Lyudmila Mikhailivna Pavlichenko was the most successful woman sniper of World War Two.  She was born in Bila Tserkva in the Ukraine, July 12th 1916.

 After moving to Kiev with her family at the age of 14, she became a metal grinder at the Kiev Arsenal factory.  It was at the local shooting club that Pavlichenko realised she had a natural flare for shooting and she soon honed her skills to become a certified marksman.

When Nazi Germany invaded Russia during Operation Barbarossa in 1941 the 24 year old Pavlichenko was studying history at the Kiev University, she was one of the first volunteers at the recruiting office and she requested service in the infantry.

The recruitment officer looked bewilderingly at her, Lyudmila Pavlichenko was quite a beautiful young woman with stylish clothes and a trendy hairstyle, she told the recruiter that she wished to join an active infantry unit and to carry a rifle.  The recruiter apparently gave her a warm hearted look and smiled saying that perhaps she should join the field nurse unit instead.

Pavlichenko then produced her marksman certificate along with the coveted Voroshilov Sharpshooter badge that she was awarded during regional rifle matches and with a submissive sigh the recruiter accepted her into the Red Army.  She was attached to the 54th " Stephan Razin " Rifles Regiment of the 25th " Chapayev " Rifle Division which was attached to the Maritime Army.  There she was a private and was immediately attached to the regiments 2nd company sniper platoon.

Pavlichenko actually became one of 2,000 female snipers in the Red Army, as Russia utilized women in warfare with almost the same manner as they did men, this is something that never happened in the west and is unfamiliar to westerners.

Sadly, out of the 2,000 female snipers used by the Red Army in WWII, only about 500 actually survived the war, the rest were killed during active duty in the fields of warfare.

Pavlichenko was equipped with a powerful M1891/30 Mosin-Nagant 7.62mm sniper rifle with a P.E 4x magnification telescopic sight. 

It was a 5 shot bolt action rifle which fired a 148 grain bullet at around 2,800 feet per second, with an effective range of over 600 yards.  Her first two kills were made near Belyayevka when her unit was ordered to defend a strategic hill. She worked with a spotter, and picked off two German soldiers who were walking though some woodlands.

Below is pictured an 1891 Mosin-Nagant Model 30 bolt action rifle, similar to the one that Pavlichenko used.

For several months her unit was heavily involved in fierce fighting with the Germans in the Moldavia region until they made a retreat to the Dniester.  Pavlichenko was also actively involved as a sniper in the defense of the port of Odessa in August 1941 where she recorded  over 100 confirmed kills.  It was during this time too that she was promoted to the rank of  Senior Sergeant.

The Germans fought hard and gained control of the Odessa region and Pavlichenko who had been wounded several times was evacuated with her unit by the Black Sea submarine fleet and sent to Sevastopol on the besieged Crimean Peninsula.

Pavlichenko fought on the front line near the besieged Imgarmansky Lighthouse in heavy sniper activity and was getting several kills every day, working closely with a spotter/observer 300 meters in front of her unit.  She was constantly on the move, always changing her location and never giving her position away to the enemy. 

The ability to stay still for hours and hours on end using natural cover with camouflage techniques along with the tenacity to move with great stealth are all part of the skills of being a successful sniper which Pavlichenko used to the greatest advantage. 

During this time she had a battlefield promotion to the rank of Lieutenant and in May 1942 she was officially recognized by the Red Army as a hero of the Soviet Union after killing a further 200 German soldiers.

Pavlichenko's officially confirmed kills amounted to a total of 309, this amazing figure also included 36 German snipers ( one of whom had himself notched over 500 kills after she retrieved his detailed log book after killing him ) and many high ranking German Officers.

    It is thought that her 'score' of 309 kills could have actually been much higher as all kills had to be confirmed by an independent witness before being recorded and many  times when Pavlichenko made a good kill there was not always someone around to keep count !

With her apparent ease at carrying out this job, I would guess that the figure is closer to 500.

In June 1942, she was wounded for the fourth time when a mortar round exploded close to her position.  When she recovered from her wounds, her officers decided to evacuate her from the combat area safely via submarine back to the mainland, this was partly due to ever growing popularity and publicity that surrounded her back home.

Unfortunately, the rest of her division didn't survive the battle of Sevastopol and sadly, her husband who also was also serving with the Red Army, was killed in the same siege.

A month later in July 1942 her regiment of The 25th Rifles was totally disbanded and its banners were ceremoniously sunk into the Black Sea and its remaining personnel were reassigned to other units.