A collection of bedtime stories - or sharpshooter & sniper tales

A discussion about coolers came up and in it I learned there was a Kong brand cooler that is quite good and expensive (guess who won't be buying one?). Anyway, I worked with a guy named Kong and in WW 2 his uncle killed some Jap. officer at 600-700 yards. Open sights, M-1 Garand. He tried to get a M1903A4 for that little job but couldn't but being an expert, felt he could do a chest shot at that distance. They were not out hunting for officers but looking for an artillery piece that was harassing the regiment. After a couple of days, they spotted a cave and watched. In the morning an officer appeared (they had binoculars to watch the cave) and then signaled for the gun to be moved out. The gun would fire a round or too and then quickly rolled back into the cave before the Americans could retaliate. The scouts called the coordinates in but the artillery never hit it. Finally one officer suggested they haul an anti-tank gun into position and do some direct fire. The scouts objected as it would compromise their location. The officer told them that they were on their own then. Anyway, the scouts watched an noticed a pattern that the officer always came out first. The decision was made to eliminate him.

The scout wanted a M1903A4 scoped sniper rifle but his company couldn't provide one. The Garand would have to do. Before that though, he had to make sure he was sighted in at the same distance. Thus, the scout moved to another position and sighted his Garand at a patch of light colored earth that was the same distance. With his observer watching on, he quickly dialed it in. After he was dead on, they returned to their observation post and waited. In the morning when the officer emerged his cave before the artillery was rolled out, bam! According to the other scout, there was a spurt of blood from the officer's chest before the officer collapsed. A couple guys came out and hauled him back into the cave. The resistance on the island didn't last much long after that.

Next year my book on WW II snipers and sniping will be released.

Never mind. Learned from someone else that it is a still from the movie, From Hell to Eternity. There are other images of the same actor but showing a little more of the scope mount.


You can see the cocking knob on this Springfield. I'm wondering what scope (Kollmorgan perhaps) and what mount. Anybody know the backstory to this image?

ETA: Just saw this image on the cover of somebody's book about the war in the Pacifc. Glad I looked into it before even trying to use it (besides, the film company may want ducats).

Epigraph from Chapter 8.

"This way, comrades," shouted Ballers, proud of his exploit. 'There's nobody in there.' We all stood up, prepared to join him. He was laughingly nervous. A crisp detonation whistled through the leaves, followed by two more. Prinz was running toward us, but Ballers wasn't. He was walking hesitantly, stretching one hand toward us. Then he fell."

"So, just as we're begining to get ready to move that morning. Frankie gets up and lets out a roar. 'Hey you guys,' he yells, "I am eighteen years old today. Happy birthday, Frankie!' Bang. It's from a sniper. Down goes Frankie. It doesn't look as if he'll make nineteen."

In case you guys are wondering, next year the definitive book on WW 2 sniping will be released. Many heretofore forgotten individuals are brought back to the limelight often in their words or the words of witnesses to tell their experience. Including the bibliography it's almost 400 pages and has over 1k footnotes/endnotes. How they were selected, trained, fought, and their weapons will be discussed.

Here's another sample:

"A single shot punctuated the silence. A sniper. An officer passed the word, 'Tell Osborne to come up here.' He was asking for Pfc. F. Osborne, 18, an Indian youth from Fort Hall, Idaho, an expert scout. The officer waited, 'Where's Osborne?' he whispered horasely. The message came up to him passed from man to man. 'That was Osborne the sniper got. Right between the eyes.'"

"A sniper is the hardest thing in the world to fight. You ca't see him, you can't see smoke from his gun. All you can do is listen to the bullets whistle and hope and pray...."

Sgt. O. L. B.
36th Infantry Division.
Italy

swoter said:

Found a copy of your first book on Amazon and bought it. There’s one more on there, but I’m not paying almost $600 for it!

Click to expand...

Log Cabin Shop in Lodi, Ohio should still have Sharpshooters (1750-1900): The Men, Their Guns, Their Story. My very first black powder rifle assembly class was at their shop too and last I heard my instructor is now in a nursing home.

The next book on WW II sniping will be its worthy sequel. The following will not appear in the book but I think you guys will like it.

The Stars and Stripes reported one of the funniest incidents that happened to the 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th (Texas) Infantry Division.

It was the story of two GIs from one of our other regiments who, during the fighting on the Riquewihr-Mittlewihr area, had fallen on some fairly lush days when they found a wine cellar fully stocked with rare old wines. For them the war had stopped for a while as they sampled the various vintages and compared notes on them.

At that time, Colonel McGrath, of the moustache, had taken command of one of our battalions. One day he called m in a great stir over the fact that sniping had driven him into the basement of the home where his CP was loated and he wanted to know what the hell the regiment was doing to round up the snipers.

'Well Mac,' I said, 'we're getting the same treatment. The trouble is that the sniping isn't localized. Yesterday, supplies to one of the other battalions were held up for almost 3 hours and the graves registration officer was pinned down under his jeep for an hour or more.'

'You get those bastards, hear?' McGrath yelled.

Several days elapsed with more reports of snping being made to our headquarters in Riquewihr. Finally, we began to see that the pattern of sniping emanated from a vineyard just outside of Riquewirh. We hastily put together a task of force of two TDs, infantry, and mortars to take the vineyard under fire.

As we did, all kinds of fire was directed from the center of the vineyard to targets lying anywhere around its perimeter. The TDs opened fire and sent a number of their 3in shells screaming into the vineyard. Mortars joined in the cannonading and the infantry, formed as skirmishers, started their walk through the low vines.

The battle reached a crescendo and I took shelter behind a shed near one corner of the vineyard. I could see GIs, on their bellies, working into the spot from which the hostile firingg was coming. Suddenly all shooting stopped and I could hear voices exlaiming rather loudly over something.

Shortly, our men caame back - escorting two GIs who had' been on a drinking spree for over a week. One was short and swarthy, the other tall and stoop-shouldered. They hadn't shaved for a week or ten days and they were grimy with dirt.

I later learned from the men who had finally captured the snipers that the two had dug a circular trench inside the vineyard and had stashed in it, not only German weapons and ammo, the use of which completely fooled us, but a very large supply of wine.

Each of the men was brought before General Stack, then temporarily commanding our regiment, and while he managed to maintain his usual icy and acerbic mien, I caught him, once, covering a smile with one hand.

'I tought I'd have to laugh right out loud,' he said as we recounted the story when I met him on my G-1 rounds. 'That tall GI didn't care about anythingg we were telling him about the seriousness of his and his buddy's actions. He kept looking at the wine bottles we'd taken from him and you knew that his one care in the world was to get back to them.

To make the story complete and save it from becoming another tale of disaster, it should be noted that during the ten-day fusilade of snipers' bullets, no one was scratched, which says something about the capacity of the men to fire their weapons. If anything occurred, later, to cause the two snipers to regret their daliance with the bottle, I never heard of it. They probably received minor company punishment.

The officer in charge of the task force that rounded up the offenders told us, after the men were led away, that he had heard them greet the GIs who'd come after them with the following statement:

'Where the hell have you been you jerks?' We been fightin' the Germans for a week and no one came to help us. We been fightin' and fallin' back, fightin' and fallin' back. What kinda army is this, anyway?'"

Click to expand...

"I broke out a D-ration hard chocolate candy bar I had in my field pack ad gave it to him. In a ditch beside the road, I closed my eyes again, warmed by the burning buildings all around me. It was 0200 and I had been awake, except for a few catnaps here and there, since leaving Holland the day before.

"I think it was about an hour later when I woke up and found the other GI still in the ditch with me, asleep. I looked around but could see no one else anywhere. I got the disturbing feeling the town had been abandoned. I shook the man beside me to whom I had given the ration and asked where everyone was, and then I saw the dented helmet with a bullet hole in it. My ditch companion was dead, meaning there was a sniper somewhere in the inferno surrounding us."

Click to expand...

Managed to clean out Edward Hamilton of last two copies of my second book. Yay me.

Not a sniping story but some things were done right. A rangefinder was brought in to confirm the distance. A gun was set up ready to engage. The target had established a pattern. This incident took place in the Western Desert near El Agheila (450 miles from Tripoli and 700 west of Alexandria).

The El Agheila position was direct in front and facing us about 700 yards away were Italians with a stiffening of Germans. Due to the supply problem, orders were given that ammunition could not be fired unless attacked. After a short while the Italians began to realize this and started to take liberties. One day, before the heat haze occured, an Italian climbed out of his trench, raised his hand in the Fascist saluted and shouted, 'Viva Mussolini.' Turning his back to us, he dropped his pantaloons and squatted to answer the call of nature. We obseved with surprised interest. The next day, this fearsome Italian soldier gave a repeat performance. This was going too far for Frank Dillon and he said, 'We're not takng that!' The following day our range-taker, Chris Shambroook ensured that we had the correct distance, and Frank expertly laid his Vickers on the correct spot. Being good soldiers, we had some spare ammunition. As we waited, a jeep pulled up and out got Brigadier Douglas Graham, the Officer Commanding 153 brigade. He immediately wanted to know what was going on, so the situation was explained about trying to teach this Italian a lesson and also that we had some spare ammunition. He said, 'All right, but you had better not miss!' Our Italian did not let us down. He jumped up to what was to be his third performance and although he did not know it, his finale. When he began to exalt his love for Il Duce, Frank made final adjustments to the Vickers. Suddenly, the Brigadier's telephone began to sound, but he ignored it! The Italian duly dropped his trousers, Frank fired a short burst and the Italian fell headfirst into his trench. The Brigadier laughed and congratulated us. A wound in the bottom is not generally considered life threatening, but the next time that Italian used the toilet, he would have to decide which hole to wipe. When the Brigadier returned the call from HQ, they asked why he had not answered. He said, 'I was busy watching my men shoot an I-tie up the arse!'

Click to expand...

Ghillie Suit from WW II. Note it has a face veil to prevent the eyes from betraying the user's presence.


Sepp Allerberger was instructed on how to make a camouflage suit, but he thought them too cumbersome for use in the field and felt it was better to improvise with local vegetation.

The above image was submitted to the book designer last week. I don't know if the designer considers it worthy for inclusion.

Afrika Korps complaint about the Australians:

"The Australian is unquestionably superior to the German soldier: in the use of individual weapons, especially as snipers; in the use of ground camouflage; in his gift of observation.... In every means of taking us by surprise. Enemy snipers have astouding results. They shoot at anything they recognize. Several NCOs of the battalion have been shot through the heaad with the first shot while making observations in the front line. Protruding sights in gun directors have been shot off, observation slits and loopholes have been fired on, and hit, as soon as they were seen to be in use.... The enemy shoots very accurately with his high angle infantry weapons [author's notes: mortar]. He usually uses these in conjunction with a sniper -- or MG...."

Death at the hands of a German sniper:

“A threatening silence hung in the air. I was used to relying on intuition, and I did not believe that there weren’t any Fritzes in the houses. Machine-gun platoon leader Lieutenant Petr Malyutin from our MG company, however, did not agree with me, saying: ‘There are no Fritzes in the village, because it is quiet.’ It was this very quietness that scared me. I was about to send a squad of soldiers to check what was going on in the village, when Malyutin went out to the middle of the road and started to inspect the village through his binoculars. A shot sounded—the bullet hit him right between the eyes and the binoculars fell apart into two pieces.”

Editor is waiting for me to review the work. He returned the manuscript with notes/questions today.

In the Italian Campaign, a Canadian soldier was shot by a concealed German rifleman. This incensed the company commander who knew the general area from where the shot originated. He layed in wait and after two hours was rewarded by the German's movement. Retribution came to the German in the form of a high velocity .303 bullet. The company commander was formerly a Mountie and the Mounties always get their men!

I will have more details and an image of the Mountie in the book. Just recieved permission to reproduce his photo today. His regiment and identity will be revealed then.

“L_____ grabbed a guy from the water who’d been hit in the chest. He could walk; we ushered him toward the big rock below the machine gun nest on the left. 'What can we do for him?’ screamed L_____. Before I could come up with something, my medic and friend fell against me. His helmet spun to the ground, a foot away. A sniper’s bullet had gone straight through, killing him instantly."

Epigraph from the introduction. If you buy the book, don't be lazy and skip the introduction. There's a wealth of information in there that will not be found in any other book about WW II sniping. Unlike many other sniping books, this one is dedicated solely to WW II and is over 200,000 words long with a bibliography of over 15 pages (as submitted).

Excerpt from one of the chapters on the Eastern Front:

“August 16, 1942. The great mountains of the Caucasus looked down on us, blue-black at first, then white and pink, very high in the sky … We arrived at a large green river that surged through rubble of a dynamited bridge. A soldier advanced, straddling the jagged platform. A rifle shot rang out from a tree on the other side, the man fell into the river.

“A second man tried. Then a third. They fell, hit in turn.

“The mountains were still twenty kilometers away, but already the Caucasus was sending us a warning.”

Trying to get images of a M-1C w/M81 or M82 and a M1891/30 with PU as well as a Finnish rifle with a top mounted 4 x Ajack scope. One collector said he'll send them tonight. I'm getting images of a British sniper rifle from someone else. That should do it and the designer can finish with the design. Bibliography is 18 pages and I doubt if they'll ask me to do any index like they originally asked. It's over 300 pages and they wanted to keep it at 300.

Thank you Shanghai McCoy. Only one chapter remains to be designed and we're waiting on collectors to provide images. Excluding the biblography and the appendix which should be read it exceeds 303 pages.

In Italy, a Canadian platoon was cut off and surrounded. A German officer approached under a white flag.

"British gentlemen!," he called out. "You are surrounded and cannot win. Surrender and survive."

A Canadian sniper who was trapped there responded with defiance that typified the backwoodsman of his regiment.

"We ain't British. We ain't gentlemen and God damn if we'll surrender!"

The shelling commenced.

Not quite McAuliffe's "Nuts!" but he gets an "A" for communication skills.

“Somewhere, in front of us, a sniper has dug himself in, so well camouflaged that I can’t pick him out even with my telescopic sight. I am aware of his presence only because of the dangerous explosions all around our position which have noticeably higher tone, which continues to ring in the ears.”

Talk abut fighting at a disadvantage. Make your opponent's disadvantages your advantages.

Remember the rules of gunfighting?

1) Bring a gun. It's a gun fight, not a fisticuff.
1) Bring a bigger gun. If the opponent is going to show up with a handgun, bring a rifle.
2) Bring all your friends with guns. Why fight alone? Fight to win (and survive).

Anyway, Operation Husky entailed the Allied landing in Sicily during WW II. 82nd Airborne paratroopers were receiving some sniper fire from a hillside and noticed an offshore cruiser. A major suggested to Lt. Miller that he flash morse code to the ship and ask for fire support. As it was getting dark, Miller found a flashlight and began signalling. Many of the troopers were skeptical as they watched in silence. Then the ship lit up. It was a 15 (fifteen) 6" gun American light cruiser with each barrel capable of hurtling a 100 pound shell. The shells screamed overhead and the hillside erupted in explosions. No more sniper fire. Miller flashed a thank you to the cruiser and I'm certain the crew felt proud of their work. During Market-Garden, some soldiers of the 82nd again came under long range rifle fire. They couldn't neutralize the sniper on their own so the lieutenant call upon their airborne artillery (75mm) to fire ten rounds. The artillerymen were happy to oblige but the colonel commanding the battalion chastised the lieutenant for spending $1,000 to kill one German where one well placed bullet would only cost five cents. The paratroopers thought it was a well spent $1k and so did the public at home when they learned of it.

Everyone who didn't have their own sniper to counter an enemy sniper called in artillery (if it was available).

Book's publication date has been moved up one month to May 2022. ETA Nuts! It's released on Feb. 15 in the UK.

Andy was a sniper but when the inebriated sergeant assaulted him, he fought back and got the best of the sergeant. At his court martial, the battalion commander asked Andy to explain his action. A private striking a NCO was not looked upon favorably by the Army. Andy explained he was sitting on his locker when the inebriated sergeant came in, yelled numerous profanities at him, threatened to trash him and grabbed him by the tie and yanked him to the feet. The sergeant cocked his arm back to strike but Andy was faster. Boom! His left fist went straight up into the sergeant's chin, snapping his head back. Right fist followed to the jaw and then another left. It was the 1-2-3. The sergeant collapsed on the ground and Andy revived him with water. The sergeant swung again and Andy blocked and hit the sergeant while he was down. Look ma! No front teef.

The colonel commanding told Andy to wait outside. He heard the colonel roar with laughter and it was joined by the other two officers. Andy saw no humor to his predicament, it can't be good he tought. Andy was summoned back in and stood at attention after saluting the colonel. The colonel returned the salute and told him at ease. The court martial board decided that Andy acted in self defense. To avoid charges of an enlisted man striking a NCO, Andy was promoted to corporal with the promotion pre-dated before the incident. The inebriated sergeant was demoted to corporal. Now it was fairsy as both parties involved in the altercation were of equal rank. To avoid further incidents, Andy was transferred to the radio section of the Company HQ and away from the offending "corporal." This was all before the unit departed for the ETO too.

Entering a town in Germany, four GIs were shot down by unseen German snipers. "Andy!" his lieutenant called, "go get those snipers!" The lieutenant was aware that Andy was once trained as a sniper and need him to practice that art instead of lugging around a radio. Andy shed his radio and left it with the lieutenant. Dashing into a damaged two-story building, Andy went up the rickety stairs and into the attic. He found two broken windows that commanded the town square. Remembering his training, he remained in the shadows so as not to betray his presence. How he wished he had a scoped rifle but his M-1 would have to do. He scanned the buildings at the other end of the square looking for signs of the enemy.

A German appeared from the shadows of an attic and leaned forward to look for the GIs below. Using the sling to steady his offhand hold, Andy took some deep breaths while he concentrated on keeping the front sight blade right below the helmet of the unsuspecting German. Slowly he applied pressure on the trigger. As instructed in his training, the gun's fire should surprise him. It did and both the German and his rifle fell out of the window and down onto the street below. Instantly Andy ducked to avoid any return fire. There was none and his position was not spotted.

Andy now shifted to the other broken window and again remained back in the shadow. This window would require him to shoot with his left hand but that was no problem for Andy since he had fired expert from both sides. The platoon was ordered to move out and half did while the other half provided cover. Two more Germans emerged from the shadows of the same building. They both fired, dropping two GIs before Andy could place his sight on them. An alert GI below fired and knocked one German down and Andy shot the other. The platoon crossed the square and began clearing the houses of any remaining Germans. Andy went too and picked the better of the two scoped Mausers for himself.

Despite what the website says, the book has only 13 chapters and the appendices have been removed. The good news is that it is now 350 pages instead of 288. It's easily more than 100 photographs too.

https://www.casematepublishers.com/world-war-ii-snipers.html

I tried to find Andy and learned that he crossed the Styx before I even began my research. RIP Andy and thank you for fighting for freedom. God Bless your soul.

Just saw this U-toob video. Most of it is correct but there are a few things that aren't. I give him credit though and thought it was fun to watch.



Chapter 13 has 26 pages on the guns alone and another ten pages on the equipment. There are other pages spread throughout the book with images and short discussions of various rifles too.

Presently the editor is working on the endnotes. Originally I used footnotes and in converting the text, the notes weren't lost but the #s were. "[?]" just doesn't cut the mustard for the reader or researcher so he's doing it by hand. Slow and tedious.

The previous day a soldier named Carlton was killed by an unseen assailant. One GI decided he needed to get even.

“Big Casey woke up the next morning, cleaned his rifle, and climbed a bushy tree for a look over the country. About eight hundred yards to the rear and off the trail, he spotted a Mark V tank [PzKpfw V Panther]. He put his hands up to his eyes, simulating binoculars, and we handed him up a pair. He saw a soldier climb up on the tank and begin to eat something out of a can. Casey looked down at us with his pale eyes gleaming and asked if he could shoot him. Toland went to the captain, who radioed the little colonel [the lieutenant colonel], who went to his 81st mortar crew and climbed a tree to have a look. He sent word that Casey could fire one shot when the mortar got ready to fire at the tank. We all began to dig like hell, for when you shoot at tanks they usually shoot back. Casey dusted off his rifle again, set the sights, checked the windage, got a comfortable position in the tree, and waited for the word. When it came, Casey’s pale eyes squinted confidently down the barrel. He fired. The Krauthead dropped his chow, grabbed his chest, and fell off the tank to the ground. Casey skinned down the tree, and as he ran a patch with bore-cleaner through is rifle he remarked, ‘That was for Carlton.’

Graduates from the 3rd Kuibyshev Infantry Military College also learned the hard way that their rate of survival was not very good. Zabolotnyi Ivan Dmitrievich recalled:

“After a six-month course of study they were supposed to send us to the front, where we would get the rank of Junior Lieutenant. How many of these lieutenants were killed at the front—oh! Not many survived! As soon as you got [to] the front you would run into a sniper for sure. We didn’t care enough to protect people properly: officers had different military jackets, and combination caps rather than field caps. German snipers aimed well.”

Click to expand...