They were feared by German soldiers.
When Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, hundreds of thousands of Soviet women went to the front as nurses, staff employees, chefs and even snipers. More than 2,000 women trained sniper art and sent to the most dangerous areas of combat operations. Away from their groups women were forced to spend hours lying in the trenches, not moving, they didn’t exist, and wait for the perfect moment for the shot.
1943, sniper Lyuba Makarova on the Kalinin front.
There are many stories about their exploits and sacrifice. For example, a former kindergarten teacher Tanya Baramzina destroyed on the Belarusian front 16 of the German soldiers, and then sent her to the enemy’s rear, where it killed 20 Germans and died at the hands of the enemy. Before her death so brutally tortured that to identify the remains was only the hair and fragments of clothing.
On may 6, 1942.
1943, sniper Lisa Mironova in battle.
1943, snipers of the red army before being sent to the front.
1943.
In 1942, Anastasia Stepanova sniper during the battle of Stalingrad.
In 1942, a female sniper at Stalingrad.
November 24, 1943, snipers O. Bykov and R. Skripnikova returned from a mission.
December 31, 1944, Nina Lobkovskaya, the commander of the detachment of women snipers who participated in the battle for Berlin.
February 1945, snipers go around the settlement in East Prussia, captured by the Soviets.
But all bypassed the most successful woman sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who earned the nickname Lady Death. She was born in a small village near Kiev, and from childhood was very purposeful and gambling. When she heard the guy next door showing off their success in the shooting, she began to practice with a rifle.
6 Jun 1942, Lyudmila Pavlichenko in the battle for Sevastopol. On account of its 309 dead soldiers of the enemy troops, it is considered one of the most effective snipers in history.
Lyudmila studied at the historical faculty of Kiev University, when the German troops attacked the Soviet Union. She immediately volunteered for the front. Although it tried to persuade to go to the front as a nurse, the girl insisted on becoming a soldier of the red army. She was given a task from the height which kept the Soviet troops to shoot from a distance of two Romanians, who worked for the Germans. Lyudmila coped brilliantly, and it is recorded in the 25th Chapayev infantry division.
6 Jun 1942, Lyudmila Pavlichenko in the battle for Sevastopol.
Within a few months Pavlichenko fought near Odessa and in Moldova, and then her mouth was thrown on the defense of Sevastopol from the German troops that besieged the city. Then, due to its stealth and precision, she has earned a reputation of a sniper, which the Germans were afraid of fire. It is destroyed by enemy soldiers packs. It was sent on the most dangerous missions, including the fight with German snipers. Such opposition could last for a few days.
On 6 June 1942, Pavlichenko in the battle for Sevastopol.
Her fame has gone so far that the Germans tried to entice her to him, shouting in megaphones that will give her chocolate and make her an officer. Lyudmila Pavlichenko was wounded four times. When the shrapnel hit her in the face, she was suspended from fighting, so she trained other snipers and engaged in propaganda.
Less than a year of participation in the fighting on her account were 309 confirmed the lethal hits of enemy soldiers. So it has become one of the most successful snipers in history.
In 1942, Pavlichenko during a trip to Washington.
Pavlichenko sent a delegation to the USA, Canada and the UK to persuade the allies to open a second European front to relieve pressure on the Soviet Union. When she traveled to USA along with first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Lyudmila Pavlichenko asked absurd questions about fashion, hair and makeup before the battle. At first, she calmly answered them, but her patience was melting and she started to reproach the Americans for their condescending tone.
Pavlichenko and other members of the Soviet delegation during a trip to Washington in 1942.
Back in the USSR, Pavlichenko became a major and was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, the highest award at that time. Until the end of the war, she trained snipers, and then returned to Kiev and made a historian.
9 Aug 1944, Lyudmila Pavlichenko visited the workers in Odessa.
Lyudmila Pavlichenko died on 27 October 1974 and was buried in the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.
