# Sniper on the Eastern Front



## WayneDraper (10 Apr 2006)

The Subject is the Title of a book that I am reading.  It is a true story and account of Sepp Allerberger.  He had to join the German military at the age of 17.  He started out as an MG and was injured in the hand and sent to a hospital.  While recovering there he was helping sorting out Russia weapons and came across a sniper's rifle.  He started to practise with it and got to be a great shot.  At this point Germany did not have any snipers.
In his book he does not leave anything out.  So if you like description's he holds nothing back.  It took a writer over 50 years to get him to tell his story in writing.  The book is called Sniper on the Eastern Front,
The Memoirs of Sepp Allerberger.  He also received the Knights Cross.
The writer is Albrecht Wacker, ISBN 1-84415-317-7,Published by Pen & Sword Military an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd, England.  This book holds your interest from page to page.
My question is this:  Where did the Sniper first appear and how did they start?


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## Jungle (10 Apr 2006)

The term Sniper comes from the time of the British Army in India. Back then, they were hunting a bird called the snipe; to be successful, a snipe hunter had to have very good fieldcraft in order to stalk the bird, and be a good shot because of it's size and flight pattern. So a good snipe hunter became a Sniper...


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## larry Strong (10 Apr 2006)

I can find no listing for a Sepp Allerberger, amongst the listing of the "Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes" (Holders of the Knightscross). There have been lots of stories written after the war by people purporting to have "Been there, Done that, Got the T-shirt".

Amongst them some of the more famous who have created controversy would be:

Sven Hassel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sven_Hassel

Guy Sager

http://members.shaw.ca/grossdeutschland/sajer.htm


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## Rhibwolf (10 Apr 2006)

Sepp is a familar form of Joseph.  Josef "Sepp" Allerberger is recognized as the second leading German sniper of WW II with a total number of recognized kills at 257. Josef served all of his time, 1943-1945, on the Eastern Front fighting the Russians. In one engagement alone he killed 58 Russians which prompted his recognition by higher and the eventual award of the Knight's Cross. Due to the German Army's strict accountability system he was never given full credit for his total number of kills. His total number of kills was most likely double of what is recognized.
He is easily googled, http://www.snipercentral.com/snipers.htm  http://www.snipersparadise.com/history/german.htm  
Came across this too, but not sure if it could be substantiated: I believe the latest reprint of "Im Auge des Jaegers" indicates that Franz Karner is a pseudonym for Josef Sepp Allerberger (note spelling of his surname). The purpose of the ruse was primarily to protect Allerberger's identity and origins should anybody want to seek him or his family out for reprisal. Therefore in the book he was represented as a German from Mittenwald whereas he is a native of Salzburg. Allerberger fought alongside Franz Roth, who was also 3.Geb.Div. Both these snipers were awarded the Knights Cross by FM Schoerner as an unusual alternative to the German Cross in Gold.

No idea if the Ritterkreuz is real, but he certainly is.


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## Blue Max (11 Apr 2006)

In the movie "Enemy At the Gate",  Vasili Zaitzev's sniper protege that gets killed by Maj Koenig, relays his story of being trained by the Germans as a sniper just before the start of Op-Barbarossa. As well Maj Koenig/Konig was supposed to have been the commandant of the sniper school as Zossen.

From WayneDraper; " At this point Germany did not have any snipers."

Can anyone square this circle for me. I realize that the former was only a movie, and Hollywood takes a lot of artistic licence, but the latter statement from Sepp Allerberger, paints a confusing picture. I would have thought that sniping would have had a school of some kind after the WW1 experiences of all sides?


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## larry Strong (11 Apr 2006)

No denying the man existed, and the best I can find is: 

He was reportedly awarded the Ritterkreuz by Ferdinand Schörner on April 20th 1945, although no official documentation ever recorded the award. This was not uncommon at this late point in the war, however.  

But I have searched 3 list for both names and no hit, though I can come up with names for RK's awarded long after the cessation of hostilities (Sept, Nov '45) To the Germans, it was not the medal that counted, but the Urkunde or Award document that authorised them to wear the award. The medals themselves could be bought at Jewelry stores .


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## WayneDraper (24 Apr 2006)

WayneDraper said:
			
		

> The Subject is the Title of a book that I am reading.  It is a true story and account of Sepp Allerberger.  He had to join the German military at the age of 17.  He started out as an MG and was injured in the hand and sent to a hospital.  While recovering there he was helping sorting out Russia weapons and came across a sniper's rifle.  He started to practise with it and got to be a great shot.  At this point Germany did not have any snipers.
> In his book he does not leave anything out.  So if you like description's he holds nothing back.  It took a writer over 50 years to get him to tell his story in writing.  The book is called Sniper on the Eastern Front,
> The Memoirs of Sepp Allerberger.  He also received the Knights Cross.
> The writer is Albrecht Wacker, ISBN 1-84415-317-7,Published by Pen & Sword Military an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd, England.  This book holds your interest from page to page.
> My question is this:  Where did the Sniper first appear and how did they start? Who was the first country to have snipers in a war?


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## larry Strong (24 Apr 2006)

The term sniper is attested from 1824 in the sense of "sharpshooter". The verb to snipe originated in the 1770s among soldiers in British India in the sense of "to shoot from a hidden place", in allusion to snipe hunting, a game bird known for being difficult to sneak up on.

The term thus emphasizes field craft and skills of camouflage as well as marksmanship, and is typically used of infantry soldiers so skilled, specializing in killing selected enemies from concealment with a rifle at long distances.

During the American Civil War, the common term used instead of sniper in the United States for much the same function as sniper was skirmisher . A Civil War army often protected itself when on the move by using such concealed marksmen, who were deployed individually on the extremes of the moving army. Generally, such skirmishers were selected on the basis of prior proven hunting and marksmanship skills, and they were often older men in their 40's or 50's. [1] The term sniper hence did not reach widespread use in the United States until somewhat later than the American Civil War.

In the last few decades the term 'sniper' has been used rather loosely, especially by media in association with police precision riflemen, those responsible for assassination, any shooting from all but the shortest range in war, and any criminal equipped with a rifle in a civil context.[citation needed] This has rather expanded the general understanding of the meaning of the term. It has also given the term 'sniper' distinctly pejorative connotations. This explains the increasing use of alternative terms, especially for police snipers such as "counter-sniper", "precision marksman", "tactical marksman", "sharpshooter" or "precision shooter".

Taken from Wikipedia


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## sober_ruski (25 Apr 2006)

On History channel a couple days ago they had a piece on snipers.
Germany first had snipers in WW1, which resulted in Brits getting ghillies (scots? dont remember) to hunt down german snipers.
In WW2 Russians had snipers and sharpshooters to counteract an already existing threat of German snipers. They even trained about 2000 women snipers who ruthlessly slaughtered a lot of Germans (they did have a damn good reason to), but only ~500 survived. One racking up more than 250-ish kills.


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