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This pre-owned luxury episode of History Daily originally aired on February 2nd, 2022.

It's early October 1942, and Europe is in the grips of the Second World War.

The Russian city of Stalingrad lies in smoldering ruin.

For over two months, the opposing armies of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany have been

locked in a fierce battle over control of Stalingrad. Now this once elegant city on the banks of

the River Volga has become a desolate hellscape of rubble and twisted metal.

On the top floor of a bombed-out apartment building, Vasily Zaitsev, a Soviet sniper,

quietly and calmly surveys the wreckage through his rifle's side.

A bitterly cold wind blows in from the north, whipping up ash and snow. Through gaps in the swirling

fog, Vasily catches glimpses of the demolished city, the charred remains of a schoolhouse,

a frozen fountain, rows of houses reduced to crumbling brick façades.

Vasily cocks his rifle. Somewhere out there lurking is a German super sniper who's been terrorizing

the Soviets for days. Now Vasily, as the Red Army's best sharpshooter, has been tasked with

finding and killing him. Through his scope, Vasily spot an upturn piece of sheet metal

balanced on a stack of rubble. He suspects this is where the German sniper is hiding,

but before he shoots and gives away his own position, Vasily needs to be certain.

He tugs on the communication rope. From a different vantage point, Vasily's comrade,

a man named Kulikov, feels the rope being pulled. This is his signal. Kulikov raises a mitten,

attached to a stick above the window ledge. With this technique, they hope to bait the German sniper

...