28. Lyudmila Pavlichenko Killed Hundreds of Enemy Soldiers in Her First Few Months of Combat
Lyudmila Pavlichenko’s first two kills in August, 1941, were just the start of the lethal havoc she would visit upon the invaders. Over a two-and-a-half-month stretch, in what came to be known as the Siege of Odessa, German troops and their Romanian Axis allies sought to seize the Black Sea port city. Pavlichenko fought on the front lines, and took a deadly toll on the enemy. By the end of August, she had over 100 confirmed kills, and had been promoted to the rank of senior sergeant.
By the time the siege ended with the fall of the city, Pavlichenko’s kill count had climbed to 187. The Soviets retreated to Sevastopol on the Crimea, where she fought with the defenders in another siege for eight months. In the midst of war, she married a fellow sniper, but he was fatally injured by mortar fire a few days after the wedding. That only further fueled her determination to punish the enemy. By May 1942, her confirmed kill count had risen to 257, and she was commissioned as a lieutenant.