear on Soviet positions in the winter of 1941, and the number of killed Germans began to grow, the Wehrmacht nevertheless realized that aimed rifle fire, despite its archaic nature, was an effective method of warfare. German sniper schools began to emerge and front-line courses were organized. After 1941, the number of optics in front-line units, as well as the people who used them professionally, began to gradually increase, although until the very end of the war the Wehrmacht did not manage to equal the number and quality of training of its snipers with the Red Army.

What and how were they shot from?

Since 1935, the Wehrmacht had Mauser 98k rifles in service, which were also used as sniper rifles - for this purpose, the ones with the most accurate combat were simply selected. Most of these rifles were equipped with a 1.5-fold ZF 41 sight, but there were also four-fold ZF 39 sights, as well as even rarer varieties. By 1942, the share of sniper rifles out of the total number produced was approximately 6, but by April 1944 this figure had dropped to 2% (3,276 out of 164,525 produced). According to some experts, the reason for this reduction is that German snipers simply did not like their Mausers, and at the first opportunity they preferred to exchange them for Soviet sniper rifles. The G43 rifle, which appeared in 1943 and was equipped with a four-fold ZF 4 sight, a copy of the Soviet PU sight, did not correct the situation.

Mauser 98k rifle with ZF41 scope (http://k98k.com)

According to the memoirs of Wehrmacht snipers, the maximum firing distance at which they could hit targets was as follows: head - up to 400 meters, human figure - from 600 to 800 meters, embrasure - up to 600 meters. Rare professionals or lucky ones who got hold of a ten-fold scope could kill an enemy soldier at a distance of up to 1000 meters, but everyone unanimously considers a distance of up to 600 meters to be the distance that guarantees hitting a target.

Defeat in the East–victory in the west

Wehrmacht snipers were mainly engaged in the so-called “free hunt” for commanders, signalmen, gun crews and machine gunners. Most often, snipers were team players: one shoots, the other watches. Contrary to popular belief, German snipers were prohibited from engaging in combat at night. They were considered valuable personnel, and due to the poor quality of German optics, such battles, as a rule, ended not in favor of the Wehrmacht. Therefore, at night they usually searched for and arranged an advantageous position for striking during daylight hours. When the enemy attacked, the task of the German snipers was to destroy the commanders. If this task was successfully completed, the offensive stopped. If a sniper of the Anti-Hitler Coalition began to operate in the rear, several “super sharp shooters” of the Wehrmacht could be sent to search for and eliminate him. On the Soviet-German front, such duels most often ended in favor of the Red Army - there is no point in arguing with the facts that claim that the Germans lost the sniper war here almost completely.

At the same time, on the other side of Europe, German snipers felt at ease and struck fear into the hearts of British and American soldiers. The British and Americans still viewed fighting as a sport and believed in gentlemanly rules of warfare. According to some researchers, approximately half of all losses in American units during the first days of hostilities were the direct result of Wehrmacht snipers.

If you see a mustache, shoot!

An American journalist who visited Normandy during the Allied landings there wrote: “Snipers are everywhere. They hide in trees, hedges, buildings and piles of rubble.” Researchers cite the unpreparedness of Anglo-American troops for the sniper threat as the main reasons for the success of snipers in Normandy. What the Germans themselves understood well during three years of fighting on the Eastern Front, the Allies had to master in a short time. Officers now wore uniforms that were no different from soldiers' uniforms. All movements were carried out in short runs from cover to cover, bending as low as possible to the ground. The rank and file no longer gave the military salute to the officers. However, these tricks sometimes did not save. Thus, some captured German snipers admitted that they distinguished English soldiers by rank thanks to their facial hair: a mustache was one of the most common attributes among sergeants and officers at that time. As soon as they saw a soldier with a mustache, they destroyed him.

Another key to success was the landscape of Normandy: by the time the Allies landed, it was a real paradise for a sniper, with a large number of hedges stretching for kilometers, drainage ditches and embankments. Due to frequent rains, the roads became muddy and became an impassable obstacle for both soldiers and equipment, and soldiers trying to push out another stuck car became a tasty morsel for the “cuckoo”. The allies had to move extremely carefully, looking under every stone. An incident that occurred in the city of Cambrai speaks about the incredibly large scale of the actions of German snipers in Normandy. Deciding that there would be little resistance in this area, one of the British companies moved too close and fell victim to heavy rifle fire. Then almost all the orderlies of the medical department died, trying to carry the wounded from the battlefield. When the battalion command tried to stop the offensive, about 15 more people died, including the company commander, 12 soldiers and officers received various injuries, and four more went missing. When the village was finally taken, many corpses of German soldiers with rifles with optical sights were discovered.

An American sergeant looks at a dead German sniper on the street of the French village of Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer
(http://waralbum.ru)

German snipers–mythical and real

When mentioning German snipers, many will probably remember the famous opponent of the Red Army soldier Vasily Zaitsev, Major Erwin Koenig. In fact, many historians are inclined to believe that there was no Koenig. Presumably, he is a figment of the imagination of William Craig, author of the book Enemy at the Gates. There is a version that ace sniper Heinz Thorwald was passed off as Koenig. According to this theory, the Germans were extremely annoyed by the death of the head of their sniper school at the hands of some village hunter, so they hid his death by saying that Zaitsev killed a certain Erwin Koenig. Some researchers of the life of Thorvald and his sniper school in Zossen consider this to be nothing more than a myth. What is true in this and what is fiction is unlikely to become clear.

Nevertheless, the Germans had sniping aces. The most successful of them is the Austrian Matthias Hetzenauer. He served in the 144th Mountain Ranger Regiment, 3rd Mountain Division, and accounted for about 345 enemy soldiers and officers. Oddly enough, No. 2 in the ranking, Joseph Allerberger, served in the same regiment with him, and by the end of the war there were 257 casualties. The third largest number of victories is the German sniper of Lithuanian origin Bruno Sutkus, who destroyed 209 Soviet soldiers and officers.

Perhaps if the Germans, in their pursuit of the idea of lightning war, had paid due attention not only to engines, but also to the training of snipers, as well as the development of decent weapons for them, we would now have a slightly different history of German sniping, and for this article we would have to piece together collect material about little-known Soviet snipers.

Josef Ollerberg.

Sniper "elite" of the III Reich. Revelations of killers (collection)

Gunter Bauer. Death through a telescopic sight

Chapter first. Recruitment notice

September, 1937

That day, as always, I was in the bakery that belonged to our family. My mother Anna and my pregnant wife Ingrid worked there with me. Ingrid and I were both eighteen years old. We got married just two months earlier.

I helped my mother run the bakery business for several years, and as I grew older, it became our family business. Mother was glad that I shifted some of her worries onto my shoulders.

Two elderly women entered the bakery. They looked at different cakes and cookies for a long time, quietly discussing among themselves what was best for them to buy. In the end, they made their choice and made a purchase. On the way out, the postman, who was heading towards us, helpfully held the door for them.

“I brought you a draft notice, Gunther,” he said as he entered.

Hearing these words, I felt that in an instant my life had changed dramatically. I knew that two years ago universal conscription had been restored in Germany, but I treated it somehow with detachment, not imagining that it would affect me.

The postman handed me a small yellow envelope with my name and address printed on it.

“Thank you, Walter,” I said and handed him the cake: “Help yourself.”

Taking the cake, the postman smiled:

“Thank you, Gunther,” raising his hat, he bowed to my mother and Ingrid and left the bakery.

My mother's face immediately became very concerned, she looked at me with concern.

“Mom, everything will be fine,” I tried to reassure her and forced myself to smile.

“Your father died in the war,” she sighed.

“But we’re not at war with anyone now,” I objected.

Opening the envelope, I began to read the summons. It informed me that I had to report to the recruiting station within three days and that if I did not do this, I would face arrest. In addition, the summons indicated the address of my recruiting station, which, as it turned out, was located several kilometers from our bakery.

The next three days passed very quickly. All this time, my mother endlessly gave me various pieces of advice that, as she thought, could help me avoid army service:

- Tell them you just got married. Tell them that your baby is about to be born...

However, she herself was very afraid that none of these arguments would change anything. And my mother repeated to me several times during these three days:

“Gunther, I beg you, don’t try to act like a daredevil if you ever find yourself in a war.” Your father was a brave man, and he is no longer with us. And you must return home safe and sound.

Ingrid transmitted my mother's worries. One evening, when we were alone, her face became very serious and sad. She said, barely holding back tears:

– Promise me that you will return, Gunther.

- Of course I’ll be back! – I answered with feigned cheerfulness. “But then you, too, promise that you will wait for me.”

She promised and brought my hand to her stomach:

– Tell our child that you will definitely return.

I kissed Ingrid on the stomach and, smiling, said, turning to the one who was inside:

“Baby, your dad is telling you this.”

I promise you and mom that I will come back. We will be together again, and everything will be fine with us!

Ingrid accompanied me to the recruiting station. When I got there, I saw a long line of young people. Some of them stood with their wives, girlfriends and mothers. There were even a few small children in the crowd who were brought to see their fathers off.

I got in line. Ingrid did not want to leave and squeezed my hand.

“Don’t worry, we’ll most likely just be sent to guard the border,” I said, not fully believing the veracity of my words.

In those days, many had a presentiment that difficult trials awaited Germany. Life in the country has changed dramatically in just the last few years. With Hitler's rise to power in 1933, the inculcation of Nazi ideology began. Disagreement with the ruling regime was gradually suppressed more and more harshly. Eventually it got to the point where even an innocent joke about Hitler or his party could lead to arrest. However, I myself was too young then to think about such things. The only thing that caught my eye was that about two years before I received my draft notice, several Jews who had previously been regular customers stopped visiting our bakery. But at that time I didn’t attach much importance to it. Perhaps these people managed to escape the country, or they suffered a much worse fate.

I myself was never a Nazi. But I remember well that by the mid-thirties the German people were divided into their supporters and those who could only remain silent and afraid. The Nazis were everywhere. Even near the recruiting station, several of them walked around in black shirts with a swastika on the sleeve and handed out propaganda leaflets. When one of them was handed to me, I took it, smiling politely. I didn't need any extra problems.

Soon it was my turn. I hugged my wife tightly:

- Ingrid, everything will be fine. I'll be back soon, trust me!

She almost burst into tears and once again said that she loved me very much and would wait. We kissed and I entered the corridor of the recruiting station. Ingrid looked after me, but the door was on a spring and slammed shut as soon as I entered.

There was also a line in the hallway that led to a massive table. A portly sergeant towered over the table. He took the summons from the conscripts and asked each of them a series of formal questions.

When I finally got to the desk, the sergeant asked me my name, address, age, weight, and the like. When asking questions, he did not pause. His voice sounded monotonous, and his face expressed nothing. He even seemed to me not like a person, but like some kind of machine.

Everything that happened next also resembled a conveyor belt. In the next huge room we went through a medical examination, taking turns moving from one doctor to another. After that, another sergeant handed me a document to sign, according to which I was drafted into the army for four years. I had no choice but to sign.

Soon after this, each of us was given personal soldier's books, which we had to carry with us at all times. In addition, we received special forms in which each of us had to indicate the names and addresses of our closest relatives, as well as write down what he had done in previous years and what skills he had. Based on this, our military specialty was subsequently determined.

I couldn’t think of anything better than to write that I worked in a bakery, and also that I have marksmanship skills. I learned to shoot a rifle in a school club. The teacher said that I was the most accurate boy he ever taught. And this was indeed the case.

When we filled out all the papers, we were lined up in the courtyard behind the recruiting station. There were already army trucks there. We loaded into them and were taken to the station. Soon we were already sitting on a train that was taking us away from our native Hamburg. However, our journey lasted only a few hours. And then we unloaded at the station, where army trucks were again waiting for us.

It was already getting dark when we arrived at the training camp. We were lined up on the parade ground in front of the barracks. Sergeant Krauss, who was later responsible for our training, made a speech, the general meaning of which was that he would make real fighters out of us who would guard the interests of Germany, the Fuhrer and the people. After this, we were placed in barracks, where we were to live for the next three months.

...The next day we were given a uniform. It included a gray-green field jacket, gray trousers, high knee-length boots and an oval soldier's medallion, which consisted of two halves. The medallion had to be worn on a chain around the neck. In addition, we received belts and helmets.

The shoulder straps on my field jacket were clean, without stripes, as it should be for privates. The jacket had two outer pockets and one inner one, made specifically so that each of us could put our personal soldier’s book in it, which I immediately did.

The inscription on my belt badge read: “God is with us!” In addition, three cartridge bags were placed on the belt, each of which held ten cartridges. Also on my belt, on the left side of my back, I had to wear the folding infantry shoulder blade that was issued to me. They also gave me a duffel bag, a flask and a tin mug. In general, everything is as it should be. But among the things there was also something that at first seemed completely useless to me - a gas mask, filters for it and pills that needed to be taken in the event of a gas attack. Why is all this needed in peacetime? For a second I was reminded of my mother's fears. But after a few more moments, all bad thoughts flew out of my head. Youth is youth.

What I really didn’t like was the army haircut. Of course, I myself loved to cut my hair short. But we, the new recruits, were cut almost completely bald.

My further life in the training camp consisted of endless forced marches over considerable distances, including with full equipment, various physical exercises, theoretical training and training at the shooting range.

Our sergeant noticed almost immediately that I was a very accurate shooter, and after a while he told me that after basic training I would be sent to sniper school.

There were two guys in our platoon with whom I went to elementary school. These were Anton Keller and Michael Gaus. We weren't really friends at school, but we immediately became friends at training camp.

Anton looked like his complete opposite - a blue-eyed, blond, two-meter tall guy who trained in wrestling and boxing before the army. The smile never left his face; he loved to laugh very much, for this it was enough for him to hear the slightest joke. In the same way, jokingly, he made grueling marches with full gear and performed the most difficult physical exercises.

Of course, Anton shot much worse than us. But Michael and I really wanted him to be enrolled in a sniper school, and we tried in every possible way to help him master the skill of marksmanship. Finally, after a few weeks, the result was achieved. Anton still hit his targets worse than Michael and I, but much better than the others. And the sergeant said that Anton would also be enrolled in sniper school.

During basic training, we were taught terrain orientation, the use of various types of weapons, as well as how to properly dig trenches, counter tanks, and what to do in the event of a gas attack.

During training, we learned to throw grenades, shoot from a K98k carbine, a rifle grenade launcher, and an 80mm mortar.

The Mauser K98 carbine was quite heavy. He weighed about four kilograms. To us, recruits, after many kilometers of marches, it seemed that each of us had an unimaginable weight hanging on our shoulders. But this carbine was equipped with a 5-round magazine. It was very convenient for shooting. When the bolt was closed, the empty clip was automatically ejected from the slots. Sights included a front sight and a V-shaped rear sight, adjustable in range from 100 to 2000 meters. Moreover, the front sight was installed on the base in the muzzle of the barrel in a transverse groove, and it could move left and right to shift the average point of impact. Thanks to this, it was possible to achieve very good shooting accuracy over considerable distances.

But rifle grenade launchers, of course, could not be called the latest technology. This type of grenade launcher was used by the German army back in the First World War. Of course, we had much more advanced examples of such weapons. But later the main drawback of all muzzle grenade launchers became clear to me. The fact is that, having prepared a grenade for firing, you can no longer fire a regular cartridge from a rifle until you shoot or remove the grenade from the barrel. But rifle grenade launchers weighed very little and were really effective in battle.

80-mm mortars immediately seemed to us to be a very formidable weapon. A fist reached into the barrel of their barrel. They could fire mines weighing more than three kilograms over a distance of more than two kilometers. I myself then imagined with horror what would happen if I ever found myself in the zone of fire from such weapons. However, later I had to experience much more terrible things during the war.

However, during basic training we were all still quite carefree. Some of us, whom the sergeant considered suitable for this purpose, mastered special types of weapons, such as flamethrowers and the MG-34 machine gun.

The MG-34 was the first single machine gun in history, which until 1942 was officially the main machine gun not only of the infantry, but also of the Wehrmacht tank forces. The MG-34 could be used both as a light machine gun at the infantry infantry platoon level and as an mounted machine gun at the battalion level. Moreover, this machine gun fired the same 7.92 mm cartridges as the K98k carbine.

Besides all this, we were also taught how to fight in hand-to-hand combat using rifle stocks and sapper blades.

When three months of basic training came to an end, I, along with Anton and Michael, were sent to sniper school. We spent another month and a half there. Here our training consisted mainly of shooting. We learned to conduct targeted fire from considerable distances using an optical sight.

In addition, we were trained to select priority goals. First of all, we had to hit enemy snipers. Then artillery gunners and officers. Our next target was to be artillerymen, mortarmen and machine gunners. And last but not least we were required to shoot at ordinary infantry soldiers.

In addition, we were taught to camouflage ourselves in the terrain using natural means such as branches, leaves and even dirt. But, to be honest, subsequent participation in the war taught me methods of camouflage much better than training in sniper school.

But what is most valuable is that the instructor taught us an unshakable rule on which a sniper’s survival depends, although it is not always applicable in combat conditions.

“Remember,” he repeated endlessly. – If you fire a shot, you must immediately change position. Otherwise, any of you will immediately turn into an easy target for an enemy sniper.

After completing sniper training, I received my first vacation. This allowed me to return home for two weeks.

Mother and Ingrid were extremely happy about my arrival. And I was proud of myself, because above my left elbow I had a chevron of silver braid on a dark green triangular flap. The fact is that after graduating from sniper school, I was awarded the rank of corporal. Moreover, since army service was paid, I returned home with some money. I gave most of it to Ingrid, leaving only a little for beer.

The two-week vacation passed dizzyingly quickly. And I again said goodbye to my mother and Ingrid, and again boarded the next train. This time my destination was a military base near Berlin. There I spent the next few months.

Ingrid gave birth to a son in June. As I wanted, she named him Kurt. He was not yet a month old when I received my second leave. At first, I was even a little afraid to approach our baby, who was lying in the cradle, he seemed so small to me, although he weighed almost four kilograms. But, of course, I was very glad that I had a son, that I had a loving wife, that my mother became a grandmother... But the vacation was ending, it was time for me to get back to work.

Calming my mother and Ingrid, I told them that I was simply going to guard Berlin. I probably believed it myself then. I did not know that history was inexorably moving towards grandiose and terrible events, one of the participants of which I was destined to become.

Chapter two. Annexation of the Sudetenland

September, 1938

After the First World War, the Sudetenland was part of Czechoslovakia and accounted for almost a third of the entire area of the country. 3.5 million ethnic Germans lived in this area. Already at the beginning of 1938, Hitler constantly stated in his speeches that the Germans in Czechoslovakia were being oppressed in every possible way. In those days, I heard more than once on the radio and read in newspapers that the Sudeten Germans lived in incredible poverty and were persecuted by the Czechs, and also that it was in the Sudeten region that the percentage of not only the number of suicides, but and child mortality.

Soon after Austria was annexed by Germany without firing a shot in March 1938, the Germans living in the Sudetenland began to demand a referendum in which the population of the Sudetenland could decide for themselves whether this region should remain part of Czechoslovakia or become part of Germany. However, the referendum was never held. Moreover, the Czechoslovak government soon sent troops into German-populated areas and declared martial law in their territories.

Living in Germany, in those days we constantly heard propaganda that Hitler would not leave it like this and would do everything so that the Sudeten Germans would stop tolerating the atrocities of the Czechs and would again live “in the same house with the nation.” Indeed, on September 29, 1938, an agreement was drawn up in Munich, signed the next day by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier, Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler himself. From that moment on, the Sudetenland was formally transferred to Germany.

I found myself among the troops that were supposed to enter the territory of the Sudetenland. In the same truck with me were Anton, Michael and seventeen other snipers. Together we formed a special sniper platoon.

Our truck was moving behind a column of light tanks. Each of us did not let go of his carbine. We had regular military K98k carbines, complete with bayonets and scopes. However, our optical sights could only be called suitable for snipers only with a big stretch. These sights provided only 2.5x magnification, which was clearly not enough for targeted shooting from significant distances.

Some of my co-workers tried to talk to each other and even joke. But it didn't work out well. Nervous tension was taking its toll. Our platoon commander, Sergeant Berger, warned us in advance that if complications arose in the operation, the most difficult work would be assigned to us. At first we all took it with youthful bravado. But the longer the journey continued, the more unpleasant forebodings came over us. I myself was very afraid that I might get hurt. What if I get so wounded that the doctors have to cut off my arm or leg? How can I then help my mother and Ingrid when I return home? I – and, most likely, everyone else – didn’t even think about the fact that one of us could be killed. We haven’t seen a single battle yet, we didn’t understand that people really kill in war. Nevertheless, it was unpleasant in my soul. My friends Anton and Michael were also silent, looking at the floor.

Sergeant Berger was riding a horse behind our truck. He was from Austria and was already over forty. He managed to take part in the First World War. His face seemed very calm, and this gave us confidence in such a situation.

After some time, our truck suddenly stopped. I leaned out of the back and saw that Sergeant Berger drove up to the driver's cab to find out the reason for the stop.

After about a minute I realized what was going on. Our truck began to go around a tank that had stalled in the middle of the road. Over the next two hours of travel, looking out of the back, I counted about ten more broken down German tanks that could not continue moving. But these were the newest cars of our designers! What I saw gave me an unpleasant shock. What happens if something like this happens during a fight? However, I kept my thoughts to myself.

A few more hours passed and we crossed the border of Czechoslovakia. When we entered the territory of the Sudetenland, I expected that we would be greeted with flowers. In any case, before this we were told more than once that this was exactly how the German troops entering Austria were greeted.

However, in the Sudetes, residents did not throw flowers to German soldiers. Of course, many local Germans happily greeted our military column. But from time to time we noticed gloomy, dissatisfied glances. Moreover, not only the Czechs looked at us this way, but sometimes also the Sudeten Germans. This got me thinking. We were told that all the Germans in the Sudetenland were waiting for us as saviors. In fact, it turned out that for many of them life in Czechoslovakia was not at all as bad as Hitler described. I was finally convinced of this during the time I was in the Sudetenland as part of the occupation forces. At the same time, of course, many Sudeten Germans actually wanted their territories to become part of Germany again, but in most cases this was due to ideological motives rather than the notorious oppression by the Czechs.

September, 1937

I helped my mother run the bakery business for several years, and as I grew older, it became our family business. Mother was glad that I shifted some of her worries onto my shoulders.

“I brought you a draft notice, Gunther,” he said as he entered.

The postman handed me a small yellow envelope with my name and address printed on it.

“Thank you, Walter,” I said and handed him the cake: “Help yourself.”

Taking the cake, the postman smiled:

“Thank you, Gunther,” raising his hat, he bowed to my mother and Ingrid and left the bakery.

My mother's face immediately became very concerned, she looked at me with concern.

“Mom, everything will be fine,” I tried to reassure her and forced myself to smile.

“Your father died in the war,” she sighed.

“But we’re not at war with anyone now,” I objected.

The next three days passed very quickly. All this time, my mother endlessly gave me various pieces of advice that, as she thought, could help me avoid army service:

- Tell them you just got married. Tell them that your baby is about to be born...

However, she herself was very afraid that none of these arguments would change anything. And my mother repeated to me several times during these three days:

“Gunther, I beg you, don’t try to act like a daredevil if you ever find yourself in a war.” Your father was a brave man, and he is no longer with us. And you must return home safe and sound.

Ingrid transmitted my mother's worries. One evening, when we were alone, her face became very serious and sad. She said, barely holding back tears:

– Promise me that you will return, Gunther.

- Of course I’ll be back! – I answered with feigned cheerfulness. “But then you, too, promise that you will wait for me.”

She promised and brought my hand to her stomach:

– Tell our child that you will definitely return.

I kissed Ingrid on the stomach and, smiling, said, turning to the one who was inside:

“Baby, your dad is telling you this.” I promise you and mom that I will come back. We will be together again, and everything will be fine with us!

I got in line. Ingrid did not want to leave and squeezed my hand.

“Don’t worry, we’ll most likely just be sent to guard the border,” I said, not fully believing the veracity of my words.

Soon it was my turn. I hugged my wife tightly:

- Ingrid, everything will be fine. I'll be back soon, trust me!

THREE BESTSELLERS IN ONE VOLUME! Shocking memoirs of three German Scharfschutzen (snipers), who together accounted for more than 600 lives of our soldiers. Cynical revelations about the horrors of war on the Eastern Front, where there was no place for either chivalry or compassion. Confessions of professional killers who have seen death hundreds of times through the optics of their sniper rifles. They had to fight in different directions, and their fates turned out differently. They have one thing in common - they were all calculating and ruthless, possessing superhuman endurance that allowed them to spend hours tracking down targets and emerging victorious from sniper duels; they all survived the most terrible battles of the Eastern Front, paying a monstrous price for it - turning into complete executioners.

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Hitler's suicide bombers. To Hell for "Greater Germany", Armin Scheiderbauer, Hans Kinschermann, Hans Heinz Rehfeld

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THREE BESTSELLERS IN ONE VOLUME! The merciless “trench truth” of the Eastern Front. Revelations of German veterans who went through the bloodiest battles of World War II. The first became alter Leute (literally: “old man”, “grandfather” - this is how old-timers were called in the Wehrmacht) at the age of less than 20, earning the Eisernes Kreuz (Iron Cross) and surviving six wounds. Another fought in the elite tank corps “Gro?deutschland” (“Great Germany”), which was used throughout the war as a “fire brigade”, thrown into the most dangerous and threatened areas. The third miraculously escaped from the Stalingrad cauldron, where his entire division was killed, and until the fall of the Reich he fought as a Nahter ("Swiss" - a front-line nickname for machine gunners). In terms of rate of fire, the famous German MG-42 machine gun was really comparable to a sewing machine, creating a monstrous density of fire and inflicting huge losses on the attackers - our infantry hated the Maschinengewehrschutzen (machine gunners) no less than the "tigers" and diving Ju-87s: the superiority of the MG was too great before at the very end of the war, too often the advancing chains were washed with blood under their hurricane fire... This book is a rare opportunity to see the Great Patriotic War “from the other side.” Discover the “trench truth” in German. Look into the soul of the enemy. Taste the salty, blood-red snow of the Eastern Front...