History 09/02/20 Erwin könig: was there a German “super-sniper” from the memoirs Zaitsev
the existence of “super-sniper” Wehrmacht Erwin Koenig known by the memoirs of one of the most successful shooters of the Soviet Vasily Zaitsev. The duel of two snipers was the basis of the plot of the Hollywood film “enemy at the gates”. However, some researchers doubt that rabbits are actually faced with a formidable opponent.
the Fight
In his memoirs, Vasily Zaitsev “Beyond the Volga land for us there was not” confrontation with the Koenig dedicated the penultimate Chapter. Rabbits first learned about the arrival of the enemy in Stalingrad from the “language” which grabbed the scouts.
“during the interrogation, he said that the fascist command was seriously concerned about the actions of our snipers, wrote birds. – From Berlin taken on the plane of the head of the school of German sniper major Konig, who was ordered to kill, first of all, the words of the prisoner, “chief hare”.
Soviet hands immediately dubbed the enemy “swarmsnapper” or “super-sniper”. After a while of bullets Koenig suffered colleagues Zaitseva – experienced snipers Morozov and shaykin. Mutual “hunting” Russian and German for each other lasted for 4 days. Eventually, Zaitsev was able to pick up Koenig in the neutral zone and tries to get him to stick his head out of hiding.
“I did. The head of the fascist settled, and the scope of his rifle still glistened in the sun,” Zaitsev described the death of the enemy.
In some versions of the history of German called Erwin (Erich) Koenig, there is also the option of writing the names of the Konigs. To avoid confusion could the publication of documents “of swarmsnapper” that Zaitsev had provided the division commander. However, their whereabouts are unknown. However, from Koenig’s something still remained.
“At present, the major Kniga rifle (Mauser 98k) is the exposition of the Central Museum of the Armed Forces in Moscow. Unlike all standard both German and Soviet rifles of the time, where the increase in scope was only 3-4 times as large an increase could only work virtuosos, the sight on the rifle of the chief of the Berlin school had an increase in 10 times”, – stated in the article researchers Andrew Skripnikov and Alexander Dolgov.
the legendary duel was a “continuation”. The widow of Soviet sniper Zinaida Zaitseva talked about post-war Berlin, when at one of the events took the word “the daughter of major Koenig”. She accused the Soviet of the arrow is a lie. Then the hares chose not to argue with a German, and drove away.
what was the “Koenig”?
the identity of the victim of a sniper is not completely installed. No major Konig isn’t Goebbels the propaganda extolled, in contrast to, for example, from such snipers, as Matthias Hetzenauer (345 destroyed Soviet fighters) or Josef Allerberger (257 slain enemies). However, this is understandable – on the front of Koenig called for the destruction of one of the main goal. If he had killed Zaitsev, most of all, I would return to Berlin.
Historian Alan Clark identified Koenig as the head of the school of snipers in Zossen, standartenfuhrer SS Heinz Thorwald. And the Briton Frank Ellis in the book “the Stalingrad cauldron” published by the University of Kansas, says that no “swarnapuri” did not exist. He drew attention to the inconsistency in the story Zaitseva – evening sun could not Shine in the face of Koenig, as the German positions were to the West, and Soviet in the East. However, this author might be suspected of bias against the red army, because Ellis is close to the European ultra-right circles. In addition, on the front line in Stalingrad, there were areas where the Germans were geographically East of the Russian.
So no reason to doubt the veracity of the stories Zaitsev no. Though, because he’s not said anything special. Major Koenig was not a “Superman”, and those two Soviet dreamipera, whom he shot survived. With various “supersniper” there were more Soviet hands. For example, a sniper Ilya Grigoriev told the writer Vladimir Karpov on “duel” with a certain Hans, which ended in favor of the red army.
Timur Sagdiyev
Source:
© Russian Seven
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