List of snipers

A sniper is a trained sharpshooter 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
Josef 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.	600+	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

• Counter-sniper tactics
• List of books, articles and documentaries about snipers
• List of sniper rifles
• Longest recorded sniper kills
• Sniper (disambiguation)
• Snipers of the Soviet Union

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.