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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Sniper Tactics Dominate the Iraqi Battlefields |
| 2004-04-28 |
| The U.S. Army found that more frequent and aggressive use of snipers made for more successful combat operations in Iraq. Each army brigade now has about three dozen trained snipers, and most brigades have encouraged the selection and training of more snipers within infantry companies. The ability to take down enemy troops with single shots is a major combat advantage, but can only be done if you have better trained troops and much better reconnaissance and observation on the battlefield. The army has a five week sniper school, and the marines have a ten week course that is considered one of the best in the world. These schools turn out professional snipers who know how to operate independently in two man teams. Marine regiments (about the same size as army brigades) have about three times as many snipers per battalion as army units. But both the army and the marines are taking advantage of the greater number of veteran troops in their combat units, and the fact that just about every soldier has a rifle with a scope, and has a lot of target practice behind them. Infantry commanders are encouraged to find and designate about ten percent of their men as âsharpshootersâ (sort of âsniper liteâ) and make use of these guys to take out enemy troops at a distance, and with single shots. This is a trend that has been growing for over a decade, but has now become a major feature of American infantry tactics. The marines wonât release any numbers of sniper kills (except that the top scoring sniper in Fallujah has 24 kills so far), but it is known from emails coming back that the marines use snipers, and sniping tactics (for non-snipers), extensively. Part of this is to comply with the Rules of Engagement (ROE) that call for minimizing civilian casualties. Most often, the marines only use a lot of fire power when they are ambushed (there is no better way to deal with an ambush than to blast your way out of it). But most of the Iraqi gunmen are killed by single shots, usually by the trained snipers, after the snipers and their commanders had carefully set up sniper firing positions that covered areas they knew Iraqis liked to travel through. UAVs and lots of scouting, plus questioning of prisoners, reveals the Iraqi routes and makes them deadly to use. This has terrorized the Iraqis, which is exactly what it is intended to do. The army and marine snipers particularly like to work at night, when their night vision and thermal imaging equipment enables them to shoot accurately in the darkness. This further reduces the chance of civilian losses, and increases the terror. The men who go through the sniper school receive lots of training on how to choose a good shooting position, get to it unseen and remain unseen for as long at is takes to get the shot, or shots, available. These professional snipers also learn to use larger caliber 7.62mm and 12.7mm (.50 caliber) sniper rifles. These are single shot weapons that are designed and built for accuracy at very long ranges (over a thousand meters for the 12.7mm rifle.) The âsharpshootersâ are mainly excellent shots at shorter ranges, and have whatever training they can pick up on how to find the best shooting position. Army and marine officers have learned how to use snipers more frequently in the past two decades. Instead of regarding the snipers as just a specialized weapon, for special occasions, combat unit commanders now see snipers as a standard type of trooper, to be used immediately in any combat situation, just as they would mix and match riflemen, machinegunners, grenadiers (with 40mm grenade launchers) and other weapons available to infantry companies and battalions. The emphasis on greater accuracy in the use of weapons now applies to all weapons. Better trained troops can carry out complex battlefield maneuvers automatically, even when (especially when) under fire. While some of the anti-government gunmen in Iraq have demonstrated evidence of some military training, it has proved far inferior to that of the American troops they face. In combat, the side that is better trained wins, and takes fewer casualties doing so. |
| Posted by:Phil_B |
| #12 The army and marine snipers particularly like to work at night, when their night vision and thermal imaging equipment enables them to shoot accurately in the darkness. This further reduces the chance of civilian losses, and increases the terror. Return some of the horrific fear as payback for the people who knew they were going to die trapped in the towers on 9/11. Has there been a TOTAL body count of the enemy in Fallujah? I know they don't talk about sniper deaths, but I was wondering about if the commanders released the total we've bagged of the 2000 the military think are there. |
| Posted by: BigEd 2004-04-28 1:58:22 PM |
| #11 sorry - links didn't work http://timblair.spleenville.com/archives/006589.php http://www.colbycosh.com/old/january04.html#oshn |
| Posted by: Anonymous4660 2004-04-28 1:36:40 PM |
| #9 Gunny Hathcock bio page here. |
| Posted by: Steve 2004-04-28 1:19:08 PM |
| #8 ZF wrote: "There is absolutely no trace in the German military archives or SS records of SS officer Heinz Thorwald." Wasn't Heinz Thorwald the villain in "Rear Window"? Oh, that was Lars Thorwald. Baltic wrote: "I didn't know that there was a similar duel between a marine sniper and a VietCong sniper in the '60s." The U.S. sniper was Carlos Hathcock. He and a VC sniper stalked each other for days, and as the legend goes, he shot the VC sniper through the tube of the VC's scope, having been just slightly qicker with the shot. |
| Posted by: Tibor 2004-04-28 11:06:22 AM |
| #7 From a website posting: From Antony Beevor's Stalingrad, The fateful siege : 1942 - 1943. The telescopic sight of his prey's rifle, allegedly Zaitsev's most treasured trophy, is still exhibited in the Moscow armed forces museum, but this dramatic story remains essentially unconvincing. It is worth noting that there is absolutely no mention of it in any reports.* *Indeed, the whole story of the sniper duel is fiction. There is absolutely no trace in the German military archives or SS records of SS officer Heinz Thorwald. Also there is absolutely no report of the duel in the Red Army files which concentrated on sniper activities (the daily reports of the Political Department of Stalingrad Front to Moscow). This great story can be classified as Soviet propaganda. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-04-28 10:16:14 AM |
| #6 I thought that the "Enemy at the Gates"/"War of the Rats" sniper duel was just Soviet wartime propaganda that somehow slipped through as a real event in the history books. |
| Posted by: Laurence of the Rats 2004-04-28 9:04:14 AM |
| #5 a Snipe Hunt huh? Thought that involved a bag, flashlights and naive cityslickers |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-04-28 8:47:03 AM |
| #4 What I've heard is that the term "sniper" came from the British, not the American colonists, and from their troops serving in India. |
| Posted by: Dar 2004-04-28 8:30:02 AM |
| #3 "Enemy at the Gates"was made from the book"War of the Rats"excelent book I highly recomend it. |
| Posted by: raptor 2004-04-28 8:17:57 AM |
| #2 That Stalingrad duel was amazing wasn't it? The sun gave the German away. |
| Posted by: Rafael 2004-04-28 4:33:06 AM |
| #1 There was a facinating program on the History Channel, called "Dangerous Missions: Snipers" that I just watched a couple days ago. Without getting too technical, I learned that: * The term sniper comes from the American Revolution, because the guns used by colonists for sniping were used to hunt "snipes," game birds. * The German snipers during WWI were so accurate that putting your head above a trench was certain death. The Germans constructed fake tree stumps in no-mans-land, and shields that they could use to creep up on Allies positions. * The duel of Vasily Zeitzev in Stalingrad against a German sniper portrayed in "Enemy at the Gates" was covered in full. I didn't know that there was a similar duel between a marine sniper and a VietCong sniper in the '60s. The Vietcong had bounties out on our snipers starting in the late '60s. One U.S. sniper took out 16 targets in 2 minutes in one engagement, and lived to tell the tale. * The U.S. military dispanded their sniper schools after WWI, II, and Korea, and had to be reconstituted. Sounds like they've corrected that error. If the documentary comes on again, it's well worth it. |
| Posted by: Baltic Blog 2004-04-28 4:16:14 AM |