Russian female sniper in WW2

allen griggs · October 24, 2007 07:34

Klavdia Kalugina

My name is Kalugina, Klavdiia Efremovna. Born in 1926. The war began when I was 15. I went to work at the "Respirator" munitions factory in Orekhovo-Zuevo. When the war started, we needed worker ration cards, which gave 700 g of bread. So I worked there, joined the Komsomol (Communist Union of Youth - trans.). On days off Komsomol members were required to attend classes for our secondary education. They were preparing us. Later, when we finished the secondary education, they said that a sniper school had opened. Many volunteered to attend it, and I also went there, being 17 years of age. That was in June 1943. I was the youngest at the school. Everyone was 18, and I was 17. They were thinking, should they turn me away or not? Decided that if I didn't fall behind, they would leave me at the school.

Klavdia Kalugina, 1944

We started building a firing range. I wasn't from a rich family. I had chopped wood, and carried water, I was accustomed to such business, so I worked well. They let me stay, even gave me leave to visit home. When they started teaching us to shoot, but I couldn't do it. I would fire, and all I hit was "milk" (jargon term denoting a complete miss - trans.). Then Zinaida Andreevna Urantseva, our squad commander, started practicing with me individually. She taught me to shoot well. I graduated from the school, and those who graduated with good marks received American presents. My sniping partner was Marusia Chikhvintseva, from Izhevsk, Udmurtia. We were friends. And so they sent us, many girls, to the front on 1 March 1944.

A.D. That school had been formed in 1942?

Yes, the Komsomol TsK (Central Committee - trans.) organized that school. Uspenskaia submitted all our papers to the Komsomol TsK. The school chief was Kolchak, a Hero of the Soviet Union. Nikiforova was the political worker. All students were listed, and had notes below their names saying who lived with whom, personal data.

A.D. It looks like the program of studies took a little less than half a year, nine months?

Yes. Then we rode in cattle cars, with stoves. They couldn't get us all the way to the front, unloaded us. There was such a snowstorm, they gave us a truck to bring us closer to the front, to a reserve regiment. A truck! We carried it all the way on our backs, there was so much snow. So we got there. I don't remember how long it took, a day, two, three... It was a long time ago. They gave us camouflage coveralls. We wrapped bandages around our rifles. Early in the morning they fed us and gave us sandwiches to take with us: bread and American sausage. That was the entire dinner! And we went to the trenches. Everything was packed with snow, all communication trenches. We had to crawl. There were probably 12 of us, and Nadia Loginova (she would be wounded later) crawled toward the Germans to the no man's land, and the no man's land was mined. It was only the first day -- we were so afraid! We yelled loudly: "Nadia! Nadia! Here, here!" She returned and we continued on our way. We reached that trench, and it was all packed with snow. The snow had been falling for probably several days. Germans were out in the open clearing their trenches. You could probably kill even a dozen Germans on that day. But you see, killing a human being for the first time! We had different people, one was from the partisans -- Zina Gavrilova, another -- the secretary of our Komsomol organization -- Tania Fedorova. Marusia Chikhvintseva and I only watched. We just couldn't pull the trigger, it was hard. But others opened their count. And when we returned to our dug-out in the evening, started telling each other our experiences, Marusia and I couldn't say anything, and just kept reproaching ourselves throughout the night: "Cowards! Cowards! Why did we come to the front?" We were annoyed, why did they open their count, and we didn't? And so, the next day arrived. Germans had a breastwork and an embrasure for soldiers, and a table for a machine gun. So a German was clearing that machine gun emplacement. I fired. He fell, and was pulled back by his feet. It was my first German. Afterwards, both them and us cleared the snow during the nighttime. The snow melted quickly, then it became warm.

There was a lake in one place. Germans went there to wash, even in their underwear. So Zina Gavrilova fired, shot one. And Germans stopped going there to wash. We were already on the defensive, it was summer, June or May, and not everyone stood watch at her embrasure, because there was no movement among the Germans, or our movement either. We stood watches during the day, and soldiers watched during the nights, they slept in the daytime. And so Marusia and I placed our rifles at one embrasure and watched the German defenses from the breastwork. But the Germans also put a sniper to watch us. And so I was watching, observing during my shift (because the eyes would get tired), and Marusia said: "Let me take the watch now." She got up, it was a sunny day, and she apparently moved the lens. As soon as she got up, there was a shot, and she fell. Oh, how I cried! The German was 200 meters away from us. I screamed so loud it could be heard all over the trenches, soldiers ran out: "Quiet, quiet, or they'll open mortar fire!" But how could I be quiet? She was my best friend. We sat until the evening, and I kept crying all that time. Then we buried her. I remember there were many wildflowers. It was at Orsha, at the 3rd Belorussian Front. Later her grave was moved to Mogilev, that's where she had been born. Later Nadia Lugina was also wounded from among us. My second partner was also named Marusia, last name Guliakina.

We stood on the defensive throughout the summer: the fronts all around us were on the offensive, and we had such a solid defense. But one fine day (I don't remember the date, but not August: maybe June, maybe July) they sent us to the forward positions early in the day. There was an artillery bombardment, including "Katiushas". When a "Katiusha" fired, the uniform would flutter on your back. Then the soldiers attacked. Scouts made passages in the minefields. Soldiers were attacking, and we carried the wounded out. Once, I remember, we picked up some officer, he had a small suitcase. But we hadn't slept or eaten since four in the morning. I told him: "Drop the suitcase", what could he have in that suitcase? It was heavy to drag him with it! "I'm not dropping it, don't take me if you don't want carry me with the suitcase." Well, we carried him, what could we do? Only after the war I found out that there was a small violin in that suitcase. He didn't want to abandon it. He told me when we met. It was already in the evening, but Germans just couldn't be dislodged from their trenches. They told us girls to go there as well, also drivers and locals. Why? We reached the trench, but couldn't do anything, it was already getting dark. There remained very few people, just the girls and drivers. They told us to take all the wounded we could carry and return to our trenches. We couldn't take them all because there weren't enough of us. Germans finished off those that remained, they screamed so much! -- they were bayoneting them to death. They left us in our trench throughout the night. All minefields were cleared in front of us. I stood the watch there, could see nothing. Others were also standing watch, but I couldn't see them. I got so tired by 4 AM, couldn't take it anymore. The platoon commander Lieutenant Maskumian walked from one girl to the next, checking up. And we were all concentrating on listening. There had used to be minefields, barbed wire with various tin cans, if anything moved they would rattle. But now nothing could be heard. What if Germans attacked at night?

story continues on link:

http://www.iremember.ru/infantry/kalugina/kalugina.htm

Russian female sniper in WW2

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