With British Snipers to the Reich

Capt. C. Shore

• Publisher: Arcole Publishing
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781787205802
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

First published in 1948, this book is a practical guide to the sniper's art in World War II. Captain Shore's enthusiasm for firearms and especially for rifles led him to take every possible opportunity to try out different weapons, ammunition and methods of shooting. His interest was combined with sound common sense, and he would never countenance a rumour about a particular weapon or incident unless he was able to confirm it for himself.As a result everything in this book is based on his personal experience. In World War II Captain Shore took part in the British landings at D-Day, and fought in Normandy and northern Europe. He came across many different weapons in varying condition, some of the worst being those used by the Dutch and Belgian resistance fighters. He was keen to learn from experienced snipers and then to train others, and he became an officer sniping instructor at the British Army of the Rhine Training Centre.He shares a wealth of first-hand knowledge of different rifles, pistols, machine guns, ammunition, telescopes, binoculars and all the equipment a sniper should carry. This is not only an account of sniping in World War II but also a guide to all aspects of sniping based on personal knowledge and experience in training and battle. Illustrated heavily with photos, pictures and other illustrations of snipers, their weapons and their tactics.

ALL SNIPING

Adventures of the Sniping Section of a Scottish Battalion Stories from a Rifle Regiment • German Sniping Russian Sniping...and the Great Myth • Sniping in Italy • Japanese Sniping • Australian Snipers • Protective Clothing • History Repeats Itself • Ideal Sniper Rifle • Sniping Shot vs. Bisley Tiger • Sniping Opinions • Future of Sniping

ADVENTURES OF THE SNIPING SECTION OF A SCOTTISH BATTALION

ON PRACTICALLY all occasions when the Battalion took over a section of the line the task allotted to the sniper section was the domination of No Man’s Land. This shows that someone with a true appreciation of the sniper’s worth was in command. It was the sniper section’s job to despatch promptly any German who was unwise enough to show his nose above ground during the hours of daylight, and by constantly plugging away at every target offered this particular snipers section claimed, with every justification, that on several occasions they forced the enemy to live constantly underground, and to have consequently undermined the morale of the Hun to such an extent that the subsequent attack was rendered much easier than it would have been otherwise. In short the snipers were used as they ought to be used, and fulfilled their task to the utmost.

Shortly after D Day this Battalion had a section of the line east of the River Orne near the village of Ranville. The country was typical Normandy terrain, being covered with small orchards, bushes and hedgerows, and therefore by no means ideal sniping ground since it was very difficult to get a decent field of fire in excess of one hundred yards. The forward platoon of “X” Company, who were the left forward Company, were troubled every night just before dusk by a Spandau which was pushed forward to within a couple of hundred yards of the British line. Things were hot and uncomfortable for an hour or more, and then Jerry would retire circumspectly back to his own line.

After this unpopular performance had run for three consecutive nights the snipers were asked if they could do anything about it, and they certainly thought that they could. Three snipers, including a corporal in charge, set out on a selected line of approach and finally reached a position close to a cart-track. It was by no means an ideal position, being blind on one side owing to thick bushes, but in lieu of something better the snipers decided to stick it out and await developments. They had not long to wait. Suddenly, less than fifteen yards away, the bushes were parted silently and three Germans appeared, complete with Spandau. With speed and silence they set up the gun on the cart-track. Since it was impossible to see the British line from this position it was clearly evident that the gun was sent out as nuisance value only. The Huns were much too close for the snipers’ liking, but the 36 grenade which each carried in his pocket felt very reassuring. (Two 36 grenades were laid down as part of a sniper’s equipment at the BLA Sniping School, and this aroused some controversy since many students held the opinion that if a sniper went out on an operational tour equipped with all the things laid down by the school authorities he would be festooned like an “adjectival” Christmas tree! But in the particular instance now being quoted the grenades were certainly worth their weight in gold; these snipers had been told that in view of the type of country in which they were working grenades should be carried for emergency use, and they had very wisely carried out the suggestion.) The corporal, hardly daring to breathe, cautiously slid his hand into his pocket and his fingers closed eagerly over the 36. Still using extreme caution he withdrew the pin, and waited until all the three Huns were in a huddle crouched over the gun, and then coolly, and with excellent aim, he threw the grenade. The results were as good as the throw. Waiting long enough to make sure that all three of the Jerries were dead, the snipers grabbed identifications, very effectively dealt with the Spandau and then beat a hasty and cautious retreat. As this was their first kill, not perhaps in the orthodox manner but conclusive evidence of the soundness of their all-round training, they arrived back at our lines feeling very elated. There was no more trouble from “Spandau Pete,” as the nuisance had become to be known in that particular sector.

Shortly before the attack on Caen this same Battalion held an area of the line locally known as the “Triangle.” The enemy were in a strong position in a wooded area about three hundred yards distant from the British line. The Battalion snipers found some excellent positions out in No Man’s Land, and by dint of careful fieldcraft they were able to reach these positions in daylight. The practise, in this area, was for a pair of snipers to man each position from first light until midday; at midday they were relieved by another team of two snipers who remained in position until dusk. It was arduous and tiring work, but definitely a sniper’s real job and it was tackled in the finest spirit. On this particular sector the slightest movement in our lines invariably resulted in a fairly severe mortar “stonking” and since it was clearly evident that our positions could not be seen from the ground level it was realised that the Hun must have an observer up aloft—in a tree. But patient and diligent observation by the snipers with telescope and binoculars failed to locate the observer for some time. One of the sniping posts was inside a wrecked German armoured car, and on the third day the midday relief had just been effected and the two snipers going off-duty were crawling back to our lines when a low whistle and whispered injunction halted them and caused them to recrawl the ten yards or so they had covered back to the post. One of the relieving snipers bringing fresh eyes to the job had spotted the German observer; he was high in a tree, excellently camouflaged, but he had made the most elementary mistake of lighting a cigarette—no doubt it was a case of “familiar contempt.” A whispered conversation between the four snipers followed as to the range to the German observer; they could not agree. Two of them said they estimated the range to be between 150 to 300 yards; the others said it was nearer 350 yards. The matter was settled in rather a novel manner. Three of the snipers set their sights at 250, 300 and 350 whilst the fourth sniper took the binoculars and kept them riveted on the prospective target. When quite satisfied that he was in the area of the observer he coolly gave the three men a fire order; the three rifles “spoke as one” and the Bosche came somersaulting to the ground.

When the Battalion relieved another unit near Best in Holland they were informed that the enemy in front was extremely active and had even penetrated our lines in broad daylight and burnt down a house in which some of our troops were resting. When the Battalion took over it was determined that such practices should cease forthwith, and the sniping section was allotted their customary task of completely dominating No Man’s Land. It was expected that such domination would only be achieved after a stiff struggle but complete success was obtained fairly easily. Just after daybreak on the first morning an unarmed German was seen to sneak into an abandoned chicken-run. A careful watch was maintained and when he reappeared carrying the eggs he hoped to have for breakfast he paid the full penalty—very quickly. A little later another Jerry who was acting as observer for mortars was spotted on the top of a roof and he too was speedily liquidated.

After three days in this area during which six certain kills were recorded, and the Huns were tamed to a great extent, they had very clearly decided that it was far healthier to remain underground during the hours of daylight, it was ordained that Jerry should receive a little of his own medicine, or, at least, the medicine which he had administered to the Battalion’s predecessors. Two of the snipers penetrated the enemy lines before daylight and moved very carefully along the bottom of a deep, dry ditch. Occasionally coming up on top for cautious observation they moved forward slowly, and must have been at least half a mile inside the enemy’s F.D.L.’s when they heard guttural voices very close at hand—too close for comfort. Freezing like hares they remained immobile for some time but since the voices neither receded nor came nearer they finally decided to have a look-see prior to turning round and beating it the way they had come. Carefully the snipers peered over the top of the ditch and were a little shaken when they saw pointing towards them, and only about ten yards away, the evil looking muzzle of a Spandau. Fortunately the owners, or lessees of the gun, were not manning the weapon, but lying talking—probably discussing the now problematical future of the Third Reich—in a slit trench close by. The snipers had a good look around and seeing no evidence of further slit trenches, or habitation, they decided that if the fates were as kind as they should be to all snipers and scouts, they would very effectively deal with this post and get clear away. Moving very cautiously out of the ditch they crawled forward, gathered themselves up and simultaneously leaped, with fierce, but not loud, cries on top of the Germans in the slit trench. They had expected to find two men only, but there were three. The Huns were completely surprised and bewildered, and immediately deciding that discretion was the better part of valour they raised their hands well above their heads.

The snipers decided to waste no time in getting back to our lines with the prisoners, but before they could prod the Huns out of the trench a section of five Germans appeared about fifty yards away and approached at a quick run. Quick as lightning one of the snipers grabbed the Spandau, turned it in the direction of the oncoming Germans and opened fire. One long burst accounted for three of the enemy before the gun jammed. Throwing it over, the sniper seized his rifle, threw it to his shoulder and with his companion following the same action, took a bead on one of the remaining Germans, and fired. These two remaining Huns were only about twenty yards away by that time and were both firing from the hip; as both the snipers’ rifles “spoke” the two Bosche toppled over and lay still. This small action had taken far less time than it takes to recount, and the three Jerries who had surrendered, although completely ignored by the snipers, just stood there nonplussed. Quite satisfied with the job the two snipers, plus the three prisoners and the Spandau, left the scene hurriedly and reached our lines safely. Naturally there was much elation over this episode, and there can be little doubt that the Hun must have wondered greatly at the miniature battle going on in his rear.

The Battalion were holding one bank of the Nederweet Canal in Holland with the Germans on the opposite bank. The distance between the combatants was only about twenty-five yards and it was possible for the snipers to hear the Germans speaking quite distinctly. There was a very high bank on each side of the canal and although the Battalion snipers waited patiently for hours on end Jerry was very careful, and remained in the safety of his own towering bank. But one afternoon the snipers’ patience was amply rewarded, since for some reason or other the Germans decided to have a celebration, and proceeded to get really drunk. The first Hun to be accounted for had a bottle of wine to his lips and was in the act of taking a long draught. Perhaps that is as good a way to die as any! The shot caused a little consternation in Jerry’s camp, but not much. The interpreter from the Battalion Intelligence section was alongside the sniper who had “bumped-off” the imbibing one, and he was delighted to translate the resultant conversation for the edification of the snipers. Immediately after the shot had been fired and the German with the bottle killed, a wine-thickened voice bellowed, “Who in the name of Venus fired that shot?” A reply in a similar voice was, “I don’t know, but who’s the silly——who’s been shot anyway?”

That afternoon drinking party was very costly for the Hun for before nightfall the snipers had killed five. It was really too easy. One wonders what the German platoon commander thought about it all next morning when he awakened with probably a damned bad head and found that his platoon had indeed been sadly depleted in strength.

STORIES FROM A RIFLE REGIMENT

This incident and the one which follows concern a sergeant who “won” a German sniping rifle (standard pattern rifle with large ‘scope sight) in France. Although he knew nothing about the rifle, and was of questionable calibre as a rifleman, he was fascinated by it and would not part with it despite the greatest of pressures exerted upon him. He stuck to it like a leech!

The time of the incident was January 1945, and the company was sitting in a static position just east of the Maas and only a few hundred yards from the German border. The village, Neustadt, small and isolated, stood on the Sittard-Roermond railway about four miles north of Sittard. The village was being held as a company position, forward of the main line, with a troop of tanks and various odds and ends. The enemy were holding the line of a “beek” small drainage canal, in the angle of which the village stood, being flanked by it on the North and East at a distance of about 500 and 300 yards respectively.

It is the east side which concerns us in this story. One platoon was astride the railway to the north, but here there were woods between us and the enemy and these had been heavily mined both by Jerry and the former occupants of the British position. Any movement in this area was not only difficult but too dangerous for comfort. The whole place was a very eerie spot, with Jerry very much alive on two sides and nothing on the other two sides between the holders of the position and their nearest neighbours, two miles to the South-West. The platoon to which the intrigued sergeant belonged was on the western end of the village itself and had a more or less unimpeded view of the drainage canal’s banks about 250–300 yards away. The enemy was known to be there because apart from considerable reciprocal activity the smoke of his brewfires was seen coming continually from behind the bank, and occasionally actual movement to and from the hamlet of Millen, about three hundred yards from the other side of the canal which he was occupying was visible.

Our policy here was one of strict “non-firing” in order to keep the Hun guessing and make him nervy, which certainly proved to be the case in the end. But the sight of a German gunner OP officer, easily recognisable at the range, calmly surveying our village through his binoculars proved too much for the sergeant one morning. He was observing from the loft of a house in his platoon area and saw this Hun officer sitting there in full view and smirk-suggestive in his arrogance; the sergeant became so incensed that ignoring all rules and regulations he took his German sniper rifle, which so far as anyone knew he had never zeroed or fired before, and very calmly shot the officer slap through the head! There was no counter battery so the assumption was that the desired result had been obtained!

This incident certainly made Jerry keep his head down in this area, too much so for the sniping enthusiasts on the British side of the canal, so resort was made to cunning. The gunners and mortar people put down a brisk “stonk” on the other side of the canal and then laid smoke along it carefully leaving a gap in the smoke opposite the platoon position in the hope that Jerry thinking something was on might be tempted to show himself in the gap and so give the snipers a chance to do their stuff. This stunt was tried on three separate occasions but the wily Hun never rose to the bait, or used periscopes to his smug satisfaction of being more astute than the cunning Englanders! In that area there was never another sniping chance.

The next story with the same sergeant as the central figure occurred during the operation immediately following the period of static warfare referred to in the previous anecdote, when the Division, along with others, was given the task of clearing the remaining enemy from the pocket between the rivers Maas and Roer south of where the two join at Roermond. An advance of about seven miles had been made from the line formerly held, when a hold-up occurred at a little straggling village called St. Joost, just east of the main Sittard-Roermond road up which the advance had been made, and which it was intended to leave at that point in order to move east towards the Roer River. The village commanded a wide stretch of the very flat countryside and it was essential that it should be taken. It was, however, very strongly held by some of those extremely redoubtable gentlemen, German paratroops, supported by tanks and SP guns. One company, which was put in first, had an extremely rough time, and even with strong tank support and the additional help of several Crocodile flamethrowers only succeeded at length in gaining a foothold in a few houses, at the extreme south of the village. The German paratroops were some of the bravest men our fellows had ever seen, or heard of, for time and time again having been forced out of a position by the flamethrowers—not a pleasant business—they would come back before our men had established themselves.

Finally it was decided that one platoon of the company should be sent up to occupy the houses the others had won, leaving them to push on. The chosen platoon was the one now being commanded by the “German-sniper-rifle-fetish” sergeant. A visit by the company commander later in the day found the platoon in three of those typical Dutch houses with no hedges around them and completely open to view from ground-level up; the platoon was in great spirits but movement outside was...

Table of contents

• Title page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• AUTHOR’S FOREWORD
• DEDICATION
• BRIEF ODYSSEY
• ALL SNIPING
• BRITISH WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT RIFLES
• FOREIGN WEAPONS
• PISTOLS
• MACHINE GUNS
• AMMUNITION
• GERMAN WEAPON TRAINING
• MAINLY IN ENGLAND
• HUNTING AS SNIPER TRAINING
• HISTORY OF BRITISH SNIPING & SHARPSHOOTING - 1755-1935
• MISCELLANY
• HOW A SNIPER WAS MADE
• ONE MAN SNIPING SCHOOL
• REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER