A Rifleman Went to War

consider to be the hardest of all to combat, even with a telescopic sight.

The team will have little trouble in agreeing upon a set of designating points, and will soon become so familiar with them that their use requires little conscious thought. The ranges to them become automatically known in a short time, and it does not take long to get trained upon a target. There may or may not be time to change the sight setting; one generally “holds off” a bit and takes the shot just as quickly as possible. When it becomes necessary to transmit a designation or target back to someone else — say the artillery or some other observer, there is but one method — give the exact map reference from the official maps.

The well known firing-point scheme of using the clock face in order to designate targets or objects is applied in the case of new ground where the designation points have not yet been laid out; also occasionally in directing observation on vague locations. Generally, this part is pretty easy and one soon gets a good mental picture of everything in the field of view and also the exact range to it. This range will be determined by both map readings and trial shots. The latter are much to be preferred and one may indulge in quite a bit of shooting as the day progresses, in order to keep sighted in with the various changes of light. This, as I said previously, is the most serious thing to contend with, and as the sun works its way around the position one should keep sighted in to agree with the difference in light.

This general sighting in is a very easy matter to do at almost any time of the day. It may not be possible to do much of it from concealed positions close in to the enemy (for that matter, it is hardly required at short ranges) but from the positions in the rear it is almost always possible. One utilizes small shell holes filled with water, or a bare spot of dirt in the trench system, or a bit of brick wall — anything which will give off a dust or splash when hit. The observer can readily pick up the splash with his big telescope. It pays to keep sighted in at all times.

There are any number of small tricks to sniping which may best be learned by experience — but often this sort of experience is very costly in lives, so maybe I better mention something about them right here. It is of utmost importance for the sniping team to avoid observation and detection by the enemy, and there are often small and seemingly insignificant things which may give a position away. The flashing of the objective lens of the big telescope is a common fault, and I believe more positions in the rear are given away by this than by any other occurrence. With the light coming from the front, that lens will flash for a long distance. Then there is both muzzle blast and “smoke” from the burning powder to be taken into consideration. “Smoke” do you say? “From smokeless powder?” Well, maybe not exactly smoke, but a fairly good substitute. There are often occasions when the discharge of a military rifle will leave a small puff — about as big as a campaign hat — of thin, dark smoke in front of the muzzle. Nothing at all like the old black powder fog, but still sufficiently visible to be picked up and identified — and the position given away. This phenomenon is not always visible, but can best be seen on sharp, cold mornings and often throughout the entire day during a spell of damp, muggy weather. It is only noticeable when the muzzle is close to the ground or against cover, and in certain makes of ammunition the fault may be more pronounced than in others.

The muzzle blast, or hot gases being violently expelled from the muzzle, must be taken into account in many situations. This can kick up quite a cloud of dust at times, especially from some loop- hole or nest where the muzzle does not project sufficiently — in these cases they say the thing to do is to keep the hole “wet down” with water, but personally I have never seen this done. Then, if the rifle is discharged with its muzzle hidden amongst thick grass or weeds, this gas will cause a great swirling and bending about of the vegetation and quickly give the position away. These faults I have just spoken of can be noticeable to the naked eye at ranges of a hundred yards or more and can be picked up with a glass at much greater distances, so it will be seen that they can be a serious matter even to the sniping pair in back of the lines. To the lone sniper, out in the open and close in to the enemy, they may easily become tragic.

Another point our sniper should always keep in mind, is to be a bit particular as to what targets he sights in on. Better stick to some available water hole or bit of dirt out in the general direction in which you expect your next target to appear. Avoid shooting through petrol cans, buckets, tins or boxes lying along the top of the enemy trench system — they may have been put there for just that purpose. Any shots fired into or near where you expect a target to appear can only result in greater wariness and hesitation being shown by the occupants of that place. Don’t give your position away either by careless actions or promiscuous shooting. Targets will be scarce enough anyhow — make every opportunity count.

I almost forgot to mention that the sniping team should also keep an accurate “score book.” Sure thing. This contains the sight settings and elevations of the various lots of ammunition you may have found sufficiently accurate, the ranges to all the various main designating points, official map designations and all that. You might even mark down the “bulls” as you make them — but this will often be a very uncertain matter and you will have to let your conscience be your guide many, many times.

Next to accuracy, the most essential quality possessed by our sniper is the ability to get his shot off quickly. By this statement, I do not mean the skill necessary to make a good “rapid fire” score such as we practice here in the United States, but have in mind the ability to “snap shoot” as practiced by the skilled deer stalker hunting in thick woods. These fussy and particular “old women” whom we have all seen competing in some of the matches at Camp Perry — who insist upon their six feet of clear space on the 1000 yard firing line, and the full minute-and-a- half allowed for each shot fired, are going to fare badly when it comes to sniping. You must be able to aim quickly and get your one shot off within a few seconds after the target is indicated. First: accuracy — then speed, is the rule for the sniper.

Naturally, with the enemy at long range, or during brief periods when the light is very poor (such as at daybreak or dusk) and your man does not consider himself visible, the target offered might be of some minutes duration. But the time of exposure of the average target is apt to be mighty brief, generally lasting but a few seconds — this is especially the case if any shooting has been recently done at that particular time or place. I would say that the rifleshot who cannot locate his target, get aligned on it, and let the shot off in less than ten seconds will prove a hopeless case. Ten seconds is much more time than will often be given, and our prospective sniper had better try to reach the point where he can aim and shoot within three seconds — which can readily be done where the range is not too long.

It might be said that the rifleman of our pair should be in constant readiness to think and act at an instant’s notice, but the rule for the observer is to go slow. Accurate observation with a big telescope is a long, drawn-out proceeding. One will do best to mark off the enemy position into small sections of ground and go over each section slowly and carefully, a bit at a time; work out every foot of it inch by inch and make certain there is nothing there which can be shot at. Don’t wait for the enemy to show himself, go ahead and look for him. And keep looking.

The work of the sniper is not entirely confined to shooting. If he is really qualified for the job, he will probably do as much good by reporting his observation of the things he sees going on in and behind the enemy lines, as by killing off a few men. As a matter of record, the snipers in the Canadian Army Corps were a part of the Intelligence Section — working directly under what were, at first, called “Scout Officers,” but later “Intelligence Officers.”

Any man who is daily, carefully and conscientiously, scanning a certain bit of terrain and who has carefully marked all the noticeable landmarks, is sure to notice any change. It may be that the enemy is constructing additional defenses, or that he is bringing up more troops. Perhaps the artillery are sneaking up a battery. I have lain, day after day, watching through the big telescope the construction of concrete emplacements, the digging of new trenches and the movements of bodies of men far behind the enemy front line. The worst of it was, that when we reported a lot of these things, they were not heeded or believed by our superiors.

That was one of the advantages which the “graduates” of the later sniping schools had over us forerunners; they had a recognized organization in back of them with considerable official standing and “weight” and when they turned in a report covering their observations for the day, that report was given real consideration by the powers who were running things from the rear. Many a time I have turned in a report to my own Section or Battalion officers — one regarding which they fully recognized the accuracy and great value. But when forwarded to the rear for consideration or action by higher command, the report was pooh-poohed as being merely “some soldier’s imagination.” But those Lovat Scouts reported directly to their own Intelligence Officers, who knew just how much dependence could be placed on each man’s observations, and to whom the other staff officers were obliged to give due consideration and attention.

We “volunteer” snipers tried for some weeks to get our artillery to wipe out some German guns which we had spotted during our observations throughout the daytime. One battery in particular, which we knew to be concealed in an orchard at a place called, on the maps, Hiele Farm, had been firing from that position (it was only 800 yards