Second World War 1942: Lady Death 

I've always been taught that Pavlichenko is history's best/most prolific *_offensive_* sniper. It annoys me when she's referred to by others as "the best *_female_* sniper", because that implies that she's only the best among women. It implies that there are multiple better snipers who aren't women. It's extremely belittling of a true expert and hero. She's generally considered second only to Simo Hayha in total number of confirmed kills. Arguably, Pavlichenko is the more versatile, and well-rounded sniper. Hayha fought mostly defensively, giving him the home-field advantage. He grew up in, and knew, the areas that his enemies were entering for the first time in their short lives. Hayha waited for enemies to come to him. While Pavlichenko was on the opposite side of that equation. She was often being sent to areas she had never visited before and supported Russian troops during their invasion of Germany. She faced enemy snipers who had the "home-field advantage". She fought *_offensively_* instead. I honestly think that Hayha was very specialized in doing his one primary type of fighting, in a scenario he was extremely familiar with. While Pavlichenko was the best *_combat_* sniper to ever live. Reminds me of an old adage; Archilochus said, "The fox knows enough about many things, but the hedgehog knows everything about one big thing. In this analogy, Pavlichenko is a fox, while Hayha is a hedgehog. There's nothing wrong with being ultra-specialized on one specific aspect of combat, but it's an important bit of context to keep in mind. If they traded places halfway through their careers, I think it's likely that Pavlichenko could have filled Hayha's shoes pretty well. Maybe not quite as well, but at least 50-70%. While I don't think Hayha would do as well in Pavlichenko's position. Not knowing the terrain and area, not fighting primarily in winter (which most of his tactics were based around), etc... I think Hayha wouldn't fare well as an offensive sniper in an unfamiliar land or urban environment. He might survive, and even that's a "maybe," but he definitely wouldn't be anywhere near 50% as effective as Pavlichenko in her more variable combat roles and unpredictable situations. If I had to pick one to be on my team, I'd only pick Hayha if we were the defending force. I'd go with Pavlichenko for literally anything beyond that (offensive missions, any combination of both (eg: capture & hold) and definitely if the scenario was unknown).

And it took an areal bombardment to finally take her out of the war