Stalingrad
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Zaytsev continued to fight on the front for the duration of the war. By the time he saw Berlin, he had attained the rank of captain. After the war he headed a sewing machine factory in Kiev. He died there in 1991. In 2006, in accordance with his wishes, his body was moved from Kiev and interred in a grave on Mamayev Kurgan.
The high reverence the Red Army paid to its snipers did not extend to enemy snipers, who were regarded as mass murderers; those captured were separated from the other prisoners and executed.141 Consider what happened when Colonel Ivan Burmakov, supervising the capture of 71st Infantry Division staff on January 31, 1943, granted Fritz Roske’s request to be allowed to say good-bye to his officers:
His commanders were coming up to him, he was kissing them all and shaking hands. Suddenly an unsightly, sniveling Fritz came up. Here the gesture actually was on Roske’s part. Ilchenko was standing next to me. [Lieutenant Fyodor Ilchenko spoke German and acted as a translator.] So that German comes up. Roske is shaking his hand, kissing him. I ask who that is. Roske replies that it is the best machine gunner in his army who has killed 375 Russians. As soon as I heard “375 Russians” I surreptitiously stepped on the foot of Ilchenko, who was standing next to me. So that sniveling Fritz had barely left the basement before he was done in, before he could take aim at number 376.
COMMISSION ON THE HISTORY OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR
Transcript of interview with comrade V. G. ZAYTSEV
April 12, 1943
Interview conducted by comrade Krol,142 commission research assistant
Stenography by comrade Roslyakova
Vasily Grigorievich ZAYTSEV: Hero of the Soviet Union, Expert sniper143
I was born into a peasant family on April 23, 1915, in the village of Yeleninksky, which is in the Agapov district of the Chelyabinsk region. My father was a forester. Until 1929 I was raised in the forest. I spend my entire childhood in the forest. There I learned how to shoot, and I hunted rabbits, squirrels, foxes, wolves, wild goats. I probably love the forest so much because I spent my entire childhood in the forest. Which means that I’ve never been lost in a forest, even if it was one I’d never been to. I’ve never gotten lost. In 1929 my father joined a collective farm. I went there with my parents to our village, Yeleninsky. [ . . . ] In the summer I tended cattle, I was a herdsman. The Construction Technical School was in Magnitogorsk. I was getting ready to go there at the same time. I still hadn’t made up my mind where to study. I’d only decided that I must study something. I wasn’t all that interested in construction, but I did want to learn. I was embarrassed to be tending cattle. But I kept doing it and went to school at the same time. I’d let in the cows and tie the horse on a long rope. Then I’d sit under a bush to study. I spent the summer of 1929 tending cattle, and that winter I began my studies at the Construction Technical School. If someone had asked me where I wanted to go, I’d have told them straight out that I wanted to go to the aviation institute. I wanted to be a pilot, but these days both my health and my vision are shot. So in 1930 I entered the Construction Technical School. I was an excellent student. In my second and third years I received prizes. My overall grade when I left was “excellent.” I graduated from there in 1932. When I was young I was so small, so skinny and weak. While I was at that school we built the first and second blast furnaces in Magnitogorsk. I built blast and puddling furnaces. And I worked there as a trainee. The workers were old. They had no sense of the theory, but they had a lot of experience. You’d be giving them instructions, and they’d say: “You’re just a kid—I’ve been doing this my entire life, and here you are telling me what to do.” I didn’t like that. It made me feel bad, so I left. I’d been working there three months. Plus it was dirty work. It was hot, and you had to wear all those hot clothes. I started a bookkeeping course. In Shadrinsk I completed a nine-month course to become a bookkeeper. When I finished, they sent me to the Kizilsky district of the Chelyabinsk region. From 1933 I worked as a bookkeeper for the Kizilsky region Community of Consumer Cooperatives. I liked this careful, exacting work. I was a bookkeeper there until 1936. [ . . . ] I enlisted in the military through the Komsomol and joined the Pacific Fleet. I’d been a Komsomol member since technical school. In February 1937 I joined the Pacific Fleet. [ . . . ] Our unit was based in Vladivostok. It’s a unique city, in the mountains. When you compare Vladivostok to Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, Shadrinsk, or Tyumen, it seems rather unpleasant. It’s not a clean place. There are lots of Chinese, Koreans. I didn’t really like them at first, but after I’d spent some time there I got used to the city, got used to the navy, and now I miss the Far East terribly. I’d jump at the chance to serve in any tundra in the Far East. I just love the region. The surroundings are beautiful there, and the city itself is great, I really came to like it. Of course it’s a harsh climate, but I loved that city. If I’m still alive after the war I’ll definitely go serve in the Far East, although they send you back from there after six years, and I’ve already lived there seven years.
By order of the Military Council of the Pacific Fleet, those who graduated with top marks from the Military Supply School were given the rank of quartermaster-technician, 2nd class. This order was communicated via telegraph, and the written document was meant to come later. I had the job and standing of a midgrade officer, but I was still a regular seaman. They put me in charge of a department. I was made a bookkeeper in the 4th Submarine Brigade in Vladivostok. From 1939 to March 1941 I served as a bookkeeper with the rank of quartermaster-technician 2nd class. But when they started looking into promotions, it turned out that my rank hadn’t actually been properly recorded. It turned out that the order from the People’s Commissariat giving me the rank of quartermaster-technician 2nd class was never issued. This upset me, and it was only the beginning of a lot of red tape. I’d been a midgrade officer for six months, and now I was just a regular seaman. Throughout my service I’d never had so much as one disciplinary action, not from the party, the Komsomol, or the service. The Military Council had expressed its gratitude for my work. I’d done nothing wrong the entire time, I had done my job with exceptional discipline. They reached their conclusion: I was to turn in my officer’s uniform and go back to wearing that of a simple seaman. Orders are orders. They denied my request, put me back to barracks, and extended my term of service. I wrote a letter to comrade Stalin. Fifteen days later I got a reply. The reply, written on behalf of comrade Stalin, said: investigate this and file a report. Then everything was sorted out quickly and I was given the status of an extended service man. I was taken from an ordinary seaman and given the grade of a reenlistee with ten years’ worth of service. [ . . . ]
When the Germans began their approach to Stalingrad, we petitioned the Military Council to allow Komsomol sailors to go voluntarily to defend Stalingrad. I volunteered for Stalingrad. [ . . . ] Our unit was formed in Krasnoufimsk that September. On September 6, 1942, we arrived in Krasnoufimsk. On the 7th we were transferred straight from one troop train to the next before leaving for Stalingrad. There were a lot of men on the train, around five thousand of us. In Krasnoufimsk we were assigned to Batyuk’s division, back when it was a regular rifle division. We received our training on the way there, in the railcars. Here’s how I learned to use a machine gun: I put a machine gun on an upper bunk and had a machine gunner tell me about it, show me how it works. I was a commander and he was a soldier, but he was the one teaching me. There I was made the commander of a supply platoon, but I turned that down to be a regular soldier, a rifleman. I picked up a gun and went as a rifleman. I had been a very good shot even while I was still in the navy.
We arrived in Stalingrad on September 21–22. On September 20–21 we were in Burkovka. At that time all of Stalingrad was burning. From morning until 7:00 P.M. there were air battles between our planes and the enemy’s. One after another planes crashed and burned. The whole city was on fire. From the other side of the Volga you could see the flames, the tongues of flame that all merged together to form one enormous ball
of fire. The wounded walked and crawled. They were being transported across the Volga. Seeing all this has a profound effect on a new arrival. It filled us with hatred and rage.
We’d already cleaned our weapons and fixed bayonets. We were just waiting, waiting impatiently. We were on full alert. We were carrying our ammunition, mortars, machine guns. We arrived at the Volga in secret and crossed on the night of September 21–22. We were given a representative from a Guards division, but I can’t remember which one. After we crossed the Volga, we were standing on the riverbank. The Germans were already in the city by then. They spotted us at 6:00 A.M. and attacked with heavy mortar fire. There were twelve fuel tanks. We occupied the area around them. We took those twelve fuel tanks. Then sixty enemy aircraft flew in and started attacking us. They blew up the tanks, and we got covered in gasoline. We fell back to the Volga, where we dunked ourselves in the water as we ripped off all our burning clothes. We were left only in our undershirts. Some were even naked, and some covered themselves with their tarps. With rifles at the ready, we went on the attack. We forced the Germans out of the factory area, from the Metiz factory and the meatpacking plant. There we dug in. After a while the Germans attacked, but we held back every one of their assaults.
After those early battles the battalion commander took me on as his adjutant. I was the adjutant to the battalion commander, his right-hand man. During the fighting our battalion was scattered, and the Germans managed to disrupt our combat formations. The battalion commander ordered me to gather our men together and contact him. I had my own adjutant, and the two of us began gathering the men and putting the companies back together. We could only account for around seven men in each company. Later, when we were done, there were around sixty or seventy in each of the companies. We organized our battle formations. One of our units was getting held up in the Long Ravine and had begun to retreat. I went over there with my orderly. The battalion commander gave me orders to keep the enemy at bay and hold the line. I followed his orders and held the line. We attacked, repelled the Germans, and straightened out the line. We stalled the German advance. After those battles, when we were on the defensive, command nominated me for the Medal for Valor. On October 23, 1942, I received the Medal for Valor.
The Germans started sending out snipers to pin down our movements. Once I was with the battalion commander, Captain Kotov, and we saw this German jump out. He gives me an order: “There’s a German over there: kill him.” I bring up my rifle, fire, and the German drops. About eighty meters, and I killed him with an ordinary rifle. People got pretty excited. Everyone knew me there, and I already had a lot of authority over the men. They joked about it, but they were impressed. We could see another one coming out to help the first. The one I’d killed was probably carrying a message. Someone yelled: “Zaytsev, Zaytsev, there’s another one coming, get that one too.” I brought up my rifle, shot—and he fell. That’s two of them in the space of half an hour. I was beginning to like this. I stood at the window and looked. Another German was crawling out to the two dead men. I shot and killed him.
The sniper Vasily Zaytsev (right) and his students move into an ambush position in Stalingrad, December 1942
Two days later I got my own sniper rifle with a telescopic sight. Captain Kotov gave it to me on behalf of the regimental commander, Colonel Metelyov. I started learning how to shoot with this rifle. We had one sniper in our regiment, Alexander Kalentyev. He helped me get to know this sniper rifle. I went around with Kalentyev for three days, observing his movements, seeing how he worked with his rifle. Lieutenant Vasily Bolsheshchapov helped me learn the mechanical aspects of the rifle. After that I began staging ambushes and was having a lot of success. Operating on my own would make it easier to keep tabs on the Germans. On top of that, there were a lot of people hunting for me. The Germans already knew who I was.
I decided to recruit more snipers and train them. Since I was killing three or four Germans every day, I started looking for students. I took on five or six students. We had lessons in a forge. They learned the mechanical aspects of the rifle in a ventilation pipe at the Metiz factory. We’d get to the forge, I’d show them how to shoot, and then we’d go out to lie in wait for the enemy. I recruited about thirty students altogether. Once I was convinced they could handle their weapons skillfully, I’d take them with me on an ambush—one, two, three days. These people got used to shooting. They studied the enemy’s defensive positions, his activities, and so on. I chose these people myself. They were my friends, and I loved them. We shared everything: sometimes we didn’t have much in the way of food, and you’d have to share whatever biscuits or tobacco you had. When people see that you are open and honest with them, they develop affection for you. I hope that if someone comes to love me, they won’t ever give up on me, and I won’t give up on them. I taught them to remember my every word. This is how I recruited and trained my students.
It’s not that difficult to assess someone’s fighting qualities at the front. A sniper has got to be daring, cold-blooded, and persistent; he must master his weapon, be a competent tactician, and have good eyesight. These are the qualities that determine whether someone can be a sniper. I taught them and went out with them on ambushes.
In one area, at Mamayev Kurgan, we needed to take this one bunker that was keeping us from moving around—crossing from one district to another, bringing out food and ammunition. Command gave us the task of taking this bunker. Our infantry had tried several times, but their attacks had failed. German snipers were in the area. I sent two snipers from my group, but they missed, got wounded, and were put out of action. The battalion commander ordered me to go there myself and take two other snipers with me. I set off. I encountered a skilled German sniper. I stuck a helmet out from a trench, and he shot it immediately. I had to work out where he was. This was very difficult to do because he’d shoot and kill you the moment you try to take a look. Which means you’ve got to trick him, outsmart him. That is, you’ve got to use the right tactics. I put my helmet on a parapet, he shoots, and the helmet goes flying. I hunted him for five hours. I had to resort to the following method. I took off one of my mittens, put it on a board, and stuck it up out of the trench. The German thinks that someone is putting his hands up in surrender, that he doesn’t want to fight. The German shoots. I take down the glove and see where it has been shot through. Based on the holes I work out where he’s shooting from. If the glove is shot from this side, that means he’s over here. If he’s somewhere else, then the glove has a hole on the other side. This shot indicated the direction he was shooting from. I grabbed a trench periscope and started looking. I found him. Our infantry was right on the front line. They’d only have to go thirty meters to reach that German bunker. I’d tracked him down. He got up to observe our infantry. To do this, he put down his rifle. Right then I popped out of the trench, shouldered my rifle, and shot. I got him. Then I opened fire on the embrasures in the bunker, where their machine guns were firing from. I started shooting at the embrasures to keep the machine gunners from getting to their guns. Then our infantry rushed the bunker. We took it without any losses.
Here there was only one good tactic: I had to outsmart my opponent. That kept us from losing anyone and let us achieve our objectives.
On one hill there was a company that had been cut off by German snipers and machine guns. It wasn’t easy getting there. Command was trying to find out where the enemy was hiding. They went out two or three times but couldn’t find them. Colonel Metelyov, our regimental commander, asked me to locate the enemy firing positions, find where the snipers were hiding, and clear the approach. I set off with two of my men, privates Nikolai Kulikov and Dvoyashkin. We left at 5:00 A.M., before dawn. During the day you can’t see the flashes, you can’t see where they’re shooting from, which is why you’ve got to work at night. We dropped into a trench, rolled a large cigarette, and made a kind of a cross out of sticks. Then we wrapped rags around it to produce something resembling a face. We gave him a helmet
, stuck the lit cigarette in his mouth, put coat on, and showed him off. The German sniper sees a man smoking a cigarette. When someone shoots in the dark you can see the flash clearly. That’s how I was able to locate the German sniper. When Kulikov held up this stick decoy, the German started shooting at it. He’d shoot, Kulikov would lower it, and then he’d hold it back up again. The German would think he hadn’t got him, so he’d start shooting again. By that time I’d managed to pinpoint the locations of the German emplacement and the snipers. I wasn’t able to take out the snipers. I could only find out where they were. I got in touch with our antitank artillery. They destroyed the German bunkers and killed the snipers. That was how we got to the company that had been cut off.
You’ve got to be resourceful. You’ve got to find the right tactical approach to outwit the enemy. Killing him doesn’t take long. But outwitting him, thinking about how to get the better of him—that’s not so easy.
Here’s another example. We were trying to take this concrete bridge. After several attempts we still hadn’t succeeded. Our attacks had all gone wrong. I snuck off with a group of four snipers to the Germans’ flank. Actually, we slipped right through to his rear. We climbed up into the bombed-out buildings. When our guys started attacking, the Germans would run out and throw grenades. It was then, when they emerged from their cover, that we began picking them off. They spotted us and brought out one of their guns. We killed the whole crew. In about two hours the four of us killed twenty-eight Germans. That was on December 17, 1942. Our infantry managed to occupy that heavily fortified bridge. The bridge had withstood so many assaults, a lot of direct fire, but it couldn’t be destroyed. The concrete was around six meters thick. Hit it with a shell—and all you do is leave a dent in it.