Among the five snipers on the second company's position, one was Sergeant Zina from the division's security battalion.
During the Battle of Stalingrad, Zina and another female sniper named Susanna jointly killed more than 70 German officers and soldiers. Although their results were not comparable to those of Vasily Zaitsev, they were better than those of Vasily Zaitsev. Even if it is not enough, it is still a remarkable achievement, and both of them received a medal each.
She was lying in a crater in front of the trench, aiming her Mosin-Nagant rifle into the distance with a scope. Through the lens of the scope, the German engineers running over can be clearly seen. Those engineers were at least 500 meters away. Although the range of the Mosin-Nagant rifle with a scope could reach 800 meters, she was not sure that she could accurately hit the target at such a long distance, so she could only slowly choose the target to shoot. .
After waiting patiently for a while, she found an engineer running behind who suddenly stopped and bent down to pick something up. She quickly locked on the target and pulled the trigger without hesitation. The engineer leaned back and fell straight on the snow. Because there were German tanks nearby, shelling the Soviet positions, the huge explosions covered up the sound of gunfire, and no one of the advancing engineers noticed that their comrades had been shot and fell.
After killing the first enemy, Zina quickly aimed at the second target. The engineer had already crossed the burning tank and was running towards the minefield, which was also the target closest to Zina. When he fell after being shot, the engineers who were following him thought he had accidentally tripped and fell, and one of his companions even stepped forward to try to help him. When he found out that he was dead, he couldn't help shouting.
How could Zina let him yell like that? She immediately shot him again, causing his shouting to stop abruptly. Seeing their companions fall, the other engineers immediately realized that there were snipers on the Soviet position. In order not to become the opponent's target, they all lay down on the spot and crawled towards the minefield.
Due to the obstruction of bomb craters and snowdrifts, once these German engineers lay down, it was difficult for Zina to focus on the target. She retracted her body back into the crater, pulled out her bayonet, and drew three stripes on the butt of the gun, which represented another kill. Three German soldiers.
The German tanks also discovered that the Soviet army had snipers, so two tanks turned their muzzles and fired in the direction where Zina was hiding. Since the enemy did not know Zina's specific location, the impact points were far away, and only sporadic soil and snow powder fell into the crater where Zina was hiding.
Zina was not afraid at all of the shelling by German tanks. After all, she had encountered more dangerous situations during the battle to defend Stalingrad. She took out the hard black bread from her backpack, cut off a small piece with her bayonet, and put it in her mouth. She had to take some time to eat to replenish the energy consumed by lurking for a long time.
While Zina was eating to replenish her strength, the snipers hiding in several other bomb craters saw that the enemy engineers had climbed into the minefield and were lying on the ground to clear mines. In order to prevent the enemy's engineers from raising the anti-tank mines, the snipers, regardless of their own safety, leaned out of the crater, aimed at the engineers in the distance and pulled the trigger.
The marksmanship of these snipers was not as good as that of Zina. In addition, the enemy engineers were now four hundred meters away. As a result, the bullets either passed over the heads of the enemy engineers or hit the open space next to them. No one was hit. Target.
The German tank crews discovered these snipers who had emerged and immediately focused their artillery fire on them. In an instant, the snipers were engulfed in flames and smoke.
Guchakov in the command post stamped his feet anxiously when he saw that the crater where the sniper was hiding was destroyed by German tank fire. He knew very well that once the snipers were eliminated by enemy artillery fire, the engineers could calmly clear mines a few hundred meters away. When the anti-tank mines in the minefield are all gone, the enemy tanks should roar up again.
Guchakov had no choice but to call Vasily and reported to him: "Comrade Battalion Commander, all the snipers I deployed in front of the position have been killed in the German shelling."
"What, all of them were sacrificed?" Vasily couldn't help being shocked when he heard the bad news, and quickly asked: "What about Zina, is she still alive?"
Although everyone knows that "in war, there are only soldiers and civilians, there is no distinction between men and women." But in the 41st Guards Division, female soldiers still have a high status. Knowing that Zina might be in danger, Vasily ordered Guchakov quickly: "Comrade Captain, send someone to check immediately, and we must find Zina." , If you want to see someone alive, you want to see their corpse if they die."
After Guchakov put down the phone, he immediately ordered the communications soldier to call the platoon leader and told him: "First platoon leader, the battalion commander has an order to immediately send people to find Zina. No matter whether she is dead or alive, we must Find her."
The platoon leader agreed, then turned around and dispatched the command post.
He returned to the trench, called a soldier, and asked: "Do you know where Sergeant Zina's lurking point is?"
After hearing this, the soldier pointed to the location that was completely destroyed by German artillery fire and said, "It seems to be there."
"Go over and see, which crater is Sergeant Zina in?" When the soldier was about to climb out of the trench, the platoon leader warned him from behind: "Don't stand up, crawl over, otherwise you will become a German soldier." Target of artillery fire.”
The soldier crawled on his hands and knees to the crater that had been blasted with craters. After searching carefully for a while, he crawled back again and reported to the platoon leader with a grimace: "Comrade platoon leader, the people inside were all blown to pieces and left in pieces." The severed limbs and arms were still buried in the soil, so it was impossible to identify who was Zina."
The German engineers quickly cleared the mines in the minefield, and the tanks parked on the edge of the minefield started again and rushed towards the Soviet position. The belated infantry also followed the tanks and rushed towards the Soviet position.
Hiding in the crater, Zina heard the sound of track transmission coming from outside the crater. She quickly and cautiously stuck her head out and looked in the direction of the sound. I saw a German No. 4 short-barreled tank heading towards where I was hiding, followed by more than 20 soldiers carrying weapons.
Seeing that the enemy was only two hundred meters away from her, Zina immediately set up her gun, aimed at the infantry following the tank attack, and frantically pulled the trigger. In less than a minute, she fired ten rounds from two magazines. Half of the infantrymen who followed the tank in the attack immediately fell to the ground.
The remaining soldiers did not find Zina hiding in the crater. They thought that their fallen comrade had been hit by Soviet machine gun bullets on the position, and foolishly fired back at the machine gun fire points of the position.
The platoon leader who was directing the battle in the trench couldn't help but be overjoyed when he saw Zina emerging from an unexpected position and quickly knocking down so many enemies. He quickly grabbed a soldier and told him: "Hurry up and report to the company commander that Sergeant Zina is still alive." As he said, he gave the soldier a hard push and said, "Hurry up and go."
Seeing that the enemy did not notice her, Zina fired two more magazines in one breath. This time, two shots were empty, and only eight people were hit. Such a result made her feel very annoyed. She did not expect that the closer the enemy was to her, the hit rate would actually drop.
When the German tank was less than fifty meters away from Zina, Zina quickly retracted her body into the crater to avoid being discovered by the enemy tank crew. At this moment, a rocket dragged its long tail, flew over her head, and hit the tank directly, causing a violent explosion.
Seeing that the enemy tanks were destroyed, Zina quickly raised her loaded rifle, aimed at the infantry running around, and pulled the trigger continuously, knocking them to the ground one by one like target practice.
