Soviet Forces

Dead russian female sniper

The flipside of the coin: on another (propaganda-) photo of this section you can see two smiling female snipers of the Red Army. Here's the reality: the Soviet female sniper was killed by a German counter sniper, the scoped rifle at her side. The impact of the explosive bullet totally destroyed the lower part of the woman's face. Due to the Hague Convention of the laws of war Germany did not produce explosive rifle-ammunition. So the German snipers in the field equipped themselves with looted Soviet and Yugoslavian bullets and rifles. The rare explosive ammo was used for "important shots" on enemy officers and especially counter-sniper action.