History 09/03/20 Snipers-“cuckoo” on Winter warfare: why are they so afraid of the red army
the Soviet-Finnish war 1939-40 concluded that the territorial claims of the USSR to Finland were satisfied. However, this victory was achieved at the cost of very serious losses of the Soviet side. And one of the reasons for these losses have become famous snipers-“Kuckuck and”. They were virtually invisible and very effective. It is not surprising that their deadly activities have created many myths.
the Myths about snipers–“the cuckoos”
Soviet fighters told about the hundreds and thousands of Finnish snipers that await his victim, sitting on the trees, and prigovarivaya smiling “bird language”. Therefore, they were nicknamed the “cuckoos”. Talked about their ability to literally disappear, as to sink into the ground. Just picked up “the cuckoo” on a pine tree, and began firing from all sides with machine guns, the barrel literally in half cut queues. And, behold, a tree falls, but no trace of “cuckoo”. Only a small wooden platform in the branches. Where is the shooter himself – find him! The officers were told, however, the story is quite the opposite: that chained “cuckoo” to his “nest” tightly – chains.
In any case, chained or, on the contrary, free as birds, those snipers-“cuckoo” inspired our soldiers genuine fear. And the reason it was mainly their unfathomable accuracy, and elusiveness.
actually
the History of hundreds and thousands of snipers, of course, an exaggeration. There is evidence that the weapons the Finnish army at that time was only 200 sniper rifles. Correct to say that on the Finnish side fought a lot of shooters, not snipers in the strict sense of the word. These arrows were part of divisions of the civil guards – structures, akin to our people’s militia. All of these people before the war were the hunters in a wooded Finland every man the hunter. The shyutskorovtsev equidovali yourself a “nest” on the hills, in the attics of houses, and much less on the trees. They often worked in pairs. While one sat with a gun in the “nest”, the other slept in the bunker, hosted down at the foot of a tree or somewhere nearby. If “the cuckoo” was detected, and the need arose to leave, the shooter slid off the trunk of the rope and hid in the shelter. It was not for the Finns problem and go to the forest to ski. The whole population of Finland – a great ski in the forest shyutskorovtsev was both at home and of the legends of instantaneous disappearance. Stories about chained to the trunks of pine snipers spawned in part by Soviet propaganda, which had to explain the effectiveness of the Finnish shooters, partly because sometimes the arrows actually insured, tying himself to the trunk with rope or chain. “Bird talk” snipers – also from the category of myths. It is likely that hands and give each other some signals, imitating bird calls, but since it was winter, it is unlikely that they used cries of cuckoo birds, as you know, are migratory birds.
During the whole period of the Soviet-Finnish war there is only one officially documented limited episode of the destruction of Finnish sniper-“cuckoo”. It was January 3, 1940. Soldiers of the 1st company of the 1st battalion 4 paganfolk knocked an arrow. He sat really on the tree.
the Story of one sniper
the Finnish arrows-“cuckoo” fought against the red army, but, nevertheless, it is impossible not to admire the courage and skill with which they defended their country. Here is the story of one of these people who have become, in a sense, the embodiment of the Finnish national spirit. This is the sniper Simo Hayha. He became one of the most effective snipers in the history of warfare. According to various estimates Simo destroyed from 542 to 742 of the red army. Experts estimate that to achieve such a result, Simo had to kill 5 people in a day, given the short winter day, one per hour. Much of what used Simo Hayha for masking, usedll fighters spetspodrazdeleniya minutes today. For example, in order not to give yourself breathing in the cold while breathing inevitably arise clouds of steam – it sucked in the snow. The trick is simple, but it saved his life, and saves currently, many soldiers, leading the special operation in the winter. This is a very short man, it was just six feet tall, was a crack shot and a brave soldier. At the end of the war in the melee he received a wound in the face, which disfigured him forever. After the war Hayha lived modestly in their small manor house bred dogs engaged in hunting. He died in 2002.
Russian Seven
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