The story focuses in on the lives of two expert snipers, a Russian and a German, each with the goal of killing the other.

However, the story is complicated when a female sniper, Tania Chernova, becomes one of Vasily's most talented assistants and his battlefield lover.

Vasily Zaitsev and Viktor Medvedev are shown shooting down the soldier and then move their gear a minute later.

Her ship gets blown out of the water and she is forced to swim to shore with Fedya, a young recruit, and Yuri, an older soldier.

Just as Tania and Fedya collapse from lack of oxygen they find a manhole and are able to crawl out of the sewers.

They make it to the main Russian force and Tania decides to join the school run by Zaitsev.

After a few days Zaitsev decides to confront the hidden super-sniper and end the "mini war."

Thorvald has dug a small hole under a piece of metal so he can relax and can sit in complete darkness away from the sun.

He works all night setting up fake posts and his shooting spot for the coming morning.

Zaitsev carries her back to a hospital and they are forced to remove a kidney and she loses a lot of blood.

The Germans are surrounded by a huge number of Russian troops and they have almost no chance of escaping without being taken prisoner.

Chief Master Sergeant Vasily Zaitsev, nicknamed "the Rabbit" or "the Hare", was born on 23 March 1915 in the Chelyabinsk Region of the Ural Mountains.

Zaitsev volunteered to be transferred to the front lines when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union.

In "War of the Rats", Zaitsev falls in love with Tania Chernova, a Russian American who joined the sniper school he taught in.

Colonel Heinz Thorvald, also known as Erwin Konig, may or may not even be a real person in the Battle of Stalingrad.

Both were popular German names at the time and there is much debate on whether Thorvald's "character" was a fabrication or if he was actually real.

Colonel Heinz Thorvald was joined by Corporal Nikki Mond in his search to find and kill Vasily Zaytsev.

She joined the sniper school run by Zaitsev and became one of his top students as well as his lover, however her hotheadedness held her back from success because of her anger towards the German Army.

On the other hand, the duel is portrayed quite differently in Zaitsev's own book, Notes of a Sniper,[1] and in William Craig's 1974 history Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad.