Zhang Taofang

Zhang Taofang 張桃芳
Born	1931 China
Died	April 29, 2007 (aged 76) China
Allegiance	China
Service/branch	People's Volunteer Army
Years of service	January 11, 1953 –
Unit	8th company, 214th Regiment, 24th Corps
Battles/wars	Korean War
Awards	Combat Hero (2nd Class)

Zhang Taofang, (Chinese: 張桃芳; Wade–Giles: Zhang Tao-fang; 1931 – April 29, 2007) was a Chinese sniper during the Korean War. He is alleged to have 214 kills in 32 days without using a sniper magnifying scope.

Biography

Born Xinghua City in Jiangsu Province.

Korean War

On January 11, 1953, Zhang, who had been enrolled in the army for no more than two years and together with soldiers of 8th company, 214th Regiment, 24th Corps, he was assigned to Triangle Hill, equipped with an old Mosin-Nagant without a PU scope.

After waiting 18 days at his position, Zhang spotted an enemy and immediately aimed and fired 12 shots, only to miss them all. This eager action attracted enemy fire, which almost killed him. After this, he carefully analyzed why he failed and figured out a technique using the iron sight to improve his shooting ability. He shot down one enemy the next day.

On February 15, he hit 7 enemies with 9 bullets, which surpassed the ratio of many experienced snipers.^{[citation needed]} He achieved a total of 214 confirmed kills on UN troops, mostly American, in 32 days, using 442 bullets.^{[citation needed]} Total kills were not the world record but the total kills per day (6.08) is apparently the highest recorded worldwide^{[citation needed]}

Media

In 2003, Zhang was the topic of a CCTV documentary.

Books

• Martin Pegler (2006) "Out of Nowhere: A history of the Military Sniper" ISBN 1-84176-854-5
• Kevin Dockery (2007) "Stalkers and Shooters: A History of Snipers" ISBN 0-425-21542-3