List of snipers

A sniper is a trained marksman who operates alone, in a pair, or with a sniper team to maintain close visual contact with a target and engage the targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the detection capabilities of enemy personnel.

Military snipers

Some notable military snipers include (alphabetically by surname):

Name Lived Active Notes Confirmed
sniper kills
Nationality
Noah Adamia 1919–1942 1938–1942 A Soviet Georgian naval infantryman who is credited with over 200 kills and several tanks knocked out within a couple months during WWII. 200+  Soviet Union
Josep Allerberger 1924–2004 1943–1945 Allerberger was a German sniper, fighting with the II Battalion of the 144th Gebirgsjäger Regiment of the 3rd Mountain Division. He operated in the Eastern Front, and was credited with 257 kills. Second most successful German Sniper.[1] 257  Nazi Germany
Hiram Berdan 1824–1893 1861–1864 Commanded 1st and 2nd US Sharpshooters during the American Civil War. N/A  United States
Herman Davis 1888–1923 1918 60  United States
Fedir Dyachenko 1917–1995 1932–1945 425  Soviet Union
Rob Furlong 1976– 1996–2003 A Canadian Army sniper who held the record for the kill from the greatest distance.[2] 1+  Canada
Gary Gordon 1960–1993 1978–1993 Delta Force sniper who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for protecting the injured crew of a downed helicopter during the Battle of Mogadishu.[3] N/A  United States
Craig Harrison 1974– 1990–2014 British Army sniper who achieved the second longest confirmed kill shot in history (2,475 m) using the Accuracy International L115A3 Long Range Rifle.[4] 1+  United Kingdom
Carlos Hathcock 1942–1999 1959–1979 Renowned United States Marine Corps sniper with 93 confirmed kills.[5][6] 93  United States
Simo Häyhä 1905–2002 1925–1940 A Finnish sniper known as the "White Death" from his habit of lying out in the snow in white snow camouflage, wearing a white face mask and waiting for a target to appear. Reportedly killed as a sniper between 505 and 542 soldiers with an iron sights-only SAKO M/28-30 (a Finnish variant of the Mosin–Nagant rifle), as well as over 200 soldiers with a submachine gun while fighting as a group leader with the rest of his unit during the 1939–40 Winter War. All of Häyhä's kills were accomplished in less than 100 days before he was seriously wounded—an average of just over 5 per day, with the highest daily count of 25 kills—at a time of year with very few daylight hours.[7][8] 505–542  Finland
Musa Herdem 1987–2015 2006–2015 A YPG sniper known as 'Musa' with allegedly more than 80 confirmed kills, mainly during the fighting for Kobani.[9] 80  Rojava
PJAK
PKK
Matthäus Hetzenauer 1924–2004 1943–1945 Austrian sniper on the Eastern Front during World War II who was credited with 345 kills between 1943 and 1945.[10] 345  Nazi Germany
Abukhadzhi Idrisov 1918–1983 1939–1944 A Soviet Chechen sniper with an alleged 349+ kills during World War II. 349+  Soviet Union
Nikolay Yakovlevich Ilyin 1925–1943 1941–1943 469  Soviet Union
Nicholas Irving 1987- 2004–2010 A sniper nicknamed "the reaper" with the 3rd Ranger Battalion deployed in Afghanistan in 2009, with 33 confirmed kills.[11] 33  United States
Juba 2005–2007 Juba (Arabic: جوبا) (also called "Joba") is the pseudonym of an alleged sniper involved in the Iraq War's insurgency. He participated in Iraqi Civil War as well as the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. 37+ (alleged)  Iraq
Tatang Koswara 1947–2015 1975–1976 A sniper credited with at least 41 confirmed kills during the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in the 1970s.[12] 41  Indonesia
Ivan Kulbertinov 1917–1993 1941–1945 Credited with 487 kills.[13] 487  Soviet Union
Vasilij Kvachantiradze 1907–1950 1941–1945 A Soviet Georgian sniper who is credited with 534 kills during World War II, one of if not possibly the highest Soviet kill counts. Known for almost single-handedly thwarting a German assault on Shumilino in Belarus. N/A  Soviet Union
Chris Kyle 1974–2013 1999–2009 A US Navy SEAL credited with 160 confirmed kills by the Pentagon, but supposedly killed 255 people.[14] 160  United States
Marie Ljalková 1920–2011 1942–1953 A Czech sniper fighting in the Soviet Army during World War II, with at least 30 confirmed kills. 30+  Czechoslovakia
Charles Marlowe 1968– 1987-1990 A United States Marine Corps sniper who holds the record solo missions completed (27).[15] 46  United States
Chuck Mawhinney 1949– 1967–1970 A United States Marine Corps sniper who holds the record for most confirmed kills by a US Marine (103).[16] 103  United States
Herbert W. McBride 1873–1933 1914–1918 US citizen and captain in the 21st Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, during the First World War.[17] 100+  United States
Philip McDonald 1886–1916 1914–1916 8th Battalion (90th Winnipeg Rifles), CEF, 70 confirmed kills during the First World War. Killed in action 3 January 1916. 70  Canada
Neville Methven 1916–1918 Big game hunter and target shooter who served as an officer with Sir Abe Bailey's South African Sharpshooters on the Western Front. 100  South Africa
Timothy Murphy 1751–1818 1775–1780 An American Revolutionary War sniper who killed British General Simon Fraser during the Battle of Saratoga.[18] 1+  United States
Semyon Nomokonov 1900–1973 1941–1945 A Soviet World War II sniper with 367 logged kills.[19] 367  Soviet Union
Henry Norwest 1884–1918 1915–1918 A sniper in the 50th Canadian Infantry Battalion during the First World War. He had 115 confirmed kills and was killed by a German sniper on 18 August 1918.[20] 115  Canada
Fyodor Okhlopkov 1908–1968 1941–1945 One of the most effective Soviet snipers, credited with 423 confirmed kills during World War II.[21] 423  Soviet Union
Johnson Paudash 1875–1959 1914–1918 21st Battalion (Eastern Ontario), CEF during World War One. 88 confirmed kills.[22] 88  Canada
Lyudmila Pavlichenko 1916–1974 1941–1953 The most successful female sniper during World War II. She served in the Soviet army and had 309 confirmed kills.[21] 309  Soviet Union
Vladimir Pchelintsev 1919–2001 1941–1945 456  Soviet Union
Francis Pegahmagabow 1891–1952 1914–1919 An Indigenous North American sniper in World War I who is credited with 378 kills, and an unknown number of unconfirmed kills.[23] 378  Canada
Friedrich Pein 1915–1975 1943–1945 Austrian fighting in the German Army credited with over 200 kills on the Eastern Front between 1943 and 1945 during the Second World War. 200+  Austria
Arron Perry 1972– 1999–2005 A Canadian Army sniper who briefly held the record for the longest-ever recorded and confirmed sniper kill in 2002.[2] 1+  Canada
Stepan Petrenko 1922–1984 1941–1945 422  Soviet Union
Ranjith Premasiri Madalana (Nero) 1979–2009 2000–2009 Sniper in the Sri Lanka Army during the country's civil war, who is recorded to have 217 confirmed kills (Tamil Tigers).[24] 217  Sri Lanka
Graham Ragsdale 1969– A former Canadian Army sniper who fought in Afghanistan in 2003.[2] N/A  Canada
Patrick Riel 1876–1916 1914–1916 Métis Canadian attached to the 8th Battalion (90th Winnipeg Rifles), CEF during the First World War with 30 confirmed kills. Killed in action by shell fire on 14 January 1916.[25] 30  Canada
Ben Roberts-Smith 1978– 1996–2015 Served as a sniper with the Australian Special Air Service Regiment. He was awarded the Medal of Gallantry for his actions in 2006 during Operation Perth in the Chora Valley of Oruzgan Province, Afghanistan.[26] N/A  Australia
Ian Robertson 1927–2014 1945–1953 Served as a sniper with Australia's 3RAR after World War 2. He became one of the most effective snipers during the Korean War. In one morning he killed 30 enemy soldiers.[27] 30+  Australia
Roza Shanina 1924–1945 1943–1945 A Soviet sniper during the Second World War, credited with 59 confirmed kills, including 12 soldiers during the Battle of Vilnius. 59  Soviet Union
Randy Shughart 1958–1993 1976–1993 Delta Force sniper who posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for protecting the injured crew of a downed helicopter during the Battle of Mogadishu.[3] N/A  United States
Ivan Sidorenko 1919–1994 1939–1945 A Soviet sniper credited with over 500 kills during the Second World War. 500+  Soviet Union
Billy Sing 1886–1943 1914–1918 Australian First World War sniper credited with over 150 confirmed kills.[28] 150+  Australia
Mikhail Surkov 1921–1953 1941–1945 According to Soviet sources, Surkov had 702 confirmed kills during World War II,[29] but the total is more likely down to Soviet propaganda. N/A  Soviet Union
Bruno Sutkus 1924–2003 1944–1945 Lithuanian fighting in the German Army. Credited with 209 kills on the Eastern Front between 1944 and 1945 during the Second World War. 209  Nazi Germany
Abu Tahseen 2005–2007 Participated in the Yom Kippur War, the Iran–Iraq War, the invasion of Kuwait, the Gulf War as well as the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.[30][31][32] However, his kills in other wars other than against ISIS are unaccounted for and unknown. 341+ (against ISIS only)  Iraq
Zhang Taofang 1931–2007 1951–1953 A Chinese sniper who fought in the Korean War with 214 confirmed kills in 32 days.[33] 214  China
Adelbert Waldron 1933–1995 1968–1970 A United States Army sniper who formerly held the record for the most confirmed kills by a US military sniper (109).[34] 109  United States
Alvin C. York 1887–1964 1917–1918 82nd Infantry Division, an expert sharpshooter using an M1917 Enfield rifle during the Meuse-Argonne offensive near Chatel-Chéhéry, France, 1918 in World War I. Medal of Honor recipient. 28  United States
Vasily Zaytsev 1915–1991 1937–1945 A Soviet sniper who fought at the Battle of Stalingrad. Zaytsev is credited with 242 kills (including 11 snipers).[21] 242  Soviet Union
Unnamed Royal Marine corporal Reputedly the deadliest sniper alive as of 2015 with 173 confirmed kills, mostly with the L115A3 on one tour of Afghanistan in 2006–2007, including over 90 Taliban in one day.[35] 173  United Kingdom

Non-military snipers

Not all snipers are highly trained professional soldiers. The term is sometimes used to describe criminals firing from cover at long range with a rifle and police sharpshooters. Some notable non-military snipers include:

  • Frank Carter (1881–1927) was a notorious murderer in Omaha, Nebraska, who claimed to have murdered 43 victims.[36]
  • Michael Andrew Clark (1949–1965), teenage sniper who killed three and wounded six in Highway 101 shooting spree on 25 April 1965.[37]
  • Byron De La Beckwith (1920–2001), ex-US Marine and white supremacist, assassinated NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers after the civil rights activist arrived home in Jackson, Mississippi on 12 June 1963.
  • William "Billy" Dixon (1850–1913), defended the Adobe Walls settlement against Native American attack with his legendary buffalo rifle, and was one of eight civilians in United States history to receive the Medal of Honor.
  • Jack Hinson (1807–1874) was a farmer who engaged Union troops at long range during the American Civil War and recorded 36 officer "kills" on his custom-made .50 caliber Kentucky long rifle with iron sights.[38]
  • Lon Horiuchi (born 1954), a Federal Bureau of Investigation sniper who shot Randy Weaver and shot and killed Vicki Weaver at Ruby Ridge.[39]
  • Thomas "Tom" Horn, Jr. (1860–1903) an American Old West lawman, scout, and hired gunman, known for shooting cattle rustlers and sheepherders at long range with a Sharps rifle.[40]
  • John Allen Muhammad (1960–2009) and Lee Boyd Malvo (born 1985), perpetrators of the Beltway sniper attacks, a series of coordinated shootings that took place over three weeks in October 2002 in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Ten people were killed and three other victims were critically injured in several locations throughout the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and along Interstate 95 in Virginia.
  • Lee Harvey Oswald (1939–1963), Former US Marine, assassinated President John F. Kennedy and shot Governor John Connally in Dallas, Texas on 22 November 1963, and shot at General Edwin Walker on 10 April 1963.[41]
  • Charles Whitman (1941–1966), college student and former US Marine who fired from a clock tower on the University of Texas Austin campus, killing 14 and wounding 32 on 1 August 1966.[42]
  • Stephen Paddock (1953-2017), Perpetrator of the 2017 Las Vegas Shooting using multiple high powered modified rifles from the 32nd floor of a high rise hotel killing 59 people and wounding over 700 others on 1 October 2017.

See also

References

  1. Akbrecht Wacker "Sniper on the Eastern Front: The Memoirs of Sepp Allerberger" Pen and Sword 2008
  2. Friscolanti, Michael (15 May 2006), We were abandoned, Rogers Publishing, pp. 18–25
  3. Durant, Michael J.; Hartov, Steve (2003). In The Company of Heroes: A True Story. Putnam Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-399-15060-9.
  4. "British sniper Craig Harrison (The Silent Assassin) breaks record, kills target from 1.5 miles away". Daily News. New York. 3 May 2010. Archived from the original on 18 October 2010.
  5. Sasser, Charles; Roberts, Craig (1990). One Shot, One Kill (1990 ed.). Pocket Books. ISBN 978-0-671-68219-4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  6. Kennedy, Harold (March 2003). "Marine Corps Sets Sights on More Precise Shooting". National Defense Magazine. Archived from the original on 30 January 2007. Retrieved 30 March 2007. Founded in 1977, the school's first staff NCOIC was the famed sniper, Gunnery Sgt. Carlos Hathcock II, who was credited with 93 confirmed kills in Vietnam.
  7. Rayment, Sean (30 April 2006). "The long view". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 30 March 2009.
  8. Tapio A.M. Saarelainen: Sankarikorpraali Simo Häyhä (2006)
  9. Buiso, Gary (1 January 2015). "Gritty Kurdish fighter gloats over recapture of Kobane". AFP. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  10. Scherzer, Veit (2007). Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives [The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives] (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Miltaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.
  11. Connelly, Sherryl (24 January 2015). "'The Reaper' is gripping autobiography of sniper who killed record 33 Taliban in Afghanistan deployment". Daily News. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  12. ""Indonesian Sniper" Tatang Koswara passes away at 68". Coconuts Media. 4 March 2015. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  13. "Snipers". www.snipercentral.com. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  14. Chris Kyle; Scott McEwen; Jim DeFelice (2012). American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-208237-4.
  15. Stone, Tim. "Always Alone". [Military Times].
  16. Perry, Tony (22 January 2000). "A Sniper at Peace With His Duties". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
  17. "Herbert W. McBride (1873–1933)". TeeJawa. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  18. Senich, Peter R. (1988). The Complete Book of U.S. Sniping. Boulder: Paladin Press. pp. 50–57. ISBN 978-0-87364-460-0.
  19. Номоконов – вновь на коне (in Russian). Zabmedia. 13 January 2010. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  20. "Sharpshooter: Henry Louis Norwest". Government of Canada. 7 October 2014. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
  21. Haskew, Michael (1 November 2005). The Sniper at War: From the American Revolutionary War to the Present Day. St. Martin's Press. pp. 65, 73–74. ISBN 978-0-312-33651-6.
  22. "Johnson Paudash MM". Retrieved 29 January 2015.
  23. Brownlie, Robin (2003). A Fatherly Eye: Indian Agents, Government Power, and Aboriginal Resistance in Ontario, 1918–1939. University of Toronto Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-19-541784-5.
  24. Infolanka. "How the LTTE was 'military' defeated: A Soldier's view – Part Seven". infolanka.asia. Infolanka. Retrieved 28 March 2015. It is 'Juba' the sniper who causes havoc in Iraq and it was Corporal W.I. Ranjith Premasiri alias 'Nero' of SLA who was responsible for the deaths of more than 217 Tiger cadres, before his demise on 28 April 2009.
  25. "Private Patrick Riel". Canadian Great War Project. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  26. Nicholson, Brendan (23 April 2011). "You think I'm brave? Meet my mates: Ben Roberts-Smith". theaustralian.com.au. The Australian. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  27. "A sniper's tale". The Sydney Morning Herald. 26 April 2004.
  28. Hamilton, J. C. M. (2008). Gallipoli Sniper: The life of Billy Sing. Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia. p. 6. ISBN 978-1-4050-3865-2.
  29. Алексей Илларионович Луковец (1975). Знамена Победы. Pravda. During the war, "Frontovaya Illustratsiya" wrote: "Sniper Sergeant Mikhail Surkov shoots at the enemy confidently and accurately. – He does not wound – he hits the spot. After killing over 700 Fascists, he went on to the next hunt"
  30. Watkinson, William (25 February 2017). "63-year-old Iraqi sniper says he has killed 321 Isis fighters since 2015". International Business Times UK. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
  31. "Islamic State super sniper killing militants by the dozen". NewsComAu. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
  32. "Anti-IS 'sheikh sniper' killed in battle for Iraq's Hawija". Gulf-Times (in Arabic). 30 September 2017. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
  33. Stronge, Charles (25 January 2011). Kill Shot: The 15 Deadliest Snipers of All Time. Ulysses Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-1-56975-862-5.
  34. Kirchner, Paul (2009). More of the Deadliest Men Who Ever Lived. Boulder: Paladin Press. ISBN 978-1-58160-690-4.
  35. "British Royal Marine is world's deadliest sniper". The Daily Telegraph. London. 2 February 2015.
  36. "Sniper Shoots Council Bluffs Detective; Terror of People Hits Omaha's Business". The New York Times. 20 February 1926.
  37. Demaris, Ovid (1971). America the Violent. Penguin Books. p. 344.
  38. McKenney, Tom (23 September 2010). Jack Hinson's One-man War: A Civil War Sniper. Pelican Publishing. p. 79. ISBN 978-1-4556-0646-7.
  39. Witkin, Gordon (11 September 1995). "The nightmare of Idaho's Ruby Ridge". US News & World Report.
  40. Anderson, Dan & Laurence J. Yadon (2007), 100 Oklahoma Outlaws, Gangsters, and Lawmen: 1839–1939, Pelican Publishing Company, p. 231, ISBN 978-1-58980-384-8
  41. Bugliosi, Vincent (2007). Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-04525-3.
  42. Cawthorne, Nigel (2007). Serial Killers And Mass Murderers: Profiles of the World's Most Barbaric Criminals. Ulysses Press. ISBN 978-1-569-75578-5.
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