Description
DID 1/6 SCALE WWII GERMAN FIELD GEAR SET FROM MAJOR ERWIN KONIG, SNIPER, 1942 BATTLE OF STALINGRAD, 10th ANNIVERSARY EDITION FROM PRODUCT NUMBER D80138 ITEM IS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION NOTES1: THIS ITEM CAME OUT OF A NEW BOXED FIGURE, IT HASN’T BEEN HANDLED EXCEPT BY ME WHEN I TOOK IT OUT OF THE BOX. NOTES2: ITEMS INCLUDED: GERMAN FIELD GEAR + 2 STRAPS. NOTES3: THERE ARE NOT ANY ACTION FIGURES IN THIS ITEM. DISCLAIMER: OUR PRODUCTS ARE FOR ADULTS ONLY, NOT CHILDREN. OUR PRODUCTS ARE FOR HISTORIC EDUCATION PURPOSES ONLY, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO GLORIFY, NOR EXPLOIT THE HORRORS AND ATROCITIES OF WAR. More on Major Erwin Konig (Fact or Fiction):Erwin König is a name of an apocryphal Wehrmacht sniper allegedly killed by the Soviet sniper Vasily Zaytsev during the Battle of Stalingrad. König is mentioned both in Zaytsev’s memoirs Notes of a Sniper (a “Major Konings”, potentially SS) and William Craig’s 1973 non-fiction book Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad. He was portrayed by Ed Harris in the 2001 film Enemy at the Gates.
The alleged duel between Zaytsev and König took place over a period of three days in the ruins of Stalingrad.
In a post-war visit to Berlin, Zaytsev was allegedly confronted by a woman who told him she was König’s daughter, with Soviet authorities quickly evacuating Zaytsev to avoid any confrontation.
Zaytsev’s personal account is the only source for the story. No other historical documentation exists and no secondary source for the events in question exists. None of the Germans mentioned by Zaytsev including König, König’s daughter, or the German prisoner of war who Zaytsev says identified König have ever been identified in other records.
The story of the Soviet discovery of König’s arrival came from a German soldier who had been interrogated by the Soviet forces (as stated in Zaytsev’s memoirs). Also Zaytsev claims in his memoir to have found the enemy sniper in a run-down industrial area, locating him under a sheet of scrap metal by the glint of his enemy’s rifle scope. He then claims to have taken the scope as a souvenir.
In his memoirs, Zaytsev refers to him as being a German sniper named Herr Koning (“Koning” is Dutch for King, cognate to König in German), identified as the head of a sniper school in Berlin, by documents taken from his dead body. This is unconfirmed as German Heer personnel records make no mention of any German sniper called König or Koning. It was also stated by Zaytsev that the existence of König came from an unidentified German prisoner.
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