Bullets and protective clothing in WW II

4

4V50 Gary

Staff
In going over Bruno Sutkus's book, Sniper Ace, about his fighting on the Eastern Front in 1944. In it he writes on pages 43-44:

"[W]hile observing the terrain, I was detected by a Russian sniper. Under my camouflage jacket I was wearing a thickly-layered protective waistcoat that was relatively bullet-proof at 400 metres - I decided to risk receiving a shot to the chest. His bullet hit me there fair and square. I feigned dead and kept my sights on the enemy sniper. Once he eventually left his hiding place, I shot him from behind."
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Waistcoat is generally a vest (18th Century). What type of vest could do this? A steel breast plate like that worn by Soviet mine removal soldiers would be heavy and cumbersome - especially for a sniper.
 
Thanks. Even if a vest could stop it, I would do what he did because of the chance of a headshot.

It could also be a poor translaton.
 
interesting

I'd seen pics of the German trench armor before, as well as a formed plate that affixed to the german helmet as well, all from the WWI era. I suppose some of that gear was still around in WWII but I have not read specifically of WWI armor in use by the Germans in WWII.

The Germans appropriated all sorts of Russian gear and weapons in WWII and the use of the Russian vest by German troops seems likely.
 
Given the Russian (and German) snipers also had exploding rounds, it makes the self-decoying all the more dangerous.
 
RIA auctioned off a set of the German trench armor and Forgotten Weapons did a video on it. They mentioned that the U.S. Army tested it and found the armor would only stop rifle rounds at 300-400yds. So the above reference may be optimistic.
 
pics

Their are quite a few pics on the web of the Russian SN-42 armor on Russian soldiers, some of it bearing marks from bullet strikes. It would appear the SN-42 armor was not particularly rare.
 
Under my camouflage jacket I was wearing a thickly-layered protective waistcoat that was relatively bullet-proof at 400 metres -
Click to expand...

A "protective waistcoat" is almost certainly a literal translation. We say "body armor" today but for most of the past century we said "bullet proof vest", even when they had very little to do with being a vest.

Another example is a "lifejacket". Life Vest, is closer to describing the garment than jacket is, but we use the term freely.

I have no idea what the sniper was wearing, other than it was something that would have been worn like a waistcoat. Also note the translation says
"camouflage jacket". WWII German snipers (and the Waffen SS) made extensive use of a poncho like camouflage cover that is called a "smock" in English.

Military terminology and slang further complicate the matter of accurate translation. For an example, submarines fire torpedoes but our sailors called them "fish" and the Germans called them "eels"

The usual duty uniform when I was in the Army was named "Fatigues" (or technically class C uniform) The uniform doing the same function in the Marines was called "Utilities".

And we supposedly all spoke the same language...:rolleyes:
 
Sounds a tad like embellishment to me. At 400 meters, the armor could possibly have stopped the rifle round. But a sniper could only detect another sniper at 400 meters looking thru his scope. Being in a shooting position to have the front of your chest exposed without fear of being hit in the head, and then being able to hold the scope on the other sniper, after being thumped rather heavily in the chest with a high powered rifle round, while feigning death for an extended amount of time..............Just sayin'.:rolleyes:
 
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