History 10/02/20 Josef Allerberger: why “second shooter of the Wehrmacht” preferred a Russian rifle
In an informal ranking of the most effective snipers of the Third Reich, Josef Allerberger takes second place, second only to Mattias Hetzenauer. On account of Allerberger 257 of the red army. Many of them were killed by the Soviet trophy trehlineyki.
“It was a sign of fate…”
Like other eminent hands of the Wehrmacht, Josef Allerberger was of Austrian origin. Native to mountainous Styria at the age of 18 he was drafted into the Alpine 144 mountain infantry regiment of the 3rd mountain division, which fought on the Eastern front.
From mid-1943, Allerberger served for a time as a machine gunner. Under Voroshilov in Luhansk region of Ukraine the bullet hit him in the arm. While recovering Sepp, as he was called by the soldiers, pondered over how he would survive the war. Century gunners in the Wehrmacht was short-lived – according to him, the enemy shot first, machine-gun nests treated with powerful artillery. Salvation from imminent death came in the form of captured Soviet weapons.
“It was a sign of fate that among the weapons that sorted, I found only one Russian sniper rifle. Only after seeing it, I hastened to ask the non-commissioned officer of armament, not if she was to practice”, – told Allerberger Albrecht Wacker, author of the book “the German sniper on the Eastern front”.
the Sergeant saw a young Austrian man, able “to give Ivan a good thrashing”. And I was right. After a few days of Allerberger fall from 300 metres in the small box of ammunition.
“War cannot be ethical…”
To the front as a sniper Sepp returned in August 1943. The first 9 months he fought with the Soviet Mosin rifle with optical sight. The Wehrmacht sniper weapons are not enough, and many snipeEPAM had to use the trophy.
“While the German army until 1940 continued to use the old pre-war scopes, the Red Army developed modern sniper weapons and prepared a huge amount of snipers,” said Ellenberger.
memories of the sniper is very much the “dirty truth of war.” For example, according to Allerberger, snipers have closely followed the trenches, waiting for the moment when someone of enemy soldiers will appear there in all growth, for example, to throw a jar of excrement. Every murder of Russian zeppa recorded by notches in the butt. During the battle Allerberger tried not to kill the enemy, but to wound in the torso. The soldiers felt unbearable pain, and their screams have had a demoralizing effect on colleagues.
“When the Russians were routed, especially effective were the shots in which the bullet fell retreating in the kidneys. In these cases, the wounded had started for the beast to scream and howl. As a result the attack often ended abruptly,” said the sniper.
By his own admission, Allerberger, remorse he felt. Mountain shooter learned the truth, which was that “war may not be ethical or heroic.” In addition to phenomenal accuracy, Sepp is perfectly mastered the art of camouflage. According to unconfirmed information, corporal of Allerberger became one of the few representatives of the lower ranks, awarded the Knight’s cross.
the Way home
Joseph broke up with the Russian three-line in 1944, before sending to the training of snipers in Germany. In part, he returned with a carbine Mauser 98k with a scope Hensoldt company. Only now, at the end of the war, the German optics was the superior Soviet. But Germany it could not save it from defeat, and Allerberger began thinking about his personal fate. His name was well enough known thanks to Nazi propaganda. Therefore, in the last days of the war, not to get in Ruki Russian, Allerberger went into the forest. From the Czech Republic he reached Styria, came to the house of his parents on 5 June 1945. The rest of my life “second shooter of the Wehrmacht” worked as a carpenter in the village. He died at the age of 85 in 2010.
Timur Sagdiyev
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© Russian Seven
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