Snipers.

Snipers are picked marksmen who shoot, usually from a concealed position, with the aim of killing key enemy personnel. The concept is probably as old as missile weapons themselves: during the Hundred Years War selected archers were used to engage difficult targets. Snipers in the modern sense appeared after the development of firearms. In the British civil wars Lord Brooke, a parliamentarian commander, was picked off by a crack shot while observing the siege of Lichfield Close.

Initially there was no clear distinction between snipers and rifle-armed light troops whose fire was effective at greater range than that of their musket-armed comrades. A British veteran of the American independence war observed that ‘provided an American rifleman were to get a perfect aim at 300 yards [274 metres] at me, standing still, he most undoubtedly would hit me unless it was a very windy day’. During the Peninsular war Tom Plunkett of the 95th Rifles sniped a French general, and in the siege of Sevastopol marksmen in ‘rifle pits’ ahead of the siege lines sniped Russian soldiers who exposed themselves and fired into the embrasures of guns. Both sides in the American civil war raised regiments of sharpshooters; Union recruits had to place ten shots in a 10 inch (254 mm) circle at 200 yards (183 metres) to be accepted, but they tended to be used as skirmishers, not snipers. Sniping was usually carried out by experienced marksmen found in both armies: during the siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana, there is an early example of a sniper taking on a target identified by a spotter with a telescope.

Sniping assumed great importance during WW I, especially where trench warfare was prevalent. The distinction between the trained sniper and the ordinary rifleman became clear. Snipers had telescopic sights and were sent on courses which emphasized both marksmanship and fieldcraft. They often worked in two-man teams, one man spotting with telescope or binoculars. Sniping demanded not merely skill and patience, but willingness to kill an enemy who might pose no threat. It helped inject hostility into quiet sectors, and snipers often found themselves mistrusted by their own side. Billy Sing of 5th Australian Light Horse, who sniped more than 150 Turks at Gallipoli, was nicknamed ‘the Murderer’ by his comrades.

Similar principles prevailed during and after WW II. Sgt Harry Furness, an experienced sniper in Normandy, said, ‘All snipers (on both sides) if captured were shot on the spot without ceremony as snipers were hated by all fighting troops; they could accept the machine gun fire, mortar and shell splinters flying around them … but they hated the thought of a sniper taking deliberate aim to kill by singling them out.’ Snipers not only killed large numbers of the enemy—Ludmilla Pavlichenko, a female history student turned sniper, was credited with 309 kills—but, by picking off commanders and radio operators, degraded fighting effectiveness.

Some snipers rationalized their action by concentrating on enemy leaders. A US Marine remarked: ‘you don't like to hit ordinary troops, because they're usually scared draftees or worse … The guys to shoot are big brass.’ Sometimes snipers brought a personal edge to their craft. Sgt Brennan was chief cook of 7th Australian Light Horse, also at Gallipoli, but went sniping in his spare time: if he killed a Turk he was ‘as happy as Larry all day’. Snipers were prominent in the fighting that followed the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. During the siege of Sarajevo Serb snipers, on the high ground around the city, targeted civilians in the streets below.

Sniping is undoubtedly effective: in the first six months of 1969 US snipers in Vietnam achieved 1, 245 confirmed kills at an average of 1.39 bullets per kill. It helps demoralize potential targets, and significantly reduces combat efficiency. During the Gulf war the .5 inch Barrett sniper rifle deployed by the US Marines even knocked out light armoured vehicles at ranges of around 2, 187 yards (2, 000 metres). Most armies pay insufficient attention to snipers in peacetime. Peter Staff argued that this was partly because of revulsion at their task: after every war ‘the US Military rushes to distance itself from its snipers. The same men called upon to perform impossible missions during combat quickly find themselves to be peacetime pariahs.’