Kill counts in general are sus in war but the Axis bloated out their kill counts habitually. There are a few well documented engagements where the SS would claim they destroyed hundreds of Allied tanks but you look at the Allied records for that day and they'll say something like "We lost 3 out of 50 tanks we have in the area."
I remember checking wikipedia for the tiger tank and they said back to back on the page, "They destroyed 300 soviet tanks and suffered zero losses in the first engagement (dead source linked)." followed by, "German tank-crews had self reported kill counts(actual source linked)."
anyway I remember them telling me that all of Häyhä's kills were confirmed because they went to his spot and found all the bullet casings. Even as a child I was like "I thought he had to move constantly because they would've gotten him otherwise?" sad fash propaganda
Kill counts in general are sus in war but the Axis bloated out their kill counts habitually. There are a few well documented engagements where the SS would claim they destroyed hundreds of Allied tanks but you look at the Allied records for that day and they'll say something like "We lost 3 out of 50 tanks we have in the area."
I remember checking wikipedia for the tiger tank and they said back to back on the page, "They destroyed 300 soviet tanks and suffered zero losses in the first engagement (dead source linked)." followed by, "German tank-crews had self reported kill counts(actual source linked)."
anyway I remember them telling me that all of Häyhä's kills were confirmed because they went to his spot and found all the bullet casings. Even as a child I was like "I thought he had to move constantly because they would've gotten him otherwise?" sad fash propaganda