During World War Two’s battle for Stalingrad top Soviet sniper Vassili Zaitsev fights a duel with a top Nazi sniper sent to kill him. The duel is not over in one day. It takes days just to locate each other. The German is so well hidden the Russians fail to find him. But Zaitsev and his spotter use a clever tactic that gets him to reveal himself. This sniper duel is unusual because both men are experts in their field. The question is who will survive? Zaitsev has fought other German snipers trying to kill him. All told he eliminates a confirmed total of 242 Nazi officers and men including eleven German snipers. Now, post-war critics unable to find a record of that top German sniper in this deadly duel start a controversy claiming that the duel never happened and that it is all Soviet propaganda.
Robert Burgess shows us why this controversy occurred and how the books and film based on this battle of the two Titans only confuse the issue. To help readers understand what happened, he analyzes the books and movie about this epic duel and probable reasons for the controversy. This is no short story. From beginning to end it is a 34,000 word e-book about this World War Two mystery that you won’t read in a coffee break. Here too are the fictional and little-known factual details of a love affair between Russian-American Soviet sniper Tania Chernova and Vassili Zaitsev. Both thought the other had been killed. Chernova never learned the truth until an interview with her in 1969. What the author thinks might have happened after that provides readers with a possible ending to this tragic love affair.
Robert Burgess shows us why this controversy occurred and how the books and film based on this battle of the two Titans only confuse the issue. To help readers understand what happened, he analyzes the books and movie about this epic duel and probable reasons for the controversy. This is no short story. From beginning to end it is a 34,000 word e-book about this World War Two mystery that you won’t read in a coffee break. Here too are the fictional and little-known factual details of a love affair between Russian-American Soviet sniper Tania Chernova and Vassili Zaitsev. Both thought the other had been killed. Chernova never learned the truth until an interview with her in 1969. What the author thinks might have happened after that provides readers with a possible ending to this tragic love affair.
