Zajtsev, Vasilij Grigor'evich, Sniper, Hero Of The Soviet Union

[Taz]

I am curious to know how did he transition from being a Sailor/Jr Officer in the Navy to a Sniper in Stalingrad???
William

William,
Prior to being a sniper he was a bookkeeper in the Soviet Navy and then volunteered to go to fight in Stalingrad.
Before all of the sniper notoriety, because of his small size he always had to struggle to be taken seriously as an effective front line soldier.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chief Petty Officer Vassili Zaitsev was a bookkeeper based in Vladivostok with the Soviet Pacific Fleet. He had been a sailor for five years. Zaitsev could not tolerate sitting out the war on the tranquil Pacific base while his country was bleeding, and he and twenty fellow sailors volunteered to fight in Stalingrad.

The Russian brass did not consider Zaitsev the bookkeeper to be fighting material. At first his superiors were going to be deploy him on the safe side of the Volga, to continue his duties as a clerk. Zaitsev had to struggle with the military bureaucracy in order to be re-assigned to a combat unit. Although his officers knew from his target range experience that he was an excellent shot, no one thought to assign him as a sniper.

Zaitsev himself had never seen a rifle with a telescopic sight until he was in the midst of the battle.


Eddie.