VASILY ZAITSEV

ALLEGIANCE: Soviet Union LENGTH OF SERVICE: 1937-45 KILLS: 225

When Germany invaded, Vasily Zaitsev was serving as a clerk in the Pacific Fleet on the far side of Russia. He requested a frontline posting and arrived in time for the Battle of Stalingrad. It was a move that paid off handsomely: Zaitsev killed 32 enemy soldiers with a standard-issue rifle, and his kill-count increased rapidly after he was given a sniper rifle and optical sight.

He excelled amid the burned-out buildings of Stalingrad. In two bloody months he killed 225 enemy soldiers from concealed positions. As his reputation grew, Zaitsev was given command of multiple snipers and ordered to defend several open areas. He developed a strategy in which three snipers worked together from three different positions, each supported by an observer.

Posthumous Hollywood fame came in 2001 with the release of Enemy at the Gates, a film based on a sniper duel between Zaitsev and the head of a German sniper school brought to Stalingrad to eliminate the Soviet marksman. Whether this duel actually took place is debated by historians, although Zaitsev is credited with killing 11 German snipers. A mortar attack damaged his eyesight, but the Hero of the Soviet Union recovered sufficiently to return to the front line in 1945.

“IN TWO BLOODY MONTHS HE KILLED 225 ENEMY SOLDIERS”