November Weapon of the Month

Posted by Christopher Eger Nov 7, 2006

Russia is a land of extremes. The Soviet Union was even more so. When shifty Adolf decided to bite off more than he could chew by launching the largest land invasion in modern history in his attack on the Soviet Union he started the end of his thousand year Reich. The soviet army had polished its doctrine of sniper tactics in the 1930s, inherited from the old Rifle Brigades of the Tsarist Army, to a point of readiness unseen in other armies. The soviets placed approaching a quarter million snipers in the field during the war, each trying to place as many Axis officers and weapons crewmen in their sights for a one shot kill with their Mosin Nagant M1891/30. Normandy and El Alemin were sideshows of World War two in Europe--it was the Eastern Front that bled Hitler dry. And on the Eastern front it was the sniper that turned the tide.