With British Snipers to the Reich, by Captain C Shore, is the memoir published shortly after the end of the Second World War by an officer with a passionate interest in shooting in general and sniping in particular. As I haven't seen this book referenced elsewhere. I thought members would appreciate some notes on its contents. Shore is very critical of the standard of shooting in the British Army as a whole and roundly criticises the lack of appreciation of the potential of snipers among the generality of infantry officers. Having said this, he dismisses the level of sniping practiced by the other major combatants as virtually negligible. This knowledgeable officer found no evidence of properly organised sniping on the German side despite the Nazis' pre-war encouragement of hunting and sport target shooting. Sniping in the British Army Organised sniping seems to have got underway in the British Army in 1916 with the formation of an Intelligence Section in each infantry battalion. This was under the command of the Battalion Intelligence Officer and had (in theory) a Scout Officer as second in command, eight scouts, eight snipers, and eight observers. The snipers and observers operated in two man teams to dominate the area of no-man's-land in front of the battalion. By 1939, sniping had dropped off the army's radar. The official sniper rifle was the P 14 with the P 18 Telescopic Sight but Shore reports that he could find no evidence of any having been seen in France before Dunkirk. The war of fast sweeping movement in France and i n the desert reinforced t he belief t hat sniping had 1 ittle to offer t he modern army. Again, no sniper rifles were to be found in the Middle East. Despite this, an establishment of eight snipers per battalion was approved in 1942. The invasion of Italy provided the sniper with a fine hunting ground and a sniping school was set up in Italy during 1943. In Shore's opinion, however, this was of little use as it was positioned too far (hundreds of miles) behind the front line. Following the Normandy landings 21" Army Group Sniping School was set up. This followed close behind the front line units and so was able to give its students instruction and actual combat experience as part of the same course. The most valued instructors were NCOs of the Lovat Scouts who had experience both in battle and stalking deer on great the estates of the Scottish Highlands. Again, two-man teams were used. Sniper Equipment The (theoretical) equipment laid down for a British sniper by the end of the war was as follows: No.4 Rifle TS Denison smock Face veil (to break up sniper's outline) Scout Regiment Telescope Binoculars Compass 2x No.36 Grenades 50 rounds.303 ball ammunition (in a bandoleer over the right shoulder) Water bottle (also over right shoulder) 5 rounds tracer ammunition (right trouser pocket) 5 rounds armour piercing ammunition (left trouser pocket) one emergency ration (top right pocket of smock). Sniper Rifles Shore gives a useful review of the weapons available to the British as potential sniper rifles. SMLE MkIII and MkIII* - the standard rifles of WW1. Highly rated, easy to fire and can be very accurate. The grenade cup capable of firing the No.36 grenade is very useful. No.4 Rifle - the standard British rifle of WW2. Approved in 1931, went into production when WW2 started. Shore is very dismissive of the quality control of early war examples. Actual calibre varied between .301" and .305" with dire consequences for accuracy. Ross Rifle - Issued to the Canadian Expeditionary Force early in WW1 but found to be unsuitable. Shore found it perfectly safe to use if well maintained but troops disliked the way the bolt recoiled straight backwards towards the firer's face. Rifle P14 - a .303" conversion of a .276" weapon intended to be the new British standard when W W 1 came along. Concerns about supply problems led to the .303" SMLE being retained. The M17 was the US .300" version issued to Home Guard units in 1940. Shore's assessment of some of the other nations' rifles is fascinating. Somewhat surprisingly, his favourite is the American M 1 Carbine. Shore carried one alongside his beloved P 14 and found its accuracy to be excellent to 200 yards or more. The M1 Garand is a good rifle but too heavy. The German Stg44 is dismissed as an interesting weapon but not the way forward. Shore could not know that this weapon was to give rise to that ubiquitous symbol of post-war conflict, the AK47. Back to Table of Contents The Messenger November 2003 Back to The Messenger List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2003 by HMGS/PSW. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles covering military history and related topics are available at http://www.magweb.com