I agree, Adler. I don't think anyone has the "real" story of Vasily. There is no record of the German sniper Koening.
You want a sniper that is amazing, Chuck Mawhinney is an amazing story. He had 103 confirmed kills and 216 most likelies. The reason the 216 were unconfirmed is that it was unsafe to search the bodies. All of those kills were in a 13 month period between 1968 and 1969 in Vietnam.
His story was unknown for almost 2 decades and he is still a humble and quiet man about it. Erich, he lives up in your neck of the woods.
There are many snipers through the history that go through life with little praise beyond that of their squad. There's always stories of Japanese snipers sat for weeks on end guarding one section and killing the odd British or American soldier that passed their way. In reality these snipers were only able to give the Allied soldiers the jitters. The Allies did also have effective snipers in the jungles of south-east Asia. I know of one who in two days claimed 23 dead and 16 probables. I would search for his name but the book it's in is over 400 pages.
There's another one I know of from Monte Cassino who hated the Germans so much he would go out every night with his Lee Enfield and 200 rounds to see how many he could kill. He would notch his rifle with every kill...I believe he was nearing 50 kills until he was hit by a mortar.
He wasn't even sniping at the time, he was just in his slit trench during the day. It was another one of those random artillery bursts from the Germans and he was unlucky enough to be there when a mortar round went straight into his trench.
The movie Midway uses scenes from several other movies most notably Tora Tora Tora, the flying Leathernecks, I bombed Pearl Harbour, Battle of Britain!! and away all boats. Could somebody tell me the name of the movie that they took the footage of the Vindicators in formation? They are used quite extensively in the background shots of the dive and torpedo bomber pilots. Does anyone know?
A couple of things on the 'Memphis Bell', durring her tour, the Bell had 4 wing changes, 2 or 3 tail changes, 1 complete epanage change, and 9 engine changes. Minor parts replaced were not mentioned. The Bell was just average when it comes to maintenance for that time period so you can just imagine what they went through.
My favourite of course is the Longest Day, but has anyone read the book as well as seen the movie? I haven't finished the book since I move from Kriegsmarine to Luftwaffe and back again in a matter of hours sometimes, but I'm at least half way, if not more. I also like Battle of Britain, even if I couldn't tell Spitfires from Hurricanes for a while. I also much like The Great Escape. And I've yet to see Das Boot, because I didn't have money to buy it when I saw it in the store. BUt everyone tells me it's excellent.