Article

2004-04-28 Iraq-Jordan

Sniper Tactics Dominate the Iraqi Battlefields

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Phil_B 2004-04-28 3:20:13 AM|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#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|| [http://balticblog.blogspot.com] 2004-04-28 4:16:14 AM|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2004-04-28 4:33:06 AM|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2004-04-28 8:17:57 AM|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2004-04-28 8:30:02 AM|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2004-04-28 8:47:03 AM|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2004-04-28 9:04:14 AM|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2004-04-28 10:16:14 AM|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2004-04-28 11:06:22 AM|| Front Page Top

#9 Gunny Hathcock bio page here.

Posted by Steve 2004-04-28 1:19:08 PM|| 2004-04-28 1:19:08 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 as long as we're on the subject...

interesting story on Korean War sniper Ian Robertson
via Tim Blair

and on Lance-Corporal Henry L. Norwest, one of the most feared snipers on the Western Front.

via Colby Cosh

Posted by Anonymous4660 2004-04-28 1:35:35 PM|| 2004-04-28 1:35:35 PM|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2004-04-28 1:36:40 PM|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2004-04-28 1:58:22 PM|| Front Page Top

23:03 Truth Search
02:04 Cinta Baru
01:11 Paul Jawa
08:39 cingold
08:18 B
08:11 B
08:05 Howard UK
07:40 CobraCommander
07:23 CobraCommander
07:21 CobraCommander
05:56 Super Hose
01:47 B
01:26 Tresho
01:21 .com
01:15 Tresho
01:00 Super Hose
00:50 Super Hose
00:48 Super Hose
00:45 Super Hose
00:44 Super Hose
00:44 Brew
00:29 Old Patriot
00:18 .com
00:13 .com