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Acuckoo is amilitary slang term for asniper, disguised in a sprawling tree. This word has been particularly applied to theFinnishWinter War snipers[1] and theWorld War IIGerman snipers, who took pot-shots at enemy troops from hidden vantage points.
Shooting from a tree is a well-known method of hunting dangerous predatory animals. In the USSR, shooting from a tree was recommended when setting up an ambush for a bear,[2] if the hunter was armed with a smoothbore 12 gauge shotgun.[3]
During World War II, before 1944, theGerman high command left many cuckoos behind as their armies retreated, in order to delay theSoviet rush.[4]
In September 1941, during thedefense of Odessa, Soviet sniperL. M. Pavlichenko shot and killedMG-34 machine gun crew (two soldiers from the4th Romanian Army) and one enemy officer from a position in amaple tree. She fired four times from a7.62mm M1891/30 bolt-action rifle with PE optical sight, wearinga non-standard self-made shaggy camouflage suit over her military uniform. It was later revealed that the killed officer was amajor G. Caragea from the headquarters of the Romanian army[5]
On April 5, 1945, on the front line near the city ofRothenburg, Jan Zyża, a private in the26th Infantry Regiment of the9th Infantry Division of the2nd Polish Army, was shot dead by a German sniper in a tree. After the first shot, the sniper was discovered and killed by fire from ananti-tank rifle.[6]
Japanese snipers reportedly fired on US troops from trees.[7]
The 2002 Russian filmThe Cuckoo tells a story of Finnish cuckoo sniper.
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