Sounds like you're mixing up details on the alleged sniper duel in Stalingrad between a Major Konings of the Wehrmacht and Russian "super-sniper" Vasili Zaitsev. This was featured in the book "Enemy at the Gates" (and in fact that one little passage is what they built the entire movie "Enemy at the Gates" around) but other authors have said they don't think that actually happened, they can't find documentary evidence to support it.
The Red Army, however, did have a number of female snipers in WW II who performed spectacularly.
}:-)4
It was actually ajolympian2004 who referenced the Russian female sniper, not myself. Although I saw the movie and liked it, I think that there's also a chance that there may have been more than one event of this type. Unfortunately, I don't get cable so I can't pursue ajolympian2004's reference to a specific History Channel program
The greatest sniper in modern warfare was a Finnish farmer named Simo Häyhä who fought in the three month Winter War and recorded 505 kills.
On November 30, 1939, the Russian communist dictator Stalin ordered a massive invasion of Finland with 1,500,000 troops in what became known by the Finns as The Winter War. The Russians lost 1,000,000 men, while the Finns lost 25,000 men. Their fighting skill and excellent marksmanship decimated their enemy, as the Finnish soldier killed 40 Russians for every Finn who died on the battlefield.
A Russian general was quoted as saying, “We gained 22,000 miles of new territory. Just enough to bury our dead.”
Included in this telling of the tough Finnish fighters is Häyhä who was a member of the “suojeluskunta,” the Finnish equivalent of the National Guard or Militia, established for the country’s protection after Finland had gained independence from Russia on Dec. 6th, 1917.
After the Russians invaded, Häyhä signed on as a sniper.
Working in temperatures between -20 to -40 Celsius, and dressed completely in a white camouflage suit, Häyhä killed at least 505 Red Army soldiers by sniping them one by one.
Häyhä plied his deadly trade and marksmanship with iron sights, at ranges in excess of 600 yards.
Häyhä used a Mosin-Nagant M28 rifle because it suited his small frame (5 ft). He preferred to use iron sights rather than telescopic sights to present less of a target (sun reflecting from lenses gave the position away, and the sniper must raise their head higher with telescopic sights).
Häyhä's equipment for a day in the field was his warm winter uniform, white snowsuit, large mitts, 50 to 60 rounds of ammo, rifle, knife, a few hand-grenades, and some dry food and sugar cubes.
Besides his sniper kills, Häyhä is known to have made well over two hundred kills with a machine gun, a weapon he was very fond of. All Häyhä's kills were accomplished within three months, prior to his injuries caused by an enemy bullet.
Häyhä, at age 93 in 1999, when asked how he had become such a good shot, gave a short answer: “Practice.”