LYUDMILA PAVLICHENKO

ALLEGIANCE: Soviet Union LENGTH OF SERVICE: 1941-53 KILLS: 309

When Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Lyudmila Pavlichenko rushed to join up. She rejected the recruiting officer’s suggestion that she become a nurse and insisted that she become a sniper due to her childhood years on the shooting range.

Any hesitation that Pavlichenko might have had in taking another life evaporated when a fellow soldier was shot as he hid in her sniper’s nest at the Siege of Odessa. “After that, nothing could stop me,” Pavlichenko later wrote. She got the first of her kills later that day when she shot two German scouts. During the next two months Pavlichenko claimed more than 100 other victims. After Axis troops overran Odessa, she was withdrawn and sent to a second city under siege: Sevastopol.

The Germans feared the enemy they named Lady Death. Wehrmacht snipers were despatched to take her out, but Pavlichenko was successful in 36 tense duels. Some lasted for days until her opponent made a false move. Pavlichenko was pulled from the front line after being hit by shrapnel, but the Germans still wanted revenge. They broadcast messages over loudspeakers threatening to tear her into 309 pieces after they captured the city. “They even know my score!” the delighted sniper exclaimed.