Josef "Sepp" Allerberger was the second most successful sniper of the
German Wehrmacht and one of the few private soldiers to be honored with
the award of the Knight's Cross.
An Austrian conscript, after qualifying as a machine gunner he was
drafted to the southern sector of the Russian Front in July 1942.
Wounded at Voroshilovsk, he experimented with a Russian sniper-rifle
while convalescing and so impressed his superiors with his proficiency
that he was returned to the front on his regiment's only sniper
specialist.
In this sometimes harrowing memoir, Allerberger provides an excellent
introduction to the commitment in field craft, discipline and routine
required of the sniper, a man apart. There was no place for chivalry on
the Russian Front. Away from the film cameras, no prisoner survived long
after surrendering. Russian snipers had used the illegal explosive
bullet since 1941, and Hitler eventually authorized its issue in 1944.
The result was a battlefield of horror.
Allerberger was a cold-blooded killer, but few will find a place in
their hearts for the soldiers of the Red Army against whom he fought.