Who was Germanys top Sniper in WW2?

[Kameraden]

Just on Ebay and noticed info on a Sepp Allenberger.
Says he was Germanys second highest scoring Sniper with 257 kills.

So who was No1??

Thanx

[Kameraden]

Got my answer
http://wio.boom.ru/tank/sniper.htm

Thx

[schwedi]

That were real killer mashines!!
Sorry for that but it must be said!!

[Teemu H.]

You might want to check these statistics too, I don't know which one is right.

http://www.snipercentral.com/snipers.htm

On my opinion, don't trust too much on the soviet kill records, since they used snipers rather extensively on propaganda purposes.

[Abwehr]

I wouldn't trust those snipercentral stats...they list Major Koenig as the best German sniper!

[Fallschirmjager]

All three were members of the Third Mountain Division of the Wehrmacht. No SS, dispite Himmler's propaganda.

Matthais Hetzenauer of Tyrol fought at the Eastern Front from 1943 to the end of the war, and with 345 certified hits is the most successful German sniper.

Sepp Allerberger of Salzburg fought at the Eastern Front from December 1942, to the end of the war, and with 257 certified hits is the second-best German sniper.

HelMut Wirnsberger of Styria fought at the Eastern Front from September 1942, to the end of the war and scored 64 certified hits (after being wounded he served for some time as instructor on a sniper training course).

[Apothis]

In the movie "Enemy of the Gates", he was said to be the finest German Sniper but he was not SS.

However, from what I am told, Koenig never existed.

[Abwehr]

That's why that site is bogus. There was no Koenig.

[Apothis]

You know the History Channel even mentioned the famous duel in a History Channel special about snipers. Why would the History Channel put fiction and call it fact into a show just blows me away? Any insight Abwehr.

[Abwehr]

The History Channel has been known to make factual mistakes quite often, actually. You can't really blame them - with 24/7 programming they are bound to get something wrong once in awhile. While portions of the tale are embedded in truth, the whole "duel" has more or less agreed upon as being a product of soviet propaganda. Zaitsev was an accomplished sniper at Stalingrad, but no official record of a Major Koenig or a sniper school in Zossen has ever surfaced. The only documentation of the duel was in Red Army newspapers and such, and we all know how reliable those are...

There are other members here who admittedly know more about it than I; I recommend a search to find the other Zaitsev topics that have come up.

[Christoph Awender]

To bring back up an old topic:

What is everyones opinions on this "Major Koneig". I seem to remember hearing many types of the Sniper School and Zossen, but not of him. Did he exist?

TS Allen

If you do a forum search for Major Koenig you will find many discussions. We don´t need it again.

\Christoph

[Rajin Cajun]

Actually just recently the Red Army files were opened by the Russian Federation. I think a year or two ago? Where they revealed that is was a PR stunt to pump up morale that was waning in Stalingrad at the time. Actually I believe the History Channel latter ran an a correction about the story.

[Helmut Von Moltke]

did any of those famous snipers get really high medals, like Oak Leaves to Knight's Cross, etc?

[Handzar]

What happened to Simo Hayha, the best sniper in history?
Was he always on the German side (he was a Finn).

[Spandau]

What happened to Simo Hayha, the best sniper in history?
Was he always on the German side (he was a Finn).

Ave Handzar,

In addition to his sniper kills, Simo was quite deadly with a machine pistol. During the Winter War Hayha was shot in the face, putting him onto a coma that lasted until March 1940. He survived the war and died pretty recently.

Vale,

-Spandau