SNIPER ELITE

The first British sniper unit began life as Lovat Scouts, a Scottish Highland regiment that earned high praise during the Second Boer War (1899-1902). ^[6] The unit was formed by Lord Lovat and reported to an American, Major Frederick Russell Burnham, the British Army Chief of Scouts under Lord Roberts. Burnham fittingly described these scouts as "half wolf and half jackrabbit." ^[11] . It is rumoured that the British sniper unit killed 56 people. Just like their Boer opponents, they were well practiced in the arts of marksmanship, field craft, and military tactics. They were also the first known military unit to wear a ghillie suit. ^[12] They were skilled woodsmen but also practitioners of discretion: "He who shoots and runs away, lives to shoot another day." After the war, this regiment went on to formally become the British Army's first sniper unit, then better known as sharpshooters. ^[11]

During World War I, snipers appeared as deadly sharpshooters in the trenches. At the start of the war, only Imperial Germany had troops that were issued scoped sniper rifles. Although sharpshooters existed on all sides, the Germans specially equipped some of their soldiers with scoped rifles that could pick off enemy soldiers showing their heads out of their trench. ^[8] At first the French and British believed such hits to be coincidental hits, until the German scoped rifles were discovered. ^[8] During World War I, the Germans received a reputation for the deadliness and efficiency of their snipers, partly because of the high-quality lenses the Germans could manufacture. ^[8]

Soon the British army began to train their own snipers in specialized sniper schools. Major Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard was given formal permission to begin sniper training in 1915, and founded the First Army School of Sniping, Observation, and Scouting at Linghem in France in 1916. ^[13] In 1920, he wrote his account of his war time activities in his book Sniping in France, which is still referenced by modern authors on the subject. ^{[14] [15]} Hesketh-Prichard developed many techniques in sniping, including the use of spotting scopes and working in pairs, and using Kim's Game to train observational skills. ^[16] Both British and German sniper teams operated in pairs, with one sniper and one spotter. On the Eastern Front, Imperial Russia never introduced specialized sharpshooters or snipers, allowing the German snipers to pick off their targets without danger from counter-snipers. ^[8]

The British did use papier-mâché figures painted to resemble soldiers to draw sniper fire. Some were equipped with rubber surgical tubing so the dummy could "smoke" a cigarette and thus appear realistic. Holes punched in the dummy by enemy sniper bullets then could be used for triangulation purposes to determine the position of the enemy sniper, who could then be attacked with artillery fire.

During World War II, snipers reappeared as important factors on the battlefield. During the interbellum, most nations dropped their specialized sniper units, notably the Germans who had such a reputation during World War I. However, during the Spanish Civil War, the effectiveness and dangers of snipers once again came to the fore. The only nation that had specially trained sniper units during the 1930s was the Soviet Union. Soviet snipers were trained in their skills as marksmen, in using the terrain to hide themselves from the enemy and the ability to work alongside regular forces. This made the Soviet sniper training focus more on "normal" combat situations than those of other nations. During the 1940 campaigns of Germany, it appeared that lone, well hidden snipers could halt the German advance for a significant amount of time. For example during the close-in on Dunkirk, British snipers were able to significantly delay German infantry trying to reach Dunkirk. This prompted the British to once again upscale their training of specialized sniper units. British snipers were trained in the obvious marksmanship skills and taught to blend in with the environment, often by using special headgear that concealed them. However, the British Army offered sniper training exclusively to officers and non-commissioned officers, which reduced their effectiveness considerably. ^[9]

One of the best known battles involving snipers, and also the battle that made the Germans reinstate their specialized sniper training, was the Battle of Stalingrad. Their defensive position inside a city filled with rubble meant that Soviet snipers were able to inflict significant casualties on the German Wehrmacht. Because of the urban nature of fighting, snipers were very hard to spot and seriously dented the morale of the German attackers. The best known of these snipers was probably Vasily Zaytsev, immortalized in the novel War of the Rats, and the subsequent film Enemy At The Gates. Though German sharpshooters appeared spontaneously, often armed with captured scoped Mosin-Nagant rifles, Germany re-established its own sniping school and set out to reclaim its reputation of the First World War. Germany drastically increased the number of snipers per unit. German training emphasized shooting at long-range targets to deliver a feeling of insecurity to the enemy, the ability to creep up on enemies and remain hidden with enemies nearby, plus especially good camouflaging. Germany evolved the most efficient ways of camouflaging, both by using the environment (branches etc.) and by the development of specially designed, reversible camouflage clothing. German snipers were also issued with special shovels and knives to create the best possible hiding places and shelters. As they had done during the First World War, German snipers also changed location after a few shots to further reduce their chances of being spotted.

During the Winter War, Finnish snipers took a heavy toll of the invading Soviet army, with Simo Häyhä credited with 505 confirmed kills ^{[17] [18]} - most with the Finnish version of the iron-sighted bolt action Mosin-Nagant.

In the United States armed forces, sniper training was only very elementary and focused on being able to hit targets over long distances. Snipers were required to be able to hit a body over 400 meters away, and a head over 200 meters away. There was almost no concern with the ability to blend into the environment. Sniper training also varied from place to place, resulting in a wide range of qualities of snipers. The main reason the US did not extend their training beyond long-range shooting was the limited deployment of US soldiers until the Normandy Invasion. During the campaigns in North Africa and Italy, most fighting occurred in arid and mountainous regions where the potential for concealment was limited, in contrast to Western and Central Europe.

This resulted in disastrous effects in Normandy and the campaign in Western Europe where they encountered well trained German snipers. ^[8] In Normandy, German snipers remained hidden in the dense vegetation and were able to encircle American units, firing at them from all sides. The American and British forces were surprised by how near the German snipers could safely come and attack them, as well as by their ability to hit targets over long distances. A notable mistake made by the green American soldiers was to lie down and wait when targeted by German snipers, thus allowing the snipers to pick them off one after another. ^[8] German snipers often infiltrated Allied lines and sometimes when the frontlines moved, they fought from their sniping positions and withheld their surrender until their rations and munitions were exhausted. After World War II, many elements of German sniper training and doctrine were copied by other countries. ^[8]

In the Pacific War, the Empire of Japan also trained snipers. In the jungles of Asia and the Pacific Islands, snipers posed a serious threat to the U.S, British, Canadian and Australian troops. Japanese snipers were specially trained to use the environment to conceal themselves. Japanese snipers used foliage on their uniforms and dug well-concealed hide-outs that were often connected with small trenches. There was no need for long range accuracy, because most combat in the jungle took place within a few hundred meters. Japanese snipers were known for their patience and ability to remain hidden for long periods. They almost never left their carefully camouflaged hiding spots. This meant that whenever a sniper was in the area, the location of the sniper could be determined after the sniper had fired a few shots. The Allies also used their own snipers in the Pacific, notably the US Marines, who used M1903 Springfield rifles.

Some common sniper rifles used during the Second World War include: the Soviet M1891/30 Mosin Nagant and, to a lesser extent, the SVT-40; the German Mauser Karabiner 98k and Gewehr 43; the British Lee-Enfield No. 4; the Japanese Arisaka 97; the American M1903 Springfield and M1 Garand; to a lesser extent, the Italians trained few snipers and supplied them with a scoped Carcano Model 1891.

Main article: Longest recorded sniper kills

The longest range recorded for a sniper kill currently stands at 2,475 m (2,707 yd) and was achieved by CoH Craig Harrison, a sniper from the Household Cavalry of the British Army. It was accomplished in an engagement in November 2009 in which two stationary Taliban machine gunners were killed south of Musa Qala in Helmand Province in Afghanistan with two consecutive shots by CoH Harrison using an Accuracy International L115A3 Long Range Rifle chambered in .338 Lapua Magnum. ^{[19] [20] [21] [22]}

According to JBM Ballistics ^[23] , using drag coefficients (C_d) provided by Lapua, the L115A3 has an approximate super-sonic range (speed of sound = 329.3 m/s) of 1,375 m (1,504 yd) under International Standard Atmosphere conditions at sea level (air density ρ = 1.225 kg/m³) and 1,548 m (1,693 yd) at the 1,043 m (3,422 ft) altitude or elevation (air density ρ = 1.1069 kg/m³) of Musa Qala. This illustrates how environmental condition differences can significantly affect bullet flight.

This external ballistics computer program predicts that the bullets of British high pressure .338 Lapua Magnum cartridges using 16.2 g (250 gr) Lapua LockBase B408 bullets fired at 936 m/s (3,071 ft/s) muzzle velocity under International Standard Atmosphere conditions at 1,043 m (3,422 ft) elevation (air density ρ = 1.1069 kg/m³) and assuming a flat fire scenario and a 100 m (109 yd) zero arrive at 2,475 m (2,707 yd) after approximately 6.017 s flight time at 251.8 m/s (826 ft/s) velocity and have dropped 120.95 m (4,762 in) or in angular units 48.9 milliradian (168 MOA) on their way.

CoH Craig Harrison mentions in reports that the environmental conditions were perfect for long range shooting, no wind, mild weather, clear visibility. Mr. Tom Irwin, a director of Accuracy International, the British manufacturer of the L115A3 rifle, said: “It is still fairly accurate beyond 1,500 m (1,640 yd), but at that distance luck plays as much of a part as anything.”

By contrast, much of the U.S./Coalition urban sniping in support of operations in Iraq is at much shorter ranges, although in one notable incident on April 3, 2003, Corporals Matt and Sam Hughes, a two-man sniper team of the Royal Marines, armed with L96 sniper rifles each killed targets at a range of about 860 metres (941 yd) with shots that, due to strong wind, had to be “fire[d] exactly 17 meters (56 ft) to the left of the target for the bullet to bend in the wind.” ^[24]