SNIPER ON THE EASTERN FRONT: The Memoirs of Sepp Allerberger, Knights Cross

[Badger]

For anyone wanting to get a sense of what it was like to operate as a German sniper during WWII on the eastern front, this is a highly interesting read. I notice that the only person who reviewed on Amazon didn't like it, but I did.

Extract from the "cover flap". A Sniper on the Eastern Front begins when Allerberger, a front-line machine-gunner, receives a minor hand wound in combat. While convalescing, he happens upon a captured Red Army sniper rifle and, on a lark, starts shooting targets with it. Those around him immediately realize what his real talent is. Allerberger is made a sniper on the spot, issued an 8x scope to go with his Russian gun, and sent out on a more or less freelance mission to kill as many Soviets as he can. What follows is his memoir of operating in a landscape of nightmares. ~~~ In the beginning, Allerberger wonders whether he’s doing a noble or cowardly thing. Plenty of soldiers, even on his own side, hated snipers. But this was the Eastern Front, the worst place in the unholy epic of human warfare. In one scene, seconds after an artillery attack, Allerberger’s charred, steaming and limbless comrade looks him in the eye and asks, “What happened? Why is it so dark?” Then he begins to cry and dies on the spot. ~~~ “Alas, there was no place for sentimentality in this war,” Allerberger reflects, and pulls the trigger one more time.

I thought this passage was interesting and gave a good indication, as to the more realistic distances WWII sniper equipment was actually used at. Shooting can be learned, particularly as the shooting skills of marksmen are overrated in the military context. The reality of service in the field showed that shooting distances for small arms were 400m at most, and usually below 200m, and if the marksman aimed at the middle of the largest surface a hit became almost certain. Absolute reliability, methodical routine and sure hits made a marksman, not artistic shots from hundreds of metres away. Such long-distance shots were more like a party trick, if they were sucessful at all.

I found my copy on Amazon.com. ......

[Click to Enlarge


SNIPER ON THE EASTERN FRONT: The Memoirs of Sepp Allerberger, Knights Cross (Cick here for Amazon.com)
Hardcover: 196 pages
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books (January 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1844153177
ISBN-13: 978-1844153176
Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.6 x 2.4 cm
Shipping Weight: 440 g

Editor's Description from Amazon

Josef "Sepp" Allerberger was the second most successful sniper of the German Wehrmacht and one of the few private soldiers to be honoured with the award of the Knight's Cross.

An Austrian conscript, after qualifying as a machine gunner he was drafted to the southern sector of the Russian Front in July 1942. Wounded at Voroshilovsk, he experimented with a Russian sniper-rifle while convalescing and so impressed his superiors with his proficiency that he was returned to the front on his regiment's only sniper specialist.

In this sometimes harrowing memoir, Allerberger provides an excellent introduction to the commitment in fieldcraft, discipline and routine required of the sniper, a man apart. There was no place for chivalry on the Russian Front. Away from the film cameras, no prisoner survived long after surrendering. Russian snipers had used the illegal explosive bullet since 1941, and Hitler eventually authorised its issue in 1944. The result was a battlefield of horror.

Allerberger was a cold-blooded killer, but few will find a place in their hearts for the soldiers of the Red Army against whom he fought.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.