how did ludmilla pavlachinko become the highest scoring female sniper in history why was she
adored by the allies and even the white house as a war hero what did her enemies think of her hello
i'm colin heaton former soldier marine corps scout sniper history professor historian and book author
and we'll answer these questions and other issues on this segment of forgotten history
when germany invaded the soviet union the germans faced a shocked unprepared red army
their best and brightest military leadership had been killed in stalin's purges or sent to siberian
gulags one major soviet city after another fell and two million soviet soldiers became
prisoners of war within the first five months and the like number had been killed
ludmila pavlachenko was born on july 12th 1916 in bellatzerka ukraine and was a student
at the university of kev majoring in history when she decided to enlist
due to her good looks at small stature she was not taken seriously and rebuffed despite her expert
marksmanship certificate required through training during the german romanian attacks in ukraine
she was taken to a location and the officer in charge pointed out enemies about 500 yards away
wanting her to show she was as skilled with a rifle as she made out a red army unit
held an impromptu trial at a hill they were defending
and handed her a rifle she shot two romanians with open sights within a minute of each other
and impressed the officer who has hined her to the 25th rifle division
within the first three months of operating in odessa she had 200 confirmed kills and
had mastered camouflage concealment and stalking the trademarks of a good sniper
her skills were needed elsewhere and she was relocated to sevastopol as field marshal eric
von manstein's 11th army group was closing the ring around the crimea during this time
after she reached her score of 100 kills she married her fellow sniper alexei kincinko
due to the germans placing their own well-trained snipers to target soviet officers pavlichenko
began stalking the german snipers 36 are her kills were in sniper versus sniper duels and knowing
the terrain and using various styles of homemade camouflage which we snipers called ghillie suits
she was never observed like her fellow snipers vasily zaitsev and nikolai iljin who served at
stalingrad german intelligence learned who she was they even made radio broadcasts offering
her money rank and favored treatment if she defected as tens of thousands of ukrainians
already had lurmilla pavlichinko was wounded four times by shrapnel and once by a machine gun bullet
but she never wavered and after each wounding and recovery she returned and continued doing her job
the last injury saw her wounded in the face nearly losing an eye following a german mortar attack
called in on her position after she made her final kill of the war stalin personally had her
evacuated by submarine to keep her out of german hands by the time of her wounding she had recorded
a total of 309 kills but the unofficial count is as high as 400 and remember 36 of those were
german snipers in her second month recovering from her last wounds in the hospital she was
visited by an nkvd officer with a personal note from joseph stalin she was to go to the united
states of america and meet president franklin d roosevelt and the first lady in the white house
in 1942 she arrived to great fanfare and following a paparazzi review joined first lady
eleanor roosevelt on a cross-country propaganda tour the united states government presented her
with a cult semiotic pistol a model 1911 and following her usa tour she also toured canada
and the united kingdom describing her battles and explaining the roles of women in the soviet army
in toronto ontario while touring canada with fellow sniper vladimir petulensev
and moscow fuel commissioner nikolai kravchenko she was presented a model 70 winchester rifle
equipped with a weaver telescopic sight this rifle is now in the central armed forces museum
in moscow while she was on tour her husband was also fighting and she learned that he
had been killed in action after her uk tour she returned home and was assigned by a senior sniper
as an instructor where she remained until the war was over on stalin's personal order she then
returned to school and earned her master's degree in military history and worked as an assistant
researcher for the soviet navy until 1953. pavlachinko was very active in veterans groups
and was very supportive of helping female veterans of the war but why did the enemies think about her
world war ii austrian sniper matheus hetzenauer who had 345 confirmed and another 200 unconfirmed
kills while serving the third mountain division mentioned her quote we knew who she was she was
quite famous her field craft was excellent and i know that she killed some of our best snipers
who was best me sepalaberger or her i would have to say that part of what gives a sniper the edge
is fighting on home ground and that was her advantage besides her natural skill in 1957
eleanor roosevelt visited the soviet union and wanted to meet with pavlochinko once again the
former first lady called her the perfect example of a woman warrior and a great
friend however pavlochinko's life fell into a dark place she suffered from severe depression
post-traumatic stress disorder and had severe alcohol problems their primary issue was that
she never recovered from the loss of her husband who had been killed and she never remarried in
the soviet system there was no psychiatric therapy or treatment for veterans as such medical practice
was considered unsoviet and voodoo science and rejected out of hand on october 10 1974
ludmila pavlichenko died of a stroke at age 58 and was buried in nava davichi cemetery in moscow with
full military honors ludmila pavlichenko had been awarded the order of lenin twice
and also hero of the soviet union she was just one of many soviet women who served with great
distinction breaking barriers and proving that a woman with a mission can be a very deadly opponent
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