Paper Proposal with Bibliography
Brian Brown
History 299
2/9/09
Paper Proposal
Snipers on the Eastern Front
A single bullet can drastically alter a person’s day. If that bullet is placed in the hands of a trained sniper, it can alter the course of a month long battle. The Eastern front was one of the key battle sites of World War II and was also the location of some of the most intense sniping operations of the entire war. Through this paper, I hope to show the importance of snipers to the war effort of both sides in this region. I hypothesize that these sharpshooters played a crucial part for both sides of the war, particularly in relation to morale, communication, and economy.
Some of the key aspects that this paper will concentrate on are the affects of marksmen on the battlefield. Of these factors, morale, economy, and communication are the most essential. Morale is essential for all soldiers, particularly for ones on the front lines who are hard pressed by the enemy. Snipers are able to reduce enemy morale with only a few shots. Due to snipers unpredictability, lethal effectiveness, and concealment, ground troops must stay in a constant state of readiness in order to attempt to spot and stop the sniper from killing them or their comrades. Finally, sharpshooters are valued by commanders for their pure economy. What economy means in regards to the battlefield is the cost to benefit ratio a unit can supply. With snipers, the cost is usually minimal, a single round, and the reward can be great, an enemy general, leader, or specialist. The cost of a single rifle round is insignificant next to the cost of the training and experience of the enemy that is eliminated by a sniper.
In America, the struggle for the Eastern Front of World War II is a topic that is widely unknown. Many people know that Germany and Russia fought each other during the war, but few know the key battles, the generals, or any real specifics. Additionally, information about the marksmen that took part in these battles is scarce at best. The most well known information about the Eastern Front comes from the Hollywood adaptation of the book Enemy at the Gates by William Craig. This movie took great liberty with the story in order to craft something appealing to the masses and thus made a small part of the book, the sniper duel between Vassili Zaitsev and a German sniper, into the entire story. The predominate studies I have come across that have anything to do with he Eastern Front have been those that study troop movement and decision making done by generals during key battles. Besides this, I have found no studies done by any historian about the role snipers played in any battle on the Eastern Front, let alone their overall contribution to this great conflict. I plan to remedy this to the best of my ability, using several journals and autobiographies as my primary sources.
There is no better source than the actual snipers themselves. I was fortunate enough to find several journals, diaries, and autobiographies by and about snipers on the eastern front. Of these, I have found three that are most useful to my needs. The first is Vassili Zaitsev’s Notes of a Sniper: Vassili Zaitsev’s Account of the Battle of Stalingrad. This book details the battle through Zatisev’s eyes and gives an excellent account of day to day encounters. My second primary source is Sniper on the Eastern Front: The Memoirs of Sepp Allerberger, Knight’s Cross by Albrecht Wacker. This book looks at the conflict from the German side, relating the story of one of the most successful snipers for the Germans. My final primary source is again from the German perspective, but this time from an ordinary infantry man who encounters several sharpshooters throughout his time on the eastern front. This book is In Deadly Combat: A German Soldier’s Memoir of the Eastern Front by Gottlob Herbert Bidermann. These three primary sources will form the backbone of my project, which I will supplement with several other primary and secondary sources.
In regards to secondary sources, I have good number of them. At the moment, they are predominantly ones related to the Battle of Stalingrad; however I will soon rectify this and gather more sources about sniper actions in other regions of the Eastern Front. Most of the sources I have now are overall histories of battles that make passing reference to marksmen instead of in depth studies. Additionally, I have some sources that look at the rifles used by both sides that will help me understand their implementation, advantages, and disadvantages more fully.
The struggle for the Eastern Front was one of the most intense conflicts of World War II. Not only were both sides desperate for a victory, but the outcome would determine the fate of each country. The wide spread use of snipers throughout this engagement and their impact upon it are two of the most important aspects that I am attempting to show the reader through this paper. I hope to achieve this through showing snipers overall effectiveness on the battle field as well as by highlighting these sharpshooter’s efforts in regard to morale, communication, and economy in order to help win the war for their country.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
-Books
Keitel, Willhelm. In the Service of the Reich. Edited by Walter Gorlitz. Translated by David Irving. London: Focal Point Publications, 2003.
Voss, Johann. Black Edelweiss: A memoir of Combat and Conscience by a Soldier of the Waffen-SS. Bedford, Pennsylvania: The Aberjona Press, 2002.
Wacker, Albrecht. Sniper on the Eastern Front: The Memoirs of Sepp Allerberger, Knight’s Cross. South Yorkshier, England: Pen and Sword Books, 2008.
Zaitsev, Vassili. Notes of a Sniper: Vassili Zaitsev’s Account of the battle of Stalingrad. Las Angelos: U.S. Publishers, 2003.
Secondary Sources
-Books
Bartov, Omer. The Eastern Front, 1941-1945, German Troops and the Barbarisation of Warfare. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001
Beevor, Antony. Stalingrad. New York, New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 1998.
Craig, William. Enemy at the Gates. New York, New York: Reader’s
Digest Press, 1973.
Bidermann, Gottlob, Herbert. In Deadly Combat: A German Soldier’s Memoir of the Eastern Front. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2000.
Erickson, John. The Road to Stalingrad. New York, New York: Harper and
Row Publishers Inc., 1975.
Hoyt, Edwin. 199 Days the Battle for Stalingrad. New York, New
York: Tom Doherty Associates Inc., 1993.
Roberts, Geoffrey. Victory at Stalingrad. London, England: Pearson
Education Limited, 2002.
Rotundo, Louis. Battle for Stalingrad: the 1943 Soviet General Staff Study. Elmsford, New York: Pergamon-Brassey’s International
Defense Publishers Inc., 1989.
Sajer, Guy. The Forgotten Soldier. New York, New York: Harper and
Row Publishers Inc., 1967.
-Journals
Cottam, Jean, K. “Soviet Women in Combat in World War II: The Ground Forces and the Navy.” International Journal of Women’s Studies, no. 3 (1980): 345-357.
Erickson, John. “Night Witches, Snipers and Laundresses.” History Today, no. 40 (July) (1990): 29-35.
-Websites
Bruner, Thomas. “Sniper History- Vassili Zaitsev ‘Enemy At The Gates’ The True Story.” Sniper’s Paradise. http://www.snipersparadise.com/history/vasili.htm (accessed January 30, 2009)
Daryl2007. “World War II Snipers.” Hub Pages. http://hubpages.com/hub/World-War-II-Snipers_strategies (accessed January 30, 2009)
Eger, C. “Russian Snipers of World War II.” The Dark Paladin. http://www.thedarkpaladin.com/russiansnipers.htm (accessed January 30, 2009)
Yoder, Mike. “Rattenkrieg.” Military History Online. http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/stalingrad/rattenkrieg.aspx (accessed January 30, 2009)
