Cuckoo (sniper)

A cuckoo is a military slang term for a sniper, disguised in a sprawling tree. This word has been particularly applied to the Finnish Winter War snipers^[1] and the World War II German 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, the German high command left many cuckoos behind as their armies retreated, in order to delay the Soviet rush.^[4]

In September 1941, during the defense of Odessa, Soviet sniper L. M. Pavlichenko shot and killed MG-34 machine gun crew (two soldiers from the 4th Romanian Army) and one enemy officer from a position in a maple tree. She fired four times from a 7.62mm M1891/30 bolt-action rifle with PE optical sight, wearing a non-standard self-made shaggy camouflage suit over her military uniform. It was later revealed that the killed officer was a major G. Caragea from the headquarters of the Romanian army^[5]

On April 5, 1945, on the front line near the city of Rothenburg, Jan Zyża, a private in the 26th Infantry Regiment of the 9th Infantry Division of the 2nd 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 an anti-tank rifle.^[6]

Japanese snipers reportedly fired on US troops from trees.^[7]