**CAUTION! SPOILERS! MIGHT GIVE AWAY SOME OF THE CONTENTS**
Remember what Dumas-father (of the "Three Musketeers") said about history being a hanger on which he put up his work for display? Movies are work of fiction; there is no law saying they have to be 100% accurate. But then, can even professional historians claim to be 100% accurate (and presumably they are paid to be exactly that)? Still, I cannot resist the temptation to join in the argument whether THE Duel really took place.
Some say it never took place, dismiss the story as propaganda, or question the identity of the German ace sharpshooter. I wasn't there (Duh!), but, contrary to some comments on this site, I know for certain Zaitsev was NOT silent on the matter. In memoirs published in Russian in 1971, Zaitsev DID leave a fairly detailed account of A Duel with a very skilled and experienced adversary. Note that, for both sides, enemy snipers were top-priority targets together with officers and machine-gunners. So, sniper duels were fairly common. By Zaitsev's own words, him and other fellow snipers had participated in (and survived) many such engagements. This particular German sniper he calls "Major Konings" and identifies him as the head of the German sniper school flown in from Berlin. This is, of course, to the best of his knowledge - based on intelligence (which could potentially be faulty) and the documents he picked off the body. So if the names don't match, might be people are talking different engagements, or different aliases of the same person.
Assuming this duel is THE ONE, the win for Zaitsev was a result of patience, persistence, the German's unwillingness to change an excellent position under a sheet of metal (authentic detail in the movie!), and most importantly, help from Zaitsev's team. Danilov did get shot (not mortally) the day before the actual duel, though not intentionally - just a little too eager to point the position of the German Major to Zaitsev. It was Zaitsev's teammate that baited "Konings" into shooting the day after, and, pretending to be hit, lured him enough to poke his head out of his hiding place.
Other notes (mainly based on Zaitsev's memoirs mentioned above): 1. Zaitsev's family name derives from the Russian word for "hare"; another famous Stalingrad sniper was Medvedev, derived from the Russian word for "bear". Not surprisingly, snipers trained by Zaitsev were called "bunnies", by Medvedev - "cubs".
2. Zaitsev was short, stocky, blond and blue-eyed. He had no commanding physical presence and indeed started his military career as a clerk in the navy.
3. Before the war, Zaitsev's civilian occupation had been a hunter, not a shepherd. His father and mother were very much alive; however, he was his Grandpa's favorite and felt closet to him.
4. According to Zaitsev, their division crossed Volga at night, without being attacked and without casualties. Hi mentions being armed with a submachine gun (but then, this reality wouldn't look as dramatic in place of the corresponding movie scenes).
5. Zaitsev did use a teammate of his at least once to blind his opponent with reflected sunlight to escape from a tight spot.
6. It was actually Zaitsev himself who was wounded by a mortar round and met victory at Stalingrad in a hospital. Since his vision was impaired, he finished the war as a commander of an anti-aircraft battery - part of the army that participated in the taking of Berlin.
Remember what Dumas-father (of the "Three Musketeers") said about history being a hanger on which he put up his work for display? Movies are work of fiction; there is no law saying they have to be 100% accurate. But then, can even professional historians claim to be 100% accurate (and presumably they are paid to be exactly that)? Still, I cannot resist the temptation to join in the argument whether THE Duel really took place.
Some say it never took place, dismiss the story as propaganda, or question the identity of the German ace sharpshooter. I wasn't there (Duh!), but, contrary to some comments on this site, I know for certain Zaitsev was NOT silent on the matter. In memoirs published in Russian in 1971, Zaitsev DID leave a fairly detailed account of A Duel with a very skilled and experienced adversary. Note that, for both sides, enemy snipers were top-priority targets together with officers and machine-gunners. So, sniper duels were fairly common. By Zaitsev's own words, him and other fellow snipers had participated in (and survived) many such engagements. This particular German sniper he calls "Major Konings" and identifies him as the head of the German sniper school flown in from Berlin. This is, of course, to the best of his knowledge - based on intelligence (which could potentially be faulty) and the documents he picked off the body. So if the names don't match, might be people are talking different engagements, or different aliases of the same person.
Assuming this duel is THE ONE, the win for Zaitsev was a result of patience, persistence, the German's unwillingness to change an excellent position under a sheet of metal (authentic detail in the movie!), and most importantly, help from Zaitsev's team. Danilov did get shot (not mortally) the day before the actual duel, though not intentionally - just a little too eager to point the position of the German Major to Zaitsev. It was Zaitsev's teammate that baited "Konings" into shooting the day after, and, pretending to be hit, lured him enough to poke his head out of his hiding place.
Other notes (mainly based on Zaitsev's memoirs mentioned above): 1. Zaitsev's family name derives from the Russian word for "hare"; another famous Stalingrad sniper was Medvedev, derived from the Russian word for "bear". Not surprisingly, snipers trained by Zaitsev were called "bunnies", by Medvedev - "cubs".
2. Zaitsev was short, stocky, blond and blue-eyed. He had no commanding physical presence and indeed started his military career as a clerk in the navy.
3. Before the war, Zaitsev's civilian occupation had been a hunter, not a shepherd. His father and mother were very much alive; however, he was his Grandpa's favorite and felt closet to him.
4. According to Zaitsev, their division crossed Volga at night, without being attacked and without casualties. Hi mentions being armed with a submachine gun (but then, this reality wouldn't look as dramatic in place of the corresponding movie scenes).
5. Zaitsev did use a teammate of his at least once to blind his opponent with reflected sunlight to escape from a tight spot.
6. It was actually Zaitsev himself who was wounded by a mortar round and met victory at Stalingrad in a hospital. Since his vision was impaired, he finished the war as a commander of an anti-aircraft battery - part of the army that participated in the taking of Berlin.