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 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 D 546.P94 
 
 Sniping in France : 
 
 3 1924 027 946 619 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027946619 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
By 
 WHERE B 
 
 the Same .Author. 
 
 LACK 
 
 RULES WHITE- 
 
 HAYTI 
 
 
 
 THROUGH 
 
 THE 
 
 HEART OF FATA- 
 
 GONIA 
 
 
 
 HUNTING 
 
 CAMPS IN WOOD AND 
 
 WILDERNESS 
 
 
 THROUGH 
 
 TRACKLESS LABRADOR 
 
/ , o„. a J. .iu>...^ I 
 
 TKe Sniper-Observer'Scout 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 With Notes on the Scientific Training of 
 Scouts, Observers, and Snipers 
 
 BY 
 
 MAJOR H. HESKETH-PRICHARD 
 
 D.S.O.. M.C. 
 
 WITH A FOREWORD 
 
 BY 
 
 GENERAL LORD HORNE OF STIRKOKE 
 G.C.B.. K.C.M.G.. etc. 
 
 IJIustrations by ERNEST BLAIKLEY, ArtJsta' 
 Rifles, late Sergeant-Instructor' at the First 
 Army Sohool of S.O.S., the late Lisat. B. Head, 
 The Hertfordshire Regt., and from Photographs. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 E P BUTTON AND COMPANY 
 
 681, FIFTH AVENUE 
 
Printed in Great Britain. 
 
 ^9f$f^ 
 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 By General Lord Horne, G.C.B. 
 
 It may fairly be claimed that when hostiHties ceased 
 on November nth, 1918, we had outplayed Germany 
 at all points of the game. 
 
 Perhaps as a nation we failed in imagination. 
 Possibly Germany was more quick to initiate new 
 methods of warfare or to adapt her existing methods 
 to meet prevailing conditions. Certainly we were 
 slow to adopt, indeed, our souls abhorred, anything 
 unsportsmanlike. 
 
 Had it been left to us, " Gas " would have taken no 
 part in the Great European War. 
 
 But, however lacking in imagination, however slow 
 to realize the importance of novel methods, once we 
 were convinced of their necessity, once we decided to 
 adopt them, we managed by a combination of brains 
 and energy, pluck and endurance, not only to make up 
 the lost ground, but to take the lead in the race. In 
 proof of this statement I would instance Heavy Field 
 Artillery, High Explosives, Gas, Work in the Air, etc., 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 and many other points I could mention in which 
 Germany started ahead of us, including Sniping, 
 Observation and Scouting. 
 
 And for our eventual superiority we owe much to 
 individuals, men who, like the author of this book, 
 Major Hesketh-Prichard, combined expert knov.'ledge 
 with untiring energy, men v/ho wovild not be denied 
 and could not recognize defeat. 
 
 In the early days of 191 5, in command of the 2nd 
 Division, I well remember the ever-increasing activity 
 of the German sniper and the annoyance of our 
 officers and men in the trenches. I can recall the 
 acquisition by the Guards' Brigade, then in the 
 Brickfields of Cuinchy with Lord Cavan as Brigadier, 
 of two rifles fitted with telescopic sights and the good 
 use made of them. It was the experience of 191 5 
 that impressed upon us the necessity of fighting for 
 superiority in all branches of trench warfare, amongst 
 which sniping held an important position. It was 
 therefore a great satisfaction to me upon my 
 arrival from the battlefields of the Somme in the 
 autumn of 1916 to find Major Hesketh-Prichard's 
 School firmly established in the First Array area, 
 thanks in a great measure to the support and encour- 
 agement of Lieut .-General Sir Richard Making, the 
 Commander of the Eleventh Corps. 
 
 From that time onwards, owing chiefly to the 
 energy, enthusiasm, tact and personality of its Com- 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 mandant, the influence of the Sniping, Observation 
 and Scouting School spread rapidly throughout the 
 British Forces in France. Of its ups and downs, of 
 its troubles and its successes, and of its ultimate 
 triumph. Major Hesketh-Prichard tells the tale with 
 modesty typical of the man. 
 
 I may be permitted to add my testimony that in 
 each phase of the war, not only in the trenches, but in 
 the field, we found the value of the trained sniper, 
 observer and scout. 
 
 This book is not only a record of a successful system 
 of training, valuable as such to us soldiers, but also 
 will be found to be full of interest to the general 
 reader. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I- — The Genesis of Sniping . 
 
 II. — The Sniper in the Trenches 
 
 III- — Early Days with the XI. Corps and 
 First Army . 
 
 IV. — The First Army School of Scouting 
 
 Observation and Sniping 
 V. — Some Sniping Memories . 
 VI. — ^An Observer's Memories. 
 VII. — The Curriculum and Work at First 
 Army School of S.O.S. 
 VIII. — WiLiBALD the Hun . 
 IX. — The Cat .... 
 
 X. — The Training of the Portuguese 
 XI. — The Modern Scout 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I 
 
 25 
 
 56 
 
 71 
 
 94 
 114 
 
 144 
 164 
 176 
 184 
 191 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 Appendix A. — Programme for Training 
 
 Observers. . . . .211 
 
 Appendix B. — General Course at First Army 
 
 School of S.O.S. . . . 214 
 
 Appendix C. — I. Care of Arms, Grouping and 
 
 Range Practices . . . 222 
 
 II. Patrolling and Scouting . 232 
 
 III. The Stalking Telescope . 239 
 
 IV. Front Line Observation and 
 Reports ..... 246 
 
 V. Some Uses of Scouts, Observers 
 and Snipers in Attack and 
 Defence and Open Warfare . 253 
 
 VI. The Enfield 1914 Pattern 
 
 " Sniper's Rifle " . . . 259 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The Sniper-Observer-Scout ...... Frontispiece 
 
 The Sniper's End Facing p. 28 
 
 Examination of a German Prisoner ..... 30 
 
 Outside the Snipers' Post.—" Shut the loopholes. I'm 
 
 coming in" ,^ jg 
 
 Telescopic Sights. " Nurse your Target." i. "Not yet." 
 
 2. "Nowl" ^, 44 
 
 Spotting the Enemy Sniper „ 46 
 
 XI Corps Sniping School. Imitation German Trench used 
 
 for spotting targets, etc „ 64 
 
 Method of inserting Loophole, i. Original Section of 
 
 Parapet ; 2. How bags are arranged and fixed round 
 "loophole to imitate original parapet (Gray's Boards.) ; 3. 
 
 Parapet reconstructed with loophole . . . . „ 64 
 
 XI Corps Sniping School. Showing the best form of parapet 
 
 to conceal loopholes, and the wrong type of parapet for 
 
 concealing snipers' loopholes ....... 66 
 
 Section of typical German Parapet. Showing concealed 
 
 loopholes made through tins, bags, etc. . . . . „ 66 
 
 First Army School of S.O.S „ 72 
 
 First Army School of S.O.S. No. i. Flat Parapet. The 
 
 easiest possible form of parapet to spot movement behind 
 
 — practically a death-trap ....... 74 
 
 First Army School of S.O.S. No. 2. Same parapet as in 
 
 No. I after five minutes' alteration . . . . „ 76 
 
 First Army School of S.O.S. Sniper's Robe on a 6ft. 4in. 
 
 man in the open ........,, 88 
 
 Find the Sniper. (The flat cap gives him away) . . „ 92 
 
 Find the Sniper (Look for the rifle barrel) ....,, 94 
 
 Telescopic Sights. With Periscopic Prism — Aldis. With 
 
 Winchester. With German telescopic sight (showing use 
 
 at night) „ 98 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Inside the Observation Post Facing p. 122 
 
 Lovat Scouts : Battle observers. ,....,> 126 
 
 The Fatal Cap „ 142 
 
 First Army School of S.O.S. Comparison of sniper's robe as 
 
 opposed to ordinary kit firing over a turnip heap . . „ I44 
 
 First Army School of S.O.S. Typical German Loophole 
 
 Disguises in Earth Parapet ....... 148 
 
 1. There are tvfo snipers here — one in uniform and one in a 
 
 " sniper's robe " ......... 150 
 
 2. A contrast showing the drawbacks of uniform and a 
 
 " correct " position ........ 152 
 
 First Army School S.O.S. Showing effects and importance 
 
 of light and shade ........ 156 
 
 Night-work in No Man's Land. ...... 194 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE GENESIS OF SNIPING 
 
 "O EADERS of this book must realize the neces- 
 ■^^ sarily very narrow and circumscribed point 
 of view from which it is written. It is simply an 
 account of some memories of sniping, observation 
 and scouting in France and Flanders, and its purpose 
 is to preserve, as far as may be, in some form the work 
 and training of a class of officers and men whose duties 
 became ever more important as the war progressed. 
 It is in the hope that the true value of sniping and 
 scouting will continue to be recognized in the future 
 training of our armies, as it certainly was recognized 
 in the later years of the war, that this book is 
 written. 
 
 The idea of organized sniping was not a new one 
 to me when I went out to France in May, 191 5. I 
 had been there before, in the previous March, and 
 had seen the immense advantages which had accrued 
 
 I I 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 to the Germans through their superiority in trench 
 warfare eniping. 
 
 It is difficult now to give the exact figures of our 
 losses. Suffice it to say that in early 191 5 we lost 
 eighteen men in a single battalion in a single day to 
 enemy snipers. Now if each battalion in the line 
 killed by sniping a single German in the day, the 
 numbers would mount up. If any one cares to do a 
 mathematical sum, and to work out the number of 
 battalions we had in the line, they will be surprised at 
 the figures, and when they multiply these figures by 
 thirty and look at the month's losses, they will find 
 that in a war of attrition the sniper on this count 
 alone justifies his existence and wipes out large numbers 
 of the enemy. 
 
 But it is not only by the casualties that one can 
 judge the value of sniping. If your trench is domi- 
 nated by enemy snipers, life in it is really a very hard 
 thing, and moral must inevitably suffer. In many 
 parts of the line all through France and Belgium the 
 enemy, who were organized at a much earlier period 
 than we, certainly did dominate us. Each regiment 
 and most soldiers who have been to France will re- 
 member some particular spot where they will say the 
 German sniping was more deadly than elsewhere, 
 but the truth of the matter is that in the middle of 
 1915 we were undergoing almost everywhere a severe 
 gruelling, to say the least of it. 
 
 2 
 
THE GENESIS OF SNIPING 
 
 When I went out in May, 191 5, I took with me 
 several telescopic-sighted rifles, which were either my 
 own property or borrowed from friends. I was at 
 the time attached to the Intelligence Department 
 as an officer in charge of war-correspondents, and 
 my work gave me ample opportunity to visit all 
 parts of the line. Whenever I went to the line I 
 took with me, if it was possible, a telescopic-sighted 
 rifle, and I found that both brigades and battalions 
 were soon applying to me to lend these rifles. In 
 this way opportunities arose of visiting the line and 
 studying the sniping problem on the spot. 
 
 One day I remember I was going through the 
 trenches in company with the Australian Correspon- 
 dent, Mr. GuUett, when we came to a very smart 
 notice board on which was painted the word " Sniper," 
 and also an arrow pointing to the lair in which he lay. 
 The sniper, however, was not in the lair, but was 
 shooting over the top of the parapet with a telescopic- 
 sighted rifle. These rifles were coming out from 
 England at that time in very small numbers, and 
 were being issued to the troops. 
 
 I had for many years possessed telescope-sighted 
 rifles, and had some understanding of their manipu- 
 lation as used in big-game shooting. In a general 
 way I could not help thinking that they were unsports- 
 manlike, as they made shooting so very easy, but 
 for shooting at rabbits with a small-bore rifle, where 
 
 3 I* 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 you only wounded your rabbit unless you hit him in 
 the head, they were admirable and saved a great deal 
 of unnecessary suffering. 
 
 But to return to the sniper. Much interested, we 
 asked him how he liked his rifle, and he announced 
 that he could put a shot through the loophole of the 
 iron shields in the German trenches " every time." 
 As the German trenches were six hundred yards away, 
 it seemed to me that the sniper was optimistic, and 
 we asked him if he would let us see him shoot. I 
 had with me a Ross glass which I always carried in 
 the trenches, and when the sniper shot I saw his bullet 
 strike some six feet to the left of the plate at which he 
 was aiming. He, however, was convinced from the sound 
 that it had gone clean through the loophole ! He 
 had another shot, and again struck well to the left. 
 I had a look at his sight, which was a tap-over fitting, 
 and seeing that it was a little out of alignment I 
 questioned the sniper as to how much he knew about 
 his weapon. It is no exaggeration to say that his 
 knowledge was limited. 
 
 From this moment all telescope-sighted rifles 
 became a matter of great interest to me, and it was not 
 long before I came to the conclusion that about 
 80 per cent, were quite useless, much worse, in fact, 
 than the ordinary open sights, in the hands in which 
 they were. The men using them had in most cases 
 hardly any knowledge of how their sights were aligned. 
 
 4 
 
THE GENESIS OF SNIPING 
 
 A tap or a knock and the rifle was straightway out of 
 shooting. 
 
 For the benefit of the untechnical reader it will be 
 well here to remark that if a telescopic sight set upon a 
 4-inch base is one-hundredth of an inch out of its 
 true alignment, it will shoot incorrectly to the extent 
 of 9 inches at 100 yards, and, of course, 18 inches 
 at 200 yards, and 54 inches at 600 yards. The sights 
 had been issued without instruction, were often 
 handed over as trench-stores, and were served out by 
 quartermaster-sergeants who very often looked on 
 them as egregious fads. 
 
 It seemed to me that here was something definite 
 to go upon towards that organization of sniping in 
 which I so much desired to have a hand. That even- 
 ing I laid the matter before my Commanding Officer, 
 Lieut.-Colonel A. G. Stuart, of the 40th Pathans, 
 than whom surely no finer officer went to the war. 
 He was killed in 191 6 by a chance bullet a mile behind 
 the trenches, when he was serving near Ypres as 
 G.S.O.i to the 50th Division. 
 
 He listened with both sympathy and interest. 
 " You say," said he, " that all or nearly all the teles- 
 cope-sighted rifles you have seen are so incorrect as 
 to be worse than useless. Are you quite sure of this ? " 
 
 " Quite sure," said I. " And that is only one side 
 of it. The men have no idea of concealment, and 
 many of them are easy targets to the Hun snipers." 
 
 5 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 " The proper authorities should move in the 
 matter," said Colonel Stuart. 
 
 " There don't seem to be any proper authorities, 
 sir. The officers know no more than the men about 
 these sights, and what I want to do is this : If it is 
 possible I should like to be appointed as sniping expert 
 to some unit. I believe I could save hundreds of 
 lives even in a brigade the way things are." 
 
 Colonel Stuart said nothing, so I went on : 
 
 " Will you help me to get a job of this kind, sir ? 
 I am asking because it seems absurd for a fellow like 
 me who has spent years after big game to let men go 
 on being killed when I know perfectly well that I 
 can stop it." 
 
 " Are you sure of that ? " 
 
 " I am quite willing, sir, to go to any unit for a fort- 
 night's trial, and if I do not make good, there will 
 be no harm done." 
 
 " Well," said Colonel Stuart at length, " we will 
 talk to people about it and see what they say." 
 
 After that, Colonel Stuart often questioned me, and 
 I pointed out to him our continued and heavy losses, 
 the complete German superiority, the necessity not 
 only of a course of training but, more important still, 
 the selection of the right men to train and also their 
 value to Intelligence if provided with telescopes, and 
 made a dozen other suggestions, all very far-reaching. 
 
 When I look back now on these suggestions, which 
 
THE GENESIS OF SNIPING 
 
 came from a very amateur soldier of no military 
 experience, I can only marvel at Colonel Stuart's 
 patience ; but he was not only patient, he was also 
 most helpful and sympathetic. Without him this very 
 necessary reform might, and probably would, have 
 been strangled at birth, or would have only come into 
 the Army, if it had come at all, at a much later time. 
 
 Colonel Stuart not only allowed me to speak of my 
 ideas to various officers in high command, but even 
 did so himself on my behalf. I was amazed at the 
 invariable kindness and courtesy that I met on every 
 hand. I used to introduce myself and say : " Sir, I 
 hope you will forgive me if I speak about a thing I 
 am awfully keen on — sniping, sir. The Huns got 
 twelve of the Blankshires in this Division on their 
 last tour of duty, and I think we could easily beat them 
 at this if we had proper training and organization." 
 And then I would lay out my plans. 
 
 But, though people listened, there were immense 
 difficulties in the way, and these might never have been 
 surmounted, although quite a number of Corps and 
 Divisional G.O.C.'s had said to me : " If you can get 
 away from your job at G.H.Q., come here and be our 
 sniping expert. We shall be very glad to have you." 
 
 Still, as I say, there is a thing in the Army called 
 " Establishment," and there was no Establishment 
 for a sniping officer, and if the matter were put through 
 the War Office it would probably take some months, 
 
 7 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 I knew, to obtain an establishment. Colonel Stuart, 
 however, once I had convinced him, backed me up 
 in every possible way, going to see the M.G.G.S., 
 Third Army, Major-General Sir A. L. Lynden-Bell, 
 who was in full sympathy with the idea. It was thus 
 that the matter was mentioned to Sir Charles Monro, 
 commanding the Third Army, and Colonel Stuart 
 arranged with Brigadier-General MacDonogh, now 
 Lieut .-General Sir George MacDonogh, who was then 
 in command of the Intelligence Corps, to allow me to 
 serve with the Third Army as sniping expert. 
 
 John Buchan,* who was at that time the Times 
 correspondent on the Western Front, also gave the 
 idea great encouragement. He had seen for himself 
 the awful casualties that we were suffering, and con- 
 sidered the scheme which I laid out to be a sound one. 
 
 Sir Charles Monro, in talking over the matter, made 
 a remark which I have always remembered. 
 
 " It is not," he said, " only that a good shot 
 strengthens his unit, but he adds to its moral — ^hc 
 raises the moral of his comrades — it raises the moral 
 of the whole unit to know that it contains several first- 
 class shots." 
 
 These are not the exact words which Sir Charles 
 used, but they are as near them as I can remember. 
 
 Now that I had got my chance I was at first ex- 
 
 • Afterwards Lieut.-Col. John Buchan, Director of Information. 
 
 8 
 
THE GENESIS OF SNIPING 
 
 tremely happy, but later, as I could not go to my new 
 work at once, I became a little nervous of failure, and 
 pictured myself unsuccessful in my attempt to 
 dominate the German snipers. I began to wish that 
 I had gone to my work a month earlier, for when 
 the Third Army took over from the French, the 
 Germans offered any amount of targets, whereas I 
 now heard that they were becoming more cautious. 
 I, therefore, cast about for some way in which I might 
 hope to make certain of success, and to this end, having 
 conceived a plan, I went down to Neuve Chapelle, 
 where my friend. Captain A. C. Gathorne-Hardy, 
 9th Scottish Rifles, since killed at Loos leading his men 
 and within ten yards of the German wire, was in the 
 line. We obtained from the old German trenches 
 a number of the large steel plates from behind which 
 the German snipers were wont to shoot, and these I 
 took home with me to England, for I had obtained a 
 week's leave before taking up my new duties. 
 
 I proceeded to try on these plates all kinds of rifles, 
 from the Jeffreys high velocity .333 to heavy elephant 
 guns of various bores, and was delighted to find that 
 the bullets from the .333, as well as the elephant guns, 
 pierced them like butter. Here, again, Colonel John 
 Buchan came to my assistance, and obtained for me a 
 fund, to which Lord Haldane, Lord Glenconner and 
 Lord Finlay kindly contributed the money, and which 
 enabled me to purchase the necessary rifles. Later 
 
 9 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 on, Mr. St. Loe Strachey, the editor of The Spectator, 
 continued to keep up my fund, which really was of 
 incalculable value to us, and out of which everything 
 from dummy heads purchased at Clarkson's to foot- 
 ball jerseys for the splendidly-appointed Sniping 
 School, which finally eventuated, were purchased. 
 
 At length I was free of my work at G.H.Q., and 
 went down to the Third Army, where I was attached 
 to the yth Corps, the 4th Division, and the loth and 
 1 2th Infantry Brigades. 
 
 It would be out of place to describe in detail the 
 days that followed. Suffice it to say that very early 
 in the proceedings it became clear that snipers must 
 always work in pairs, one man shooting and one man 
 finding the targets with the telescope. The regula- 
 tion issue of the latter was at the time, I think, about 
 eight telescopes per battalion, and these were used by 
 the Signallers, but Lord Roberts' Fund, administered 
 with extraordinary energy by Mr. Penoyre, came to 
 the rescue, and soon a certain number of telescopes 
 dribbled down into the 4th Division line. As to the 
 heavy and armour-piercing rifles, they did their work 
 exceedingly well, and no doubt caused a great surprise 
 to the enemy. 
 
 One day I obtained leave to go to Amiens, where I 
 visited the French Camouflage Works, and found to my 
 delight that they had made a number of papier-mache 
 models of the heads and shoulders of British soldiers. 
 
 10 
 
THE GENESIS OF SNIPING 
 
 Of these I was able to purchase a large quantity, and 
 had no longer any need to buy in London, where the 
 heads were rather theatrical properties than the real 
 thing. The uses to which the heads were put were 
 varied. They were, in these early days before they were 
 too much advertised (for they afterwards became an 
 issue in our Army), most useful in getting the enemy to 
 give a target. It was also possible, by showing very 
 skilfully the heads of Sikhs or Ghurkas in different parts 
 of the line, to give the German Intelligence the im- 
 pression that we were holding our line with Indian 
 troops, and I have no doubt they were considerably 
 worried to account for these movements. 
 
 One day I received orders from Army Headquarters 
 telling me that Colonel Langford Lloyd, D.S.O., 
 had now started a telescopic-sight school in the loth 
 Corps area, and ordering me to go there and to colla- 
 borate with Colonel Lloyd in a book upon sniping and 
 telescopic sights. I went and found a splendid school 
 running, in which the instruction in telescopic sights 
 was rapidly correcting these rifles in the loth Corps. 
 
 I had the opportunity at Colonel Lloyd's school of 
 learning a great deal that I did not know about tele- 
 scopic sights, and many other matters in which Colonel 
 Lloyd is a past master. He listened with great in- 
 terest to the various ruses, of which there was now 
 quite a long list, that we had employed in the trenches. 
 
 We wrote our pamphlet on sniping and telescopic 
 
 II 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 sights, a pamphlet which, owing to a change in the 
 Army Command, was never published, and shortly 
 after my visit to Colonel Lloyd I received the intima- 
 tion that my trial time with the Third Army had been 
 successful, and that steps would now be taken to get 
 me placed permanently upon its strength. In the 
 meantime, I went from brigade to brigade, burning 
 with eagerness to make organized sniping a definite 
 fact. The instruction took place both in and out of 
 the trenches, and during the course of it we had many 
 interesting experiences. As soon as people began to 
 talk about sniping as a new and interesting subject, 
 our arrival in the trenches became rather trying, 
 as we were certainly looked upon as something in the 
 light of performing animals who would give some 
 kind of a show-. of greater or less interest. But the 
 Higher Command soon put a stop to this, and thence- 
 forward we were allowed to plough our lonely furrow. 
 
 It would be difficult to describe the various days 
 spent in the trenches, or the duels that took place 
 there ; but each one threw fresh light upon sniping and 
 showed the enormous extent to which it might be 
 developed. I will make some reference to these days 
 in later chapters. 
 
 As I have stated, snipers always worked in pairs, 
 one observing, the other shooting, and soon we found 
 that the notes kept by the observer were invaluable 
 from an Intelligence point of view. If a line was 
 
 12 
 
THE GENESIS OF SNIPING 
 
 well covered with snipers' posts, nothing could happen 
 in the enemy line without our snipers' observers re- 
 porting it — no work could be done, no alteration in 
 the parapet made. Successful observation was, in 
 my experience, first obtained in the loth Brigade, 
 commanded by Brigadier-General Hull,* by the 2nd 
 Seaforth Highlanders. They had an extraordinarily 
 keen Commanding Officer, who provided his men 
 with good telescopes. 
 
 We now began all through the 7th Corps to start 
 sniping sections consisting of trained snipers and 
 observers, and the success of the movement grew very 
 rapidly. The German began to cower in his trenches, 
 and as" time wore on our casualties grew less and less. 
 My life at this time was an extraordinarily interesting 
 and strenuous one. Moving from brigade to brigade, 
 I would often find splendid arrangements for testing 
 the telescopic sights, and as often none at all. A horse 
 before breakfast, on which I would set forth to find a 
 range, followed by an hour in the Pioneer's shop, 
 pasting up targets made out of old Daily Mails on to 
 frames^the snipers of the brigade paraded at nine 
 o'clock, the march to the improvised range, shooting 
 the telescopic sights at the target, and after dark a 
 lecture in some barn, was often the order of the 
 
 day. 
 
 I think in these early days that I was exceedingly 
 
 •Afterwards Major-General Sir A. Hull, K.C.B. 
 13 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 fortunate in having something definite to show. The 
 telescopic sights were often very much out of shoot- 
 ing, and no one understood the cure. I think many- 
 thought for the first time that there was something in 
 this sniping movement when a sniper missed the target 
 three times running at 70 yards, and a Httle later, 
 after his rifle had been manipulated, scored three bulls 
 on end. 
 
 One thing that struck me was the extraordinary 
 interest taken by all Brigade Commanders in every 
 detail of the work. I do not say, nor do I think, that 
 at the beginning they looked on my coming with 
 unmixed favour. Once I walked into a Brigade Head - 
 quarters, and while waiting in the passage heard a 
 voice say : 
 
 " Who is this blighter who is coming ? " And then 
 someone gave my name. Then a voice said : " Plays 
 cricket, doesn't he ? " 
 
 I could not help laughing, but as I say, in the very 
 early days every Brigade Major and G.O.C. had to be 
 converted to a belief in sniping. Often and often 
 the Brigade Commanders would spend hours on the 
 first day at the range, and I think that without excep- 
 tion when they saw the incorrect rifles being made 
 correct, they once and for all decided in my favour. 
 On my second visit to these Brigades, I was almost 
 always made the guest of the Brigadier-General and 
 received with a kindness so great as to be really over- 
 
 14 
 
THE GENESIS OF SNIPING 
 
 whelming. Things, in fact, were going very well 
 indeed for the work which one hoped would Soon 
 spread through the whole B.E.F., for to my delight 
 one day I received a letter from Major Collins, then 
 G.S.0.2 to the Second Army, whom I had informed 
 of my appointment as sniping expert, to say that 
 General Plumer was starting an Army Sniping School 
 in the Second Army, and asking for any notes I might 
 have. 
 
 But one morning while shooting on the range I 
 heard that Sir Charles Monro and his staff had gone 
 to Gallipoli. I had been so keen on my work that I 
 had not pushed the matter of getting my appoint-, 
 ment regularized, but now I realized that its tenure 
 might become very insecure. Indeed, as a matter of 
 fact when I did raise the question I was informed by 
 G.H.Q. that if I did not keep quiet I should be recalled. 
 
 In 191 5, the Third Army was far and away the best 
 sniping Army in France. There was hardly an in- 
 correct sight in the loth or 7th Corps, and scores of 
 officers and hundreds of men had been through courses 
 at Colonel Lloyd's loth Corps School, or with me. 
 It was while I was with one of the Infantry Brigades 
 of the 37th Division that I received a letter which gave 
 me immense pleasure. It was to the effect that Lieut. - 
 General Making, the Corps Commander of the nth 
 Corps in the First Army, wished to borrow me, so 
 that I might lecture on sniping to his Corps, and go 
 
 15 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 through their telescopic sights. Here was a splendid 
 chance of carrying the work outside my own Army. 
 
 About this time I was attached to the Third Army 
 Infantry School, then just formed under its first and 
 very capable Commandant, Brig.-General R. J. Kentish, 
 D.S.O. I lectured there on sniping and started a range 
 and demonstrations, but I found myself lecturing to 
 Company Commanders, whereas I ought to have been 
 doing so to sniping officers, in order to get the best 
 results. The Company Commanders liked, or appeared 
 to like, the lectures, but, in the Army phrase, it 
 was " not their pidgin," and I soon felt that I should 
 do better work nearer the line. 
 
 From the school, however, I journeyed up into the 
 First Army area, and went through the sights and ful- 
 filled my engagement with the nth Corps. I think 
 these days as the guest of the variovis Corps Com- 
 manders of the First Army — for I was passed on from 
 the nth Corps to the 3rd, and from the 3rd to the 
 1st — were the best days I had in France, for the extra- 
 ordinary keenness in the First Army was very marked. 
 It was here that I had to go through the ordeal of 
 having to lecture to the Guards Divisional Staff and 
 Snipers at nine o'clock in the morning. In lecturing, 
 even on an interesting subject like sniping, it has 
 always seemed to me much easier to be successful in 
 a warm room at five o'clock rather than in a • cold 
 onp at nine. 
 
 16 
 
THE GENESIS OF SNIPING 
 
 After finishing with the First Army and correcting 
 some 250 telescopic sights, I went back to the Third 
 Army Infantry School. Here I found that the Army 
 Commander of the Third Army, Sir E. H. H. AUenby, 
 had applied for my services for the Third Army, and 
 had received the reply that these could be granted 
 provided I relinquished the staff pay I was receiving 
 and was willing to accept instead the lower rate of an 
 Infantry Captain. This, of course, I agreed to do. 
 Evidently, however, there was some further hitch,, 
 for I received no pay for the next eight months, nor 
 did I dare to raise the question lest I should be sent 
 back to G.H.Q. 
 
 I remember one General saying to me upon this 
 question, not without a smile, " You are not here 
 officially, you know, and any Germans you may have 
 kiUed, or caused to be killed, are, of course, only un- 
 officially dead." 
 
 I will conclude this chapter with a letter that I 
 wrote in November, 191 5, which gives my impressions 
 at that date. 
 
 My Dear 
 
 Since I have been with the 3rd Army, I have had 
 an Officer from every battahon in the 7th Corps 
 through my course. These Officers in their turn 
 train snipers, and so the thing permeates quickly and, 
 I think, with really good results. 
 
 17 2 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 Sniping seems to me to be the art of — 
 
 I. — Finding your mark. 
 
 II. — Defining your mark. 
 
 III. — Hitting your mark. 
 
 With regard to No. i, it is absolutely essential that 
 the use of the telescope should be taught from the 
 stalking or big-game point of view. If we had one 
 Officer teaching it in every battalion of our Army in 
 France, we should kill a lot of Germans, and not only 
 this but the task of Intelligence Officers would be 
 greatly facilitated. With- four good telescopes on 
 every battalion front, very little can happen in the 
 enemy line without our knowing it. There are a good 
 many telescopes in France. 
 
 With regard to defining a mark. It is here that 
 telescope sights help us, but telescope sights in the 
 hands of a man who does not thoroughly understand 
 them are utterly useless. I have had a great many 
 through my hands, and in every ten I have had to 
 correct about six after they have been in the trenches 
 a short time. I wish every battalion had an Officer 
 who could correct and shoot telescopic sights. It is 
 very important that he should be thoroughly know- 
 ledgeable, because a rifle barrel must not have too 
 many shots fired through it. With a new barrel a 
 good shot can nearly always get a 3-inch group, but 
 after 600 or 1000 shots have been fired' through the 
 barrel the group becomes more scattered. It is 
 
 18 
 
THE GENESIS OF SNIPING 
 
 therefore necessary that the man who regulates the 
 rifle behind the trenches should be able to do so with 
 as few shots as possible. 
 
 Another point is, — that men must be trained to 
 understand and believe in their telescopic-sighted rifles. 
 One Brigade I had for instruction, on the third day of 
 instruction with i6 snipers shooting, got 17 hits on a 
 model of a human head at 430 yards in the first 21 
 shots. Some of the rifles used by these men had been 
 6 or 8 inches off at 100 yards until regulated. In all 
 they got 27 hits in 48 shots on the head, shoulder hits 
 not counted. 
 
 Also I have been having Officers through a regular 
 course. I give them first of all 20 objects, such as 
 models of heads of French, British and German 
 soldiers, periscopes, rifle barrel, pickaxe, fire lighted, 
 etc. These objects are shown for fifteen seconds each 
 from a trench, and those under instruction have to 
 write a list of what they can see with a telescope from 
 600 or 700 yards away. It is wonderful how quickly 
 they come on. After a short time they can spot the 
 colour of the pieces of earth thrown up from the trench 
 under observation. Then I give them a hillside to 
 examine. On this hillside I place a couple of objects 
 which are easy to find, perhaps the heads of a French- 
 man and an EngHshman. I also put in two carefully 
 concealed loopholes, which. they usually fail to find. 
 
 This teaches thoroughness of search. 
 
 19 2* 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 The construction of loopholes is most important. 
 In this we are behind the Germans. There is one 
 fojm of double loophole, which I am keen to see more 
 universally adopted. The plate is placed in the para- 
 pet, and two feet behind it a second plate is placed in 
 grooves along which it will shde. Not once in a 
 hundred times does the German at whom one is shoot- 
 ing get his bullet through both loopholes. 
 
 The drainpipe loophole is also very good. If put 
 in at an angle, it is very difficult for a German to 
 put a bullet down it. In fact if the drainpipe is put 
 in low in the parapet, the brave Hun has to come clean 
 over the top of his own parapet to shoot down it at all. 
 
 I am also keen on teaching our fellows to open loop- 
 holes sanely. I usually lie in front watching, and it is 
 rarely that, if I shot straight, I should not be able to 
 kill or wound nine of every ten men who open them. 
 Loopholes should, of course, be opened from the 
 side, and a cap badge exposed before they are looked 
 through. If the German does not fire for 75 seconds, 
 one may conclude that it is fairly safe. These little 
 simple-sounding precautions can save so many lives. 
 
 I cannot help feeling that sniping, even in these 
 days of many specialists, should be organized and im- 
 proved. My aim has always been to work in with 
 battalions. Some are better than others, naturally so, 
 but always without exception I have found them very 
 keen on improving sniping. 
 
 20 
 
THE GENESIS OF SNIPING 
 
 The use of snipers in attack is another point. If 
 you have a man who can hit a model of a human head 
 once in every 2 shots at 400 yards — and I vsrill under- 
 take to get most men up to this standard vsfho can 
 shoot decently — we shall kill some machine gunners 
 in our next advance. Also when a German is shoot- 
 ing at our troops coming down a road through an 
 aperture made by the removal of a brick from a wall, 
 as they have often done, how useful to have a fellow 
 who can put a bullet through the aperture. 
 
 Of course no telescopic sight should ever be touched, 
 except as far as moving the focussing sleeve goes, by 
 anyone who does not understand it thoroughly. When 
 the object-glass becomes dirty or fogged with wet, 
 snipers often unscrew it. Unless they put it back in 
 its exact original position, they of course alter the 
 shooting of the rifle hopelessly. They also unscrew the 
 capstan heads, which are for the lateral regulation of 
 the sighting. I have seen telescopic sights which were 
 30 inches out at 100 yards, or about 25 feet at 1000 
 yards. These things would be impossible under a 
 keen sniping Officer. 
 
 One thing I am certain snipers can do. They can 
 make it very hot for the enemy's forward artillery 
 observing Officers. If when the enemy shell our 
 trenches, one can get on the flank, one can often spot 
 a Hun Officer observing. The thing to do then is to 
 lay a telescope on through a drainpipe loophole near 
 
 21 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 "by. If you pack in the rifle on to a bed of sandbags 
 so that the pointer of the telescopic sight rests just 
 under the place where the Hun pops up, it is possible to 
 take aim and fire the rifle in from two to four seconds. 
 It is very important that the man who is to shoot 
 should look through the big telescope and get a map 
 of the trench opposite into his brain. Our telescopic 
 sights magnify about 3i and one can often make a 
 successful shot by shooting six inches or a foot left 
 or right, or above or below a white stone or some 
 prominent object in the opposing parapet, even when 
 you cannot define the Hun's head very clearly through 
 the sight. 
 
 I have seen this done. It is a very good sign when 
 the Hun's fieldglasses fall on the wrong side of the 
 parapet. 
 
 Another thing to which we might give attention is 
 the use of decoys. I have had some made for me by 
 the French. 
 
 I am quite convinced if I were asked to give the 
 Germans the impression that we had been relieved by 
 Sikhs, Gurkhas or Frenchmen, that I could do so, so 
 wonderful are the models made for me by the French 
 sculptor. It is impossible to tell them from the real 
 thing if skilfully exposed at lOO yards, unless the light 
 is very strong, and at 300 and 400 yards it is quite 
 Impossible. 
 
 In fact as long as trench warfare lasts, I believe much 
 
 22 
 
THE GENESIS OF SNIPING 
 
 can be done in many small ways, if desired. But 1200 
 or 1500 telescopic sights in the hands of trained men 
 and four times as many optical sights, if full value is 
 got out of them, might along our line shorten the German 
 army of many a valuable unit before the spring. 
 
 Again and again battalions report two, three or four 
 Germans shot by their snipers in a single day ; if you 
 reduce these claims by half or even if each battalion 
 snipes but one Hun a day — and this is an absurdly 
 low estimate where adventitious sights are skilfully used, 
 the loss to the Germans would be great. 
 
 I have received the most kindly welcome possible 
 from everybody, and in many cases, almost in all, the 
 Corps have been asked to let me go back to give further 
 instruction. All Brigadiers are very keen indeed to 
 get a high standard of sniping, and many of them feel 
 that to do this is almost impossible unless the snipers 
 are trained to their rifles until their belief in their own 
 powers of hitting a mark, however small, becomes fixed. 
 
 As I think of sniping all day and often dream 
 about it at night, I could write you a lot more on the 
 subject, of which I have' only touched the fringes. If 
 we organize sniping, we can get solid and tangible 
 results by killing the enemy and saving the lives of our 
 own men. Only those who have been in a trench 
 opposite Hun snipers that had the mastery, know what 
 a hell life can be made under these conditions. 
 
 I don't think the Germans are better snipers than 
 
 23 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 our men, except that they are more patient and better 
 organized and better equipped. I have found out a 
 good deal about the German sniping organization, but 
 this is too long to go into now. I have said nothing 
 of piercing and blowing in German plates with heavy 
 and .333 rifles. You can shut up their sniping very 
 promptly for a time in this way. 
 
 24 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE SNIPER IN THE TRENCHES 
 
 T N my last chapter I attempted to give some history 
 of the small beginnings of organized sniping, and I 
 will now turn to the actual work of sniping in the hne. 
 Sniping, which is to be defined in a broad way as 
 the art of very accurate shooting from concealment or 
 in the open, did not exist as an organized thing at the 
 beginning of the war. The wonderful rapid fire 
 which was the glory of the original expeditionary 
 force was not sniping, nor was it, beyond a certain 
 degree, accurate. Its aim was to create a " beaten 
 zone " through which nothing living could pass ; and 
 this business was not best served by very accurate 
 individual shooting. Rather it was served by rapid 
 fire under skilled fire-control. But when we settled 
 down to trench warfare, and the most skilful might 
 spend a month in the trenches without ever seeing, 
 except perhaps at dawn, the whole of a German, and 
 when during the day one got but a glimpse or two of 
 the troglodytic enemy, there arose this need for very 
 
 25 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 accurate shooting. The mark was often but a head 
 or half a face, or a loophole behind which lurked a 
 German sniper, and no sighting shot was possible 
 because it " put down the target." The smallest of 
 big game animals did not present so small a mark as the 
 German head, so that sniping became the highest and 
 most difficult of all forms of rifle shooting. At it, 
 every good target shot, though always useful, was not 
 necessarily successful, for speed was only less necessary 
 than accuracy,and no sniper could be considered worthy 
 of the name who could not get off his shot within two 
 seconds of sighting his target. 
 
 So much for the sniper in trench warfare, of which 
 a certain clique in the Army held him to be the pro- 
 duct. The officers who believed this prophesied that 
 when warfare became once more open, he would be 
 useless. This proved perhaps one of the most short- 
 sighted views of the whole war, for when it became our 
 turn to attack, the sniper's duties only broadened out. 
 Should a battalion take a trench, it was the duty of 
 snipers to lie out in front and keep down the German 
 heads during the consolidation of their newly-won 
 position by our men, and were we held up by a 
 machine-gun in advance, it was often the duty of a 
 couple of snipers to crawl forward and, if possible, 
 deal with the obstruction. 
 
 I am here, however, going ahead of my narrative, 
 but I want early in this book to state definitely that 
 
 26 
 
TH5 SNIPER IN THE TRENCHES 
 
 the sniper is not, and from the first, as I saw him, never 
 was meant to he, a product of trench warfare. In modern 
 war, where a battalion may be held up by a machine- 
 gun, it is invaluable to have in that battalion a 
 number of picked shots who can knock that machine- 
 gun out. For this purpose in some of our later attacks 
 a sniper carried armour-piercing ammunition, and 
 did not shoot at the machine-gunners, but at the 
 machine-gun itself. A single hit on the casing of 
 the breech-block, and the machine-gun was rendered 
 useless. 
 
 In the Army there has always been in certain 
 quarters a prejudice against very accurate shooting, 
 a prejudice which is quite understandable when one 
 considers the aims and ends of musketry. While 
 sniping is the opportunism of the rifle, musketry is its 
 routine. It would obviously never do to diminish 
 the depth of your beaten zone by excess of accuracy. 
 But this war, which, whatever may be said to the 
 contrary — and much was said to the contrary — was 
 largely a war of speciahsts, changed many things, and 
 among them the accurate shot or sniper was 
 destined to prove his extraordinary value. 
 
 But a great deal that I have said in the foregoing 
 paragraphs only became clear later, and at the moment 
 of which I am writing, September and October, 191 5, 
 the superiority lay vnth the Germans, and the one 
 problem was to defeat them at a game which they had 
 
 27 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 themselves started. For it was the Germans, and not 
 the British, who began sniping. 
 
 That the Germans were ready for a sniping cam- 
 paign is clear enough, for at the end of 1914 there were 
 already 20,000 telescopic sights in the German Army, 
 and their snipers had been trained to use them. To 
 make any accurate estimate of how many victims the 
 Hun snipers claimed at this period is naturally im- 
 possible, but the blow which they struck for their side 
 was a heavy one, and many of our finest soldiers met 
 their deaths at their hands. In the struggle which 
 followed there was perhaps something more human 
 and more personal than in the work of the gunner or 
 the infantryman. The British or Colonial sniper 
 was pitted against the Bavarian or the Prussian, 
 and all along the front duels were fought between men 
 who usually saw no more of their antagonists than a 
 cap badge or a forehead, but who became personalities 
 to each other, with names and individualities. 
 
 Only the man who actually was a sniper in the 
 trenches in 191 5 can know how hard the German 
 was to overcome. At the end of 1914 there were, 
 as I have said, 20,000 telescopic sights in the Ger- 
 man Army, and the Duke of Ratibor did good work 
 for the Fatherland when he collected all the sporting 
 rifles in Germany (and there were thousands of them) 
 and sent them to the Western front, which was 
 aheady well equipped with the military issue. Armed 
 
 28 
 
From n drawing hi/l 
 
 'lErnest Blnil'Jey. 
 
 The Sniper's End. 
 
 I'Foface p. 28. 
 
THE SNIPER IN THE TRENCHES 
 
 with these the German snipers were able to make 
 wonderfully fine shooting. Against them, lacking 
 as we did a proper issue of telescopic-sighted rifles, 
 we had to pit only the blunt open sights of the service 
 rifle, except here and there where the deer stalkers 
 of Scotland (who possessed such weapons) lent their 
 Mannlichers and their Mausers. But for these there 
 was no great supply of ammunition, and many had 
 to be returned to their cases for this reason. 
 
 At this time the skill of the German sniper had be- 
 come a by-word, and in the early days of trench 
 warfare brave German riflemen used to lie out be- 
 tween the lines, sending their bullets through the 
 head of any officer or man who dared to look over 
 our parapet. These Germans, who were often 
 Forest Guards, and sometimes Battle Police, did their 
 business with a skill and a gallantry which must be 
 very freely acknowledged. From the ruined house 
 or the field of decaying roots, sometimes resting their 
 rifles on the bodies of the dead, they sent forth a 
 plague of head-wounds into the British lines. Their 
 marks were small, but when they hit they usually 
 killed their man, and the hardiest soldier turned sick 
 when he saw the effect of the pointed German 
 bullet, which was apt to keyhole so that the little 
 hole in the forehead where it entered often became 
 a huge tear, the size of a man's fist, on the other side 
 of the stricken man's head. That occasional snipers 
 
 29 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 on the Hun side reversed their bullets, thus making 
 them into dum-dums, is incontrovertible, because 
 we were continually capturing clips of such bullets, 
 but it must also be remembered that many bullets 
 keyholed which were not so reversed. Throughout 
 the war I saw thousands of our snipers' bullets, and 
 I never saw one which had been filed away or other- 
 wise treated with a view to its expanding upon impact. 
 At that time in the German Army there was a 
 system of roving snipers ; that is, a sniper was given a 
 certain stretch of trench to patrol, usually about half- 
 a-mile, and it was the duty of sentries along his beat 
 to find and point out targets for him. This informa- 
 tion I got from a prisoner whom I exa-mined soon 
 after I went down to the trenches. Indeed, I used 
 to go any distance to get the chance of examining a 
 prisoner and so learn something of the German 
 organization. One deserter gave quite a lot of in- 
 formation. He had the Iron Cross, and was a 
 sergeant. One of the scenes that always remains 
 with me is the examination of this man on a 
 rainy, foggy night by the light of a flaring smoky 
 lamp in the room of an estaminet just behind the 
 lines. As time went on it became very difficult 
 for a German prisoner to lead me astray with wrong 
 information. There were so many questions to which 
 one got to know the answers, and which must be more 
 or less common knowledge to German riflemen. The 
 
 30 
 
THE SNIPER IN THE TRENCHES 
 
 demeanour of prisoners was very diverse. Sorae 
 would give no answers — brave fellows these, whom we 
 respected ; others would volunteer a good deal of 
 false statement ; others yet again were so eager to 
 answer all questions that when they did not know 
 they made a guess. But one way and another, through 
 them all I gained an immense amount of information 
 as to the German sniping organization. 
 
 It would appear that the telescopic-sighted rifles in 
 the German army were served out in the ratio of six 
 per company, and that these rifles were issued not 
 to the private soldiers who shot with them, but to 
 N.C.O.'s who were responsible for their accuracy, 
 and from whom the actual privates who used the 
 rifles obtained them, handing them back at given 
 intervals for inspection. In the top of the case of 
 each German telescopic sight were quite short and 
 very clear instructions, a very different matter to 
 the conditions obtaining upon our side, where very 
 often, as I have before stated, the man using the 
 telescopic sight knew nothing about it. 
 
 On one occasion I had gone down on duty to a 
 certain stretch of trench and there found a puzzled- 
 looking private with a beautiful new rifle fitted with 
 an Evans telescopic sight. 
 
 " That is a nice sight," said I. 
 
 " Yessir." 
 
 I examined the elevating drum, and saw that it 
 
 31 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 was set for one hundred yards. " Look here," I said, 
 ' 70U have got the sight set for a hundred. The 
 Hun trenches are four hundred prds away." 
 
 The private looked puzzled. 
 
 " Have you ever shot with that rifle .'' " I asked. 
 
 " No, sir." 
 
 " Do you understand it ? " 
 
 " No, sir." 
 
 " How did you get it ? " 
 
 " It was issued to me as trench stores, sir." 
 
 " Who by ? " 
 
 " The Quartermaster Sergeant, sir." 
 
 Certainly many a German owed his life in those 
 earlier days to the fact that so many of the telescopic- 
 sighted rifles in the British Expeditionary Force 
 were incorrectly sighted to the hold of the men 
 using them. By this I mean that some men hold 
 tightly and some men hold loosely, and there may be 
 a difference at a hundred yards of six inches in the 
 shooting of the same rifle in different hands. To hand 
 over the rifle as " trench stores," in which case it 
 would be shot by different men of different battalions, 
 was simply to do away with the accuracy which formed 
 its only asset. 
 
 But to return to the examination of German 
 prisoners. One point cropped up over and over 
 again, and this was the ease with which German 
 snipers quite frankly owned that they were able to 
 
 32 
 
THE SNIPER IN THE TRENCHES 
 
 distinguish between our officers and men in an attack, 
 because, as one said naively : " the legs of the officers 
 are thinner than the legs of the men." There are 
 hundreds and hundreds of our officers lying dead in 
 France and Flanders whose death was solely due to 
 the cut of their riding breeches. It is no use wearing 
 a Tommy's tunic and a webbing belt, if the tell-tale 
 riding trousers are not replaced by more common- 
 place garments. 
 
 In 1915 there were very few loopholes in the British 
 trenches, whereas the Germans had a magnificent 
 system. In early days when I used to be told at 
 Brigade Headquarters that there was a German 
 sniper at such and such a map reference, and I was to 
 go and try to put him out of action, I very rarely 
 found a loophole from which I could reconnoitre 
 him, and as every German sniper seemed to be sup- 
 ported on either flank by other German snipers, 
 looking for him with one's head over the top of the 
 parapet was, if made a continual practice, simply a 
 form of suicide. I used, therefore, to have a couple 
 of sandbags filled with stones and rubble placed as 
 inconspicuously as possible on the top of the parapet. 
 No ball will pierce a sandbag full of stones, and it 
 was thus that one got the opportunity of a good look 
 at the German trenches without fear of receiving 
 a bullet from either flank. 
 
 At this time the efforts to camouflage our loopholes 
 
 33 3 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 were extraordinarily primitive — indeed, conceal- 
 ment was nearly impossible in the form of parapet 
 then in use. Many of our units took an actual pride 
 in having an absolutely flat and even parapet, vi^hich 
 gave the Germans every opportunity of spotting 
 the smallest movement. The parapets were made 
 of sandbags beaten down with spades, and it is not 
 too much to say that along many of them a mouse 
 could not move without being observed by the 
 most moderate-sighted German sniper. It was curi- 
 ous how some few commanding officers stuck to these 
 flat parapets in the face of all casualties and the 
 dictates of common-sense, even after the High Com- 
 mand had issued orders upon the subject. At a 
 later date a trial was instituted, and proved that in 
 spotting and shooting at a dummy head exposed for 
 two and four seconds over a flat parapet, the number 
 of hits was three to one, as compared with the same 
 exposure when made over an imitation German 
 parapet. 
 
 Over on the other side of No Man's Land the Ger- 
 man trenches presented a quite different appearance' 
 from ours — ours being beaten down, as I have said, 
 until they made as clear a line as a breakwater. The 
 German trenches were deeper, with much more wire 
 in front, and from our point of view looked like the 
 course of a gigantic mole which had flung up uneven 
 heaps of earth. Here and there, a huge piece of 
 
 34 
 
THE SNIPER IN THE TRENCHES 
 
 corrugated iron would be flung upon the parapet, 
 and pinned there with a stake. Here and there stood 
 one of those steel boxes, more or less well concealed 
 under a heap of earth, from which set rifles fired all 
 night. Here and there lay great piles of sandbags, 
 black, red, green, striped, blue, dazzling our eyes. 
 It was said that the Germans used the pink and red 
 ones to look round, because they approximated to 
 flesh colour, but this was no doubt apocryphal. But 
 what was not apocryphal was the fact that the Germans 
 had a splendid parapet behind which a man could 
 move and over which he could look with comparative 
 impunity, whereas we in this respect gave heavy 
 hostages to fortune. 
 
 There was one protection which was always sound, 
 and which could be put into immediate operation, 
 and that was to teach our men to hang as many 
 rags as possible upon our wire, and wherever else they 
 could in the region of our parapet. These fluttering 
 rags continually caught the German eyes, which were 
 drawn by the movement of the rags in the wind. 
 It is possible that, if the truth were recognized, those 
 simple little rags saved many a life during the course 
 of the war. Of course, there were battalions in which 
 attempts had been made to remedy these defects, 
 as there was one type of officer whom one occasionally 
 came across. This was the soldier who had done a 
 certain amount of stalking, or big-game shooting, and 
 
 35 3* 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 it is not too much to say that wherever there was such 
 an officer, there were usually two or three extra tele- 
 scopes and telescopic-sighted rifles, and various well- 
 concealed posts from which to use them. The In- 
 telligence report, which was each day forwarded to 
 Brigade, was also full and accurate. Indeed, the truth 
 of the matter forced itself upon me, as I spent day 
 after day in the trenches.- What was wanted, apart 
 Jrom organization, was neither more nor less than the 
 hunter spirit. The hunter spends his life in trying 
 to outwit some difficult quarry, and the step between 
 war and hunting is but a very small one. It is in- 
 conceivable that a skilled hunter in a position of com- 
 mand should ever allow his men to suffer as our men 
 sometimes did in France. It was all so simple and so 
 obvious. The Canadian Division and, later, the 
 Canadian Corps was full of officers who understood 
 how to deal with the German sniper, and early in 
 the war there were Canadian snipers who were told 
 off to this duty, and some of them were extraordinarily 
 successful. Corporal, afterwards Lieutenant, Christie, 
 of the P.P.C.L.I., was one of the individual pioneers 
 of sniping. He had spent his life hunting in the 
 Yukon, and he simply turned the same qualities which 
 had brought him within the range of the mountain 
 sheep to the downfall of Fritz the Forest Guard. 
 
 In the long monotony of the trenches during that 
 bleak winter of 19 15, the only respite besides work 
 
 36 
 
THE SNIPER IN THE TRENCHES 
 
 which was possible to our soldiers was the element of 
 sport and excitement introduced by sniping and its 
 more important and elder sister, observation. Sniping 
 in a dangerous sector — and there were many of these — 
 was really neither more nor less than a very high- 
 class form of big game shooting, in which the quarry 
 shot back. As to danger, there are in Africa the lion, 
 the elephant, the buffalo and the rhinoceros, and 
 though the consensus of instructed opinion agrees 
 that in proportion more hunters come back feet fore- 
 most from lion hunting than from the pursuit of the 
 three other forms of dangerous game, yet I suppose 
 that no one would dispute that the German sniper, 
 especially when he is supported on either flank by 
 Kamaraden, was far more dangerous in the long run 
 than any lion. 
 
 In sniping, as the movement grew and sections were 
 formed, one relied to an enormous extent upon the 
 skill of the section to which the individual sniper 
 belonged. A really first-rate man in a bad section was 
 thrown away. First-rate men under a moderate officer 
 were thrown away, and, worse than all, a good section 
 under a good officer, who were relieved by the 
 slack and poor section of another battalion, often suf- 
 fered heavy casualties through no fault of their own. 
 
 Thus, the Royal Blankshires, who have an excellent 
 sniping organization, build half-a-dozen skilfully- 
 hidden posts for observation and sniping purposes. 
 
 37 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 All kinds of precautions, which have become second 
 nature, are taken to prevent these posts being given 
 away to the enemy. The telescopes used are care- 
 fully wrapped in sandbags, their sunshades carefully 
 extended lest the sun should, by flashing its reflec- 
 tion upon the object glass, give away the position. 
 The loopholes in dry weather are damped before being 
 fired through, and, most important of all, no one 
 but the CO., the sniping officer, and the snipers and 
 observers are allowed in the posts. If anyone else 
 enters them there are for him heavy penalties, which 
 are always enforced. The result is that the Blank- 
 shires have a good tour of duty, lose no casualties to 
 enemy snipers, and get splendid detail for their 
 Intelligence reports. 
 
 They are relieved, however, by the Loamshires. 
 The CO. of this Battalion does not believe very 
 much in sniping. He has a way of saying that 
 sniping will " never win the war." He has, it is true, a 
 sniping section because, and only because, his Brigadier 
 and his Divisional General are keen about- sniping, 
 and continually come into the trenches and inquire 
 about it. But the Loamshire sniping section is a 
 pitiable affair. They take over from the Royal 
 Blanks. 
 
 " These are jolly good observation posts," says the 
 Royal Blanks sniping officer. He is the real thing, 
 and he dreams of his job in the night. " But one has 
 
 38 
 
From n drawing hp'] 
 
 OUTSIDE THE SNIPERS' POST. 
 
 Shut the loopholes. I'm coming in." 
 
 \_Er,Ml niiiiUr,,. 
 
 [Tffweii. :;k. 
 
THE SNIPER IN THE TRENCHES 
 
 to be a bit careful not to give them away. I never 
 let my fellows use the one in Sap F until the sun 
 has worked round behind us." 
 
 " Aw — right oh ! " says the Loamshire opposite 
 number. 
 
 " One has to be a bit careful about the curtains 
 at the back of those loopholes in Terrier Alley. The 
 light's apt to shine through." 
 
 " Aw — right oh ! " says the Loamshire officer. 
 
 " We are leaving our range-cards." 
 
 " Aw— right oh ! " 
 
 So the keen Royal Blanks officer and his keen section 
 go out into rest billets, and do not visit the trenches 
 again tiU they come back to take over from the 
 Loamshires. 
 
 " Well, how are the posts ? " asks the Royal Blanks 
 officer, cheerily. 
 
 " Pretty rotten ; they were all busted up the first 
 day." 
 
 " Damn ! They took us a fortnight to build." 
 
 " Well, they are busted up all right." 
 
 " Did your fellows give them away, do you think ? " 
 
 " Oh, no ! " 
 
 Now, as a matter of fact, the moment the Royal 
 Blankshires were out of the 'trenches the Loamshire 
 snipers, who knew no better, had used the O.P.s for 
 promiscuous firing, and the posts which had been 
 so jealously guarded under the Blankshire regime 
 
 39 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 had been invaded by Loamshire officers and men in 
 need of a view of the German trenches — or of sleep. 
 The curtains that kept the loopholes dark had been 
 turned back. The result vs^as as might have been 
 expected. The w^atching German, who had suffered 
 from those posts without being able to locate them 
 when the Blankshires were in the trenches, now 
 spotted them, rang up their guns, and had them 
 demolished, not without casualties to the Loamshires. 
 So the work was all to be done again — but no sooner 
 does the keen Blankshire officer build up a post than 
 the slack Loamshire officer allows it to be given away. 
 It is now a case for the Royal Blanks CO. to take up 
 with the Loamshire CO. 
 
 Such were the difficulties of the keen officer when 
 the opposite number of the relieving battalion was a 
 " dud." 
 
 Conscientiousness is a great quality in an officer, 
 but in the Sniping, Scouting and Observation Officer 
 something more was needed. To obtain success, 
 real success, it was necessary that his should be a labour 
 of love. He must think and dream of his work at 
 all hours and all times, and it was wonderful how many 
 came to do this. In the battalion the Intelligence 
 and Sniping officer had always a sporting job, and if 
 he suffered in promotion (as do nearly all specialists 
 in any great Army) yet he had the compensations 
 which come to an artist in love with his work. 
 
 40 
 
THE SNIPER IN THE TRENCHES 
 
 There were at this time one or two other factors 
 in the situation to which I must allude in order that 
 the reader may understand the position as it was then. 
 The enemy had an immense preponderance in trench 
 weapons such as minenwerjer. The result was that a 
 too successful bout of British sniping sometimes drew 
 a bombardment. The activity of snipers was there- 
 fore not always welcome to short-sighted officers, who 
 distinctly and naturally objected to the enemy rifle- 
 men calling in the assistance of the parapet-destroying 
 engines of war, in which they so outclassed us. 
 
 Soon, however, it was realized that the state of 
 things obtaining while the German held the mastery 
 of aimed rifle-fire could not be permitted to continue — 
 the casualties were too great — and I will now give 
 some account of the instruction and experience in 
 the trenches that went on while we were attempting 
 to capture the sniping initiative from the enemy. 
 
 II 
 
 Towards the end of October, 191 5, I was ordered 
 to report to the 48th Division, then holding a line in 
 the neighbourhood of Hebuterne. I was to proceed 
 to Divisional Headquarters behind Pas, and was there 
 ordered to Authie, where a number of officers were 
 to come for instruction. This instruction was, as 
 usual, to be divided between the back areas and the 
 
 41 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 front line. I had applied for the services of my friend, 
 Lieut. G. M. Gathorne-Hardy, an experienced shot, and 
 skilled user of the telescope, who had been many shoot- 
 ing trips in different parts of the world with me and 
 others. At Authie we at once settled down to work ; 
 the officers going through a course which need not be 
 detailed here. Suffice it to say that the telescopic- 
 sighted rifles of all the battalions in the Division 
 were shot and corrected, and various plans which we 
 had formed for the destruction of German snipers 
 were rehearsed. 
 
 On the third day arrangements were made by Divi- 
 sion as to which trenches we were to visit, and after 
 duly reporting at Brigade Headquarters in a dug-out 
 in Hebuterne, we proceeded upon our way. 
 
 It is not an easy thing to instruct five or six officers 
 in the line in sniping — the number is too large — so as 
 soon as we entered the trenches I divided my class 
 into three parties, and assigned to each an area in 
 which to look for German snipers, Gathorne-Hardy 
 and I going from one group to another. 
 
 At the point at which we entered the front line 
 trenches, our line was a little higher than that of the 
 enemy, so that the initial advantage was certainly 
 with us, and almost at once G. (for so I shall 
 refer to Capt. Gathorne-Hardy) spotted a German 
 sniper who was just shovdng the top of his cap at 
 the end of a sap. He was about three hundred 
 
 42 
 
THE SNIPER IN THE TRENCHES 
 
 and fifty or four hundred yards away, and though we 
 watched him for half-an-hour, he gave no target. So 
 we moved on. Examining the enemy line was en- 
 thralling work, as he had, even at that time, begun his 
 campaign of skilled concealment, and was apt to set 
 periscopes in trees, and steel boxes in all sorts of posi- 
 tions. 
 
 To spot and actually place these upon the map was 
 as important a duty of the sniper as killing the enemy 
 by rifle fire. For, once discovered, such strong points 
 and emplacements could be dealt with by our artil- 
 lery. 
 
 But to return. G. and I, after visiting the sec- 
 tions, acted together as shooter and observer. 
 After spending a couple of hours examining the 
 enemy line, we got into a disused trench and crawled 
 back to a little bit of high ground from which 
 we were able to overlook a group of poplar trees which 
 grew between the lines, and which were said to be the 
 haunt of a very capable German sniper. 
 
 Nothing, however, was to be seen of him, though 
 we could clearly make out the nest he had built in one 
 of the trees and, on the ground, what appeared to be 
 either a dead man lying in the long grass or a tunic. 
 
 While we were here a message came down to say 
 that No. I group had seen a party of nine Germans, 
 and had wounded one of them. No. 2 party had not 
 been successful. 
 
 43 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 At the time of which I write the Germans were 
 just beginning to be a little shy of our snipers on those 
 fronts to which organization had penetrated, and it 
 was clear that the time would arrive when careful 
 Hans and conscientious Fritz would become very 
 troglodytic, as indeed they did. We had, therefore, 
 turned our minds to think out plans and ruses by 
 which the enemy might be persuaded to give us a 
 target. We had noticed the extraordinary instinct 
 of the German Officer to move to a flank, and thinking 
 something might be made out of this, we collected 
 all our officers and went back to the place where 
 G. and I had spotted the Hun sniper or sentry at the 
 end of the sap. A glance showed that he was still 
 there. 
 
 I then explained my plan, which was that I should 
 shoot at this sentry and in doing so, deliberately give 
 away my position and rather act the tenderfoot, in 
 the hope that some German officer would take a hand 
 in the game and attempt to read me a lesson in tactics. 
 
 On either flank about 150 yards or so down the 
 trench I placed the officers under instruction with 
 telescopes and telescopic-sighted rifles, explaining to 
 them that the enemy snipers would very possibly make 
 an attempt to shoot at me from about opposite them. 
 I then scattered a lot of dust in the loophole from which 
 I intended to fire, and used a large .350 Mauser, which 
 gave a good flash and smoke. As the sentry in the sap 
 
 44 
 
3 ♦ i,i 
 
 H 
 ta 
 O 
 
 < 
 
 D 
 O 
 
 ^ 
 
 s 
 
 D 
 z 
 
 
 H 
 X 
 O 
 
THE SNIPER IN THE TRENCHES 
 
 was showing an inch or two of his forehead as well 
 as the peak of his cap, I had a very careful shot at 
 him, which G., who was spotting for me with the glass, 
 said went about twelve inches too high. 
 
 The sentry, of course, disappeared, and I at once 
 poured in the whole magazine at a loophole plate, 
 making it ring again, and by the dust and smoke 
 handsomely giving away my own position. I waited 
 a few minutes, and then commenced shooting again- 
 Evidently my first essay had attracted attention, for 
 two German snipers at once began firing at me from 
 the right flank. At these two I fired back ; they were 
 almost exactly opposite the party under instruction, 
 and it was clear that, if the party held their fire, the 
 Germans would probably give fine targets. As a 
 matter of fact, all that we hoped for actually happened, 
 for the exasperated German snipers, thinking they had 
 to deal only with a very great fool, began to fire over 
 the parapet, their operations being directed by an 
 officer with an immense pair of field-glasses. At the 
 psychological moment, my officers opened fire, the 
 large field-glasses dropped on the wrong side of the 
 parapet, as the officer was shot through the head, and 
 the snipers, who had increased to five or six, disappeared 
 with complete suddenness. Nor did the enemy fire 
 another shot. 
 
 It should be borne in mind, in reading the above, 
 how great a plague were the skilled German snipers to 
 
 45 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 us. One of them might easily cause thirty or forty 
 casualties. Later in the war we had, on our side, 
 many a sniper who killed his fifty or even his hundred 
 of the enemy. Besides, as I have pointed out, in these 
 early days of trench warfare the continual attrition 
 caused by German snipers was very bad for moral. 
 
 At a later date we found a means by which we were 
 able at once to find the position of any German 
 sniper. For this purpose we used a dummy head 
 made of papier-mache. 
 
 The method of using was as follows : When a 
 German sniper was giving trouble, we selected a good 
 place opposite to him, and drove two stakes into our 
 own parapet until only about a foot of them remained 
 uncovered. To these we nailed a board on which was 
 fashioned a groove which exactly fitted the stick or 
 handle attached to the dummy head. This stick was 
 inserted in the groove and the dummy head slowly 
 pushed up above our parapet. 
 
 If the enemy sniper fired at and hit the head, the 
 entry and exit of the bullet made two holes, one in the 
 front, and one in the back of the hollow dummy head. 
 
 The head, immediately on the shot, was pulled down 
 by whoever was working it in as natural a manner as 
 possible. The stick on which it was mounted was then 
 replaced in the groove, but exactly the height between 
 the two glasses oj a periscope lower than the position in 
 which it was when shot through. 
 
 46 
 
I If)} ad nicinj ?jv] 
 
 \_Enust ninHdey. 
 
 i)potting ihe Enernyi Sniper. 
 
 [To face p. 4(J. 
 
THE SNIPER IN THE TRENCHES 
 
 Now all that remained to do was to place the lower 
 glass of the periscope opposite the front hole in the 
 head, and apply the eye to the rear hole and look into 
 the periscope, the upper glass of which was above the 
 parapet. 
 
 In this way we found ourselves looking along the 
 path of the bullet, only in the opposite direction to that 
 in which it had come, and, in the optical centre of the 
 two holes, would be seen the German sniper who had 
 fired the shot, or the post which concealed him. 
 
 Once found he was soon dealt with. 
 
 In trials at First Army Sniping School, we were 
 able by this invention to locate sixty-seven snipers out 
 of seventy-one. 
 
 Some of those who wanted to give the dummy head 
 a specially life-like appearance, placed a cigarette in 
 its mouth, and smoked it through a rubber tube. 
 
 It is a curious sensation to have the head through 
 which you are smoking a cigarette suddenly shot with 
 a Mauser bullet, but it is one that several snipers have 
 experienced. 
 
 After the incidents last described, we went up 
 towards the flank, where the 4th Division lay along- 
 side the 48th. It was in this Division that the 2nd 
 Seaforth Highlanders had just played a delightful trick 
 on the enemy. Someone in the battalion had ob- 
 tained a mechanical stop, one of those ticking bits of 
 mechanism which are made with a view to saving the 
 
 47 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 employment of a human " stop " at covert-shoots. 
 This particular stop was guaranteed to tick loudly for 
 hours. 
 
 The Seaforths were facing the Germans across a 
 very wild piece of No Man's Land. One night some 
 adventurous and humorous spirit crawled out and 
 placed the " stop " about sixty yards from the German 
 parapet, and then set it going. The Germans at once 
 leaped to the conclusion that the tick-tick-tick was the 
 voice of some infernal machine, which would, in due 
 time, explode and demolish them. They threw 
 bombs, and fired flares, and officers and men spent a 
 most haggard and horrible night, while opposite them 
 the Scotsmen were laughing sardonically in their 
 trenches. The whole incident was intensely typical 
 of the careless and grim humour with which the Scot- 
 tish regiments were at times apt to regard the Hun. 
 
 Another battalion at a much later date, when the 
 
 Germans had become very shy, and mostly spent their 
 
 off-duty hours in deep dug-outs, had the brilliant idea 
 
 of preparing a notice board on which was printed 
 
 in large letters and German : " Bitter Fighting in 
 
 Berlin," and then, in smaller type, some apocryphal 
 
 information. This notice it was their plan to raise, 
 
 having first posted their snipers, who would be sure to 
 
 obtain shots at the Huns who attempted to read the 
 
 smaller lettering with their field-glasses. I do not 
 
 think, however, that this plan was ever actually carried 
 
 48 
 
THE SNIPER IN THE TRENCHES 
 
 out. This was fortunate, since, though ingenious, the 
 idea was not sound, as it would inevitably have led to 
 a heavy bombardment of the trenches in which the 
 notice was shown, and the game would not have been 
 worth the candle. 
 
 To continue, however, with our day. Late in the 
 afternoon, no Germans having shown themselves since 
 the shooting of the officer — a heavy bombardment 
 broke out on ,the right flank, and we hurried in that 
 direction, as experience had taught me that the 
 German Forward Observation Officers often did their 
 spotting for the guns from the front-line trench on 
 the flank of the bombarded area. 
 
 Sure enough, we soon picked up one of those large 
 dark artillery periscopes, shaped like an armadillo. 
 It was being operated by two men, as far as could be 
 seen. One of them wore a very high peaked cap, and 
 was at once called " Little Willie ; " the other had a 
 black beard. The nearest point to which we could 
 approach was more like five than four hundred yards, 
 and though we waited till dark. Little Willie did not 
 show more than his huge cap peak and an inch or two 
 of forehead. As evening fell, we went out of the 
 trenches without having fired, as soon after our arrival 
 the bombardment had ceased, and Little WilHe never 
 gave a good target, and the bearded man had dis- 
 appeared. I did not wish to disturb the German 
 F.O.O.'s in their post ; as, now that they were dis- 
 
 49 4 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 covered, arrangements could be made to deal with 
 them when next they were observing. 
 
 The opportunity occurred three days later, when, 
 after a very long vigil, an officer shot Little Willie, 
 and the same evening a Howitzer battery wiped out 
 the post for good and all. 
 
 As, when Little Willie met his end, he was just in 
 the act of spotting the first shots for his battery, which 
 had opened on our front line trenches, his death pro- 
 bably saved us some casualties, for it temporarily 
 stopped the activities of his guns. 
 
 It was not only the number of the enemy that our 
 snipers shot that was so important. It was often the 
 psychological moment at which they shot them that 
 gave their work an extra value. 
 
 In the autumn of 1915 there came high winds 
 following frosty nights. It was clear that a heavy fall 
 of the leaf would take place on the following days. I 
 therefore asked, and obtained leave from the 4th 
 Division, to which I was at the time attached, to drop 
 instructional work, and instead to go into the trenches 
 in order to spot enemy snipers and artillery observa- 
 tion officers' posts. On my way down I called at 
 Headquarters, where I was told that a very trouble- 
 some sniper was operating at Beaumont Hamel. This 
 man had killed a number of our fellows. He was 
 supposed to live in a pollarded willow, one of a row not 
 very far from Jacob's Ladder, which will be remem- 
 
 50 
 
THE SNIPER IN THE TRENCHES 
 
 bered by all who were on that front in 191 5. There 
 was on that day a certain amount of mild shelling of 
 the communication trenches, but before the advent 
 of gas-shells this rarely caused trouble in the daytime, 
 except to those who had to repair the breaches. On 
 the day in question I was alone with my batman, who, 
 I can say, without fear of libel, shot better than he 
 " batted," for he had been chosen because he was a 
 marksman. Arrived in the front line, we at once set 
 about trying to locate the sniper. As a rule, in such 
 a case, the enemy one seeks is taking a siesta, but this 
 was not so now, for as soon as I looked over the parapet 
 a bullet, striking low, knocked some dust into my eyes. 
 At this point, you must understand, our trenches were 
 shaped like an arm, with a crooked elbow, the crook or 
 turn of the elbow being at the bottom of a hill. In 
 front lay Beaumont Hamel, where in the German 
 lines when I arrived a soldier had hung out his shirt 
 to dry. Between us and Beaumont Hamel lay a wild 
 piece of No Man's Land, with some dead ground on 
 the Beaumont Hamel side, and at the bottom of the 
 hill the row of willows from which the sniper was 
 supposed to operate. 
 
 As these willow trees were out of sight from the 
 place where I had been fired at, I did not put down 
 that shot to the sniper, whom we will call Ernst. In 
 this I was probably wrong, as transpired later. 
 
 All that morning we tried to locate Ernst, who had 
 
 51 4* 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 four more shots at me, but all that I had learned at 
 the end of it (when I imagine Ernst went off for a 
 well-earned siesta) was that he was a good shot, as 
 though obviously some distance away, he had made 
 quite good practice. We most carefully examined the 
 pollarded willows, and spotted one or two good snipers' 
 posts, especially one at the bottom of a hedge, but as 
 far as Ernst was concerned he had all the honours. 
 
 The next day I was occupied all the morning with 
 an enemy artillery O.P. which was destroyed by 
 howitzer fire, and it was not till after lunch that I 
 could turn my attention once more to Ernst. 
 
 This time I began at the bottom of the hill. There 
 were no loopholes, so it was a case of looking over, and 
 almost at once Ernst put in a very close shot, followed 
 again by a second which was not so good. The first 
 shot had cut the top of the parapet just beside my 
 head, and I noticed that several shots had been fired 
 which had also cut the top of the sandbags. Behind 
 the line of these shots was a group of trees, and as they 
 stood on slightly higher ground I crawled to them, 
 and at once saw something of great interest. In 
 the bole of one of the trees a number of bullets had 
 lodged, all within a small circle. Crouching at the 
 base of the tree, and with my head covered with an 
 old sandbag, I raised it until I could see over the 
 parapet fifty yards in front, and found at once that 
 the line of these shots, and those which had struck the 
 
 52 
 
THE SNIPER IN THE TRENCHES 
 
 tree behind my head, were very nearly the same, and 
 must have been fired from an area of No Man's Land, 
 behind which it looked as if dead ground existed on the 
 enemy's side, and probably from a large bush which 
 formed the most salient feature of that view. 
 
 I then went back to the trenches, and warned all 
 sentries to keep a good look-out on this bush 
 and the vicinity. Very soon one of them reported 
 movement in the bush. With my glass I could see a 
 periscope about three feet above the ground in the 
 bush, which was very thick. Being certain, as the 
 periscope was raised so high, and as it had only just 
 been elevated, that it was held in human hands, I 
 collected half a dozen riflemen and my batman, and 
 giving them the range, and the centre of the bush as 
 a target, ordered them to open fire. On the volley 
 the periscope flew backwards and the activities of 
 Ernst ceased forthwith. 
 
 It was this experience of looking along the path of 
 the enemy's bullets that led directly to the invention 
 for spotting enemy snipers, which I have described 
 earlier in this chapter. 
 
 No one can deny that Ernst was a gallant fellow, 
 lying out as he did between the lines day after day. 
 Whether he was killed or not who can say, but I should 
 think the odds are that some bullets of the volley found 
 their billet. At any rate, sniping from that quarter 
 ceased. 
 
 53 
 
SNIPINGjIN FRANCE 
 
 I have now given enough description of the work and 
 training which was going on at that time in the Third 
 Army in the line. The aim and end of all this work 
 was the formation of sniping sections in each battalion, 
 consisting of sixteen privates with two N.C.O.'s 
 under an officer. 
 
 I had realized that my whole problem turned upon 
 the officer. If I could succeed in obtaining fifteen 
 or twenty officers who would be simply fanatics in 
 their work, it was perfectly clear that the sniping 
 movement would spread like wildfire throughout the 
 Army. Already we had got together an immense 
 amount of detail concerning the German sniping 
 organization, and had begun not only to challenge his 
 superiority, but also to enforce our own. It is won- 
 derful what can be done in a single week by sixteen 
 accurate shots along the length of line held by a 
 battalion. You must understand also that the success 
 of the German sniping rested largely upon the deeds 
 o£ certain crack snipers, who thoroughly understood 
 their work, and who each one of them caused us heavy 
 casualties. The first work to be done in the trenches 
 was the organized annihilation of these skilled German 
 snipers, and I think this was the easier in that they 
 had it their own way for so long. 
 
 As time went on, the reports from the brigades 
 were very good ; one Brigadier* even going so far as to 
 
 ♦ Later Major-Gen. Sir Guy Bainbridge, K.C.B. 
 
 54 
 
THE SNIPER IN THE TRENCHES 
 
 wire me : " Only one Hun sniper left on my front. 
 Can you lend me your elephant rifle ? " In this 
 particular brigade the Brigadier informed me that 
 he had not lost a man through enemy sniping in four 
 months. 
 
 Sniping, I think, or let us say the sniping campaign, 
 may be divided into four parts. During the first, the 
 Germans had the mastery. During the second, our 
 first aim was to kill off the more dangerous German 
 snipers and to train our own to become more formid- 
 able. The third waS' when the Germans had fairly 
 gone to ground and would no longer give us a chance. 
 The idea now was to invent various ways in which to 
 induce them to give a target, and the final period came 
 at a much later date, when great battles were being 
 fought, and the work of sniping was beginning to 
 merge into that of scouting, and snipers were being 
 trained in great numbers to deal with the new situations 
 that were arising every day as the Germans altered 
 their tactical plans of defence. 
 
 55 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 EARLY DAYS WITH THE I ITH CORPS AND FIRST ARMY 
 
 '' I ^OWARDS the end of 1915 my services were 
 again borrowed hy the First Army, this time 
 to take a class of Sniping and Intelligence officers 
 through the course of sniping and observation which 
 was already in operation in the Third Army, and also 
 to lecture to a G.H.Q. Intelligence Class on the 
 Observation and Intelligence side of sniping — a big 
 subject. 
 
 I went up the long road through DouUens, Prevent 
 and St. Pol, which I had traversed so many times 
 from the days when it was impassable with French 
 soldiers before the Battle of Loos to the quieter times 
 which had now dawned. During the war one had 
 very few relaxations of any kind. Shooting was for- 
 bidden, games were difficult for the unattached 
 Ishmaelite to obtain, and often for long periods it was 
 impossible to get any change of thought. The long 
 drives to all parts of the line held by the British Army, 
 which were part of my work, were, therefore, exceed- 
 ingly pleasant by contrast. Wherever there was a 
 
 56 
 
EARLY DAYS WITH THE XI, CORPS 
 
 battle I used to try and get to it at the earliest possible 
 moment, in order to have the opportunity of examin- 
 ing the German trenches, for as time went on sniping 
 became more and more scientific, and the Germans 
 were always starting some new method which had to 
 be countered. One of the most important points was 
 to obtain specimens of each issvie of their steel plates, 
 in order to experiment on them with all kinds of 
 bullets. 
 
 But to return to the First Army Class. We were 
 allotted a curious range on the outskirts of the town of 
 Bethune, then a thriving community, which had 
 been hardly shelled at all, although well within the 
 battle area. Our rifle-firing took place under cover, 
 and each target appeared through' a series of holes cut 
 in a number of brick walls which crossed the range 
 at right angles. The noise in the room of the cottage 
 which formed the 200-yards firing-point was deafen- 
 ing, but as the weather was both wet and cold 
 head-cover had its advantages. 
 
 The class which assembled consisted of a picked 
 officer from each Division, twelve in all. Some I 
 lost sight of afterwards, but two, at least, of this class 
 rose to command their battalions, and one was awarded 
 the double D.S.O., another the M.C. and Bar, and 
 several more single decorations. 
 
 In order that the class might be taught the manipu- 
 lation of telescopic sights, all the rifles of the ist Corps 
 
 57 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 which, were fitted with these sights or with optical 
 sights were sent down, together with the snipers who 
 shot them, in order that the rifles might be tested for 
 accuracy. As at that time there had been no real 
 organization or instruction in the use of adventitious 
 sights in the Corps, it is not to be wondered at that 
 most of these were incorrect. Of the first eighty, 
 fifty-nine were quite valueless until regulated, and we 
 were hard put to it to correct them as party after party 
 arrived. 
 
 At length a party of Scottish Rifles came, every one 
 of whose weapons was entirely correct. They were 
 under the command of a young oflliccr who, when the 
 trial of his men's rifles was over, saluted and said to 
 me : 
 
 " Will I stay and help you with the other rifles, sir ? " 
 
 " Do you understand telescopic sights ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " Have you done much shooting ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " Won anything ? " 
 
 " The King's Prize, and the Scottish Open Cham- 
 pionship, and the Caledonian Shield, sir." 
 
 " What is your name ? " 
 
 " Gray, sir." 
 
 That evening Corps Staff was rung up and Gray 
 was straightway appointed Corps Sniping Officer. 
 Suffice it to say, that in a few weeks the German 
 
 58 
 
EARLY DAYS WITH THE XI. CORPS 
 
 snipers had been dealt with in a way that must have 
 amazed them. 
 
 Later on, Gray's Division moved into the nth Corps, 
 where I have always thought that sniping on some 
 sectors reached its high-water mark as far as the year 
 1916 was concerned. Afterwards he became my 
 assistant at the nth Corps School, and later at the 
 First Army School. He finally proceeded to the 
 U.S.A., with the rank of Major, to spread the light 
 there. In this he was most successful, receiving the 
 thanks of the Divisional General to whose Division he 
 was attached for the extraordinary efficiency of his 
 work. In my experience of sniping officers in France, 
 two are outstanding, and he was one of them. The 
 other was Major O. Underhill, ist K. S.L.I. 
 
 Our class on that queer range in Bethune lasted a 
 fortnight and was instrumental in getting me a bout 
 of sick leave ; for when, as part of the instruction, we 
 had to make a trench and build into it various posts 
 such as snipers use, we found ourselves working in an 
 extremely noisome atmosphere. As far as we could 
 make out, the greater part of the town drainage seemed 
 to be at no great distance under the ground in which 
 we had to dig. The result was a bout of trench 
 fever. The time I spent at home was not, however, 
 wasted, as I was able to collect large numbers of 
 telescopes and get the various courses for sniping 
 instruction written down, which was useful, as I was 
 
 59 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 continually receiving applications for a syllabus from 
 units outside the Third Army. 
 
 When I returned to France I was again attached to 
 the Third Army, but not to the Infantry School, who 
 had secured the services of Captain Pemberthy during 
 my absence. This very capable officer did splendid 
 work for the Third Army. Instead, I went down the 
 line and resumed my old work of instructing brigades 
 and battalions. I also went to the Indian Cavalry 
 Divisions. 
 
 At this time, I remember, volunteers who possessed 
 a knowledge of the fitting of telescopic sights were 
 asked for in the 7th Corps. The result was exceed- 
 ingly typical. One private, who sent in his name, 
 stated that he was well acquainted with telescopic 
 sights and their fittings, having been for four years 
 employed by Messrs. Daniel Fraser of Leith Street 
 Terrace, Edinburgh, the well-known firm of gun and 
 rifle makers, whose work on telescopic sights stands so 
 deservedly high. The staff who unearthed this appli- 
 cant did not continue to congratulate themselves on 
 having produced exactly the article wanted, when, 
 through a letter to Messrs. Fraser, it transpired that, 
 though it was quite true that the man had been 
 employed by them, the position that he had held in the 
 firm was that of errand boy, and that his knowledge of 
 telescopic sights was consequently not one which 
 they felt they could confidently recommend. 
 
 60 
 
EARLY DAYS WITH THE XI. CORPS 
 
 During these days I went back to many of the 
 brigades to which I had been attached six months 
 previously. The casualties among snipers had not 
 been very heavy and we had fairly obtained the upper 
 hand. At this period troops were massing for the 
 Battle of the Somme, in which the Third and Fourth 
 Armies took part. The use of the telescope was now 
 a matter of immense interest, as Intelligence wanted 
 all the facts they could get about the enemy, and 
 consequently instruction in glass-work for battalion 
 and brigade observers became more and more sought 
 after, and I trained many observers for Major-Genera 1 
 Hull, G.O.C. 56th Division. Just at this period, 
 however, there was a change in my fortunes, and I 
 was ordered to proceed to the First Army, to the 
 command of which Sir Charles Monro had just suc- 
 ceeded after his wonderful performance in Gallipoli. 
 I therefore left the Third Army area and went by rail 
 to Aire-sur-Lys, in order to report to First Army 
 Headquarters, which was situated in that town. 
 
 It would be absurd to deny that I was very glad to 
 be attached to the First Army, where the keenness 
 which I had seen on my visit at Christmas time to the 
 various Corps Commanders was glorious. Arriving 
 at Aire I reported to the Town Major, and was 
 allotted a room in the hotel called " Le Clef d'Or." 
 Here I was eating my dinner when the Town Major 
 came across and wanted to know if an officer of my 
 
 61 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 name was present. He said that a car was waiting 
 outside, and that I was to go direct to the Army 
 Commander's chateau to dine and stay the night. 
 
 The next day the Army Commander questioned me 
 very closely about sniping, and about all that had 
 occurred with regard to it since he had seen me last. 
 He then informed me that I was to be attached to the 
 ilth Corps, and that my orders were the same as they 
 had been under him in the Third Army — to make 
 good shots, and as many of them as possible 
 
 The nth Corps, since my previous visit, had started 
 a sniping school, where they were putting through five 
 officers and twenty men on short courses. The school 
 was situated on the far side of the Forest of Nieppe, 
 near a place called Steenbecque. I was ordered to 
 make this school my headquarters. It was in charge of 
 Lieut. Forsyth M.C. of the 6th Black Watch. A 
 more curious and picturesque-looking spot for a 
 school it would be hard to imagine. The headquar- 
 ters were in a little Flemish farmhouse, kept by an 
 exceedingly close-fisted family, and the range, which 
 had firing points at one, two, three and five hundred 
 yards, was neither more nor less than a long sloping 
 cornfield. A most satisfactory point about the range 
 — which was an excellent one — was that it was within 
 two hundred yards of headquarters, so that after 
 parade hours were over an immense amount of volun- 
 tary work was done upon it. It was here that we first 
 
 62 
 
EARLY DAYS WITH THE XI. CORPS 
 
 began to tend towards the really much longer and more 
 detailed course of instruction which we afterwards 
 amplified to a vastly greater extent at First Army 
 School, as soon as the courses were lengthened to 
 seventeen days' duration. 
 
 From the first it may be said that the men and 
 officers who came upon all these courses were extra- 
 ordinarily keen. They liked sniping, and still more, 
 observation, because they felt that here, at last, in 
 the great impersonal war, was an opportunity for 
 individual skill. The more imaginative of them 
 realized also the enormous possibilities of the trained 
 observer. In other chapters I will give several 
 instances of the observation of small details which 
 have had consequences of the most far-reaching nature. 
 I think that this feeling of the ever-present possibility 
 of the opportunity of being able to do a big thing 
 formed part of the fascination of the S.O.S. courses — 
 S.O.S. in this case meaning, " Sniping, Observation 
 and Scouting," and not " Service of Supply," as it 
 does in the American Army. 
 
 It has been said, and truly, that soldiers are pretty 
 destructive, but the fact remains that hundreds of 
 privates, N.C.O.'s and officers went through their 
 shooting courses in the Steenbecque cornfield, which 
 was traversed in all directions by narrow paths, and 
 yet it was difficult to find any downtrodden ears of 
 corn. Our one difficulty was that at one of the firing 
 
 63 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 points the corn grew up and obscured the targets. 
 It had, therefore, to be cut to the area of about ten 
 yards. I do not know what the claim sent in by the 
 farmer was for this damage, but as far as claims were 
 concerned nothing was ever missed by the Flemish 
 peasant. 
 
 Although it was my Headquarters I used only to 
 spend the first two days of every course at the school ; 
 the other days I passed attached to various divisions 
 and brigades, and in this way became conversant with 
 the trench line of the Corps along the whole length 
 of which I inspected the snipers' posts. The 33rd 
 Division, who were holding the line opposite Violaines 
 and the Brick-stacks, had had a tremendous duel with 
 the German snipers. This line has always been a 
 difficult one from the sniper's point of view, as the 
 Germans had, unfortunately, the best of it as to posi- 
 tion. The Brick-stacks made ideal sniping-posts, 
 and there were many other points of vantage which 
 were very much in their favour. It shows, however, 
 what a first-class sniping officer can do when it is 
 realized that the 33rd Division who, when they went 
 into the trenches, found the Germans very much in 
 the ascendant, soon reduced them to a more fitting 
 state of mind. 
 
 It was here that Gray — the sniping officer in ques- 
 tion — ^had a trying experience. One day while 
 making his tour of duty, an officer told him that there 
 
 64 
 
o 
 o 
 I 
 u 
 
 
 o t 
 
EARLY DAYS WITH THE XI. CORPS 
 
 was a sniper who was causing them trouble. Gray 
 asked where he was, and was led without words to the 
 part of our trench opposite which the German sniper 
 was supposed to lie. Gray, being signed to do so by 
 his guide, looked over, only to be saluted at about 
 ten yards' range with a bullet which whizzed by his 
 ear. 
 
 " That's him," said the officer delightedly. " I 
 knew he was pretty close. But what am I to do ? 
 He shoots if one tries to spot v/here he is." 
 
 " Have you never heard of the sniperscope, you 
 ? " demanded Gray. 
 
 " By Jove, the very thing ! " cried the officer, and 
 it was not long before the German sniper was reduced 
 to impotence. 
 
 But to return to the nth Corps School. Work 
 there was certainly strenuous. There was nothing to 
 do in the village and nothing to do in Morbecque. 
 The nearest place of relaxation was Hazebrouck, 
 and Hazebrouck was out of bounds. The result was 
 that having an interesting course with plenty of rifle 
 shooting competitions, together with occasional mild 
 cricket and football, officers and men were able to 
 concentrate upon the work in hand, and certainly 
 their shooting improved with amazing quickness. 
 
 About this time the 33rd Division moved south, 
 and Lieut. Gray was attached to the School, where he 
 soon left the impress of his personality and methods. 
 
 65 5 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 One of the difficulties that we had always found in 
 the First Army was due to the fact that our trenches, 
 as far at any rate as the Neuve Chapelle-Fauquissart 
 area was concerned, were very shallow, and, indeed 
 we lived rather behind breastworks than in trenches. 
 To make loopholes in these breastworks was ex- 
 ceedingly difficult, but Gray invented a system 
 which we christened " Gray's Boards " which fairly 
 met the case. Thus, if he wished to put in a concealed 
 iron loop-hole plate, he first of all cut a square of wood 
 of exactly similar size. In this he fashioned a loop- 
 hole to correspond with the loophole of the iron 
 plate. He then wired the wooden plate on to the iron 
 plate, and having rolled and stuffed a number of sand- 
 bags in exact imitation of the parapet in which he 
 wished to insert his loophole, he tacked these with a 
 hammer and tacks upon the wooden board. The. 
 whole loophole was then built in at night. These 
 loopholes of his were rarely discovered, and they had 
 also the added advantage that if a bullet struck them 
 it did not ring upon the iron plate, as it had to pierce 
 the wooden board first, so the posts were never given 
 away by sound. 
 
 It was at the nth Corps School that we first con- 
 structed exact imitations of German trenches and 
 German sniping posts ; in fact, in one way or another, 
 a great deal of pioneer work was put in there, and the 
 school prospered exceedingly. 
 
 66 
 
EARLY DAYS WITH THE XI. CORPS 
 
 The chief reason, I think, for the success of the 
 school was the great personal interest taken in it by 
 the Corps Commander, Sir R. Making, who would 
 come out from his headquarters at Hinges and inspect 
 the school at frequent intervals, as did also Brigadier- 
 General W. Hastings Anderson, then B.G.G.S. of 
 the Corps. We were inspected in July by the Army 
 Commander, and from time to time officers from 
 other theatres of war and from other armies visited us. 
 
 In a meadow near the school was a small pond, full 
 of fish, which it was the ambition of Gray and myself 
 to catch. There was only room for two fishermen at 
 a time, and only on one occasion was a fish caught. 
 This we gave to the farmer who owned the pond, 
 and I presume he ate it, for he was up at Headquarters 
 early the next day inquiring for a " medecin ! " 
 
 Still, nothing could be more delightful than after 
 three or four strenuous days, on each of which one 
 walked perhaps eight or ten miles of trenches, to sit 
 before that funny little pool in the French meadow, 
 and forget there was a war. 
 
 At the time of which I write, the Corps which 
 formed the First Army were the nth, the ist and 
 the 4th. The 3rd had gone to the Battle of the 
 Somme. The ist Cotps had a sniping school, which, 
 at a later date, reached an extraordinarily high pitch 
 of efficiency under Captain Crang and the late 
 Lieut. Toovey, the author of " The Old Drum 
 
 67 5* 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 Major " and well-known Bisley shot. It was a party 
 commanded by Captain Crang which went into the 
 Portuguese trenches, where it was reported the 
 Germans were showing themselves rather freely, and 
 made a big bag. The 4th Corps also had a good 
 school, but they soon moved out of the Army to the 
 south. In fact, when I first went there, the system 
 in the First Army was that which I had always advo- 
 cated, to have Corps Schools of sniping and observa- 
 tion. The difficulty, of course, was that there was 
 still no establishment, and that sniping schools did 
 not officially exist. This was quite a common thing 
 in the war, for when I first went to the large Third 
 Army Infantry School, with a score of instructors, a 
 large staff, and a couple of hundred N.C.O. and officer 
 pupils, it did not exist officially. 
 
 While I was at the nth Corps School, the War 
 Office at last officially acknowledged my existence 
 as a sniping-officer to the extent that I received my 
 pay, which had been withheld for several months. 
 
 After various tours of inspection and work with 
 other Army Corps, I was ordered by the Army Com- 
 mander to form an Army School of Sniping. Greatly 
 rejoicing, Gray and I borrowed a car from the Army 
 and set out to search through the broad lands of the 
 Pas de Calais. These were delightful days, but 
 search as we would, it wa? exceedingly difficult to 
 
 find any place in the area of the First Army which 
 
 68 
 
EARLY DAYS WITH THE XI. CORPS 
 
 would suit our purpose. It was all too flat. I 
 remember that we once very nearly decided upon a 
 queer little hill, not very far from Hinges, called 
 Mont Bernenchon, but hickily we went on further 
 and at last came to the village of Linghem. Above 
 the village on a high plateau lies an old civilian range 
 backed by a large rifle butt. The plateau on which 
 the range is situated is of considerable extent, and 
 upon its slopes (it was July) bloomed heather and 
 gorse. 
 
 " Why," said Gray, " the place is trying hard to be 
 like Scotland ! " 
 
 The plateau gave us a range of eight hundred yards 
 and plenty of room for playing fields, which the 
 Army always consider to be absolutely necessary to 
 the well-being of a school — one reason, I think, 
 that the health of our men was so good. 
 
 Having decided that here was the ideal place for 
 our projected First Army Sniping School, Gray and 
 I were disgusted to see the fresh tracks of a motor- 
 car. It was quite clear that somebody else had 
 discovered and had an eye upon our find. We did 
 not even wait for a cup of coffee at the local estaminet 
 but got on board our car and went full speed to Army 
 Headquarters, where we informed the Staff that we 
 had decided upon our location, and were told that 
 as no one else had applied for it, it should be ours. 
 We were only just in time for as wc afterwards dis- 
 
 69 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 covered the Royal Flying Corps had decided to 
 apply for it. 
 
 All's well, however, that ends well, and a little 
 later on we left the nth Corps School with great 
 regret, and set forth on a lorry for Linghem to found 
 the First Army Sniping School. 
 
 Often afterwards I used to go across to see how 
 things were getting along at the dear old nth Corps 
 School. The last time I was there, before it was 
 taken over by a Second Army formation, it was a 
 wintry day with snow falling. I must say that I 
 was glad that I had never been attached there during 
 winter, for what had been a smiling cornfield was 
 now a sea of yellow and glutinous mud. The little 
 becque or stream which ran between our stop-butt 
 and our targets had overflowed, and Lieut. Hands, 
 who had succeeded to the command of the school, 
 was urging some one hundred and fifty odd German 
 prisoners to reconstruct the stop-butt itself. The 
 scene really might have been upon the German 
 " Eastern Front." 
 
 70 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE FIRST ARMY SCHOOL OF SCOUTING, OBSERVATION 
 AND SNIPING 
 
 ' I ^HE First Army Sniping School was formed 
 for the purpose of training officers, who 
 might act as Instructors in the various Corps Schools, 
 Brigades and Battalions throughout the Army. 
 
 The system of Corps Schools was, as I have said, 
 peculiar to the First Army, who, for the next year 
 and a half, turned out three snipers to any other 
 Army's one. Further, the First Army School became 
 recognized throughout the B.E.F. as the training 
 place of observers with the telescope. Indeed, at 
 a later date, we were overwhelmed with applications 
 from Corps and Divisions in other Armies who wished 
 to send observers for a course. This was especially 
 the case before any big movement, and we might 
 almost have guessed where an advance was con- 
 templated by the applications for the training of 
 observers by the units concerned. 
 
 However, all this occurred at a later date, and I 
 
 71 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 must pick up my narrative when we left the iith 
 Corps School in the lorry. Those who were to start 
 the First Army School got aboard after an early 
 breakfast. They were only six in number, Lieut. 
 Gray, Armourer Staff-Sergeant Carr, Private Fen- 
 some (an extremely capable and skilled carpenter), 
 myself and two batmen. We took with us all the 
 spares we could obtain from the nth Corps School 
 as well as a lot of sniping kit belonging to Gray and 
 myself. 
 
 As we rode through the country in the direction 
 of Aire we passed a huge desolate camp which, I 
 believe, had once been inhabited by Australians. 
 No doubt it had boasted a guard at one time, but it 
 had now fallen into sad disrepair, the Flemish 
 peasantry having appropriated all the stoves and 
 most of the wooden walls. A little further on we 
 came upon two or three Armstrong huts standing 
 in a field adjacent to the deserted camp, and as these 
 were in better preservation, and we had no Armstrong 
 hut of our own, it seemed a pity to leave them for 
 the French, so we set to and took one down and 
 loaded it on the lorry. This was, no doubt, a very 
 wrong thing to do, but when you have no " estab- 
 lishment," you can have no conscience either, or, at 
 least, if you allow yourself such a luxury you will find 
 that your job becomes impossible. 
 
 Presently we rolled into Aire over the canal bridge, 
 
 72 
 
6 
 
THE FIRST ARMY SCHOOL OF S.O.S. 
 
 which was afterwards destroyed by long-range guns, 
 and in Aire we made the little purchases which are 
 necessary for the formation of officers' and men's 
 messes. We then passed through the old town by 
 the Cathedral. Army Headquarters had moved away, 
 and there was now only the Town Major and one or 
 two A.S.C. columns in possession. On the far 
 side of Aire we took the Lambres and St. Hilaire 
 Road, and passed on through the level country. As 
 we turned off through Lambres, we saw, rising in 
 front of us, the high ridge which formed the plateau 
 on which our school was to be situated, and not long 
 afterwards we rode into the village of Linghem. The 
 lorry then went round and disembarked our Arm- 
 strong hut upon the plateau, where we at once 
 erected it, and a fortunate thing it was that we did 
 so, for that night there were some heavy showers 
 of rain which would have destroyed a good deal of 
 our kit, and more especially our target-paper and 
 dummy heads, had we not put them under proper 
 shelter. 
 
 And now, I think, began one of the most inter- 
 esting periods which I spent in France. Various 
 fatigue men were added to the Staff, and a working 
 party from the Army Service Corps was sent up. 
 We were rather amused to see that the men of this 
 working party, who had been well behind the line 
 for at least a year previously, thought it quite an 
 
 73 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 adventure to come up to the school. When they 
 rolled up their sleeves for digging, we noticed, too, 
 that their arms were white, forming in this a great 
 contrast to our fatigue men. It was necessary to 
 dig trenches, make stop-butts, build snipers' posts 
 and observation posts, and all this hard work the 
 A.S.C. working party tackled with extraordinary 
 energy. We put up goal-posts, and they had a game 
 of football each evening. Several of the A.S.C. 
 party, I believe, were professional football players of 
 repute. 
 
 But it would be tedious to describe the growth of 
 the school step by step. Suffice it to say that, begin- 
 ning with a class of a dozen to fifteen officers, who 
 were dealt with by two officer instructors, our classes 
 grew until we had twenty-five officers and forty or 
 fifty N.C.O.'s at each course. But the actual teach- 
 ing was only one side of the work of the school, for 
 it was soon thoroughly known throughout the Army 
 that if any Division, Brigade or Battalion wanted its 
 telescopic sights tested, or if any individual sniper 
 found himself shooting incorrectly, all that had to 
 be done was to apply to the First Army Sniping 
 School. The divisional snipers came up in 'bus- 
 loads, and single snipers often came on foot. This 
 continual testing of rifles kept Armourer Staff- 
 Sergeant Carr busy both on the range and in his 
 armourer's shop. Fortunately, as well as being an 
 
 74 
 

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 CO 
 
THE FIRST ARMY SCHOOL OF S.O.S, 
 
 excellent armourer, Sergeant Carr was also a shot 
 of no mean order, having shot in the King's Hundred 
 at Bisley. 
 
 The school had not been long in existence before 
 the Canadian Corps came into the Army. They 
 were then holding the line which they afterwards 
 immortalized opposite the Vimy Ridge, and we were 
 at once struck at the school by their great energy 
 and keenness. There is no doubt that as a sniper, 
 scout or intelligence officer, the Canadian shows the 
 greatest initiative, and during the long period, well 
 over a year, which they remained in the Army, our 
 school was voluntarily visited by two Canadians 
 for every one Britisher. They were most extra- 
 ordinarily helpful, too, and if ever I wanted the 
 services of some Canadian officer for a particular 
 purpose, they were almost always granted, and not 
 only that, but he was on the spot vvdthin a few hours 
 of my application. 
 
 At first the greater part of our teaching dealt 
 with sniping, but as time went on the curriculum 
 was much extended. Map reading, intelligence 
 work, the prismatic compass, the range-finder, in- 
 struction on crawling, ju-jitsu and physical drill 
 were all added. In addition to these, we had con- 
 tinual demonstrations of the effect of all kinds of 
 bullets, both British and German, on the armoured 
 steel plates used by us and by the enemy. We formed 
 
 75 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 a museum, which became quite famous, and in which 
 were various exhibits of German and British sniping 
 paraphernalia. We also had many photographs, and 
 again and again officers who had been through the 
 course at the school sent up contributions. It was 
 said that anyone going through the museum could 
 really gain a very good idea of the development of 
 sniping during the war, and this was by no means 
 an exaggeration. 
 
 I soon found that the officers and men who came 
 to the school were really in need of a clear mental 
 change, and this we attempted to provide by giving 
 long hours to games. 
 
 For many months the school was " unofficial," 
 but at last, on the 24th November, 1916, more than 
 fifteen months after I had begun serving as a sniping 
 officer, we were granted a " provisional establish- 
 ment." Up to this time, it was terribly hard to 
 keep the school running, not to speak of the Corps 
 Schools, which were its offshoots. The real difficulty 
 was that when each division moved, all its personnel 
 moved with it, and thus it came about that, seven 
 weeks after the First Army School was started, Lieut. 
 Gray's division moved out of the Army, and he 
 was recalled to it ; in spite of applications from 
 Headquarters that he might be allowed to remain 
 and continue the good work he was doing, this was 
 refused, and he went down to the Somme to be 
 
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THE FIRST ARMY SCHOOL OF S.O.S. 
 
 made officer in charge of trolleys, or sports, or some 
 such appointment. The mere fact that he was a 
 King's Prizeman and perhaps the best shot and the 
 most capable sniper in the B.E.F. made not one 
 whit of difference. All these qualities are, no 
 doubt, of the highest use in an officer in charge of 
 trolleys ! 
 
 On Gray's departure there set in for me a very 
 strenuous time, for at the same moment the Com- 
 mandant of the nth Corps School was also spirited 
 away. I found an officer who had been through the 
 course at the First Army School to take his place, 
 and at the same time it became necessary to find a 
 Commandant for the ist Corps Sniping School. I 
 had at this time no assistant myself, and was dealing 
 with a class of fifteen officers, as well as sometimes 
 as many as fifty snipers, who came up from the line 
 tor a day's instruction. My N.C.O.'s, however, 
 stepped nobly into the breach, and Armourer Staff- 
 Sergeant Carr took over the explanation of telescopic 
 sights — work which lay entirely outside his duties. 
 At that time there were ten or fifteen patterns of 
 these sights in the Army, and each officer on the 
 course had to learn to manipulate every one of them. 
 In fact, the course was a pretty stiff one, and, over- 
 worked as I was, it was difficult to be certain how 
 much knowledge the officer students carried away 
 with them, so I started an examination paper on the 
 
 n 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 last da/, which was of a very searching nature. The 
 full marks were a hundred, and this paper was con- 
 tinued until the school closed down after the Armis- 
 tice. Again and again we had classes, the least 
 successful member of which obtained seventy-five of 
 the hundred marks. 
 
 During the period in which I was alone after 
 Lieut. Gray's departure, an officer attended the 
 school who became my assistant, Lieut. N. Hands, 
 of the nth Warwickshire Regiment. I had great 
 difficulty in obtaining his services, but finally his 
 General exchanged a month of them for some lectures 
 on Sniping by me. As I was taken in a car to and 
 from the lectures — and as they were to be given after 
 parade hours, it did not interfere with my work — 
 this was a very pleasant arrangement, but Hands had 
 not been with me long when there was another 
 upheaval at the nth Corps School. The 6ist 
 Division left, and Lieut. Benoy, who was in charge 
 of the school, left with it. So Hands went across 
 and took over the nth Corps School. He afterwards 
 proceeded with the nth Corps to Italy, where he 
 was awarded the Military Cross, and did fine work. 
 
 However, after another period of running the 
 
 school alone on Hands' departure. Army Headquarters 
 
 sent me Second Lieut. Underhill, of the ist K.S^.L.L 
 
 Underbill had been wounded at Ypres, and came out 
 
 for instructional duties. The story of his being sent 
 
 78 
 
THE FIRST ARMY SCHOOL OF S.O.S. 
 
 to the school is an amusing one, in the light of after 
 experience, for he was the most tremendous worker 
 that I have ever known. He arrived at Army Head- 
 quarters at eight o'clock in the morning, and two 
 hours later, feeling unhappy at still having nothing 
 to do, he went to the G.S.O.i, and asked if he could 
 not be put to work. The G.S.O.i, who was my 
 very good friend, seeing from his papers that Under- 
 hill had passed through Hythe, and was stated to be 
 competent as an instructor, sent him out to me, and 
 thus it was that I at last obtained a permanent assis- 
 tant, and a better no man could have had. Our 
 establishment was still only a tentative one, and 
 it was not until some months later that we were 
 allowed the two extra officers and four extra 
 N.C.O.'s, and the dozen scouts and fatigue-men, 
 who made up our staff. 
 
 Underhill had, by that time, been promoted to 
 Temporary Captain, for good services, and became 
 Adjutant, and Captain Kendall, of the 4th Warwick- 
 shire Regiment, who, after a course at the School, 
 had become attached to the Royal Flying Corps as 
 Intelligence Officer, took over the intelligence duties 
 and map reading at the school. Lieut. W. B. Curtis, 
 of the 31st . Canadian Infantry, became scouting 
 officer : he had had nearly two years' experience 
 between the lines, and had been decorated on three 
 occasions. 
 
 79 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 Our N.C.O.'s, too, were the very pick of the Army. 
 There was Armourer-Staff Sergeant Carr, Sergeant 
 Slade, of the Essex Yeomanry, Sergeant Hicks, of the 
 1st Rifle Brigade, and Sergeant Blaikley, of the 
 Artists' Rifles. All these N.C.O.'s became in time 
 amazingly proflcient at their work. I have never 
 heard a more clear exposition of the compass than 
 that given by Sergeant Hicks, who, while one squad 
 was firing, would sit down under the bank with the 
 other, and explain to them all the mysteries of the 
 magnetic North. 
 
 The physical training of the school was in the 
 hands of Sergeant-Major Betts (Coldstream Guards), 
 one of Colonel Campbell's magnificent gymnastic 
 staff. 
 
 Sergeant Blaikley, who had drawn for Punch from 
 time to time, was invaluable as an artist, and it was 
 he who drew our Christmas card — " Der Sportsmann " 
 — depicting a German gassing stags on a Scottish 
 deer forest. This picture, which was very widely 
 circulated, certainly obtained the flattery of imita- 
 tion, as the same idea was used in most of our comic 
 papers a month or two afterwards. 
 
 Captain Kendall was a trained surveyor, and an 
 artist of no ordinary merit. Whatever conundrum 
 was brought up by ofiicers — and a great many Vv^ere 
 brought up — Kendall, in his own department, was 
 certainly unassailable. 
 
 80 
 
THE FIRST ARMY SCHOOL OF S.O.S. 
 
 Besides the officers and sergeants, we had another 
 member of the staff who did splendid work. This 
 was Corporal Donald Cameron of the Lovat Scouts. 
 Lord Lovat had visited the school, and had expressed 
 his satisfaction at the way in which we were teaching 
 observation and the use of the telescope. I asked 
 
 SFer <Syffrt6ntontT. 
 
 Christmas Card (1917) o( the First Army School o( S.O.S. 
 Drawn by Ernest Blaikley. 
 
 him if he could get me a really good stalker to assist 
 me, and he very kindly promised to do so. As one 
 of his own men could not come, he sent me Corporal 
 Cameron, who showed the greatest keenness, and had, 
 I think, a peculiar affection for the last man over 
 the stile. If ever there was a weak member in learning 
 the compass, Cameron would seek him out and explain 
 
 8i 6 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 it. The results were wonderful, and certainly saved 
 several privates from failure. Cameron, when I 
 asked him his age on his joining, gave it as " offec- 
 cially forty-one." He was a very skilful glassman, 
 and as such was of continual assistance to me. I 
 remember one day when we were trying some aspirant 
 reinforcements for Lovat Scouts Sharpshooters, and 
 were looking through our glasses at some troops 
 in blue uniforms about six thousand yards away, 
 most of the observers reported them as " troops in 
 blue uniform ; " but Cameron pointed out that they 
 were Portuguese. His reasoning was simple. " They 
 must be either Portuguese or French," said he, " and 
 as they are wearing the British steel helmet, they 
 must be Portuguese." 
 
 On my establishment, when it finally came along, 
 there were apportioned to me three scouts among the 
 eleven privates to the services of whom the school 
 was entitled. I remember these eleven privates 
 parading for the first time, and I remember also 
 attempting to pick out, with Capt. Underbill, the 
 three " scouts." One of the scouts was a Salvation 
 Army musician, an excellent fellow, but quite unfit 
 for his duties. Another was an ex-barber of the White 
 Star line, and the third had for years been unable 
 to break into a double. As the work of scouts with 
 an Army School is of supreme importance, since one 
 uses them to personate the enemy in scouting schemes, 
 
 82 
 
THE FIRST ARMY SCHOOL OF S.O.S. 
 
 the employment of such men as these was quite im- 
 possible. Good fortune here, however, came to 
 our aid, for some performing scouts from G.H.Q., 
 who were giving demonstrations, came to demonstrate 
 to us, and were afterwards attached to the school. 
 These were boys under nineteen, and the three I 
 kept ended up as past masters of their work. By 
 Armistice Day they had been at the school for some 
 eighteen months, were first-class shots, knew every 
 detail of the course, and could pass an examination 
 equal to any officer. At the physical training and ju- 
 jitsu, which they had almost every day, they were 
 really young terrors. In fact, I remember a com- 
 mercial joy-rider who was visiting the school, and whom 
 I was showing round, on seeing two of the boys doing 
 ju-jitsu, saying with infinite tact : " 'Ere, where do 
 you live when you are at 'ome ? I'll keep clear o' 
 your street on a dark night." 
 
 I might add that aU three boys were accomplished 
 Association football players, so that we always had a 
 really first-class centre forward, left wing and half- 
 back upon the premises. Our Association team, for 
 so small a unit, was thus a very strong one, though 
 it might have been much stronger had not so many 
 of the older members of the staff been wounded. 
 
 I think the only other member of the staff that I 
 need mention is Sergeant Foster of the Canadians. At 
 a later date, it became our duty to train the Portu- 
 
 83 6* 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 guese Army in sniping and shooting, and Sergeant 
 Foster spoke a kind of Portuguese. 
 
 I have given at full length this account of the 
 officers and N.C.O.'s of the school, because wrhatever 
 efficiency the school obtained was founded upon their 
 selection. Whenever it was possible to do so, it was 
 always a standing order that between courses, when 
 we sometimes had from two days to a week free, all 
 instructors should go to the line. For this purpose, 
 arrangements were made with different battalions to 
 receive them. This kept the school in touch with 
 the progress of events. 
 
 I have often regretted that I did not keep a Visitors' 
 Book at the First Army Sniping School, for certainly 
 enormous numbers of visitors came to us. Outside 
 the officers of the B.E.F., of whom several hundred 
 visited the school, we had attaches and missions of 
 various allied and neutral powers — Japanese, Rou- 
 manian, Dutch, Spanish, American, Italian, Portuguese, 
 Siamese and Polish officers, as well as large numbers 
 of journalists, from whom, when they were not our 
 own accredited correspondents, I used to conceal a 
 good deal of the more secret parts of our work. One 
 day, however, on being informed by the officer-in- 
 charge of the correspondents that they were perfectly 
 safe, and that I could show them anything, I showed 
 them a small new invention by which we were able to 
 spot the position of German snipers. I carefully warned 
 
 84 
 
THE FIRST ARMY SCHOOL OF S.O.S. 
 
 them that it was not to be written about, but about 
 three months later I saw a large and glaring article 
 describing the visit of one of these journalists to the V 
 school. The description of the invention could have 
 been of little interest to the great public which he 
 served, but it was there, carefully set out. This was 
 the only case of a definitely-broken promise of this 
 nature which I came across during the war. Our 
 own correspondents, Valentine WilHams (afterwards 
 Captain Valentine WilHams, M.C.), Philip Gibbs, 
 Beach Thomas, Perry Robinson, H. M. Tomlinson, 
 Prevost Battersby, Percival Phillips, and others who 
 came after I left G.H.Q., were welcome and trusted 
 throughout the whole Army. 
 
 The feeling in the Army against the Press — for there 
 certainly was, at one period, such a feeling — ^is really 
 very often a rather stupid pose adopted by the younger 
 officers, who usually copy some downright senior ; but 
 it will always remain as long as journalistic mistakes 
 are made — and that will be as long as wars last. 
 
 Outside the members of the staff, we had help from 
 time to time from various officers who were attached 
 for short periods of duty. Among these was Major 
 A. Buxton, D.S.O., of the Essex Yeomanry, who took 
 two classes of Lovat Scouts in observation. He was, I 
 believe, the only officer who was habitually successful 
 in catching trout in the French streams. Second 
 Lieut. C. B. Macpherson of Balavil, a true expert 
 
 85 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 with the telescope and map, was also attached to the 
 school for a time. He came out at the age of sixty- 
 two with his splendidly trained group of Lovat 
 Scouts Sharpshooters. 
 
 Another officer who was temporarily attached to the 
 staff was Capt. T. B. Barrie of the Canadian High- 
 landers. He first came to the school on a course, and 
 was afterwards lent to me by the Canadian 4th Division. 
 Shortly after his first visit to the school he gained 
 two M.C.'s in a fortnight, both in raids, in one of 
 which he penetrated six hundred yards behind the 
 German line. There can have been few more gallant 
 officers in France, and his death later in the war was 
 a matter of deep regret to all who knew him. 
 
 One day Major-General the Hon. W. Lambton, 
 commanding the 4th Division with which I had begun 
 my sniping duties in 191 5, came to the school. His 
 division was then in one of the other armies, but he 
 wished to have observers trained, and sent up a 
 party under Lieut. Kingsley Conan Doyle, of the 
 Hampshire Regiment, the son of Sir Arthur Conan 
 Doyle, and one of the best observation officers we 
 had at any time. Conan Doyle possessed an extra- 
 ordinary facility for teaching and was most successful 
 with one or two classes of Lovat Scouts which he took. 
 He went back to his Division, was promoted to Captain, 
 and acted in charge of the Divisional Battle Observers 
 in the big battles of 191 7. It is tragic to think that 
 
 86 
 
THE FIRST ARMY SCHOOL OF S.O.S. 
 
 when the order came out for all medical students to 
 return to complete their studies Capt. Conan Doyle 
 went back to England ; there he contracted influenza 
 and died. This has always seemed to me one of 
 the saddest things in the war — to have gone through 
 so much, to have rendered such good service, and 
 finally to be struck down by the horrible influenza 
 germ instead of the German shells among which 
 he had walked about so unconcernedly. 
 
 I have now given you a somewhat rambling account 
 of the formation, and of those who were chiefly 
 connected with the early days, of the First Army 
 Sniping School. On the very day on which it was 
 founded. Sir Charles Monro left France to take up 
 his appointment as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces 
 in India. Sir Richard Haking succeeded to the tem- 
 porary command of the Army, and as it happened was 
 the very first visitor who ever came to First Army 
 School, He told us that the King was coming almost 
 at once into the Army area, and that he wished Gray 
 and myself to go back to the nth Corps School to 
 prepare for a Royal Inspection. This we did, but 
 unfortunately the King was held up in Bethune by 
 shelling, so that there was no time for him to visit us. 
 We greatly regretted this, as a Royal visit would have 
 been of enormous value to sniping at that time. 
 
 One visitor who came to the school was of peculiar 
 interest to me. This was my old friend Sir Arthur 
 
 87 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 Pearson, who arrived accompanied by his son, whom 
 I had last seen at the Boys' Cricket classes at Lord's 
 when he was first in the running for the Eton Eleven, 
 of which he was afterwards Captain. He was now 
 an officer in the R.H.A. Sir Arthur Pearson went 
 over the whole school and asked me many questions. 
 Though he could not, of course, see the loopholes 
 and aU the rather technical work which I explained to 
 him, it was perfectly amazing to realize the way 
 in which he gripped it in its essentials. I think that 
 he knew more about sniping, scouting and observa- 
 tion after the hour or two he spent at the school 
 than I have known other men gather in a week. 
 
 The only ladies who visited us were Mrs. Humphry 
 Ward and her daughter. It was terrible weather 
 when they came and the little path which led up to 
 the range, and which was really more or less the bed 
 of a stream, had become a glacier of ice several feet 
 in thickness. On the range the wind was blowing 
 exceedingly cold, and few worse days could have 
 been picked for a visit. I remember Mrs. Ward 
 saying to me that she thought sniping — the terrible 
 and ruthless killing of men with weapons of precision 
 — one of the most dreadful sides of the war. I 
 pointed out to her the life-saving side of sniping, 
 and how many hundreds and probably thousands of 
 British officers and men were alive at that moment 
 who, if it were not for our snipers, would have 
 
 88 
 

 J 
 o 
 o , 
 
 I 
 
THE FIRST ARMY SCHOOL OF S.O.S. 
 
 been killed by the Germans. Mrs. Ward quite saw 
 the force of this argument and wrote a most admirable 
 account of her visit to the school. I saw this in 
 proof, but when it appeared the censors had clearly 
 cut out a certain amount. Why they had cut it 
 out no one could ever tell. We had at that time a 
 good number of snipers' robes of painted canvas at 
 the school. The Germans had somewhat similar 
 robes and both sides knew that the other was using 
 them ; but the British Censorship would never allow 
 any mention of these robes. You might mention 
 something really important, some new invention, 
 or the effect of some new bullet, or any other matter 
 which would be of real assistance to the Germans, 
 but these robes were the one thing which seemed to 
 interest the Press Censorship. Speaking as an Officer- 
 in-charge of a very technical branch of work, I can 
 only say that the Censorship was at times just like 
 an ostrich hiding its head in the sand. 
 
 Mrs. Humphry Ward went over the whole school, 
 and I must say that her questions probed our work 
 more deeply than those of the average sight-seeing 
 officer who visited us. 
 
 Apart from visitors who came for various purposes 
 to see the school, we had also several officers who 
 came on duty. Among these was Col. the Hon. 
 T. F. Fremantle, now Lord Cottesloe. Lord Cottesloe 
 knew more of telescopic sights and rifle shooting than 
 
 89 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 did any of vis at the school, and there can be no doubt 
 whatever that his visit was of the greatest assistance 
 to us. With him came Lieut. -Col. Robinson, who 
 was in charge of the manufacture of telescopic sights 
 at Enfield, and who did so much to assist us in a 
 hundred different ways. I never had the opportunity 
 of visiting the school in England of which Lord 
 Cottesloe was the Commandant, but I had many 
 officers and men who had received a sound grounding 
 there. 
 
 Lieut.-Col. P. W. Richardson, the well-known 
 Bisley shot, also visited the school. He was interested 
 in sniping from the very earliest days, and was pro- 
 bably the first officer to advocate schools for the 
 teaching of shooting with telescopic sights. 
 
 One evening after the school had been running 
 well over a year I was sitting by the mess-room fire 
 when a couple of officers were shown in. Both 
 were wearing Burberrys, so that I was not able to see 
 their rank, but both were very young-looking. One 
 of them said : " We looked in to have a talk to you 
 about schools, for we are going to start one. What 
 we want to know is, how this school manages to get 
 everyone who comes to it so damned keen on their 
 job ? » 
 
 I pointed out that we had a really interesting subject 
 to teach, and enlarged upon the great theory that I 
 always used to hold that you did not want to have 
 
 90 
 
THE FIRST ARMY SCHOOL OP S.O.S. 
 
 officers on a course too near a big town. If you have 
 a good subject to teach, and can teach it intelligently, 
 you ought to be able to interest them enough in the 
 course to keep their minds at work, especially if you 
 have at least two hours' games for those who want 
 them every afternoon. If you are near a big town, 
 it means dinners and sweet champagne, and other 
 things which do not conduce to accurate shooting. 
 Our school was rather more than four kilometres 
 from Aire, and no one was allowed to go there without 
 a pass. A pass could be had by any officer for the 
 asking, but I found that, once the course got its grip, 
 except on Sunday, Aire was very little visited. 
 
 My two visitors then ran through the curriculum 
 of the school with me, and as the room was hot, re- 
 moved their Burberrys. I then realized how great 
 a compliment had been paid to the School, for both 
 were regular soldiers of long service — as I could tell 
 from their decorations and medals — and high rank. 
 Presently, they went, and I never saw them again, 
 nor did I learn their names, but we always thought 
 that their visit was about the highest compliment 
 ever paid to the First Army School of S.O.S. 
 
 One point that certainly struck us in our first 
 coming to Linghem was the delight of the inhabitants 
 in getting a permanent school quartered in their 
 village. This, of course, meant prosperity to them. 
 They had previously had one or two battalions, and 
 
 91 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 there was still a large notice affixed on one of the 
 houses, " Billet Officer," but when we came they 
 had had no British soldiers for the last six months. 
 We were welcomed with open arms. White wine 
 which started the war at 90 centimes was 1.50 a 
 bottle. Eggs, fruit, and everything else were cheap. 
 When we left in 191 8, that same white wine was 
 10 francs a bottle, and even a potato was hard indeed 
 to come by. 
 
 We owed much to the courtesy of the Secretary 
 to the Maire, M. Huart, who smoothed away every 
 kind of difficulty. That occasional difficulties should 
 arise is natural enough, but the French were for the 
 most part extraordinarily kind. Here and there, of 
 course, one came across difficult people, as for instance, 
 the determined lad^ who, when a Portuguese class 
 was quartered in the village, finding that they drank 
 no beer at her estaminet — for the Portuguese do not 
 drink beer, and the lo-franc vin blanc was rather 
 beyond them — refused to allow them to draw water 
 at her well, although it was the only decent one in the 
 village. I had an interview with the lady, at which 
 she wept copious floods of tears, and said that the 
 Sergeant who had reported the matter to me was a 
 diable, who had always disliked her from the first 
 day that he saw her. But she ultimately, of course, 
 had to give in, under threat of having a permanent 
 guard placed upon the well. 
 
 92 
 
z ^ 
 
 ^ in 
 it 
 
 w -I 
 I 
 
 H & 
 
 9 • 
 
THE FIRST ARMY SCHOOL OF S.O.S. 
 
 I have often marvelled how little friction there 
 really was between us and the French. If a French 
 Army were quartered in England in the same way that 
 we were quartered in France, I do not for a moment 
 beheve that our people would show towards them the 
 same kindness and consideration which we received 
 from the French. 
 
 When Gray and I had spent seven very strenuous 
 weeks at the Army School we were both granted 
 eight days' leave. Immediately on our return we 
 were inspected by Sir Henry Home, the new Army 
 Commander, who came out many times afterwards. 
 It was always a matter of pride to the School to have 
 some new thing to show to the Army Commander. 
 On one occasion Lord Home inspected some Lovat 
 Scouts whom we were training as reinforcements for 
 our Army Groups, and after this an order came through 
 to us to hold ourselves ready to train all reinforcements 
 for Lovat Scouts throughout the B.E.F. How much 
 Lord Home did to encourage and help the School 
 no words can describe. 
 
 At this time also, or a little later, Major-General 
 Hastings Anderson was appointed Chief of Staff at 
 First Army Headquarters. 
 
 93 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 SOME SNIPING MEMORIES 
 
 "V ^ THEN first I came into the First Army area the 
 main point which struck me was the difference 
 between the trenches where my work now lay and 
 those of the Third Army. The Third Army had, of 
 course, taken over from the French, and their trenches 
 were really in the nature of deep ditches, without 
 any vast amount of sandbags. Sometimes these 
 trenches extended through a clayey formation, but 
 more often they were in chalk. This chalk made 
 front line observation in the bright sunlight some- 
 what trying, as there was always a dazzle in the rays 
 reflected from the white background. In the Third 
 Army area also the ground was rolling, and it was 
 nearly always possible to obtain some kind of a position 
 of vantage behind the parados. For this purpose I 
 had had a special portable loophole made, shaped 
 something in the form of a wide triangle, but the back 
 shutter of which slid along in grooves. This back 
 shutter was made of steel and formed a very fine 
 protection^ as even if an enemy sniper put a bullet 
 
 94 
 

 i-s 
 
 o 
 Q "Z 
 
 5 § 
 
SOME SNIPING MEMORIES 
 
 through the front loophole, the bullet was stopped 
 by the sliding shutter behind, unless, that is, the shot 
 happened to be fired — a twenty to one chance — along 
 the exact line in which one was looking through the 
 two loopholes. A good many of these loopholes were 
 used in the Third Army, but I found that conditions 
 in the First Army rendered them of no great value. 
 
 The First Army were holding from just south of 
 Armentieres down to Vimy Ridge, and subsequently 
 it held almost to Arras, but at this time their lines 
 did not stretch so far south. All the northern part 
 of their trench system was in an absolutely flat plain, 
 where trenches were shallow owing to the presence 
 of water at no great depth underground, and were 
 really much more in the nature of breastworks. In 
 most places it was useless to go out behind the parados, 
 as the ground was so low that you got no view. This 
 refers, at any rate, to all the northern line, after 
 which we entered the coal region, where posts could 
 be dug in the slag-heaps and in the ruins of shelled 
 buildings. As a rule, to put a post in a shelled 
 building in the northern part of the line was simply 
 to court disaster, as these buildings, where they 
 were near enough to the line to admit of sniping, were 
 continually shelled and sprayed with machine-gun 
 bullets. But further south buildings were more 
 common and might be made use of. As a rule, 
 however, I found that the placing of sniping posts in 
 
 95 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 either buildings or trees was a mistake. For once 
 such posts were discovered by the enemy he had little 
 difficulty in ticking them off on his map and de- 
 molishing them. Of course the same was true of 
 posts in more open ground, but these were much 
 harder to spot and it is better to be shelled in the open 
 ground than in a house where you are liable to be 
 hurt by falling bricks, etc. 
 
 The problem then that the First Army line pre- 
 sented was an interesting one, and I have always 
 thought it much the most difficult line to organize 
 for sniping of which I had knowledge. 
 
 Having learned my work in the trenches of the 
 Third Army I found that in the First Army I had 
 first of all to unlearn a great deal. The problem was 
 essentially different, but after a year's experience, 
 during which practically every portion of the Front 
 was visited, one collected a great number of ruses and 
 plans. Still at first to put a concealed loophole into 
 the Fauquissart or Neuve Chapelle breastworks was 
 a really difficult problem, which indeed was only 
 solved when, as I have explained in an earlier chapter, 
 " Gray's Boards " were invented. These were im- 
 mediately successful, and from the time that they were 
 first used, it was easier to make a good loophole in 
 the breastworks than in any other part of our line. 
 
 There were here and there, all along the Army front, 
 what njay be known as " bad spots," that is, places 
 
 96 
 
SOME SNIPING MEMORIES 
 
 where, through some advantage of ground, the enemy 
 dominated us. In such places our snipers had to 
 redouble their efforts, and even then the enemv 
 remained a thorn in our sides. There were other 
 places, of course, where we had an equivalent advan- 
 tage, and there we were soon able to force the Germans 
 to live an absolutely troglodytic existence. In fact 
 orders were published in the German army on some 
 fronts, that when a man was off duty he was to remain 
 in a dug-out. 
 
 Of course the greatest difficulty that we had was 
 the continual movement of divisions. A division 
 would just be settling down comfortably and getting 
 its sniping into good order, when it would be ordered 
 to depart to another Army, and the incoming division 
 would almost always succeed in giving away some of 
 the posts. This was a necessary evil, and could not 
 be helped, but the advent of a single really bad sniping 
 division gave an immense amount of extra work. 
 It was exactly as if a party of really capable sportsmen 
 were shooting an area for big game, or, better still, a 
 Scottish deer forest. Imagine these sportsmen re- 
 placed by careless and ignorant tourists. The ground 
 would inevitably be maltreated, the wrong beasts shot, 
 corries shot when the wind was unfavourable, and all 
 the deer stampeded onto the next forest. Of course in 
 this case the deer did not stampede, but plucked up 
 courage and shot back. 
 
 97 7 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 This condition of things was of course impossible to 
 remedy, but we were luckier than other Armies, since 
 our southern wing was formed by the Canadian Corps, 
 who had the same trenches for fifteen months, and 
 who never changed their divisions. In this Corps 
 many of the reliefs worked beautifully, the incoming 
 and the outgoing sniping officers being thoroughly in 
 accord with each other. Major Armstrong, a well- 
 known British Columbian big-game shot, was Corps 
 Sniping Officer, and there was no keener. 
 
 Of course it must be understood, as I have tried to 
 explain before, that in writing this book I realize that 
 my point of view is an exceedingly narrow one, and 
 that I look at everything from the point of an officer 
 whose business it was to consider sniping, observation 
 and scouting of paramount importance. We were 
 continually getting new snipers who took the places 
 of those who had either become casualties, or had 
 been put to other work. New snipers were nearly 
 always optimistic, and it was quite a common 
 thing for them to think that they were doing the 
 enemy much more damage than was really the 
 case. A conversation has been known to run as 
 follows : 
 
 " Morning, you two " 
 
 " Good morning, sir." 
 
 " Anything doing ? '" 
 
 " Smith got a 'un this morning, sir." 
 
 98 
 

SOME SNIPING MEMORIES 
 
 " Good. How do you know ? " 
 
 " He give a cry, threw up his hands and fell back." 
 
 Now this may have been correct, but, as a matter 
 of fact, continued observation showed that a man 
 shot in ordinary trench warfare very very rarely 
 either threw up his hands or fell back. He nearly 
 always fell forward and sUpped down. For this 
 the old Greek rendering is best, " And his knees were 
 loosened." 
 
 We soon found that a very skilled man with a tele- 
 scope could tell pretty accurately whether a man 
 fired at had been hit, or had merely ducked, and this 
 was the case even when only the " head of the target " 
 was visible ; but to be certain of his accuracy, it was 
 necessary that the observer should have had a long 
 experience of his work, coupled with real aptitude 
 for it. The idea of how to spot whether a German 
 was hit or not was suggested by big-game shooting 
 experiences. An animal which is fired at and missed 
 always stands tense for the fraction of a second before 
 it bounds away, but when an animal is struck by the 
 bullet there is no pause. It bounds away at once on 
 the impact, or falls. Thus, a stag shot through the 
 heart commences his death rush at once, to fall dead 
 vdthin fifty yards, whereas a stag missed gives that 
 tell-tale sudden start. 
 
 In dealing with trench warfare sniping a very 
 
 99 7* 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 capable observer soon learned to distinguish a hit from 
 a miss, but there were naturally many observers who 
 never reached the necessary degree of skill. A reason 
 once advanced for claiming a hit was that the Germans 
 had been shouting for stretcher-bearers, but a question 
 as to what was the German word for stretcher-bearer 
 brought confusion upon the young sniper, whose 
 talents were promptly used elsewhere ! 
 
 But taken long by broad the accuracy of the in- 
 formation given by snipers was really wonderful. 
 On one occasion the snipers of the 33rd Division 
 reported that two Germans had been seen with the 
 number 79 upon their helmets. This information 
 went from Battalion, through Brigade, Division and 
 Corps, to Army, who rather pooh-poohed the 
 snipers' accuracy, as the 79th, when last heard of, had 
 been upon the Russian front. Within a day or two, 
 however, the Germans opposite the battalion to which 
 these snipers belonged sent a patrol out of their 
 trenches one misty morning. The patrol fell in with 
 our scouts, who killed two and carried back the 
 regulation identifications. These proved the sentries 
 to be correct. 
 
 It was in the same Division that in one tour of duty 
 the snipers reported the cap-bands of the Germans 
 opposite as : (i) brown ; (2) yellow ; (3) white. 
 This again raised a doubt as to their accuracy ; 
 the matter was interesting, as it seemed possible that 
 
 100 
 
SOME SNIPING MEMORIES 
 
 the trenches had been taken over by dismounted 
 Uhlans. But before long the snipers were once again 
 justified. A prisoner was taken, who acknowledged 
 that the men of his unit had, under orders, covered 
 the state badges on their caps with strips of tape 
 wound round and round the brims. Prior to putting 
 on this tape, he said, many of his comrades had dipped 
 it in their coffee. 
 
 It is only fair to say that the sniping officer of the 
 division in question was Lieut. Gray, and the ex- 
 ceeding skill of the officers and men under him may 
 fairly be laid at his door. 
 
 There was in the trenches a very simple way of 
 testing the accuracy of the sniper's observation. The 
 various German States, Duchies or Kingdoms all 
 wore two badges on their caps, one above the other, 
 the higher being the Imperial badge and the lower 
 the badge of the State. Thus, the Prussian badge is 
 black and white, the Bavarian light blue and white ; 
 the Saxon, green and white. These badges or, to be 
 more correct, cockades, are not larger than a shilling, 
 and the colours are in concentric rings. A series of 
 experiments carried out at First Army School by the 
 Staff and some of the best Lovat Scouts proved that 
 these colours were indistinguisable with the best 
 Ross telescope at a distance of more than 150 yards, 
 except under the most favourable circumstances. 
 So if ever a sniper (who, of course, knew what troops 
 
 lOI 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 he was faced by) reported the colours of cockades 
 when more than 1 50 yards from the enemy, it was at 
 once clear that his imagination was too strong to admit 
 of his useful employment with an observer's telescope. 
 
 Another great duty of snipers was the blinding of 
 the enemy. Thus, if the Germans bombarded any 
 portion of our front, their artillery observers almost 
 always did their work from the flank, where very often 
 from the front line or from some other point of 
 vantage they spotted and corrected the shell bursts 
 of their gunners. On such occasions our snipers 
 opposite both flanks of the bombarded area broke the 
 periscopes of the German observers, and thus often 
 succeeded in either rendering them blind, or forcing 
 them to take risks. 
 
 When Germans retaliated and shot our periscopes, 
 we had a number of dummies made, and by taking 
 the entry and exit of the bullet through the back and 
 front of these, we were able to spot many posts from 
 which the Germans were firing. The result was that 
 the enemy suffered casualties. It is, in fact, not too 
 much to say that in these ways we were able from very 
 early days to place the position of any sniper who 
 troubled us, and, once placed, there were many methods 
 by which the man could be rendered harmless. 
 
 Another point that was not without interest was 
 the fact that occasionally, and apparently for no 
 reason, the Germans sighted their rifles by firing at 
 
 102 
 
SOME SNIPING MEMORIES 
 
 marks upon our parapets. If they did this in a high 
 wind, it might have been possible that they were 
 trying to get the correct wind allowance to put on 
 their rifles ; but as they often did it, and it happened 
 aU along the line on a still morning, we felt we must 
 seek some other explanation. Collaboration with 
 Intelligence proved that this orgy of rifle sighting 
 seemed to coincide with the relief by one battalion 
 of another in the trenches. It was one of the many 
 little straws which showed which way the wind was 
 bloAving. 
 
 The psychology of the different races of snipers 
 was always interesting. The English were sound, 
 exceedingly unimaginative, and very apt to take the 
 most foolish and useless risks, showing their heads 
 unnecessarily, and out of a kind of unthinking optimism. 
 Nor did the death of their comrades cause them to 
 keep their heads down, except in the particular place 
 where a man had been killed. Unimaginativeness is 
 a great quality in war, but when one is playing a very 
 close game, in which no points can be given away, 
 between skilled antagonists as we were doing in 
 sniping, one sometimes wished for a little less wooden- 
 headed " bravery " so-called and a little more 
 finesse. 
 
 The Welsh were very good indeed, their 38th 
 Division keeping a special sniper's book, and their 
 sniping officer. Captain Johnson, was very able. I 
 
 103 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 think that in early 191 8, the snipers of this Division 
 had accounted for 387 Germans in trench-warfare. 
 
 The Canadians, the Anzacs, and the Scottish 
 Regiments were all splendid, many units showing an 
 aggressiveness which had the greatest effect on the 
 moral of the enemy. Of the Australians I had, to 
 my deep regret, no experience, but they always had 
 the name of being very good indeed. 
 
 The Americans were also line shots, and thoroughly 
 enjoyed their work, but my experience of them lay 
 simply in teaching at the school, and I never had the 
 opportunity of seeing them in action. 
 
 Of the Germans as a whole one would say that, 
 with certain brilliant exceptions, they were quite 
 sound, but rather unenterprising, and that as far as 
 the various tribes were concerned, the Bavarians were 
 better than the Prussians, while some Saxon units 
 v/ere really first-rate. 
 
 I remember once being in the trenches at Ploeg- 
 steert Wood, where the Saxons were against us, and 
 our fellows were talking about them being " good old 
 fellows." All the same, it did not do to show the 
 breadth of your forehead to the " good old fellows," 
 for they were really admirable shots. Somehow or 
 other this idea of the " good old fellow " rather stuck 
 in my mind, and I used to picture Fritz the sniper 
 as a stout and careful middle-aged man, who sat in 
 his steel box with a rifle, took no chances, and car*ied 
 
 104 
 
SOME SNIPING MEMORIES 
 
 on his work like a respectable tradesman. This idea 
 of the fat bearded sniper, however, was not supported 
 by the telescope, through which I saw some of the most 
 desperate and bedraggled-looking snipers that one 
 could wish to see. Those who sometimes got outside 
 their own lines were, however, I think, rather the 
 " wild boys," and after we got rid of them the Germans 
 fell back upon a kind of sober rifle fire which made up 
 the main bulk of their sniping. 
 
 One point that was noticeable was the good 
 focussing powers of the German snipers of certain 
 regiments, who shot very well before dawn and to- 
 wards dark. In the very crack Jager regiments, such 
 regiments as were, I suppose, recruited from Rominten 
 or Hubertusstock districts, where the great preserves 
 of the Kaiser lay, and in which were a large percentage 
 of Forest Guards, this was very noticeable. But for 
 long distance work, and the higher art of observation^ 
 the Germans had nothing to touch our Lovat Scouts. 
 This is natural enough when one comes to consider 
 the dark forests in which the German Forest Guards 
 live, and in which they keep on the alert for the 
 slightest movement of deer or boar. Mostly game is 
 seen within fifty or seventy yards, or even closer, in 
 these sombre shades, and then it is only the twitching 
 of an ear or the movement of an antler lifted in the 
 gloaming. Compare the open Scottish hills. It was 
 the telescope against the field-glass, and the telescope 
 
 105 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 won every time. In fact, in all the time I was in 
 the trenches, I never saw a German telescope, whereas 
 I saw hundreds and hundreds of pairs of field-glasses. 
 
 Now the best field-glass cannot compare with the^ 
 telescope. Anyone who has tried to count the points 
 on the antlers of a stag will know this. I had a great 
 deal of difficulty in convincing some of our officers, 
 who were used to field-glasses, of this fact, but there 
 was near by the place at which I was quartered in 
 early days the carved figure of a knight in armour 
 standing on the top of a chateau. This knight had 
 very large spurs, and I would ask student officers to 
 try and count the rowels with their field-glasses. They 
 never could do so. I would then hand them one of 
 my beautiful Ross glasses, and there always came the 
 invariable question, " Where can I get a glass like 
 this ? " 
 
 The telescope sight, of course, made accurate shoot- 
 ing in the half-lights very much easier, and indeed for 
 some valuable minutes after it had become too dark 
 to use open sights the telescope sights still gave a 
 clear definition. At night they were invaluable. 
 With a large telescope sight which magnified five 
 times, and which was very kindly lent me by Lady 
 Graham of Arran, several of us succeeded in making 
 a six-inch group on the target at a hundred yards by 
 moonhght, and even by starlight once we made a 
 two and a half-inch group. I tried hard to get an 
 
 io6 
 
SOME SNIPING MEMORIES 
 
 issue of somewhat similar sights for night firing 
 authorized, for when you think of the large amount 
 of coming and going which continues all night behind 
 an occupied trench, there is no doubt that plenty 
 of targets are always presenting themselves. Even 
 the Government issue of telescopic sights were quite 
 useful at night, but their effect would have been 
 many times increased had it been possible to fit them 
 for this purpose vvath a large object glass. 
 
 On both sides thousands upon thousands of lives 
 were saved by wind, since it was not easy to judge its 
 strength in the tranches, and as the targets aimed at 
 were usually only half a head, the very smallest error 
 of judgment resulted in a miss. Once a bullet had 
 whizzed by a German's ear within a few inches, a 
 second exposure of the head was rarely made in the 
 same place. 
 
 Trench sniping was, in fact, as defined by Colonel 
 Langford, Lloyd, " the art of hitting a very small 
 object straight off and without the advantage of a 
 sighting shot." 
 
 At a certain spot in our lines not very far from 
 Auchonvillers, known to fame as " Ocean Villas," a 
 German sniper had done fell work. It is hard to say 
 how many British lives he had taken, but his tally was 
 not small. He lurked somewhere in the mass of 
 heaps of earth, rusty wire and sandbags which there 
 formed a strong point of the German hne. There 
 
 107 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 were twenty or thirty loopholes from which he might 
 be firing. The problem was from which of these did 
 his shots actually come ? The Germans had a trick 
 of multiplying their loopholes in this fashion. Many 
 steel plates were shoved up on the parapet in the most 
 obvious positions. These were rarely shot through, 
 but they were certainly sometimes U3"d. The Ger- 
 man argument must have been that if you have thirty 
 loopholes, it is thirty to one against the particular 
 one from which you fire being under observation at 
 that particular moment. 
 
 On our side there was no loophole whatever cover- 
 ing the area in which this German sniper worked, 
 and any attempt to spot his post had perforce to be 
 done over the top of the parapet. As he was simply 
 waiting and watching for people to look over, it was 
 only a very hurried and cursory glance that could be 
 taken. At length, however, the Hun was located by 
 an officer, in the vicinity of two enormous steel plates 
 set near the top of his parapet. 
 
 As I have said, there was no loophole upon our 
 side, so orders were given that one should be put in 
 during the night right opposite to those two big 
 plates. The next morning it was hardly light when 
 the German sniper shot into our new loophole, which 
 was at once closed. The trap was now ready, and the 
 officer whose duty it was to deal with the matter went 
 one hundred yards down the trench to the right 
 
 io8 
 
SOME SNIPING MEMORIES 
 
 flank, while an assi3tant protruded the end of a black 
 stick which he happened to have in his hand, keeping 
 at the same time well to the side. At the same moment 
 the officer on the flank shot at the right hand of the 
 two big plates once, and then again. The bullets 
 rang aloud upon the plates, and the German sniper 
 at the second shot betrayed himself. Thinking as he 
 did that the shots were fired from the open loophole 
 opposite to him, he fired at it, and the gas from his 
 rifle gave away his position. The two big plates were, 
 of course, dummies, and he was firing almost from 
 ground level, and from an emplacement cleverly 
 concealed by a mass of broken wire. The loophole 
 was now shut for a moment or two, and then once 
 again opened, the officer on the flank having moved 
 to a position where he could command the German 
 sniper's loophole. His cap had fallen off. He had a 
 bald head. Once found, and unaware of the fact 
 the sniper was soon dealt with. 
 
 One could relate very many such incidents, but they 
 are rather grisly. Sooner or later nearly every trouble- 
 some German sniper met his fate. 
 
 But the duty of the sniper changed as the war 
 went on. At first his job was to dominate the German 
 snipers, destroy their moral, and make life secure for 
 his own comrades. At the same time there was his 
 Intelligence work. Later, as the warfare became more 
 open, he proved his value over and over again in attack. 
 
 109 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 When a trench was taken, it was his duty to get out in 
 front and (lying in a shell-hole) to keep the enemy 
 heads down while his companions consolidated the 
 newly-won position. When an advance was held 
 up by a machine-gun, it was the sniper's business to 
 put it out of action if he could, and the list of V.C.'s 
 and D.C.M.'s, as well as thousands of deeds of nameless 
 men, prove how often he was successful. In the last 
 advance of the Canadian Corps, their very skilled 
 sniping officer. Major Armstrong, told me that a single 
 sniper put out of action a battery of 5.9 guns, shooting 
 down one after another the German officer and men 
 who served it — a great piece of work, and one 
 thoroughly worthy of General Currie's splendid Corps. 
 But the machine-gun was the sniper's special target. 
 Once, of course, a machine-gun was spotted, or moved 
 in the open, a single sniper was quite capable of 
 putting it out of action. In fact, the sniper's duties 
 were legion. He had to be a really high-class shot, a 
 good and accurate observer, and a good judge of 
 distance, vwnd and light. Suffice it that in the more 
 open warfare many a sniper killed his fifty Germans 
 in a single day, and whether as a rifleman or scout, he 
 bore a part more perilous than that of the rank and 
 file of his comrades. If you who read this know a man 
 who served his year or two in the sniping section of his 
 battalion, you know one whom it is well that you should 
 honour. 
 
 no 
 
SOME SNIPING MEMORIES 
 
 A position which was much used by German snipers 
 is supposed to have been trees. This was the theme 
 of many pictures in the illustrated papers, but as a 
 matter of fact a high tree makes a wretched sniping 
 post, and I rarely allowed one to be used on our side. 
 The Germans, however, did extensively use the 
 pollard willows which were so common a feature on 
 the First Army front. We did not use them, as I have 
 said, but we found that the German sense of humour 
 appears to be much tickled by seeing, or thinking he 
 sees, a Britisher falling out of a tree, and when our 
 sniping became very good, and the enemy consequently 
 shy of giving a target, a dummy in a tree worked by a 
 rope sometimes caused Fritz and Hans to show 
 themselves unwisely. 
 
 When the sniping was of high class on both sides, 
 all kinds of ruses were employed to get the other side 
 to give a target. But one had to be very careful not 
 to go too far in this sort of work or trickery, lest a 
 minenwerfer should take his part in the duel. 
 
 From time to time wild geese crossed the trenches 
 in the winter, and their appearance was usually a 
 signal for a fusillade in which every rifle and machine- 
 gun that could be brought to bear on both sides took 
 part. Very rarely was one brought down, though it 
 is possible that along the whole front in the years of 
 war a dozen may have been killed. One in particu- 
 lar, on a wild and stormy evening, was shot by the 
 
 III 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 British and fell in the German lines. The enemy the 
 next day hoisted a sign on which was painted in 
 English the words : " So many thanks ! " — which was 
 indeed hard to bear ! 
 
 There is another incident into which birds also came 
 which occurred on the Brick-stacks front of the First 
 Army. It was when our sniping had reached its high- 
 water mark in the ilth Corps. Not very long before 
 we had been dominated on this front, but the 33rd 
 Division had put all that right. 
 
 One day Lieut. Gray was coming down the 
 trenches on a tour of inspection, when he found a 
 private soldier with five partridges lying before him 
 on the fire step. 
 
 " How did you get them ? " said Gray. 
 
 " Shot them, sir." 
 
 " Yes, but I mean how did you get their bodies ? " 
 
 " Crawled out, sir, and picked them vip." 
 
 " By daylight, and in full view of the Germans .? " 
 
 " Yes, sir. It's all right, sir ; they never shoot 
 now." 
 
 Gray gave the private in question a good dressing- 
 down, but the incident was not without its signifi- 
 cance. 
 
 One day in 191 5 I was knocking about on the top of 
 Hill 63 with a telescope. The edge of Ploegsteert 
 Wood abuts upon this hill, and as I came up I saw an 
 old cock pheasant walking about. At that moment a 
 
 112 
 
SOME SNIPING MEMORIES 
 
 shell burst very close to him. He was not hit, but he 
 was certainly very much dazed, for he stood stupidly 
 watching the fumes rising from the cavity, and had it 
 not been for the strict orders concerning game — and 
 the probable arrival of more shells — I could easily have 
 captured him ; but after a few moments, during 
 which he sat with his feathers all fluffed out, he 
 gathered himself together and disappeared into the 
 nearest thicket. 
 
 I was always very much afraid all through the war 
 that, having started poison gas, the Germans might 
 start using shot guns loaded with buckshot for work 
 between the trenches. Had they done so, patrolling 
 would have become a horrible business ; but I suppose 
 that they were restrained by the fact either that such 
 weapons are not allowed by the Geneva Convention, 
 or that the British Isles have such a supply of shot 
 guns and cartridges that the advantage would not 
 remain long upon their side. As it was, things were 
 much more satisfactory, for there was plenty of ex- 
 citement out in No Man's Land, what with machine- 
 gun bullets and rifle fire, without the added horror of 
 a charge of small shot in the face. 
 
 I have touched on the work of observers in the front 
 line in this chapter, but it will be more fully considered 
 in the next upon the subject of Observation, to which 
 this side of the sniper's work really belongs. 
 
 "3 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 AN observer's memories 
 
 A S I have already said, when sniping was started 
 in the B.E.F., we owed our fairly rapid and cer- 
 tainly very definite success in the task of dominating 
 the Hun to a single factor. Whereas the German 
 sniper usually worked alone, we put up against him two 
 men, one of whom, " A," used the telescope and kept 
 a close watch for " targets " upon a good sector of 
 the enemy's line, while " B," his comrade, used 
 the rifle and shot at the " targets " which " A " found. 
 The result was that at a hundred points along the line 
 you could daily hear a conversation such as this : 
 
 A.—" Black Sandbags— left— two feet— 'alf a 'Un's 
 'ead showing. D ! he's down ! " 
 
 B. — " Hope he'll come up again." 
 
 A.—" He's up ! " 
 
 B.— (Fires). 
 
 A. — " Close shave — six inches high — bad luck, ole 
 son ! " 
 
 114 
 
AN OBSERVER'S MEMORIES 
 
 Now the total result of the above passage was in all 
 probabihty not only that a German in the trench 
 opposite had been fired at and missed, but that " A," 
 the telescope man, had seen certain details which 
 might prove of interest. These details " A," at once, 
 as a matter of routine, entered in his log book. He 
 enters the time — 11.18 a.m. let us say. The place 'is 
 C3d.25.85 on the squared map. So far all was simple ; 
 but the next entry as to what he had seen was impor- 
 tant. A Hun's head, or a yellow-bearded Hun, or 
 an ugly Hun, meant nothing; but a Hun wearing a 
 Prussian cockade, or a Hun wearing a helmet with 
 No. 119 on the cover— ^these things were of impor- 
 tance, and soon, under instruction, sniper-observers 
 gave up reporting black-bearded Germans who 
 leaned over the parapet, and realized the value of the 
 all-important game of identification. They entered 
 besides the details already given, a note of the action 
 taken and the result : In the case we have imagined, 
 " Fired one shot — missed." 
 
 It will be further understood that a sniper's observer 
 (and do not forget that the observer's work is much 
 the more trying, and that " A " and " B " change 
 places every twenty minutes to rest the observer's 
 eyes), saw a great many things happen in the enemy 
 lines which did not come under the heading of " tar- 
 gets." Earth being thrown up usually meant work in 
 progress. The occurrence was, of course, noted down 
 
 ri5 8* 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 in the log book, with a map reference at which it took 
 place and the spot, if worth while, bombarded with 
 trench mortars. Or the observer might spot a 
 machine-gun emplacement, or locate a minenzverfer. 
 
 But it will be seen that the possibilities are endless, 
 and as the war went on the snipers provided a mass of 
 detail, much of which was confirmed by raids and 
 identifications taken from prisoners or from the dead, 
 and very little could happen near the enemy's front 
 lines without our Intelligence being at once aware 
 of it. 
 
 An interesting question which arose was whether a 
 sniper should enter deductions as well as facts in his 
 reports, and this question was often asked me. The 
 reply was that he should invariably do this provided 
 he marked his deductions very clearly as such. 
 
 The most brilliant piece of deduction that I came 
 across was that of an officer in the Royal Warwick- 
 shire Regiment, and it had a remarkable sequel. At 
 one point of a supposed disused trench, a cat was ob- 
 served sunning itself upon the parados. This was 
 duly reported by the observant sniper, and in his 
 log book for three or four days running came a note of 
 this tortoise-shell cat sunning itself, always at the same 
 spot. 
 
 The Intelligence and Sniping Officer of the bat- 
 talion, on reading his entries, made his deduction, to wit, 
 that the cat probably lived near by. Now at that part 
 
 it6 
 
AN OBSERVER'S MEMORIES 
 
 of the British line there was a terrible plague of rats, 
 which was probably at least as troublesome upon the 
 German side. So our officer deduced that the cat 
 was a luxury, and that this being so, it had most cer- 
 tainly been commandeered or annexed by enemy 
 officers and probably lived in some enemy officer's 
 headquarters — possibly a company commander's dug- 
 out. 
 
 Some aeroplane photographs were next taken and 
 studied, with a result that an enemy headquarters was 
 discovered, located and duly dealt with by one of the 
 batteries of howitzers which made a speciality of such 
 shoots. 
 
 I give the full details of this incident in a later 
 chapter. In fact, in trench warfare there was a great 
 deal of scope for deduction. 
 
 At one time, before the Germans received the large 
 numbers of light machine-guns which were issued in the 
 later stages of the war, their heavier weapons were 
 mounted in fixed posts, which were very carefully 
 concealed. Sometimes these guns fired a burst at 
 night, and we invented a way in which it was possible 
 to locate them. We had a large tin structure, shaped 
 like an oblong box and made of three walls of tin, each 
 some inches apart. This was mounted on straight 
 square sticks fixed at either end of the box. These 
 sticks fitted into grooves which were nailed on boards 
 set into the parapet, and after dark were run up until 
 
 117 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 the tin box was above the parapet. Should it in this 
 position happen to catch even one bullet of a burst of 
 fire, as an enemy machine-gun sprayed our trench, 
 it was only necessary to slide down the legs through 
 the grooves, and to place a periscope in front of any 
 hole the machine-gun bullets had made. In this 
 way the observer found himself looking down the course 
 along which the bullet had come, direct at the spot 
 from which it was fired. 
 
 This was rather a clumsy and very uncertain device, 
 but it was used in a dozen other forms. Had it been 
 invented earlier, before the issue of light machine- 
 guns which I have referred to above, it might have 
 been quite valuable, but it came too late, and was 
 soon discarded. 
 
 To spot a hostile machine-gun emplacement was one 
 of the most valuable services a front-line observer 
 could render, since of course a single machine-gun 
 can hold up an attack and inflict great casualties. 
 Therefore, when a machine-gun emplacement was 
 spotted it was not necessarily put out of action at once, 
 but its map reference was noted and sent to Intelli- 
 gence, where it was filed, and action taken by the 
 divisional artillery at the correct time, usually just 
 before a raid or an attack. 
 
 On the nth Corps front in 191 6 our troops were 
 continually making raids, and there was a great deal 
 of competition as to who should make the most success- 
 
 118 
 
AN OBSERVER'S MEMORIES 
 
 ful. The result was that the enemy was kept contin- 
 ually upon the jump. The Germans were allowed, 
 very little sleep during those months. 
 
 One night they decided to try and regain the lost 
 initiative, and a German raid was turned on, which, 
 however, did not meet with great success ; in fact, 
 things began to be critical for the raiders, and the 
 German Company Commander in charge came out into 
 No Man's Land to see for himself what was amiss. 
 There in No Man's Land he was killed by our men, 
 and from his body a map was taken on which the 
 position of no less than eighty machine-gun emplace- 
 ments was marked. At first it was thought that the 
 map on which rhese eighty emplacements were de- 
 scribed might be a fake intended to mislead us, but on 
 comparing it with the emplacements discovered during 
 the previous weeks it was found that no fewer than 
 forty-two of the eighty had been spotted and ticked 
 off, though as yet no serious action against them had 
 been taken. 
 
 Such a chance never comes twice, and a few nights 
 later the gunners blew up all the machine-gun em- 
 placements while the South Wales Borderers went 
 across and raided the German trenches. To such a 
 tune was the raid carried out that, though a record 
 number of prisoners were brought in, the raiding party 
 suffered hardly any loss themselves. 
 
 More than one officer in the war must have found 
 
 119 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 himself in a dreadful position when captured by the 
 enemy with important maps of his own lines in his 
 pocket. Carelessness, darkness, or misadventure might 
 each or any of them be responsible, but bad as was the 
 lot of the ordinary prisoner, how much worse was that 
 of one whose capture had given valuable local informa- 
 tion to the enemy ! It is too painful a subject to pursue. 
 
 Many people seem to think that all observation is 
 now done from aeroplanes, but this is absurd. The 
 airmen can spot hostile concentrations and do in- 
 valuable work in a hundred ways, but, as the war went 
 on, more and more was it recognized how necessary 
 was the ground-observer, for he looked at the enemy 
 from a different angle, and his reports were often 
 of the highest value. 
 
 Once the Germans started a new and large form of 
 periscope, and we ceased destroying them at once 
 the moment a clever observer found that with the 
 telescope he could read the reflection of the numbers 
 on the shoulder straps of the Germans who used them, 
 thereby allowing us to identify the opposing unit 
 with both comfort and ease. 
 
 It was perhaps natural enough that when a sniper 
 first won his way into the sniping section of his bat- 
 talion, he should desire to shoot rather than to observe, 
 yet, as a matter of fact, the observer's was, in my 
 opinion, the post of honour. It was very hard work 
 too, especially in summer time, and more especially 
 
 120 
 
AN OBSERVER'S MEMORIES 
 
 still in the chalk country. Some of the happiest 
 days of our lives were spent with the Ross telescope, 
 either watching the German lines from the front 
 trenches or from some observation post further back 
 overlooking the wide areas that lay behind them.. 
 On many occasions one became so interested that 
 meals were forgotten, as the telescope searched and 
 waited for the artillery observers' observation posts. 
 
 Such a one there was at Beaumont Hamel. It 
 was in the autumn of 191 5, and the leaves were falling, 
 which is the best time of all for spotting the posts 
 of enemy observers. Right back in the village was 
 a building which, though it had been heavily shelled, 
 still stood in a fairly commanding position. A direct 
 hit had at some previous time smashed a jagged hole 
 under the eaves through which one could see a beam 
 stretching across. It was the presence of this beam 
 which first drew attention to the spot, for it seemed 
 strange that the shell should not have carried it away. 
 It looked, indeed, as if it had been placed there after- 
 wards ; but it was a little back in the room behind, 
 and it was difficult to tell whether the shell might 
 not have left it intact. 
 
 In the morning, when the light was bad owing to 
 the position of the sun, it was very hard to spot the 
 shell hole, and the beam was invisible, but one day 
 when the light was very good in the afternoon, the 
 glass revealed five bricks standing on this broken beam. 
 
 121 
 
AN OBSERVER'S MEMORIES 
 
 supposing that plane happened to be a photographic 
 plane, as it most probably was, the whole of the 
 posts would be given away as clearly as if we had 
 sent a map across with them marked upon it. 
 
 I can remember how we made false trails in little 
 parties, and never did soldiers double at a faster pace ! 
 A fall of snow helped us a great deal as far as aeroplane 
 photographs were concerned, and no doubt the 
 Germans also, but even at such times the German 
 flying man did not come much over our lines. 
 
 There was another post which we used for a long 
 time, the only road to which lay along a disused 
 trench in which were several deep shell holes. As 
 this trench was full of a kind of thick dust or mud 
 according to the weather, and as the whole length 
 of it had to be passed over by crawling there was 
 great fear that the trails of the observers would one 
 day be photographed from the air. At one point, 
 therefore, an entrenching tool was left with which 
 each observer obliterated his trail as far as he could. 
 One becomes very careful in these small details when 
 one's life hangs upon the issue. 
 
 Perhaps the most remarkable observation posts 
 used during the war were three famous ones in the 
 French lines. At one point there was a slight rise 
 in front of the French position and above the German. 
 Both trenches cut across the Paris road, and exactly 
 upon the top of the rise between the trenches where 
 
 123 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 the observation was best stood a milestone on which 
 was stated the number of kilometres to Paris. 
 
 This milestone the French photographed. The 
 photograph was sent to the Camouflage Works, where 
 an exact copy of the milestone, with the number of 
 kilometres printed on it, was made in steel, but with an 
 observation eye-slit covered with gauze. Then one 
 night a French party crept out and removed the real 
 milestone, putting in its stead the camouflaged one. 
 A tunnel from the trench was next dug, and for many 
 months inside that harmless-looking milestone a pair 
 of keen French eyes noted much of interest that 
 happened in the German line. 
 
 In another case, a huge dead, yellow-bearded Prus- 
 sian lay, on a point of vantage, staring at the sky. 
 He, too, was photographed and copied, and from the 
 hollow shell, clothed in his uniform, another observer 
 fulfilled his duty. A dead horse likewise was replaced 
 and used. 
 
 In fact, the romance of observation was endless, 
 forming, as it did, one of the more human phases of 
 the world-war, for here, at least, an observer's life 
 was often dependent upon his own skill. Observers 
 often lay in full view, their lives depending upon 
 quiescence and their art of blending with the back- 
 ground. 
 
 When, at a later date, there was an issue in the 
 British Army of sniping robes for the use of snipers 
 
 124 
 
AN OBSERVER'S MEMORIES 
 
 and observers — robes which taUied with any back- 
 ground and were ornamented with all kinds of dazzle 
 painting — there was a tendency to send snipers and 
 observers out in front. As a rule I think this was a 
 mistake, for the hours out in front from dawn to 
 dark were very long, and the observer had to keep 
 upon the qui vive for too long a period. Also the 
 smallest movement would give him away, and he was 
 rarely in a position to use his telescope over any large 
 area. Freedom of movement is necessary to the 
 observer, and as to the sniper, I always felt that it 
 was wrong to send him out except on a definite 
 quest, for the man behind the trench is always in a 
 superior position to the man who is lying on open 
 ground without any chance of escape. 
 
 So far I have dealt with what is known as front 
 line observation ; but besides this we have to con- 
 sider the very wide subject of back area observation. 
 The sniper's duty is to watch the enemy's front and 
 support lines. The brigade observers, if any — and 
 keen brigades were always sending them to be trained 
 — and the divisional observers working from posts 
 on their own support lines, or from some point of 
 vantage far behind, watched the areas lying at the 
 back of the enemy fighting hnes as far as the glass 
 could see. 
 
 To some of the Army Corps were attached the 
 Lovat Scouts Sharpshooters. This name turned out 
 
 125 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 in a way really a misnomer, for the Lovats were found 
 to be so invaluable with the telescope that they 
 were in many cases forbidden to use the rifle. Many 
 Corps also had groups of observers formed from 
 their Corps Cavalry. Besides these we had the 
 F.O.O.'s and Artillery observers who, however, do 
 not come within the scope of this chapter as their 
 work is so largely for the guns. 
 
 In order to understand fully the tremendous mass of 
 work done by observers, you must realize that behind 
 the lines the Major-General, the Corps Commander, 
 the Army Commander and the Commander-in- 
 Chief himself are all blind. Their brains direct the 
 battle, but it is with the eyes of Sandy McTosh that 
 they see. And nobly through the war did Sandy 
 do his part. It is from him and his officers that the 
 blind General behind learns how the battle goes 
 — that the brigade have gained their first objective 
 — that the — th are held up by wire — that at N26, 
 C4.3 at least six German battalions are massing 
 for a counter-attack. In the Vimy Ridge battle did 
 not Lieut. Whamond and Sergeant Fraser observe, 
 and did not the guns they warned break up, a mighty 
 counter-attack before ever it was launched ? 
 
 The duty of the battle observer is to obtain the in- 
 formation as to how each phase of the battle goes, 
 and then to get that information back to where it 
 
 should be of value, 
 
 126 
 
AN OBSERVER'S MEMORIES 
 
 The battle observer's post or, rather, his series of 
 posts, in an advance, may begin in an observation 
 post, proceed forward to a series of shell holes and 
 finish in a wrecked German lorry stranded upon some 
 convenient slope. He will use the telephone. His 
 runners — ^who take back his reports when the tele- 
 phone wires are cut by shell fire — will escape on one 
 occasion almost unshot at ; on the next gas shells 
 vdll pursue them with positive malignancy. The 
 observer cannot observe in his gas mask, so that gas 
 shells are his particular enemy, and in many of the 
 later attacks the Germans at once drenched all possible 
 observation posts with gas. 
 
 But, as I say, the observer is the eye of the High 
 Command. Far away a General and his Chief of 
 Staff are looking at a map. An orderly enters and 
 hands over a flimsy to the Chief of Staff. He reads 
 out the message. The General gives a sigh of relief. 
 He knows now that the danger spot is behind the 
 remnants of the gallant battaliops of the 381st Brigade. 
 Sandy McTosh has made " siccar-"— ^he has seen — 
 he has verified — he has got his' report back. Those 
 eyes, trained on the hill among the deer, may have 
 had their share, and that no small one, in the making 
 of history. 
 
 Battle-observing was the blue ribbon of observation. 
 Although the first battalion of Lovat Scouts went to 
 Gallipoli, and later to Salonica, only coming to their 
 
 127 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 true work in France in 1918, yet since 1916 this 
 splendid regiment was represented there by the Lovat 
 Scouts Sharpshooters whom I have referred to above, 
 and of whom nine groups, each about twenty strong, 
 and each under an officer, were attached to a certain 
 Army Corps. Every man of these groups was a picked 
 stalker and glassman, and they were used largely 
 for long range observation. 
 
 It fell to the First Army Sniping School to train 
 their reinforcements. Keener men never lived, nor 
 more dependable. I remember once a Zeppelin 
 was reported as falling in the enemy back areas some 
 six or seven thousand yards behind the German line. 
 This report was made by divisional observers, but it 
 was promptly denied by the Lovat Scouts, who stated 
 very gravely that there was a difference between a 
 Zeppelin and a half deflated balloon ! 
 
 Lovat Scouts Sharpshooters were trained at Beauly 
 in map-reading, compass work, etc., and first came 
 out in separate groups. A little later Lieut. -Colonel 
 Cameron of Lochiel arrived in France to co-ordinate 
 their work. At this time their raison d'etre was not 
 always apparent to the units to which they were 
 attached, and some of them were put on to observe 
 for enemy aeroplanes, in which work their skill was 
 rather thrown away. But this was largely put right 
 by Lochiel, whose work was invaluable. Later they 
 were under the command of Lieut. -Colonel Grant, 
 
 128 
 
AN OBSERVER'S MEMORIES 
 
 and towards the end of the war, as I have mentioned 
 above, the First Lovat Scouts were brought home 
 from abroad to take up their true work of observa- 
 tion, just the whole period of the war too late. 
 
 At first they were quarantine! for a time, as most 
 of them were suffering from malaria, and from then 
 onwards tremendous efforts were made to train the 
 whole regiment in the higher forms of map-reading. 
 It is, I believe, a fact that it was only on Novem- 
 ber nth, the day of the Armistice, that the order 
 finally came through from the War Office which settled 
 the establishment of the Lovat Scouts with the 
 British Expeditionary Force. 
 
 The Lovat Scouts were intensely and rightly proud 
 of their regiment and its work. Once I received 
 orders to train forty foreigners as Lovat Scouts, and 
 called up an old Lovat and told him so and ordered 
 him to make certain arrangements. 
 
 " Yes, sir," said he and saluted. 
 
 One of my officers was lying behind a hedge ob- 
 serving, and on leaving me the old Lovat walked 
 down this hedge soliloquizing. He did not see the 
 officer, who, however, overheard his soliloquy. It 
 ran thus : 
 
 " Forty Englishmen to be trained as Lovat Scouts ! 
 Abominable ! — Preposterous ! — and it cati't be done J '^ 
 
 The 1st Corps had a splendid system vinder which 
 the Lovat Scouts attached to it worked. It possessed 
 
 129 9 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 a grand group under Lieut. Whamond, M.C., 
 whose equal at his work I never saw in France. The 
 system was this : Scouts from the group were avail- 
 able on application to the Corps Intelligence Office. 
 Thus, if a battalion had been ordered to raid the 
 enemy trenches, the Commanding Officer of that 
 battalion could indent for some Lovats to go and 
 make a reconnaissance of the enemy wire for him. 
 Or if a Divisional Commander thought the enemy 
 activities increasing, he could obtain some special 
 pairs of Lovats to watch the part of the line he con- 
 sidered threatened. The group, in fact, were at the 
 service of all units in the Corps, and the result was 
 that when they were applied for, their assistance 
 was . fully valued, and they went always to a definite 
 job. 
 
 Various scouts from this group used to come up 
 to First Army School of S.O.S. to recoup, for, 
 during the long drawn out operations in front of 
 Lens, the continual use of the glass was very trying. 
 
 A story, probably apocryphal, was always told 
 in the ist Corps concerning a gigantic corporal of the 
 Lovats who stood six feet five inches in height, and 
 was certainly one of the strongest men in the Army. 
 He was talking with his companion — for the scouts 
 worked in pairs — when his conversation was overheard 
 by some men of a new formation. As the Lovats 
 were speaking Gaelic, these men at once jumped 
 
 130 
 
AN OBSERVER'S MEMORIES 
 
 to the conclusion that they were listening to German, 
 and demanded an instant surrender. 
 
 The night was dark, but, as the story goes, it was 
 not the new formation who brought back the Lovats 
 as prisoners, but the Lovats who brought back the 
 new formation. 
 
 The final arrangement in the B.E.F., which never 
 took effect, allotted groups of Lovat Scouts to each 
 Division. At each Army there was to be a Major 
 in charge on the Headquarters staff, and a captain 
 at the Corps ; but, as I have said, this system had 
 hardly begun to operate when the war ended. 
 
 In training glassmen, one wonderfully soon realized 
 how impossible it was to teach any man to use his 
 telescope skilfully who had not been accustomed to 
 it from early youth. Every soldier can, of course, 
 be taught which end to look through, and how to 
 focus, and such details, but these men who began 
 late in life never got the same value from their glasses 
 as did the gillies and the stalkers, and from the point 
 of view of accuracy they were in no way comparable. 
 The truth, that to use a stalking telescope well needs 
 just as much time, practice, and natural gift as first- 
 class shooting, was soon recognized, and would-be 
 observers were sent to the First Army School from 
 all over the B.E.F. But work on them as we would, 
 they never averaged anything like the Lovat standard. 
 
 It sounds a bold statement to make, but the Lovats 
 
 131 9* 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 never let one down. If they reported a thing, the 
 thing was as they reported it. Certainly the men 
 who follow the red deer of Scotland proved themselves 
 once again in this war to possess qualities which, let 
 us hope, will never pass from the British race. 
 
 As ammunition grew plentiful, and observation 
 more and more adequate, it naturally became less 
 and less healthy for the German to move about in 
 his back areas in daylight. Thus, one day, two 
 officers happened to be in an observation post which 
 was connected with the guns, when out of a wood 
 some thousands of yards behind the German line 
 emerged three figures. The light was beautiful, 
 and as the figures came nearer and nearer one of the 
 officers began to take an interest. 
 
 As a rule, that observation post did not ring up the 
 guns unless a party of Germans over half a dozen 
 in number was seen, but presently the officer at the 
 telescope spoke. 
 
 " I say ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Get on to Stiggins " (the code name of the 
 battery). " Tell them three Hun officers with blue 
 cloaks lined with light blue silk, blucher boots and 
 shining swords, will be at the cross-roads at Hi 6, 
 C45.5 in about five minutes. Tell them they are 
 probably Prince Eitel Fritz and Little Willie. I will 
 give the word when to let them have it." 
 
 132 
 
AN OBSERVER'S MEMORIES 
 
 Through the glass could be clearly seen — it was 
 afternoon, and the sun was in a perfect position — 
 the nonchalant way in which those three arrogant- 
 looking Hun officers stared about as they approached 
 the cross-roads. 
 
 Then, in due course, the observing officer said : 
 *' Now " — and a moment later the shells passed over 
 the observation post with a sound as of the tearing 
 of silk, and the three " princes," blue cloaks and swords 
 were flying at aU angles as they dashed back from the 
 cross-roads, only to run into another shell burst. Two 
 fell — the other made good his escape. It was never 
 learned who they were. 
 
 Another incident. One very misty day two officers 
 were in an observation post looking out over the huge 
 devastation of the Loos saHent. They were not in 
 an artillery, but in an Intelligence observation post, 
 which, however, was linked up with the guns. Sud- 
 denly the mist thinned, revealing far behind the 
 German lines, 7,000 yards away, a number of figures 
 engaged in harvesting. 
 
 " Ring up ' Compunction,' " said one officer, 
 " and tell them that sixty Huns are working on the 
 corn at U22, A45.70." 
 
 " By God, cancel that," cried the other, whose 
 eyes were still on the telescope. " There are women 
 among them." 
 
 They were French women, with a sprinkling of 
 
 133 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 Bavarian or Prussian soldiers. The long distance 
 observer saved lives, even behind the Hun lines, as 
 well as took them. 
 
 Sometimes it was the observer's duty to watch a 
 single German for days at a time, not for the sake of 
 watching a particular man, but because the man 
 happened perhaps to be a sentry on the particular 
 piece of line which was under observation. 
 
 I remember watching a German sentry in this way, 
 or, rather, seeing him from time to time from the 
 Monday to the Thursday. He never gave an oppor- 
 tunity for a shot, though periodically he used to 
 peer quickly over the parapet and as quickly sub- 
 side ; but one got quite used to his routine. His 
 dinner was brought him at his post, where he seemed 
 to remain for very long hours. Once a friend, who 
 was engaged in painting a notice, seemed to come and 
 sit and talk with him. The sentry himself was an 
 exceedingly young German, and I should say an ex- 
 traordinarily bad sentry. He sometimes used to 
 shoot at us if we gave him provocation, but he was an 
 appallingly bad shot. He was so exceedingly young 
 that I was very glad that I had not a rifle with me, 
 for when at last he did give a chance it was the Com- 
 pany-Sergeant-Major, who cared not if he was young 
 or old, who did what was necessary. 
 
 There were certain observation posts in or outside 
 the British lines from which no shot was ever allowed 
 
 134 
 
AN OBSERVER'S MEMORIES 
 
 to be fired, lest the post should be betrayed, so valu- 
 able were they for observation. Fronr one you could 
 see at close range a German mounted military police- 
 man — he was not always mounted — directing the 
 traffic. You could almost see the expression on the 
 faces of the Huns. 
 
 At another point an observation post which was 
 linked up with the guns had a long distance view of 
 a straight road near a ridge running behind the Ger- 
 man lines, along which even in daylight Huns were 
 wont to move in small bodies. 
 
 One day an officer and a corporal were in this post, 
 when the corporal drew the attention of the officer 
 to a single figure moving along the road. By deduc- 
 tion it was that of a German officer, for every now 
 and again he would meet little parties of troops coming 
 along the road in threes and fours, not enough to shoot 
 at. 
 
 " Sir," said the corporal, " the officer stops each 
 lot and kind of seems to inspect them. I expect he 
 is a disciplinarian." 
 
 The officer smiled. 
 
 Some little distance further on he knew a point 
 on the road was registered by our guns. Before 
 the officer came to this he gave the word along the 
 telephone to fire. As the shells approached the 
 Hun officer hurled himself to the ground, from which, 
 after the smoke cleared from a very nice shot, he was 
 
 135 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 not seen to rise. But the chances are he crawled away. 
 If not, the German Army was certainly short of an 
 officer of " push and go." 
 
 Of course the difference between the really skilled 
 observer and the makeshifts who sometimes had to 
 act in their places came out in a very marked degree at 
 the longer ranges. The latter did not understand the 
 telescope, and were never able to focus it so as to get 
 the best results. In fact, when happenings were 
 quite clear to anyone used to the telescope, these 
 men were all at sea and could not distinguish much. 
 
 Anyone who was a real artist with the telescope 
 was, of course, always trying different glasses and dif- 
 ferent magnifications. Apart from the telescopes 
 which I had purchased with Mr. St. Loe Strachey's 
 invaluable fund, the Lady Roberts fund sent me 
 out a number of very high-class glasses of all magnifica- 
 tions, and after a great deal of experimenting we 
 came to the conclusion that during all the morning 
 hours, when the sun was facing us, we should do best 
 for all our work with a lo-power magnification, 
 whereas, of course, when the sun went round behind 
 us, higher -powered glasses gave better results. Still,, 
 it was very rare indeed that it was worth while to 
 pull out the 30-power stop. Glasses even of the 
 same magnification vary to an amazing extent. Some 
 are what may be called sweet, that is, easy and restful 
 for the eyes to look through. Others, of perhaps 
 
 136 
 
AN OBSERVER'S MEMORIES 
 
 exactly similar type and by the same maker, are hard 
 and unsatisfactory. Most of the Lovat Scouts 
 brought out their own glasses, nearly all Ross's — indeed, 
 I never knew of any glass to compare with those made 
 by this maker. 
 
 There was one duty of back area observers which 
 was always interesting, and this was watching 
 enemy railway crossings. All these crossings were, 
 of course, registered by our guns, and it was the duty 
 of the observer to keep a good look-out on them, 
 and when a train stopped in the station, and con- 
 sequently a good deal of traffic was held up on either 
 side of the railway crossing, he would ring up the 
 guns. A few well-placed shells would then wreak 
 havoc upon the enemy. 
 
 A system which was extraordinarily clear and in- 
 teresting was adopted by one Corps. This Corps 
 had, let us say, five posts manned by observers. All 
 these posts were linked up with artillery. Back at 
 Corps, stretched on an enormous table, was a large 
 map, on which, of course, the five observation posts 
 were marked. The observers in the posts sent in 
 their daily diary of observation, and when anything 
 in it was of importance, it was entered on this large 
 map. Thus, we vnll call the posts Tiger, Lion, 
 Leopard, Puma and Jaguar, the names by which they 
 were known. Everything observed from Lion was 
 entered in red ink, everything from Tiger in violet, 
 
 137 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 and from the others also in different coloured inks. 
 It was thus possible at a single glance to tell exactly 
 what had been seen during the past week from each 
 post. Of course sometimes two posts observed the 
 same thing, but only on the extreme limits of their 
 area of observation. 
 
 A good observation post was a great asset, and sore, 
 indeed, were the observers if it was given away. There 
 was one such post on a certain front which lay within 
 six hundred yards of the enemy's front line. ■ This 
 post had been used, and had remained undiscovered 
 for four months. One day there was some change 
 in the arrangement of Corps, and a smart young staff 
 captain arrived at the post and stated that he had 
 orders to take it over from the observers. 
 
 Luckily the observer officer, who shall be nameless, 
 was in the post, and he is reported to have addressed 
 that staff captain as follows : 
 
 " There are two ways, sir, in which this can be done. 
 The one would be if you were to bring me a written 
 authorization from the head of Intelligence in my 
 Corps, telling me to deliver up the post. That would 
 be the proper and official way. The other would be 
 to throw me out. Which are ye for ? " 
 
 As the speaker was over six feet high, and had to 
 pass most -doors sideways, he remained in unmolested 
 possession of that post. 
 
 One lingers over observation, because it was so 
 
 138 
 
AN OBSERVER'S MEMORIES 
 
 intensely interesting. During the long and weary 
 period of trench warfare, when one saw so few Germans 
 in the ordinary course of events, it was delightful 
 to be able to go and look, with the help of a Ross glass, 
 into their private life. Many and many a time did 
 officers say to me that one of the things they most 
 desired and would most enjoy would be to go for 
 a short tour behind the German lines and see what 
 it all looked like. I quite agreed with them, but by 
 the use of the telescope we were able to visualize 
 a great deal of the German common task and daily 
 round. 
 
 One early morning, when I was at First Army 
 Sniping School, it became necessary that a recently- 
 joined N.C.O. who had just come out from England, 
 should be what Archibald Forbes' German general 
 called " a little shooted." Almost as soon as it was 
 light we went down to the line and crawled up through 
 a wood which overlooked the German lines. This 
 wood would have been an almost ideal place for ob- 
 servation, and, indeed, there were two or three ob- 
 servation posts there, but, as usual, some incoming 
 division had wanted some of the material which went 
 to the making of these posts and had torn it from them, 
 thus giving them most royally away. The result 
 was that the woods were by no means a health resort, 
 as one never knew when the Germans would start 
 shelling them. 
 
 139 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 That summer morning, however, the sun had risen 
 
 clear and bright, throwing for a short period of time 
 
 some kind of illusion over the sad and war-worn 
 
 landscape — for really after two or three years in France 
 
 one began to feel a horror of broken masonry and the 
 
 ugly distortion of war. Very rarely was a scene 
 
 beautiful, on that part of the front at any rate, but 
 
 on this morning there was a tang in the air, and it 
 
 was good to be alive. With our telescopes, as soon 
 
 as we reached a point of vantage, we were able to see 
 
 various slight movements in the German lines. It 
 
 was a curiously peaceful movement — fatigue parties 
 
 moving about carrying large pots full of cooked 
 
 rations. In front of us and at no great distance there 
 
 was a little rounded hummock, which had obviously 
 
 been strengthened with concrete. Two men came 
 
 up to this, bearing two large pots slung upon a pole 
 
 between them, and shortly afterwards four more 
 
 arrived. All went into a concrete fort which was 
 
 too large to be a pill-box. I suggested to an officer 
 
 who was with me that the place otxght to be shelled, 
 
 but he laughed and said : " They have tried it a 
 
 couple of times, but the shells have simply bounced 
 
 off. And now they have the place safely registered 
 
 on the map, and if we come to advance in that quarter 
 
 we should put some howitzer on to it which would 
 
 do the work properly." 
 
 Some of these German strong posts certainly did 
 
 140 
 
AN OBSERVER'S MEMORIES 
 
 need heavy guns to deal with them. No doubt 
 there is a great satisfaction in having an absolutely- 
 safe hole into which to creep when artillery fire begins, 
 but it is doubtful whether it is good policy to make 
 too good arrangements of this kind. Many Germans 
 no doubt saved their lives by going down their deep 
 dug-outs and into their concrete pill-boxes, but many 
 more, as is common knowledge, when our men came 
 over, stayed down too long and were bombed to 
 death. 
 
 But to return. Lying on that hillside in the early 
 morning has always remained, for no particular 
 reason, one of my most vivid memories in the war, 
 probably because there was no shelling on either side, 
 and one had for once the opportunity of watching 
 the enemy moving peacefully about his tasks. 
 
 One point that struck me very strongly was the 
 appearance of the Germans, who were certainly 
 very much less smart than our men. The little round 
 caps which the privates wore always reminded me of 
 a cook's cap, and if the French steel helmet was 
 a thing of beauty and the British certainly not, the 
 German was hideous beyond words. The colour of 
 the German uniform was splendid, and very difficult 
 to pick up. 
 
 When in a back area observation post, one was often 
 watching both Germans and British, and there is 
 no question at all that the British were much easier 
 
 141 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 to see than the Germans. This was not because 
 khaki was a bad colour to blend with backgrounds, 
 but because the tops of the British caps were all of 
 so much larger area than the German. The flat- 
 topped caps which so many of the British at one time 
 wore were simply an advertisement of their presence, 
 and even the soft caps, for wearing which officers 
 were arrested when on leave by conscientious A.P.M.'s, 
 were too wide. Any flat surface worn on top of the 
 head is certain to catch every bit of light, and a flash 
 of light means movement, and draws the observer's . 
 telescope as a magnet draws metal. 
 
 The ideal army, could I clothe it, would wear a 
 very curious shape of cap, with certainly an uneven 
 outline. 
 
 But I do not need to labour this point. You have 
 only to look at the photographs contained in this 
 book to see what a terrible handicap a definite outline 
 is. 
 
 There was one incident of observation which, 
 although it did not happen often, gave one a distinct 
 feeling of importance. Most shelling done by the 
 Germans was on registered cross-roads and such- 
 like spots, and always when they saw a body of men 
 of any size they would, of course, shell it. But the 
 observer, who usually went into his post rather late 
 — as in the early morning observation, owing to the 
 mist and the position of the sun, was impossible — 
 
 142 
 
AN OBSERVER'S MEMORIES 
 
 often received the honour of a special shelling all 
 to himself. This was not the usual chance shelling, 
 as that, as I have said, was always done upon the roads, 
 and very often the observer made his way by foot- 
 paths or across the open ground. 
 
 I think the Germans often suspected observation 
 posts, and they paid a compliment to observers by 
 shelling all those who moved in their neighbourhood. 
 
 143 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE CURRICULUM AND WORK AT FIRST ARMY 
 SCHOOL OF S.O.S 
 
 ''T^HE making of a good shot in a course of seventeen 
 days is no easy matter. The First Army School 
 of Sniping was, as I have said, founded for the in- 
 struction of officers and N.C.O.'s who should, in their 
 turn, instruct, and all who came to it were supposed 
 to be already " good shots." As a matter of fact 
 the standard was wonderfully high, and we very 
 rarely had a hopeless case. Did such a man put in 
 his appearance, there was only one thing to be done, 
 and that was to send him back to his battalion. 
 
 Yet although a great mass of good material came 
 to us, we were nearly always able to improve every 
 student's shooting by 30 or 40 per cent. It is won- 
 derful what can be done in seventeen days if both 
 the class and the instructors are working in unison. 
 
 Each class used to begin with an inspection of 
 rifles, followed by a lecture on care and cleaning, at 
 which the value of the polished barrel was taught 
 with no uncertain voice. 
 
 144 
 
oj -a 
 If- -S o 
 O „^ 
 
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 I 
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 " E 
 
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 O 
 
THE CURRICULUM AND WORK 
 
 There were many difficulties in the way of teaching 
 shooting with telescopic sights, when the issue of 
 these was so limited as it was in France. Many times 
 officers who ought to have known better advocated 
 the shooting away of a mass of ammunition through 
 telescope-sighted rifles at ranges of five or six hundred 
 yards. It was hard to make these officers realize 
 that the sole value of a telescopic rifle lay in its extreme 
 accuracy, and that if the rifle were continually fired 
 through, the barrel would become worn, and the best 
 shot in the world, were he using it, would find his 
 group spreading ever more widely upon the target. 
 It was necessary, therefore, that the happy mean 
 should be struck, so every officer and N.C.O. who 
 came to the school was ordered to bring with him 
 two rifles, one of them with open sights, and until 
 a man had proved that he could shoot really well 
 vnth open sights, he was not allowed to touch a 
 telescopic-sighted rifle. 
 
 As a matter of fact, anyone who can make good 
 shooting with the ordinary service rifle will find very 
 little difficulty in improving his marksmanship when 
 he is promoted to a telescopic sight. 
 
 One of the greatest difficulties that we had — the 
 difficulty which literally haunted the whole of in- 
 struction in France, was the fact that the telescopic 
 sights were set, not on top, but at the left-hand side 
 
 of the rifle. This caused all kinds of errors. The 
 
 145 10 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 set-oflf, of course, affected the shooting of the rifle, and 
 had to be allowed for, and the ckrmsy position of the 
 sight was very apt to cause men to cant their rifles, 
 and some used the left eye. Worse than all, perhaps, 
 in trench warfare was the fact that with the Govern- 
 ment pattern of telescopic sight, which was set on 
 the side of the rifle, it was impossible to see through 
 the loopholes of the steel plates which were issued, 
 as these loopholes were naturally narrow ; and looking 
 into the telescopic sight, when the muzzle of the 
 rifle was pointing through the loophole, one got nothing 
 but a fine view of the inside of the steel plate and the 
 side of the loophole. Why the telescopic sights were 
 set on the sides of the rifles was never definitely, or 
 satisfactorily explained, but it was always said that 
 it was done so that rapid fire should be possible. 
 I believe the decision was taken in the War Office, 
 and if this is true, and the sight was set on the side 
 for this reason (and one can see no other reason why 
 it should have been so set) — then surely whoever 
 was responsible can have had no knowledge whatever 
 of the use of telescopic sights. 
 
 To take a telescope sight off a rifle occupies not 
 two seconds of time, and to think that a sniper could 
 or would ever do rapid fire through a telescope sight, 
 or need to load with a clip, shows nothing short of 
 incredible ignorance. At any rate, the Germans 
 
 made no such mistake, though they made many others. 
 
 146 
 
THE CURRICULUM AND WORK 
 
 Nevertheless, the sights came out to us in this 
 form, and by the time that representations had been 
 made from high quarters in France asking that tele- 
 scope sights should be set on top of the rifle, an altera- 
 tion was impossible, as it would have thrown out all 
 the factories who were engaged in the manufacture 
 of these weapons. But once again, many a German 
 owed his life to the original decision. 
 
 To take a concrete instance. One day I was down 
 in the trenches and watching No-Man's-Land with 
 a telescope. There was a sniper beside me who 
 had one of my rifles, a Mauser, which had a telescope 
 sight on the top, and with which he was able to fire 
 through his loophole. It was very early in the morn- 
 ing, and the light had not strengthened, when a work- 
 ing party of Germans appeared who had been working 
 under cover of some dead ground. They had but a 
 few yards to go to regain their own trench. The 
 sniper who was next to me got off a shot, but two of 
 the snipers armed with the Government weapons 
 a little farther along, who were waiting at loopholes, 
 found that neither of them could bring their rifles 
 to bear at the extreme angle at which the Germans 
 were disappearing. Both ran out from their posts 
 to try and get a shot over the top, but they were, 
 of course, too late. 
 
 This is only one instance of a thing that was always 
 happening. As we could not get the sights altered, 
 
 147 10* 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 the First Army and the nth Corps arranged that 
 their workshops should cut special sniping plates with 
 large loopholes for the use of snipers armed with 
 telescope sights. But even so it was always un- 
 satisfactory, and the sight on the side of the rifle had 
 a very circumscribed field of view when used from 
 behind cover. 
 
 In order to show how little telescope sights were 
 understood, it was, I think, in July, 1916, that Lieut, - 
 Colonel P. W. Richardson came out to France to 
 lecture on telescopic sights. On his departure he 
 sent in a report to G.H.Q. as to the inaccuracy of 
 these sights. Colonel Richardson intended to draw 
 attention only to the inaccuracy, for there is no man 
 who is keener on these weapons or who knows their 
 value better ; but the authority into whose hands 
 the report fell read it quite differently, and a month 
 or two afterwards there came down to Brigades, 
 and indeed to all our formations, the question from 
 G.H.Q. as to whether it would not be well to abolish 
 telescopic sights altogether, especially as " economy 
 was now so urgent." The answers that went back 
 to that Question from G.O.C.'s were couched in no 
 hesitating language, so that our telescope sights were 
 not taken away. Had they been taken away, the 
 German would once again have attained his sniping 
 superiority, and there would be many a man now 
 
 alive and enjoying life who would never have left 
 
 148 
 
o -i- 
 
 J .2 
 
 8 1 
 
 a: J 
 
 < n 
 
 a: o 
 
THE CURRICULUM AND WORK 
 
 the endless series of trenches which we were yet 
 destined to defend or capture. 
 
 But to get back to the course at the school. Our 
 aim was to create good shots in as short a time as 
 possible, and not only must they be good shots, but 
 they must also be quick shots. After finding out 
 errors in the ordinary way by grouping, we eschewed 
 as far as possible shooting at targets ; the round 
 black bull on the white ground was very rarely used, 
 and all kinds of marks were put up in its place. The 
 ^Jiead and shoulders was the most efficacious target, 
 and practice was further carried on at dummy heads 
 carried at walking pace along trenches. In fact, 
 where such appliances as we had at the school 
 are lacking, it is far better to allow snipers to shoot 
 at tins stuck up on sticks than to permit them to become 
 pottering target shots. 
 
 Speed was always the essence of sniping, and it was 
 wonderful how, after short practice at the disappearing 
 head, the men began to speed up. Competition was 
 encouraged to the limit, and on every course a picked 
 team of men shot against a picked team of officers. 
 Those who were chosen for these matches were those 
 who obtained the highest scores during the course. 
 Further, a number of prizes were offered, and com- 
 petition for these was always keen. Sometimes we 
 had the Canadians and Colonials shooting against 
 what they called the " Imperials," and soinetimes 
 
 149 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 the representatives of the Scottish regiments shot 
 against the EngHsh. 
 
 One thing we always made a point of, and that 
 was to take up every shooter to his target and show 
 him exactly what he had done. A man with a tele- 
 scope who spots each shot takes infinitely more interest 
 in what he is doing than does a man who merely 
 has results signalled to him, but going up to the 
 target is the best method of all. 
 
 After eight days with the open sight, those who 
 were considered worthy passed on to practise with 
 the telescopic. One of our great difficulties was that 
 the telescopic sights were so much wanted in the line 
 that it was hard to call them away for courses ; but, 
 as a matter of fact, many battalions seemed to keep 
 a telescopic sight which they always sent on the 
 course. It was generally a bad one, but this did not 
 much matter, as we were continually having snipers 
 sent up with the rifles they were actually using, 
 in order that they might shoot them at the school. 
 Thus a man might come on a course, and if he got 
 a good report, might be back at the school within a 
 week with a telescope sight which he was thence- 
 forward to use and which we were asked to regulate 
 to his hold. 
 
 But I do not want to go too far into this question 
 
 of shooting, and it will not be necessary to say more 
 
 than that of every hundred students who came to 
 
 150 
 

 
 , .#^.=^."' ^^I'/' ,-'.*'^*' 
 
 
 
 a. 
 •I 
 
THE CURRICULXJM AND WORK 
 
 a course, somewhere about seventy-five went back as 
 quite useful shots. We had many, of course, far above 
 the class of " useful," and sometimes the competition 
 for the champion shot of the classes was extraordinarily 
 keen. Considering the very small bulls and the 
 continually moving targets, the scores made at the 
 school reflected great credit upon the students. 
 
 But though there was a great deal of shooting at 
 the school there were many other subjects also in 
 which students were instructed. One of these was 
 observation. The way that this was taught was 
 exactly the same that I had used from the earliest 
 days of 1915. Two trenches were dug at a distance 
 of three or four hundred yards apart, and one of these 
 trenches was an exact imitation of a piece of German 
 line. Those who were to be taught observation 
 were put with their telescopes and note books in the 
 other trench, while a couple of scouts dressed in 
 German uniforms showed themselves at certain points 
 of the German trench, and generally attempted to 
 produce the exact happenings that would occur 
 were those under instruction watching an actual 
 piece of German line. Thus at one point of the 
 trench earth would be thrown up, and five minutes 
 later at another a man in a helmet carrying a pick 
 would pass along. Here and there a loophole would 
 be opened, and so on. The observation class kept a 
 look-out upon the German trench, and noted down 
 
 151 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 in their note books the time and place of all that 
 happened therein which they were able to observe. 
 As far as possible, every member of the class was given 
 a telescope of equal power, and it was an extraordinary 
 thing to see how while some men sent in excellent 
 reports, others seemed to be quite incapable of accurate 
 observation. 
 
 Besides teaching the use of the telescope for front 
 line work, this system gave a very useful practice 
 lesson in the art of reporting things seen. Sometimes 
 the officers of the staff or the Lovat Scouts attempted 
 to crawl out of the German trench without being seen, 
 and on one occasion two Lovat battle observers who 
 were resting at the school crawled clean round an 
 officer class unseen, and took them in the rear. This 
 is an easy enough thing to do when the ground is 
 favourable, but our trenches had been, very carefully 
 sited, so that there were at least three or four spots 
 in which a man crawling was well within view, and 
 in passing across these he had to exercise the most 
 infinite care if he wished to obtain success. 
 
 At night time these two trenches were used for 
 another purpose — that of teaching patrolling. Be- 
 tween them was a strip of typical No Man's Land 
 with shell holes which we spent a whole day blowing 
 up, wire, old uniforms — in fact, everything to make 
 it as like the real thing as possible. After I left the 
 school, Major Underhill had the bright idea of putting 
 
 152 
 
THE CURRICULUM AND WORK 
 
 out in this No Man's Land a number of imitation 
 German dead. In the pockets of these " dead " 
 were soldbuchs — that is, the German pay-books — and 
 various other identifications which it is the duty of 
 scouts to collect and send to H.Q. I think there can 
 be very little doubt that the conditions under 
 which patrols worked and practised at First Army 
 Sniping School approached the real in a very high 
 degree. For instance, aU our work was in com- 
 petition, very often the officers against men, or Colonials 
 against the World. Sometimes the defenders were 
 supplied with pistols and Verey lights, which they 
 fired off just as do the Germans. The attacking 
 patrol carried with it small pegs with the patroUer's 
 name marked upon them. These pegs they stuck 
 into the ground at the most advanced or important 
 point which they attained. 
 
 A certain amount of teaching of patrolling was 
 done in the daytime by the use of night glasses. 
 These were the invention of Major Crum, of the 
 King's Royal Rifles. On the sunniest day, once one 
 had put on one of these pairs of goggles, one could 
 not see more than was possible on the darkest night, 
 and there is no doubt that a great deal was learnt by 
 watching in daylight the kind of movements that a 
 man must make at night. 
 
 Experience of scouting in No Man's Land showed 
 that our patrols were most often spotted at the 
 
 153 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 moment of leaving or returning to our own trenches, 
 and great stress was laid on the proper way in which 
 to get in and out of a trench. Another dangerous 
 moment for the patrols was when they made a turning 
 movement. The man who crept out with care and 
 skill was apt to rise to his knees as he turned, and if 
 a Verey light happened to be in the air at that moment, 
 he was thus apt to give the whole show away. 
 
 There were many other subjects taught at the school 
 into which I need not go, for those interested wiU 
 find them all set out in the appendices, but special 
 stress was always laid upon marching on compass 
 bearings by night. It was an amazing thing how few 
 officers really understood the prismatic compass, and 
 indeed, how high a percentage of them did not possess 
 a compass worth understanding. The advent of the 
 gas mask, or box-respirator, added new difficulties to 
 training, for it was necessary to carry out a good deal 
 of our work under gas alarm conditions. 
 
 At least once on every course we had a scouting 
 scheme. For this, the N.C.O.'s and men were told 
 off in small parties, each under an officer, and were 
 given a certain line to hold. They were to report 
 all details of a military nature which they saw, all 
 transport, etc. Some of our staff scouts were sent 
 out early in the day, and were ordered to try and make 
 their way back unseen through this line, and the staff 
 instructors used to go out and see what they could 
 
 154 
 
THE CURRICULUM AND WORK 
 
 of it. This scouting scheme gave great individual 
 play to the fancy of the officer in charge of each party, 
 and many of them used it to the full. 
 
 For some reasons a story was started that I had once 
 gone right along the road which was the line that was 
 being held disguised as a French peasant. I had never 
 done anything of the kind, but the keenness to spot 
 me when I did go round was always a matter of 
 amusement. 
 
 The training of observers at the school, as distinct 
 from the front line telescope work which I have 
 described, was always extraordinarily interesting. I 
 give in Appendix A the exact course the Lovat Scout 
 reinforcement observers were put through. We were 
 exceedingly lucky in having at the school so many 
 first-rate glass-men, so that it was possible to get ahead 
 with teaching the telescope very fairly quickly. Some- 
 times through pure ignorance a young observer, or 
 an observer new to his work, would think he knew 
 a great deal more than he actually did. It was only 
 necessary to put him down for five minutes beside a 
 Lovat Scout for him to rise a much wiser and less 
 self-sufficient man ! 
 
 Another branch of long-distance observation was 
 the building of properly concealed observation posts, 
 and by the time the school left Linghem, the plateau 
 was honeycombed with posts looking in every direction. 
 
 Very early in the school's career, a model sniper's 
 
 155 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 post was built, and all along one series of trenches 
 we had model loopholes. One point that I always 
 found when visiting the real trenches was that nearly 
 all loopholes were made with three iron plates in the 
 form of a box. This shape of loophole very much 
 circumscribes the angle of fire. The true way to 
 make a loophole is to set the two flanking plates at 
 an angle of at least forty-five degrees, so that the field 
 of fire may be enlarged. 
 
 One of the most important object lessons which 
 we used to have was to send a sniper into the model 
 trenches with orders to fire from different loopholes 
 in turn. The rest of the class then watched the loop- 
 holes, and gave opinions as to which one the shot had 
 come from. It takes a considerable amount of skill 
 to fire from a loophole without giving away your 
 position by the gas which comes from your rifle 
 muzzle. These demonstrations also taught the snipers 
 how. in the dry weather the dust round the mouth 
 of a loophole will invariably give it away, and how in 
 cold weather the smoke will hang a little. 
 
 Lectures on aeroplane photographs were another 
 side of our work, and one which was undoubtedly 
 very necessary. All the school trenches and, indeed, 
 the whole school and plateau and the woods around 
 it had been photographed from the air. Each 
 officer or N.C.O. student was provided with a photo- 
 graph, and went over the actual ground. Captain 
 
 156 
 

 FIRST ARMY SCHOOL S.O.S. 
 Showing effects and importance of light and shade. 
 
 [I'o/aa p. l.JO. 
 
THE CURRICULUM AND WORK 
 
 Kendall accompanying them to explain all details. 
 In this way a practical knowledge of what trenches 
 looked like from the air was gained. 
 
 The demonstrations showing the use of protective 
 colouring and the choice of backgrounds always 
 interested the classes very much. Often the whole 
 class arrived within twenty yards of a man lying 
 within full view without being able to spot him. 
 On one occasion during a big demonstration, one of 
 the staff was lying out in a coat of the colour and 
 contour of sandbags on top of a trench, and the whole 
 party of staff officers were all round him without 
 having spotted his whereabouts. When I pointed 
 him out a foreign officer who was present, and who 
 evidently did not understand me, thought I was 
 referring to an object a little further on, and in order 
 to see it better he actually leaped on to the camouflaged 
 man ! 
 
 As a matter of fact, this protective colouration 
 scheme business can very easily be overdone, for the 
 man who lies out in the open is at the mercy of the 
 changes of light and shade. What, is an absolute 
 protective background at eleven o'clock may become 
 quite useless at twelve. But it was necessary to teach, 
 it to a certain extent, as in open warfare the observer 
 and the scout have to obtain safety by concealment 
 rather than by cover from fire. 
 
 Another of the most useful lessons at the school 
 
 157 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 was undoubtedly the practical one of judging distance. 
 On the average I think students were worse at distance- 
 judging than at any other subject, but a little practice 
 made an enormous difference. 
 
 The ruling idea of the School was to make sniping 
 as simple as possible, and Jar this purpose nothing was 
 ever used in building a post or loophole which could not 
 be obtained at once in any trench in the British Army. 
 There were many very elaborate loopholes which could 
 be indented for from the Special Works Park R.E. 
 (Camouflage), but I do not think these were successful 
 unless they were put in by specially selected officers, 
 for in sending indents to the Special Works Park, 
 Commanding Officers usually forgot to mention the 
 background and the kind of earth in which their 
 trenches were dug. 
 
 A demonstration that used always to interest the 
 class exceedingly was one which showed the effect 
 of different forms of ammunition on various kinds of 
 loophole plates, British and German. Some time in 
 1917 the Germans produced an. armoured mask for 
 snipers. This was of steel, and of great weight and 
 thickness, and indeed it looked as if no bullet could 
 possibly go through it, so much so that one of my 
 officers volunteered to put it on and let someone 
 have a shot at him. This I, of course, refused to 
 countenance for a moment, and lucky it was, for the 
 first shot went clean through the armoured head- 
 
 158 
 
THE CURRICULUM AND WORK 
 
 piece. Anyhow, I should imagine, whether the shot 
 pierced the vizor or no, the man in it must almost 
 certainly be stunned by a direct hit. 
 
 Although when first I became a sniping instructor, 
 I used to have some firing practice at five and six 
 hundred yards, when I went to the First Army School 
 I gave this up. The chances of hitting a German head 
 at six hundred yards with a telescope sight, if there is 
 any wind blowing at all, are not great, for, as I have 
 repeatedly said, a sighting shot is not possible, and I 
 came to the conclusion that continual popping 
 away with telescopic-sighted rifles at six hundred yards 
 simply wore out their barrels. After all, a rifle only 
 lasts at its highest efficiency for, in certain cases, as few 
 as five hundred rounds, and every shot taken through 
 a telescope-sighted rifle shortens the life of the barrel.- 
 We, therefore, until warfare became more open, 
 never went back further than four hundred yards, and 
 our greatest difficulty was to teach the snipers to appre- 
 ciate the strength of the wind. The system by which 
 wind must be taught to snipers must be both very 
 accurate and very simple, for some of the best snipers 
 who came to the school had difficulty in making 
 calculations. Usually we found that the best way to 
 begin to teach wind allowance was to take the man up 
 on the range, and for one of the staff to demonstrate 
 against the stop butt. The class all had telescopes, 
 and the puff of dust gave away the exact point at 
 
 159 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 which the bullet struck. This system had the further 
 advantage of teaching snipers what a distance of two 
 feet looks like at three hundred yards. But in- 
 dividual practice is the only way to learn wind- 
 judging. 
 
 At the school we gave six different strengths of 
 wind, gentle, moderate, fresh, strong, very strong, 
 and gale, and it was, of course, in the judging of the 
 gentle, moderate and fresh, that the difficulties lay. 
 Our range had this advantage, that it was a good one 
 on which to teach wind allowance by letting the men 
 practise for themselves, for there was almost always 
 a wind blowing. 
 
 Night firing and observation by moonlight, as well 
 as many other schemes which the reader who is in- 
 terested can see for himself in the curriculum which 
 is set out in the appendix, took up the rest of our 
 time ; but, from the very earliest days, the moment 
 the day's work was over we used to adjourn for games. 
 At first we used to play rounders and baseball of a kind. 
 Later we made a rough golf course of three or four 
 holes ; but as soon as we got our Establishment and. 
 the school increased in size, games became a matter of 
 great importance, and, as usual, football was by far 
 the most popular. We had throughout a very good 
 Association team, and sometimes were able to play 
 two elevens on Saturday afternoons, and all the other 
 
 days there were pick-up sides and punt-about. 
 
 i6o 
 
THE CURRICULUM AND WORK 
 
 In summer we played some cricket matches, and 
 were never beaten, though once, one lovely summer 
 evening, we adjourned for dinner at the end of our 
 opponents' second innings having fifty runs to get 
 to win. When we came out to get the fifty it was 
 so dark that we only pulled it off by one wicket. 
 
 In June, 191 7, there was a conference of sniping 
 officers at Boulogne, and here I first met the Com- 
 mandants of the S.O.S. Schools of the other armies : 
 Lt.-Col. Sclater, D.S.O. (2nd Army), Major Pem- 
 berthy (3rd Army), Major Michie, D.S.O. (5th Army) 
 and the Major commanding the School of the 4th 
 Army. All the above are well-known throughout the 
 B.E.F. for the splendid work they did. 
 
 One point which we always tried to impress on all 
 who came to the school was the vital necessity for 
 snipers and observers to take immediate action when 
 anything unusual and not normal was seen. I give 
 the following instance to illustrate this essential. 
 
 One day I had been ordered to visit a certain bat- 
 talion in order to go round their sniping posts and 
 to look over their telescope sights. As through some 
 mistake their telescope sights were in the line, I 
 had to use my own rifle to demonstrate with. 
 
 At this time I was shooting with a .350 Mauser, 
 which, of course, carried special ammunition, and 
 after the lecture, as there was still some light left, 
 I wandered up to the line through the darkness of a 
 
 161 II 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 large wood. Here there was a railway cutting, across 
 which our trenches and those of the Germans opposing 
 us lay. My batman was carrying my rifle, and I de- 
 scended into this cutting, where we had a post. The 
 Germans, at a distance of about 250 yards, had 
 also a strong post across the cutting. Four or five 
 privates were keeping a look-out upon the German 
 line, but none of them had telescopes, and the moment 
 I used mine I saw a German officer who was standing 
 up and giving directions. I at once took my rifle 
 only to find that my servant had left the cartridges 
 behind. 
 
 Although I could see the German officer quite 
 clearly through the telescope of the rifle, it was 
 getting so dark that I could not pick him up with 
 the open sights of one I borrowed, so that an accurate 
 shot was out of the question ; but with the telescope 
 I was able to get an inkling of what he was doing. 
 Very obviously, he was superintending the placing 
 of a trench mortar into position with which to bom- 
 bard the post in which I was : for I could see quite 
 a movement of men, and earth was being continually 
 thrown up. 
 
 It rapidly grew quite dark, and I went back and 
 reported the matter to the proper authority. Now 
 the proper authority was, I thought, not very much 
 interested, and although I put the case very strongly, 
 and said I was sure the minenwerfer would bombard 
 
 162 
 
THE CURRICULUM AND WORK 
 
 our post next day, it appeared from subsequent 
 events that he took no action, nor did he ring up the 
 guns and ask them to demoHsh the German minen- 
 werfer that night as I begged him to do. The result 
 was that shortly afterwards our post was demolished, 
 with loss of life. 
 
 There is no doubt that on that evening the star 
 of the German officer was in the ascendant, for had 
 I had a cartridge, the chances were enormously against 
 his ever having left the trenches alive, as I had the 
 range from the map and knew the shooting of my 
 rifle to an inch. 
 
 163 11" 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 WILIBALD THE HUN 
 [This and the following chapter are representative of the two sides of 
 sniping — i.e. — -shooting and observation. The incidents occurred.] 
 
 " \ 1 rHO'VE you got there ? " 
 
 ^ * " Mr. Harrison, sir ; killed, sir." 
 
 A short, red-haired officer ranged up alongside 
 the stretcher, turned back the blanket, and somewhat 
 hurriedly replaced it. 
 
 " Damn those pointed bullets," he said, speaking 
 in a detached kind of way and half to himself. His 
 mind was working already on its problem. 
 
 " Where did it happen ? " 
 
 " Caisson Trench, sir. That sniper Wilibald." 
 
 " When .? " 
 
 " Just after nine, sir." 
 
 " Anyone with him ? " 
 
 " Sergeant Small, sir." 
 
 The officer turned, and the stretcher-party resumed 
 its way. He stood watching them for a little, his 
 thoughts roving from the horrible way in which a 
 pointed bullet, fired from a rifle with a muzzle- 
 
 164 
 
WILIBALD THE HUN 
 
 velocity of 3,000 feet a second, will at times keyhole, 
 to the deeds and too-haunting personality of Wilibald 
 the Hun. British troops have throughout the war 
 given names to any German sniper whose deeds 
 lent him a personality. Fritz is generic ; but once 
 let a Hun impress himself by skill, and he is christened. 
 Thus we have known Adolfs, Wilhelms, Old Seven- 
 trees, Bluebeard, and a hundred others. At first, 
 thanks to the Duke of Ratibor, who collected all 
 the sportsmen's telescopic-sighted rifles in Germany 
 — and it is proof of German far-sightedness that a 
 vast percentage of them took the military cartridge 
 — the Hun sniper took heavy toll against our blunt 
 open sights. Later, things happened, and the plague 
 was stayed ; but in the days of this incident the Hun 
 and the Briton were still striving unevenly for mastery. 
 
 The officer turned at length, and walked slowly 
 down the trench till he came to company head- 
 quarters. A second-lieutenant, standing at the en- 
 trance to the dug-out, was unloading a rifle. 
 
 " Hullo, Bill," said the officer. " Whose rifle ? " 
 
 " My batman's." 
 
 '■ What have you been doing with it ? " 
 
 " Wilibald shot Jack Harrison through the head. 
 I " 
 
 " Don't," said the red-haired officer shortly. 
 " Why not ? " 
 
 " Have you ever shot with that rifle ? " 
 
 165 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 " No." 
 
 The red-haired officer raised his eyes wearily. 
 
 " Wilibald's bag is big enough already. Wilibald 
 sits over there " — he indicated the German position 
 with a swinging movement — " in some hole or 
 other as snug as a bug in a rug, with a telescope 
 sighted rifle which he knows to the inch. You 
 go and look for him with a rifle you don't know to a 
 yard. You fool ! " 
 
 " All right, Red. We know your hobby. Only 
 we wish you'd deliver the goods." 
 
 " Meaning Wilibald ? " 
 
 " Yes. Wilibald is becoming a public nuisance. 
 He's got nine of us, including an officer and an N.C.O., 
 and he's got more than a dozen of the West Blanks 
 who relieve us. He's . . . Damn ! that's him." 
 
 A shot had rung out, followed by an ejaculation. 
 The two officers hurried along the trench to where 
 in a bay a consequential private was pouring iodine 
 into a sergeant's cheek. Three or four other privates 
 were talking excitedly. 
 
 " It come from the 'Un trench." 
 
 " It didn't. It come from the trees in the spinney." 
 
 " That's right. The fifth tree." 
 
 " Naw. The sixth." 
 
 " Garn ! " 
 
 Red, with a word, broke up the group, and addressed 
 the sergeant : 
 
 i66 
 
WILIBALD THE HUN 
 
 " Hullo, Small. What's happened ? " 
 
 " I was takin' a spy, and Wilibald 'ad a drive at me. 
 Clipped my cheek, 'e did," said Small, in the aggrieved 
 voice of the N.C.O. whose dignity has been touched. 
 
 " Then, for God's sake, don't take a spy, Small, 
 until you learn how to do it without offering a target. 
 Let's see your cheek. Only a scratch. That's lucky. 
 Now, did you see where the shot was fired from ? " 
 
 " Beyond that it come from the left flank, I did not, 
 sir. I " 
 
 " All right. Go and get your cheek bandaged." 
 
 As the sergeant saluted and went off down the 
 trench. Red, having ordered the observers to keep 
 a good look-out upon the enemy trench, took off his 
 cap, and, fixing it on his stick, told Bill to raise it 
 slightly above the parapet until the badge of a famous 
 regiment glinted in the sun, while he watched. 
 
 Nothing happened. 
 
 Red laughed. 
 
 " Wilibald's not a dasher," said he. " He's a 
 regular Hun. Probably has some rule about not firing 
 unless he can see half the head he's aiming at. ' Shoot 
 to kill ' is his motto. Useful man, Wilibald. I 
 wonder if his company commander appreciates him." 
 
 After passing along the trench and warning its 
 garrison not to give unnecessary targets, Red went 
 a round of his observers. They were stationed at 
 
 loopholes and in O.P.s. 
 
 167 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 " Keep a good look-out, and try to spot Wilibald 
 if he fires again. The light will be pretty good 
 when the sun works round behind us." 
 
 " Which part of the trench do you think he is in, 
 sir ? " asked a lance-corporal. 
 
 " Don't know ; perhaps not in the trench at all. 
 Some of the Royal — — shires thought he was in the 
 spinney, and some thought he was in the willow-trees. 
 He got twelve of them. He must be dealt with." 
 
 " Yes, sir," said the lance-corporal optimistically. 
 
 It was four o'clock in the afternoon when Red, 
 having passed down an old disused trench in the 
 rear of the British position, crawled cautiously out 
 behind the parados. Here was an area seamed with 
 shell holes, each half-full of green, scummy water, 
 little piles of rotting sandbags, rusty wire, nettles, 
 and coarse grass. About fifty yards behind the 
 front line a heavy shell had fallen almost on the top 
 of the almost imperceptible rise which culminated 
 at that point. This shell hole was Red's objective, for 
 from it he could, he knew, get a fair view of the Ger- 
 man trenches. It was not a safe place to visit in the 
 morning, when the sun was behind the German lines, 
 and everything in the British stood out clearly to their 
 Zeiss glasses ; but in the afternoon the position was 
 reversed, and the Hun observers were in their turn 
 looking into the sun. 
 
 To this place Red made his way. It was long 
 
 l68 
 
WILIBALD THE HUN 
 
 before the days of snipers' robes of canvas, painted 
 yellow and green and black, which for such work would 
 have been useful, though the earlier patterns, cut 
 like a greatcoat, were difficult to crawl in. Later 
 a pattern of overall shape was issued, which gave 
 free play to the knees ; but, as we say, such issues 
 were not yet " available." 
 
 At length, Red reached the shell hole, and slowly 
 made a place for his telescope among the clods of earth 
 upon the crater-lip. Then he bent himself to a careful 
 study of the scene. 
 
 The line of the German trenches was marked in 
 white, for it was a somewhat chalky country, with 
 here and there loophole plates sticking gauntly up 
 on the top of the parapet. To these Red gave no 
 attention. Many of them were dummies ; the 
 danger-spots, he knew, were set lower ; often upon 
 the ground level, where, through some gap in the 
 rusty wire, the German sniper's eyes watched cease- 
 lessly for a " target." Very carefully Red examined 
 the German trenches. Well he knew their appearance. 
 One by one he picked up the familiar landmarks ; here 
 a machine gun emplacement, there a suspected sniper's 
 post. All was quiet. Once a sentry fired, and the 
 bullet hummed Uke a bee high above him. Next, 
 Red turned more to the business in hand — the loca- 
 tion of Wilibald. No easy business, since there was "a 
 great divergence of opinion. He had been located so 
 
 169 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 often ; in a sniping-post hy the black sandbags — for 
 at one point in the Hun trenches there were a number 
 of black sandbags ; the Germans used all colours on 
 that front. Red turned his glass on that point. Yes, 
 there seemed to be a post there, but there was nothing 
 to prove that it was tenanted. Then he tried the 
 spinney ; but neither the third tree nor, the fifth 
 yielded up any secret. Then the ruined house or 
 hovel ; after that, the wide expanse of No Man's Land. 
 As he watched. Red remembered the words of the 
 _ Corps Commander : " There is no No Man's Land. 
 It must be our land right up to the enemy trenches." 
 That was an ideal to live up to. But stare now as 
 he would, and as he continued to do for an hour, he 
 saw nothing, could see nothing of Wilibald. Broken 
 wire, shell holes, sandbags, pulverized bricks and 
 mortar, men lying in queer positions, men whose 
 ragged tunics the evening wind stirred strangely, 
 men who would never move again. 
 
 All Red's life he had been apt, in moments of ten- 
 sion, to recur to a phrase which made a kind of 
 background to his thoughts, and now he found himself 
 repeating : 
 
 " Exiled and in sorrow far from the Argive Land." 
 
 He turned round and glanced at the sun. It was 
 
 sinking red, like a cannon-ball. Then he turned for 
 
 a last look at No Man's Land and the Hun positions. 
 
 Nothing stirred. Far away on the right, a mile or 
 
 170 
 
WILIBALD THE HUN 
 
 two away, a machine gun sounded like a rapidly worked 
 typewriter. A bat flew and turned above the British 
 trench fifty yards in front of him. Red crawled back. 
 
 In the trench he met his brother officer Bill. 
 
 " Hullo, Red. Any luck ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 Bill laughed. 
 
 " Wilibald's some man." 
 
 Red nodded. 
 
 That evening at mess Wilibald formed the topic 
 of conversation. The Colonel spoke of him very 
 seriously. 
 
 " He must be a splendid shot," said he. " He 
 puts it through the loophole in the post in Bay i6, 
 two shots in three — at least, so Carpenter, of the Blank- 
 shires, was telling me. Said he supposed he'd got 
 one of those big Zeiss telescopic sights which magnify 
 four times. Shooting with 'em must be as easy as 
 falling off a log." 
 
 " Yes, sir," said Red. 
 
 It was a full hour before dawn that the chill woke 
 Red in his dug-out. His thoughts switched at once 
 on to the subject of Wilibald. The man had taken 
 over twenty British lives. He pictured him waiting 
 at his "loophole, his bearded cheek pressed to the 
 stock of his rifle. A fine shot, no doubt — Carpenter 
 had said that he put two shots out of three into the 
 
 loophole of Bay i6 sniping-post . . . Good shooting. 
 
 171 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 . . . Dashed good. It was cold, though ! The 
 first cold morning. By Jove ! 
 
 Red had an idea. He rose and dressed hastily, 
 his dressing consisting of little but pulling on his 
 boots and tunic. He took his telescope and made 
 his way along the dark trench until he came to Bay i6. 
 A figure was leaning against the side of the post. 
 Red realized that it was Corporal Hogg, a N.C.O. 
 of sound sense. 
 
 " Corporal ! " 
 
 " Yes, sir ! " 
 
 " Anyone in the Post ? " 
 
 " No, sir. You told me not to have it manned at 
 night, lest the flash should give it away." 
 
 " Quite right. Now listen. I want the loophole 
 shut. As soon as it is light enough to shoot' — at 
 5.15 say — I want you to open it cautiously. Open 
 it from the side, in case Wilibald — got that ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 "Understand. Loophole to be closed till 5.15 
 a.m. Then to be opened by you cautiously, and 
 from one side. I shall be out in the shell hole behind 
 the parados." 
 
 Half an hour later Red crouched in the shell hole, 
 
 his telescope discarded, since its field of view was 
 
 too narrow. In front of him lay his watch, which 
 
 he had synchronized with that of Corporal Hogg. 
 
 The hand marked 5.1 1. The moments passed. Red's 
 
 172 
 
WILIBALD THE HUN 
 
 heart was beating now. He glanced — a last glance, 
 a very hurried glance — at his watch. It was past the 
 fourteen minutes ! Hogg would be opening the 
 loop-hole. 
 
 Bang ! 
 
 A shot had rung out. From the garden — or what 
 was once the garden — of the razed house, not seventy 
 yards distant, a little wisp of gas floated away to the 
 cold morning star. Very cautiously Red wrapped a 
 bit of sandbag round his telescope, and pushed it 
 on the little plot of turnips. 
 
 At first he saw nothing. 
 
 Then he was aware of some turnip-tops moving, 
 when all the rest were still. A moment later he had 
 made out the top of Wilibald's head, garlanded with 
 turnip-tops, and the upper part of Wilibald's large 
 German face. This, then, was the explanation of 
 the accurate shooting and the long death-roll. Wili- 
 bald had been firing at short range. 
 
 Red felt it was almost uncanny. 
 
 Hitherto, in trench warfare, as far as daylight was 
 concerned, the Huns had seemed to him almost an 
 abstraction, creatures apparent to the sense of hearing 
 certainly, but troglodytes who popped above ground 
 for only a passing moment, and then only to dis- 
 appear. But this man, not one hundred yards 
 away. . . . 
 
 Red withdrew ' into the shell hole, and quickly 
 
 173 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 mapped out his course. He must at once get back 
 to his own trench. To do so meant a crawl over what 
 must be the skyline to Wilibald, and consequently a 
 point Red could hardly hope to pass unobserved. 
 Red marked a thistle. It was there that he would 
 come into view. He would remain so for about ten 
 yards. Of course, could he once regain his own 
 trench he could take steps to deal with Wilibald, but 
 at present the Hun held the better cards. Red 
 smiled grimly when he thought of his crawl to the 
 shell hole of the previous evening. To the sun, 
 which was shining straight into Wilibald's eyes, he 
 most certainly owed his life. Now that sun was 
 behind Wilibald. . . . Red started. As he neared 
 the thistle, his heart beat fast and quick. He passed 
 the thistle. He felt very like a fly crawling over 
 an inverted plate while someone with a fly-trap 
 waited to strike. He was crawling straight away now. 
 The thistle was behind him. Another four yards — 
 two — one — still Wilibald did not fire, and with a deep 
 sigh of relief Red hurled himself into the disused sap 
 and safety. 
 
 Later the CO. was speaking. 
 
 " So Wilibald's gone west ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " How did you spot him ? " 
 
 " The cold woke me. I have noticed how the gas 
 from a rifle hangs on chilly days. Wilibald forgot 
 
 174 
 
WILIBALD THE HUN 
 
 that. He had a shot at the loophole ol No. i6 Bay- 
 Post, and I was watching, and spotted him. He was 
 lying out in the turnips, about seventy yards from our 
 line. He had turnip-tops fixed round his cap, and 
 lay in a hole he'd dug. He must have come out before 
 dawn and gone back after dark. He was a pretty 
 gallant fellow, sir." 
 
 The CO. nodded. 
 
 " D d gallant," said he. 
 
 " I thought, sir, if you'd no objection, I'd take a 
 patrol out and fetch him in — for purposes of identifi- 
 cation." 
 
 So Wilibald was brought in. His cap, some letters 
 in his pocket, and his shoulder-straps were forwarded 
 to Brigade ; but his rifle, beautifully fitted with a 
 Zeiss telescope sight, which had taken over twenty 
 British lives, turned its muzzle east instead of west, 
 and began to take German lives instead. 
 
 175 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE CAT 
 
 '' I ^HE two snipers of the Royal Midlandshires, 
 the shooter and the observer, were comfort- 
 ably in their post. The shooter was longing for a 
 cigarette, which regulations forbade lest the enemy — 
 two hundred yards away — should see the smoke 
 issuing from the concealed loophole ; but the observer, 
 Private William EntWorth, was studying the parapet 
 opposite. 
 
 Suddenly he spoke : 
 
 " Line of water-tower. Red sandbag. Left. 
 Two feet." 
 
 Saunders' eyes picked up the water-tower in the 
 distance, ranged to the parapet, found the red sand- 
 bag, then swung to the left of it. Yes, something 
 moving. He cuddled the stock of his rifle, and 
 brought the pointer in the telescope to bear. Then 
 slowly he began to squeeze the trigger. 
 
 " Don't shoot." 
 
 176 
 
THE CAT 
 
 Entworth was only just in time. 
 
 " Why not, ole son ? " 
 
 " It's only a cat." 
 
 " A 'Un cat ! 'Ere goes." 
 
 " Come off it. If you get shootin' cats outer this 
 
 post Mr. NoweU'U Besides, it's rather a nice- 
 
 lookin' cat. Tortoiseshell colour. We 'ad one in 
 Ferrers Street 'e reminds me of. . . . There, 'e's 
 cUmbin' up on the bloomin' parados, curlin' round and 
 goin' to sleep just as if there wasn't no war. Shall I 
 enter 'im ? " 
 
 " Wot's the good ? " 
 
 " Dunno. Shows we was awake. 'Time 11.25 •^^• 
 Emma. Cat (tortoiseshell) at K 22.C.35.45. Action 
 taken : None.' " 
 
 So wrote Private Entworth with laborious pencil. 
 As he finished a voice sounded outside. 
 
 " Who's in there ? " 
 
 " Private Entworth. Private Saunders." 
 
 " Shut the loopholes. I am coming in." 
 
 " Well, seen anything ? " questioned Mr. Nowell, 
 the Sniping and Intelligence Officer of the Battafion. 
 
 " They've been working on the post at K.22. 
 D.85.60." 
 
 " Seen any Huns ? " 
 
 " Only a cat, sir. I've entered it in the log-book. 
 
 It's sunning itself on the parados now, sir. Line of 
 
 water-tower. Red sandbag." 
 
 177 12 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 " Yes, I have it," said Nowell, who had taken the 
 telescope. 
 
 " Shall I shoot 'im, sir ? " 
 
 " Why should you ? " 
 
 " 'E probably kills rats and makes life brighter- 
 like for the 'Un, sir, by so doing. There's a glut o' 
 rats on this sector, sir." 
 
 " The cat looks very comfortable. No, don't 
 shoot, Saunders. Entw^orth, give me that log-book." 
 
 The officer turned over the pages. 
 
 " I wonder if anyone has ever seen that cat before ? 
 HuUo, yes. Private Scroggins and Lance-Corporal 
 Tew two days ago in the afternoon. Here's the 
 entry : ' 3.4 pip emma K.22.C.35.40. Cat on 
 parados.' " 
 
 Howell's eyes showed a gleam of interest. 
 
 " Note down whenever you see that cat," said he. 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " And keep a bright look-out." 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 Once more the loopholes were shut, and Nowell, 
 lifting the curtain at the back of the Post which 
 prevented the light shining through, went out. 
 
 His steps died away along the trench-boards. 
 
 " Think we'll see it in ' Comic Cuts ' " (the universal 
 B.E.F. name for the Corps Intelligence Summary). 
 "'At K.22.C.35.45, a tortoiseshell-coloured he- 
 cat.' I donH think ! " said Saunders. 
 
 178 
 
THE CAT 
 
 " Shouldn't wonder. The cove wot writes out 
 ' Comic Cuts ' must 'a bin wounded in the 'ed early 
 on. Sort o' balmy 'e is." 
 
 II 
 
 Meantime we must follow Mr. Nowell down 
 the trench. He was full of his thoughts and 
 almost collided round a corner with a red-hatted 
 Captain. 
 
 " Sorry, sir," said he, saluting. 
 
 " Righto ! my mistake. Can you tell me where 
 I shall find the I.S.O. of this battahon ? " asked the 
 Staff Officer. 
 
 " My name's Nowell, sir. I am the Sniping and 
 IntelHgence Officer." 
 
 " Good. I'm Cumberland of Corps Intelligence." 
 
 Nowell looked up with nev/ interest. He had 
 heard of Cumberland as a man of push and go, who had 
 made things hum since he had come to the Corps a 
 few weeks back. 
 
 " Anything you want ? " continued Cumberland. 
 " You've been sending through some useful stuff. I 
 thought I'd come down and have a talk." 
 
 Nowell led the way to his dug-out. He had suffered 
 long from a very official Corps IntelHgence G.S.O., 
 whom Cumberland had just replaced. Under the 
 old regime it never really seemed to matter to the 
 
 179 12* 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 Higher Intelligence what anyone in the battalion 
 did, but now Cumberland seemed to take an interest 
 at once. After a quarter of an hour's talk Cumber- 
 land was taking his leave. 
 
 " Well," said he, " anything you want from Corps, 
 don't hesitate to ask. That's what we're there for, 
 you know. Sure there isn't anything ? " 
 
 " As a matter of fact there is, but I hardly like to 
 ask you." 
 
 " Why not ? '\ 
 
 " It's such a long shot, sir." 
 
 " Well, what is it ? " 
 
 " I'd like aeroplane photos taken of K.22 squares 
 C. and D. opposite here. New photographs, sir." 
 
 Cumberland was about to ask a question, but looking 
 up he caught the slight flush of colour that had risen 
 in Nowell's face. 
 
 " Righto," he said easily. " We rather pride our- 
 selves on quick work with aeroplane photos up at 
 Corps. I'U have the squares taken to-morrow morn- 
 ing if visibility is pukka. And the finished photos will 
 be in your hands by five o'clock. Good afternoon." 
 
 Cumberland strode along the trench, and Nowell 
 stood staring after him. 
 
 " Never asked me what I wanted 'em for," he 
 muttered. " Taken in. the morning ; in my hands by 
 afternoon. Why, in old Baxter's time such efficiency 
 would have killed him of heart-disease. Well, let's 
 
 180 
 
THE CAT 
 
 Kope that cat's playing the game, and not leading a 
 poor forlorn British Battalion Intelligence Officer to 
 make a fool of himself." 
 
 Ill 
 
 The next afternoon the aeroplane photos duly 
 arrived, together with a note from Cumberland : 
 
 " Dear Nowell, 
 
 " Am sending the photographs of K.22.C. 
 and D. taken to-day, also some I have looked out of 
 the same squares which were taken six weeks ago. It 
 would appear from a comparison that a good deal of 
 work has been put in by the Hun round C. 3.5. It 
 looks like a biggish H.Q. I have informed C.R.A. 
 who says it will be dealt with at 3 pip emma to-morrow, 
 1 8th inst. 
 
 " C. Cumberland, 
 
 " Capt. G.S." 
 
 IV 
 
 It is five minutes to three on the following day, and 
 the bright sun which has shone all the morning has 
 worked round behind the British position. 
 
 In the morning two gunner F.O.O.'s have visited 
 the trenches, compared certain notes with Mr. Nowell, 
 and gone back to their Observation Posts on the higher 
 
 181 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 ground. Nowell himself has decided to watch events 
 from the O.P. in which was laid the first scene of this 
 history. He hurries along to it, and calls out : 
 
 " Who's in there ? " 
 
 " Private Saunders. Private Entworth, sir." 
 
 " Shut the loopholes. I'm coming in." 
 
 He goes in. 
 
 " Move along, Entworth, and I'll sit beside you on 
 the bench and observe with my own glass. Get your* 
 on to the spot where the cat was. Got it ? Right. 
 Two batteries of 6-inch Hows, are going to try and 
 kill that cat, Entworth, in a minute and a half from 
 now. Zero at three o'clock. Nice light, isn't it ? " 
 
 At these words of Nowell's several thoughts, mostly 
 connected with his officer's sanity, flashed through 
 Entworth's rather slow brain, but long before they were 
 formulated Nowell rapped out : 
 
 " Here they come." 
 
 Sounds just like half a dozen gigantic strips of silk 
 being torn right across the sky were clearly audible 
 in the Post. At the same instant through the watching 
 glasses heaps of earth, tin, a stove-pipe, were hurled 
 into the air. There were other grimmer objects, too, 
 as the shells rained down. 
 
 Fifteen minutes later, Mr. Nowell having gone, 
 Private Elitworth was speaking, though his eye was 
 still glued to his glass. 
 
 " Direct 'it right off and right into a nest of 'Uns. 
 
 182 
 
THE CA'f 
 
 There was 'ole 'Uns and bits of 'Uns in the air, I tell 
 yer, Jim Saunders. Loverly shooting, 'twas ! I 
 doubt there's anything at C.35.45. left alive. There is, ^ 
 tho' ! By there is ! There goes that ruddy- 
 coloured cat over the parados like a streak, and what 'o ! 
 for Martinpunch ! " 
 
 And finally an extract from " Comic Cuts," the 
 Corps Intelligence Summary of the next day : 
 
 " A cat having been observed by our snipers daily 
 sleeping on the parados of a supposedly disused enemy 
 trench at K.22.C.3.4. it was deduced from the regu- 
 larity of its habits that the cat lived near-by, and — 
 ovdng to the fact that the German trenches at this 
 point are infested by rats — probably in a dug-out 
 occupied .by enemy officers. Aeroplane photographs 
 were taken which disclosed the existence of a hitherto 
 unlocated enemy H.Q., which was duly dealt with by 
 our Artillery," 
 
 !«.} 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE TRAINING OF THE PORTUGUESE 
 
 A 7[ THEN first we saw the Portuguese troops upon 
 the roads of France, we did not dream 
 that it would fall to our lot to train them in sniping, 
 scouting and observation, but it did so fall, and after 
 one or two Portuguese officers had been attached 
 to the school for instruction, we were suddenly 
 ordered to take an entire Portuguese class. This 
 was the first of three or four, and we usually had 
 eight officers and forty N.C.O.'s and men at a 
 time. 
 
 The Portuguese were equipped largely, as is known, 
 by the British, and had served out to them our short 
 service rifle. In the Portuguese Army they use the 
 Mauser, so our rifle was new to all ranks, and had to be 
 carefully explained. 
 
 Of course, the great difficulty in training Portuguese 
 troops lay in the necessity for the use of interpreters. 
 One of my N.C.O.'s was able to talk Portuguese, 
 which was of great assistance, and from time to time 
 
 184 
 
TRAINING THE PORTUGUESE 
 
 an English-speaking Portuguese officer was attached ; 
 but for the most part none of the officers and men who 
 came to the school could speak a word of English, and 
 the result, as I say, was that we had to carry on through 
 interpreters. 
 
 In one of the first classes there was a Portuguese 
 sergeant who was extremely capable, and very keen on 
 his work. As a mark of appreciation I gave this ser- 
 geant, when he went away, a very nice telescope. About 
 three weeks later the sergeant, who had spent the inter- 
 vening time in the trenches, turned up at the school 
 and said that he wished to speak to the Commandant. 
 He said that he had come to thank me again for the 
 telescope, as it had enabled him to spot a concentra- 
 tion of some fifty Germans, on to whom he had 
 successfully directed artillery fire. He had taken the 
 trouble to walk out quite a number of miles — at 
 least ten or twelve — to inform me of his success. 
 Poor fellow, he was afterwards badly gassed, and 
 when I last saw him was in a very bad way. He 
 was a most useful man as an observer, as he 
 had been the master of some small coasting 
 craft which used to sail up and down the coast 
 between Lisbon and Setubal, and had knowledge of 
 instruments. 
 
 Considering that the Portuguese troops did not know 
 anything about our rifle, they really came along very 
 quickly in shooting. One of the classes was at the 
 
 185 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 school when we were informed that the Portuguese 
 Corps Commander and Staff and various British 
 G.S.O.'s would come over to see a " demonstration " 
 two days before the course ended. The demonstra- 
 tion included shooting at dummy heads exposed for 
 four seconds — five rounds ; application on a 6-inch 
 bulls-eye at two hundred yards ; an attack upon a 
 position, and a demonstration of the work of scouts. 
 As soon as the Portuguese troops realized that they 
 were to be inspected at the end of the course, there 
 was a tremendous competition among them to get 
 into the shooting team, and when the day arrived 
 the eight who were picked obtained 34 hits out of 
 40 shots on the dummy head. At the 200 yards 
 application the team scored 208 out of a possible 
 224. This shows how quickly shooting can be 
 taught when both men and instructors are all out for 
 success. 
 
 The greatest difficulty we had was training Portu- 
 guese as observers ; for none of them had used a 
 telescope before, and it was very difficult to make 
 them realize its possibilities. Of course, I am here 
 talking of the private soldiers. The officers in their 
 observation often made excellent reports, and de- 
 veloped the greatest keenness on the work. There 
 was one thing which occurred, owing to my attempting 
 to speak Portuguese myself, which always struck me 
 as not without its humorous side. 
 
 186 
 
TRAINING THE PORTUGUESE 
 
 I had been attempting to point out to a squad of 
 Portuguese scouts the elementary fact that when you 
 were looking through a bush, or through roots or grass, 
 it was sometimes well worth while to put a leaf or two 
 into your cap. I sent them off to do this, keeping 
 with me a few of their number to observe the value of 
 the experiment. The rest went over the brow of the 
 hill, and were away for some period of time, so 
 long that I was just going to see what was hap- 
 pening when suddenly a bush, followed by several 
 other trees, began to move slowly over the hill ! 
 I. found that the squad, not quite understanding 
 my instructions, had cut down small trees with 
 their large knives, had bound them upon their 
 backs, and in the shadow of these were advancing 
 upon me ! 
 
 A part of their training upon which the Portuguese 
 were extraordinarily keen was patrolhng in No Man's 
 Land. Usually at the school we used to begin this 
 as soon as it was dark, often in summer, therefore, as 
 late as eleven o'clock at night. After two or three 
 hours' patrolling the Portuguese always still wanted to 
 continue, and once they got out into our large imita- 
 tion No Man's Land it was not easy to get them back 
 again. 
 
 At one time, when we had a class of Portuguese, 
 to whom we had been teaching patrolling, an officer 
 and sergeant, who were making a round of Sniping 
 
 187 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 and Infantry Schools, to give demonstrations on 
 patrolling, turned up at the school. The Portuguese 
 held the trench while the demonstrators set out to 
 show them the way in which a reconnaisance patrol 
 should be conducted, I was lying beside the Portu- 
 guese trench, and at once realized that something 
 was afoot. Presently one of the Portuguese officers 
 came up, and said, " Our men say that they hear 
 them and can capture them." I told them to go 
 ahead, and do it. 
 
 Well, that patrol developed. A battle was going 
 on at the time in the north, and all the plateau was 
 lit with the flashes of the guns and the flares of the 
 Verey lights, which the Germans kept firing into the 
 air. For a long time there was silence. The Portu- 
 guese, who had had several days at the school and 
 were learning well, had sent out a strong patrol, 
 which very skilfully worked round and surrounded 
 the hostile reconnaissance. I do not know what 
 happened in No Man's Land, but the sergeant 
 who was doing the demonstration, and who was a 
 ju-jitsu expert, famous in pre-war days in the music 
 halls, was captured and carried in by the Portuguese. 
 There must have been a considerable scrap, for the 
 sergeant was too stiff to come on parade next day ! 
 The Portuguese were much pleased at their success, 
 and almost immediately afterwards th-ey went back 
 to the line, where a German patrol of eleven came 
 
 i88 
 
TRAINING THE PORTUGUESE 
 
 out against them. The Portuguese tried their sur- 
 rounding tactics with such success that they killed 
 eight and captured three. 
 
 One day I was asked by the Portuguese Corps 
 commander to attend a review of the Portuguese 
 Army, which was being held at Marthes, some six 
 miles from my Headquarters. When the time for 
 the march past came, I saw the forty observers we 
 had trained go by under their officers as a separate 
 unit, each with a large white " O " sewn upon his 
 sleeve. 
 
 The great difficulty was to obtain telescopes for 
 these observers, for the demand was, all through the 
 war, vastly in excess of the supply. The G.S. 
 (General Service) telescope used by signallers in the 
 British Army was, I believe, afterwards issued to 
 the Portuguese troops, and this was a quite good 
 enough glass for the purpose. 
 
 Another part of our training which the Portuguese 
 troops took with enthusiasm was the physical train- 
 ing and ju-jitsu. 
 
 Sometimes when we had mixed classes, it was 
 very difficult indeed, as all lectures had to be re- 
 peated in Portuguese, and the ordinary daily morning 
 talks on the care and cleaning of the rifle, the stalldng 
 telescope, or on the work of snipers in attack and 
 defence, which usually took from thirty to forty 
 minutes, used to tail out, as each sentence was 
 
 189 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 translated, into a matter of an hour and a half and 
 even two hours. 
 
 But I think that, on the whole, the Portuguese 
 troops really enjoyed their time at the school, and 
 I remember our taking the field at Association foot- 
 ball with a good sprinkling of them in our team. 
 
 190 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE MODERN SCOUT 
 
 T N all previous wars, the scouts and patrols have 
 had their own special place. In this, the 
 greatest of all wars, although there was much scouting 
 done — ^far more than in any previous war — yet in 
 many respects it was of so different a nature that a 
 new era in these practices may fairly be said to have 
 set in. 
 
 In former wars, the individual scout had far more 
 chance. In the Boer War, for instance, Major 
 F. R. Burnham, D.S.O., an American who held a com- 
 mission in the British Army, made a wonderful name 
 for himself, as did Dan Theron on the Boer side. 
 
 First and last, I suppose that Burnham was the 
 greatest scout of our time. Physically a small man, 
 he was amazingly well knit, and very strong, and his 
 many feats of hardihood owed much to his compact 
 and untiring build. His name will live on account 
 of two feats — the first, his passing through the entire 
 Matabele Army and shooting the M'limo, the witch 
 doctor, who was responsible for the Matabele War ; 
 
 191 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 and the second, his dash through the Boer Hnes, when 
 he blew up the railway on the far side of Pretoria. 
 
 The first article of Burnham's faith was absolute 
 physical fitness, and his idea of physical fitness was 
 'inuch more rigorous than that of most athletes. 
 It was not with him a matter of merely keeping his 
 muscles of speed and endurance in good fettle, but 
 — what is a much harder thing — the keeping of all 
 his senses at their highest pitch of efficiency. Thus, 
 apart from his hearing and eyesight, which were very 
 keen, I have never met anyone else, except one Indian, 
 who possessed anything like his sense of smell. He 
 could smell a small fire in the open at an extraordinary 
 distance, and he told me that this power had often 
 been of the greatest value to him. 
 
 But Burnham was essentially, as a scout, the 
 product of what may be called a savage, or extra- 
 European War, and in this war there was no one on 
 either side who had anything like the same oppor- 
 tunities of hand-to-hand work. Whereas it would 
 perhaps be too much to say that the day of Burnham 
 has passed for ever, yet it is true enough that a new 
 ■generation of scouts has arisen, whose work, or much 
 of it, has been of a very different nature. In open or 
 semi-open warfare a scout may still be ordered to go 
 by day or night, and find out if this or that village is 
 occupied by the enemy, but once trench warfare sets 
 in, and the battle fronts of the opposing armies stretch 
 
 192 
 
THE MODERN SCOUT 
 
 from the sea to Switzerland, the work of the scout 
 undergoes great changes. His theatre of action is 
 No Man's Land, which comprises all the area between 
 the two armies which are drawn up one against the 
 other. 
 
 The Corps Commander of the nth Corps, Sir R. 
 Haking, would never allow the use of the word " No 
 Man's Land." " There is no such place opposite my 
 Corps," he would say. " All the land right up to the 
 edge of the enemy's parapet is our land, and we have 
 got to have control of it." 
 
 I believe I am right in stating that about seven 
 out of every ten raids undertaken on the First Army 
 Front in 1916 were the work of the nth Corps, 
 and they had long held the record in the number 
 of prisoners taken in a single raid. 
 
 The work of the scout was, of course, to dominate 
 the enemy in No Man's Land, and to this end he 
 was continually patrolling it during the hours of 
 darkness. Little, as a rule, is done by daylight, 
 though Gaythorne-Hardy, who was Intelligence 
 Officer of the 4th BattaHon of the Royal Berkshire 
 Regiment, and whom I have referred to before, in 
 order to investigate the German wire under Hill 63, 
 near Messines, decided, after looking at the ground 
 with a telescope, to crawl out by day. The German 
 hnes were some three hundred to four hundred yards 
 away. The season was summer, and the grass long. 
 
 193 13 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 In winter, crawling between the lines was almost 
 impossible, owing to lack of cover. 
 
 The officer in question, accompanied by a corporal, 
 crawled right up to the enemy wire, and got all 
 information and a complete plan of the ground and 
 obstacles. It was a task upon which any but a skilled 
 hunter of big game, as my friend is, might easily have 
 given himself away. To crawl across three hundred 
 yards of open ground, with hundreds of German eyes 
 watching for any movement, and bent on investigating 
 any suspicious spot with a machine-gun, calls for 
 courage and good nerve. This officer, however, had 
 examined his route, decided to make the attempt, and 
 he came back successful. He said it was no more 
 difficult than stalking a deer. He was awarded the 
 ivlilitary Cross, and the corporal is now a sergeant 
 with the D.C.M. 
 
 But not much was done in No Man's Land in day- 
 light. Snipers lay out in it, and sentries watched 
 /it, and both sides sent a deal of lead across it, but 
 / when night fell, it became tenanted, and scouts and 
 ,' patrols crawled out into it — and sometimes never 
 came back. The aim, of course, was always domina- 
 tion, and in order to gain domination many strange 
 things were done. 
 
 For instance, there was the " Silent Death," as it 
 was called, invented by the Canadians, who, under 
 cover of darkness, crawled out into No Man's Land 
 
 194 
 
[/ > n h nic n I I 
 
 Nigni-worK in No Man s_Lana. 
 
 IToffiw p. 1!U. 
 
THE MODERN SCOUT 
 
 every night, and lay there awaiting the advent of a 
 German patrol. If such came, it was attacked hand 
 to hand with trench daggers, and its members killed 
 as silently as possible. This soon made the Germans 
 very shy of taking their evening crawl, when so many 
 of them who had gone over the top vanished into 
 the darkness and were never heard of again. 
 
 At length the Germans almost gave up patrolling 
 in that sector, and one of my officers who used to 
 be in charge of a " Silent Death " party has often 
 told me how dull and chilly were those long and 
 weary waits in the frost or the rain, waiting for Huns 
 who never came. 
 
 In trench warfare. No Man's Land was the cockpit 
 of the war. Some sections of it were more favourable 
 than others for action, but every evening and every 
 night a great number of British used to go out in 
 front. When one first went out, it seemed almost 
 certain that one must be killed. There was a spas- 
 modic sputter of fire from machine-guns, but as 
 an actual matter of fact, moving about in No Man's 
 Land was much safer than it seemed. 
 
 At first our patrols were very haphazard, and you- 
 could sometimes hear a private roaring out that a 
 patrol was out, and that it would return at such 
 and such an hour to such and such a point. This 
 was giving away things with a vengeance to any 
 Germans who spoke English, and it sounds almost 
 
 195 13* 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 impossible that it should have been done — yet it was 
 done, and not in isolated cases only. 
 
 I do not think that scouts ever got very far into 
 the German lines ; at any rate, during the con- 
 tinuance of trench warfare. To do so was well- 
 nigh impossible, and behind the German battle-front 
 the place of the scout was taken by the spy or secret 
 service agent. 
 
 But to return to No Man's Land. There was a 
 certain sergeant who got a D.C.M. for removing a 
 trench board. A raid was projected by us, and, as 
 usual, a careful rehearsal had been gone through. 
 The scheme was to attack a certain sector of enemy 
 trenches about two hundred yards long. This length 
 of trench had to be blocked off at each end, so as 
 to prevent assistance coming to the enemy down the 
 trench from either flank. 
 
 Two parties were therefore told off to capture and 
 
 hold the two points, which were to be the limits of 
 
 our raid. Both parties went over, the northern 
 
 party arriving in strength, but the southern had 
 
 casualties from machine-gun fire, and finally only 
 
 the sergeant and one private arrived in the enemy 
 
 trench. Here the private was killed before the 
 
 enemy fled, and there was only the sergeant to form 
 
 the block and keep off the reinforcements which 
 
 were sure to come. 
 
 The sergeant, however, was a man of resource, 
 
 196 
 
THE MODERN SCOUT 
 
 and he swiftly removed the duck-board from the 
 trench draining well — a large sump hole, or pit, 
 which lay between him and the path taken by the 
 retreating Germans. The trenches are often drained 
 by pits of this kind, dug in the middle of the right- 
 of-way, and bridged by a duck-board laid across 
 them. In these pits there collected a mass of liquid 
 mud as thick as glue. The sergeant removed the 
 duck-board, and relaid it eight or ten feet on his 
 side of the mud-hole. Then he went round the 
 corner of the next traverse, and waited to see what 
 would happen. 
 
 Meantime, the main raiding party had got to 
 work, and soon enemy reinforcements came rushing 
 along the trench towards the sergeant. Seeing the 
 duck-board ahead of them, they mistook the position 
 of the mud-hole, and in they crashed. Soon the 
 hole was as full of men as is a newly-opened tin of 
 sardines. Next the sergeant opened fire upon them. 
 The whole raid was a glorious success. Prisoners 
 were taken, and German dug-outs blown up — a 
 result that could hardly have occurred had it not 
 been that the sergeant had the sense and acumen 
 to remove the duck-board ; thus, by a very simple 
 action, holding up quite a mass of reinforcements. 
 
 There is another raid story, for which I do not 
 
 vouch, but which was firmly believed in the First 
 
 Army. 
 
 197 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 All enemy movement was watched by aeroplanes, 
 and photographed and reported. As the war went 
 on, the science of aeroplane photography progressed 
 enormously. It is hardly too much to say that the 
 Germans could not deepen a trench without our 
 knowing it almost at once. We never made a raid — 
 or, at least, need never have made one — without "all 
 who were going over, even down to the private 
 soldier, having the opportunity of studying photo- 
 graphs of the trenches where their work lay. 
 
 The Germans, of course, did the same, but in a 
 limited degree, as their aeroplanes did not dare to 
 come over our lines in the way that ours crossed 
 theirs. 
 
 Once, when the Germans were contemplating a 
 raid, their Flying Corps succeeded in taking photo- 
 graphs of that portion of our trenches which was to 
 be attacked. With the help of these photographs, 
 the German Command caused to be built an exact 
 repUca of the trenches which they intended to raid. 
 They did this at no great distance behind their lines, 
 with a view to rehearsing the raid just as a play is 
 rehearsed in a theatre. We, of course, often did the 
 same. 
 
 But to continue. One of our aeroplanes hap- 
 pened to pass over just as the Germans were having 
 a daylight rehearsal, and, noticing the concentration 
 
 of troops and the new workings of earth, a photo- 
 
 198 
 
THE MODERN SCOUT 
 
 graph was taken. This photograph was, of course, 
 sent in the ordinary routine to Army Headquarters. 
 
 The Army possessed an extremely capable aerial 
 photography expert, who soon made his deduction, 
 and as he, of course, possessed the photographs of the 
 entire front Une system of the Army, it was not long 
 before he had identified that piece of it which the 
 Germans had copied, and on which they were medi- 
 tating an attack. 
 
 There was only one object which could lead them 
 to practise attacks upon so short a length of line. 
 A raid was clearly in contemplation. The expert 
 informed the General Staff of his discovery, and the 
 General Staff informed those who were manning 
 the threatened area. Preparations were made and 
 precautions taken, and, sure enough, the Germans 
 came over, to meet about as hot a reception as 
 even modern war can provide. 
 
 As I say, I do not know if this story is apocryphal 
 or not, but if it is, others about our aeroplane photo- 
 graphy and its amazing efficiency were common talk 
 in the Army. 
 
 Psychologically, going out into No Man's Land in 
 the dark, especially if you are alone, is a distinctly 
 eerie business. I really have no right to write much 
 about it, as I was only out in front on a few occasions. 
 On one, I remember, I was more frightened than I 
 hope ever to be again. Although the story is 
 
 199 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 personal, as it is against myself there can be no 
 harm in telling it. 
 
 I had gone out to a cottage which stood in No 
 Man's Land. It was pretty dark, and a wild night, 
 and there was, of course, a chance that some German 
 might be in the cottage, which, though heavily 
 shelled, was not entirely smashed. 
 
 After listening for a while and hearing no sound, 
 I went in, and on the ground floor there was nothing 
 but the usual mass of rubble and brick. A ladder 
 led up to the second floor, and I climbed up this 
 and began to tip-toe across the floor. One got a 
 good deal of light from the star-shells which were 
 thrown up by the Germans, but in a particularly dark 
 moment I suddenly felt my left leg go from under 
 me. I thought that it had been plucked away by 
 some crouching Hun, or else that I had been hit by 
 some missile — in fact, never did thoughts come 
 quicker or more confusedly ! What had really hap- 
 pened was that I had put my leg through the floor, 
 and had got rather a heavy jar. But anything more 
 disagreeable than that moment I have never 
 experienced. 
 
 Of course, it is only one of the little incidents that 
 are the hourly lot of those who go out into No Man's 
 Land, but one's nerves are on these occasions strung 
 up to a very high pitch. 
 
 But, as I say, my experience of No Man's Land was 
 
 200 
 
THE MODERN SCOUT 
 
 really so small as to be negligible, for when I was in 
 the line I -was sniping or observing all day, and you 
 cannot do that and work at night also. 
 
 Crawling out into No Man's Land in daylight is a 
 very diflEerent business, and if there is reasonable cover, 
 it is to my mind more satisfactory to crawl out then, 
 when your life depends on your own skill, than to crawl 
 about in the dark over the bodies of men who have been 
 dead for weeks, and when Chance of the blindest kind 
 absolutely rules the game. 
 
 Now, of course, when a patrol is sent out the report 
 handed in should be in a definite and generally accepted 
 form, giving the composition of the patrol. 
 
 I can perhaps explain my meaning best by referring 
 the reader to the appendix on Patrols, at the end of 
 this book. 
 
 Of course, patrolling in No Man's Land is only 
 one small part of a scout's duties, and when the war 
 became more open there were many opportunities for 
 scouts. 
 
 One point that struck me as being exceedingly 
 valuable was the proper delivery of messages by run- 
 ners. Major Crum used to demonstrate this by a 
 small piece of acting which was extraordinarily well 
 done, in which an object lesson was given as to how 
 not to deliver a message, and how a message should 
 be delivered. In moments of excitement many men 
 become somewhat prolix, and it is of the utmost 
 
 201 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 importance that they should be taught to get their 
 message into the fewest and clearest possible words. 
 
 A question that arose as the war went on was the 
 definition of the duties of a sniper and a scout. It 
 was held in some quarters that a sniper and a scout 
 were two quite different men, who had in view two 
 entirely different objects. The sniper, those who 
 held this view said, was a man whose first duty was 
 offensive action against the enemy, whereas a scout's 
 duty was not to fight, but to obtain information. We 
 at the school could never see it in this light, for there 
 must be occasions when a scout must fight to get his 
 information back, or indeed, to obtain it, and it seemed 
 futile that in the morning a man should ask himself, 
 " Am I to-day a sniper or a scout ? " 
 
 I would not refer to these opinions had they not been 
 rather widely held. 
 
 A modern scout must know a great many things — ■ 
 so many that it is almost impossible to detail them all, 
 and for this reason a scout's work changes with the 
 conditions under which he is working. 
 
 But I do not think that for a long time sufficient 
 use was made of modern science in the equipment of 
 the scout. A scout may, in a single two hours of his 
 life, be a sniper, an observer, and the old-fashioned 
 scout who has to go out to find out things at close 
 range. He has to be essentially an individualist 
 capable of seeing and seizing his opportunity. He 
 
 202 
 
THE MODERN SCOUT 
 
 must be a man of instant decision, who understands the 
 value of cover and background, who possesses that 
 quality which is very often born in men, a sense of 
 direction. 
 
 His training was exceedingly difficult, and unless 
 he had a natural aptitude, no amount of teaching 
 was of any real practical value. Think what a differ- 
 ence it makes to a Commanding Officer to have in 
 his battalion a certain number of men, however few, 
 whom he can send out to obtain information, and who 
 are so accurate and so dependable that he can always 
 act upon their reports. There are hundreds of such 
 men in the Lovat Scouts, but then, of course, the 
 whole trend of their lives is towards observation, 
 skilled movement, and accuracy. The man who has 
 spent twenty years on the hill, and who has counted 
 the points on a thousand stags, who knows the differ- 
 ence between every track that he sees in a corrie, and 
 who is never far from his telescope, is, when he goes 
 to war, simply carrying into another sphere the normal 
 activities of his life. 
 
 And yet there should be no difficulty in training a 
 number of scouts in every battaHon, but the ideal 
 scout, or rather the ideal scout section, in a regiment, 
 should he looked up to. Their immense value should 
 be realized, and due credit and honour given to them 
 for their skill: The scouts of a battalion should be 
 the pick of that battalion, and the fact that a man has 
 
 203 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 attained the rank of scout should be signalized by his 
 receiving extra -pay and extra consideration. 
 
 As long as war lasts it will he necessary to find out 
 what is in the enemy'' s mind, and this is so important, 
 that those who prove themselves capable oj discovering 
 and oj giving warning of what is about to occur, should 
 be objects of admiration and respect to all their com- 
 rades. 
 
 Of course there is another point which struck one 
 most strongly, and this was the examination of prison- 
 ers. 
 
 It may well be that a man cannot help being taken, 
 whether through wounds or otherwise, but it is 
 of the first importance that he should give away 
 nothing to the enemy. For this reason, as scouts and 
 anyone who has anything to do with any kind of In- 
 telligence work are always put through a much more 
 rigorous examination if they should be captured, we 
 were very strongly against badges for scouts. 
 
 Let us take the ordinary Tommy. If he is captured, 
 unless it unfortunately happens that he 'knows of some 
 imminent move that is to be made, there is very little 
 danger of his giving away anything, for the simple 
 reason that he knows so little. But a scout is another 
 matter. He knows all the posts in our line ; he knows 
 something of the system by which the various offshoots 
 of Intelligence work are being operated, and as he has 
 been trained to observation of detail and deduction, 
 
 204 
 
THE MODERN SCOUT 
 
 he is a man who, if he can be got to speak, will reveal 
 things of great value to the enemy. 
 
 The only two questions that a prisoner need answer 
 are his name and regiment, but many and sinister are 
 the tricks by which he may be beguiled. 
 
 A British officer who is supposed to have special 
 knowledge is, let us imagine, captured by the Ger- 
 mans. He is wounded, and is taken up to the Head- 
 quarters of a German Division. He is examined, and, 
 of course, give^ away nothing. Now what happens ? 
 Very possibly a German officer comes to him and says : 
 " Herr Captain, we deeply regret that there is no room 
 for you in the officers' quarters in the Hospital. We 
 trust that you will not object if you are put in a room 
 with a British N.C.O." The officer, of course, says 
 he does not object, and he goes into the room. There 
 he will find a British N.C.O. heavily bandaged and lying 
 groaning upon his bed. It is inevitable, if they are 
 two or three days together, that conversation will 
 take place between them. The so-called British 
 N.C.O. is, however, simply a decoy. He is not 
 wounded at all, and his business is, by clever questions, 
 to extract certain information which the British officer 
 is supposed to possess. 
 
 Again, when men were taken prisoners, very often 
 into the guard-room in which they were confined 
 would be thrown another Britisher, bleeding and 
 wounded, who v/ould raise a tremendous outcry and 
 
 205 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 declaim upon his wrongs. The newcomer, as a matter 
 of fact, often was only a clever actor coached to his 
 part, who was simply put into the guard-house to 
 ferret out information. 
 
 These are not isolated incidents, but a commonly 
 accepted policy in the German Army. After all, it is 
 natural enough, for a little bit of information may win 
 a battle, and it was certainly held among our foes that 
 the end justified the means. 
 
 But as the war went on, and these things came to 
 knowledge, it needed some very clever work on the part 
 of the Germans to obtain information from those who 
 had been warned. Of course, as long as the world 
 continues there are, one supposes, men who will under- 
 take work of this kind, whether for money or urged on 
 by some other motive. The motive may be good 
 even. The decoy may be actuated by a really high 
 form of patriotism. But not often. For the most 
 part he is one of those men who have a touch of the 
 traitor in them, and who are in some way perverted 
 in their minds. 
 
 Of course to be a decoy back at Divisional Head- 
 quarters is a safe and probably a paying job, but it is 
 one which must always leave a very nasty taste in the 
 mouth. 
 
 So much for German methods of interrogation. 
 
 When we took German prisoners, they were very 
 often in a state of pitiable fright, for they had been 
 
 206 
 
THE MODERN SCOUT 
 
 absolutely fed by their officers with stories of the most 
 circumstantial nature of the habitual brutality of 
 the British to their prisoners ; and yet it was a fine sight 
 to see a German prisoner, obviously afraid to his very 
 bones, and yet absolutely determined to give away 
 nothing. One really laboured under an almost in- 
 controllable impulse to go and shake such a man by 
 the hand. After all, courage of the lonely sort is 
 surely the most glorious thing that we can hope to 
 witness, and whether it is displayed upon our side or 
 upon the other, one feels the better for having wit- 
 nessed it. 
 
 207 
 
APPENDICES 
 
 14 
 
APPENDIX A 
 
 The following is a programme which has given 
 excellent results when training Brigade, Divisional, 
 Corps Observers and Lovat Scouts Observers. 
 
 1st Day. 
 
 2nd Day 
 
 Lecture. 
 Practical. 
 
 Lecture. 
 Practical. 
 
 3rd Day. Lecture. 
 
 Maps and Conventional Signs. 
 Comparison of Map with the 
 
 Ground. 
 Setting Maps. 
 Location of points by drawing 
 
 rays. 
 The Stalking Telescope. 
 Front Line Observation with 
 
 Reports. 
 Instruction and Practice in 
 
 reading. 
 Map co-ordinates. 
 Judging Distance. 
 Contours, gradients, slopes, 
 
 etc. 
 Practical. Pegging out contours on the 
 
 ground. 
 Long Distance Observation 
 
 with Reports. 
 Judging Distance. 
 
 211 
 
 14* 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 4th Day. Lecture. The Prismatic Compass. 
 Practical. Taking Bearings. 
 
 Working out mutual visibility 
 
 problems. 
 Concave and convex slopes, 
 drawing slopes. 
 
 5tli Day. Lecture. The use of the protractor. 
 Practical. Plotting Bearings. 
 
 Re-section problems. 
 Long distance Observation 
 with Reports. 
 
 6th Day. Lecture. Scales. 
 
 Practical. Road Traverse. 
 
 Filling in conventional signs 
 
 and contours. 
 Long Distance Observation 
 with Reports. 
 
 7th Day. Lecture. Use of Scouts and Observers 
 
 in Attack and Defence. 
 Practical. Marching to Map co-ord- 
 inates. 
 Selection of positions for Ob- 
 servation Posts. 
 Front I^ine Observation with 
 Reports. 
 212 
 
APPENDIX A 
 
 8th Day. Scheme. 
 
 9 th Day. 
 
 loth Day. 
 
 Lecture. 
 Practical. 
 
 Lecture. 
 Practical. 
 
 lithDay. Practical. 
 
 1 2th Day. Practical. 
 
 13th Day. Practical. 
 14th Day. 
 
 with 
 
 of 
 
 Bringing in the use of Ob- 
 servers in Open Warfare. 
 
 Construction and conceal- 
 ment of Observation Posts. 
 
 Taking Bearings with 
 Compass. 
 
 Front Line Observation. 
 
 Locating of points by drawing 
 rays. 
 
 Compass March (by Day). 
 
 Aeroplane Photographs. 
 
 Comparison of photos 
 the ground. 
 
 Re-section problems. 
 
 Handing over and relief 
 Observation Posts. 
 
 Using Telescope as Director. 
 
 Long Distance Observation 
 with Reports. 
 
 Use of Director Board. 
 
 Making and plotting a Road 
 Traverse. 
 
 Making a Road Report. 
 
 Compass March (by Night). 
 
 Enlarging Map and con- 
 structing scales. 
 
 Work with Director Board. 
 
 Recapitulation and Examina- 
 tions. 
 213 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 General Course at First Army S.O.S. School 
 
 (From this the Battalion I. O. can frame Pro- 
 grammes of work to suit any period of Rest.) 
 
 The following lectures are given during the Course, 
 and are attended by all students except in the case of 
 No. II, which is attended by the officers only. 
 
 1. Care of Arms and Grouping. 
 
 2. The Enfield 1914 pattern Rifle. 
 
 3. The Stalking Telescope. 
 
 4. General lecture on Map-reading. 
 
 5. Patrolling and Scouting. 
 
 6. Elevations and Wind. 
 
 7. The construction of Sniping and Forward 
 
 O.P.'s. 
 
 8. General lecture on Telescopic- Sighted Rifles. 
 
 9. Duties of Scouts, Observers and Snipers in 
 
 Attack and Defence. 
 
 10. Front Line Observation and Reports. 
 
 11. Duties of the Bn. Intelligence Officer. 
 
 12. Aeroplane photos, with Lantern Slides. 
 
 214 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 13. General Musketry Lecture. 
 
 14. Bayonet Training (by Supt. P. and B. T. 
 
 First Army). 
 
 {Note : — Nos. 13 and 14 are given on two evenings 
 during the last week of the Course.) 
 
 In addition to the above and to the Programme, 
 the officers go thoroughly into such subjects as : 
 
 1. Map-reading and Field Sketching. 
 
 2. Use of Prismatic Compass. 
 
 3. Enlarging Maps and interpolation of Contours, 
 
 4. Panorama Sketching. 
 
 5. Adjustments and care of Telescopic sights. 
 
 6. Methods and principles of Instruction. 
 
 7. Organization and Training. 
 
 8. Practical study of Ground. 
 
 Practical work is also given to all students in the 
 following subjects at night : 
 
 1. Patrolling. 
 
 2. Marching on Compass Bearings. 
 
 3. Concentration Marches with and without 
 
 Box Respirators. 
 
 4. Siting and construction of Posts. 
 
 5. Night Firing, and the use of Field Glasses and 
 
 Stalking Telescopes on suitable nights. 
 ai5 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 It will be seen that the two Sundays have been 
 omitted ; on these days the Range is open to all ranks 
 for voluntary shooting under a qualified Instructor. 
 
 Instruction in the use of Armour Piercing S.A.A., 
 Disguising, Methods of Instruction, Practice in 
 Map-reading, Taking Bearings, etc., etc., goes on con- 
 tinually while students await their turn to fire. 
 1st Morning. General talk on the objects of the 
 
 Course and discipline during. 
 Thorough examination of open- 
 sighted rifles for defects. Demon- 
 stration of Grouping and Hold- 
 ing. Grouping at loo yards, 
 followed by analysis of faults 
 and correction of rifles where 
 necessary. 
 Afternoon. Lecture : Care of Arms and Group- 
 ing. (Practical) Observation on 
 a German Trench with reports. 
 Criticism of Reports. 
 2nd Morning. Lecture : The Stalking Telescope. 
 (Practical) Repetition of failures 
 in Grouping practice. Applica- 
 tion at 200-300 yards. Observa- 
 tion of single shot strike. 
 Afternoon. Practical Observation. 
 
 (a) On German Trench. 
 {b) Open Country. 
 216 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 3rd Morning. Lecture : The Enfield 19 14 pattern 
 Rifle. (Practical) Judging Dis- 
 tance up to 600 yards. Snap- 
 shooting at 100-200 yards, 4 
 seconds' exposure. Application at 
 200 yards. Hawkins position. 
 
 Afternoon. 
 
 4th Morning. 
 
 Practical Map-reading on the ground 
 and long distance observations 
 with Reports. 
 
 Lecture : General lecture on Map- 
 reading. (Practical) Application 
 at 400-500' yards. Application 
 at unknown range (within 400 
 yards). 
 
 Afternoon. Demonstration ; Use of Ground 
 and Cover. (Practical) Practice 
 in selecting, attaining and con- 
 structing hasty observation posts 
 for open warfare. Cover from 
 view rather than Cover from 
 fire to be specialized in. 
 
 5th Morning. Lecture : Patrolling and Scouting. 
 (Practical) Application at 300 
 yards. Snapshooting at loo and 
 200 yards. 3 seconds' exposure. 
 217 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 Afternoon. Demonstration of Camouflage and 
 its uses. (Practical) Scheme : 
 Snipers are given an area of 
 ground in which they must es- 
 tablish posts utilizing the material 
 found on the spot for disguise. 
 Observers select posts from which 
 they can command the above 
 area. The snipers will fire blank 
 from the posts they have selected 
 at any observers who expose 
 themselves ; also endeavour to 
 give the map-reference of their 
 targets. The observers endea- 
 vour to locate and give map- 
 references of the snipers' posts. 
 6th Morning. Lecture : Elevations and Wind. 
 Demonstration : Building in 
 battens for and spotting enemy 
 snipers ; actual practice in above 
 each student to locate at least 
 two snipers. (Practical) Snap- 
 shooting combined with move- 
 ment ; students endeavour to ad- 
 vance unseen from 500 to 100 
 yards. Targets representing 
 enemy heads appear at odd places 
 
 and intervals in the butts. 
 218 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 Aft. 
 
 ernoon. 
 
 8 th Morning. 
 
 Afternoon. 
 9th Morning. 
 
 Afternoon, 
 loth Morning. 
 
 Demonstration : Building in and 
 use of Night Firing Boxes. Actual 
 practice in above. Observation 
 on a German trench, the appear- 
 ance of which is altered by 
 moving sand-bags, loopholes, etc., 
 with reports. 
 
 Lecture : The construction of For- 
 ward and Sniping O.P.'s. (Prac- 
 tical) Patrolling with the use 
 of Night Firing Goggles. Prac- 
 tice in the correct use of cover 
 and in keeping touch. Applica- 
 tion practice at unknown range. 
 
 Practice in marching by day on 
 Compass bearings with and with- 
 out Box-respirators. 
 
 Lecture : General lecture on tele- 
 scopic sighted rifles. (Practical) 
 Zeroing of telescopic sighted 
 rifles. 
 
 Complete the zeroing of rifles. 
 Long distance observation. 
 
 Lecture : Duties of scouts, obser- 
 vers and snipers in attack and 
 defence. (Practical) Grouping 
 at 100 yards with Telescopic 
 sighted rifles. Practice in scout- 
 ing in Open Country, with re- 
 ports. 
 219 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 Afternoon. 
 
 nth Morning. 
 
 Afternoon. 
 
 1 2th Morning. 
 
 Afternoon. 
 
 Scheme : Making " Good " woods 
 and enclosed country with scouts 
 and snipers. 
 
 Lecture : Front Une observation 
 and reports. (Practical) Ap- 
 plication at 200 yards with tele- 
 scopic sighted rifles. Snap- 
 shooting at 100-200 yards, 3 
 seconds' exposure. 
 
 Concentration march. Students 
 are put into four parties, each 
 representing a platoon. They are 
 given a map co-ordinate at which 
 they must concentrate at a given 
 time. Signals representing Gas 
 Alarm are given, when all students 
 put on their box-respirators and 
 continue the march. 
 
 Lecture : Duties of the Bn. In- 
 telligence Officer. (Practical) 
 Application at 300-400 yards. 
 Observation on a German trench. 
 
 Scheme : To demonstrate the use 
 of Scouts and Snipers as a pro- 
 tective advanced screen to In- 
 fantry in open or semi-open war- 
 fare. 
 220 
 
1 3 th Morning. 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 Lecture : Aeroplane Photos, with 
 Lantern Slides. Practical study 
 of aeroplane photographs on the 
 actual ground depicted in the 
 photo. 
 
 Examinations in Long distance and 
 Front line observations. 
 
 Oral- examinations. Mutual In- 
 struction. Written examination. 
 Examination of note-books. Com- 
 petition shoots. 
 
 Note : — ^The above programme is only given as 
 a guide ; changes in sequence must often occur 
 through inclemency of the weather. 
 
 Afternoon. 
 
 15th and l6th. 
 
 221 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 The following are the rough notes used for some 
 of the Lectures given at the First Army School of 
 S.O.S. in France. 
 
 PART I 
 
 Care of Arms, Grouping and Range Practices : 
 
 It is essential that the Sniper shall have a 
 really' clean rifle if he is to obtain the extreme 
 accuracy that is required of him. By a clean 
 rifle I mean a rifle in the cleaning of which not 
 only have all the normal precautions been taken, 
 but, in addition, the bore has received a very 
 high polish. This high polish is of great import- 
 ance to accurate shooting, and to be efficient 
 as a Sniper you must be far more accurate than 
 the average Service Shot. Hence the necessity 
 for going rather deeply into Care of Arms. 
 
 22? 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 Avoidable Causes of Inaccuracy : 
 
 oily barrel : 
 
 Is a great cause of inaccuracy, as the resistance 
 offered to the bullet in its passage down the bore 
 is varied, and thus the shooting of the rifle 
 becomes inconsistent. 
 
 OILY BREECH : 
 
 This prevents correct " seizing " in the breech, 
 and tends to lead to a blow-back. If a blow- 
 back occurs there is a loss of driving power, 
 muzzle velocity is decreased and accuracy is 
 lost. 
 
 CORDWEAR : 
 
 Is caused by misuse of the pull-through, and 
 usually occurs at the muzzle, but in cases of 
 extreme negligence it may be found in the cham- 
 ber. When it occurs at the muzzle, gases escape 
 through the cord groove as the bullet is leaving, 
 thus forcing it in the opposite direction. If 
 in the chamber, it is a source of weakness, and a 
 burst chamber may be the result. 
 
 FIXING THE BAYONET : 
 
 Musketry Regulations inform us that with the 
 
 " S.M.L.E." the effect of fixing the bayonet 
 
 is to throw your shot i8 inches high at 200 yards' 
 
 range. This is because the extra weight slows 
 
 223 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 down the vibration, and thus converts a negative 
 into a positive jump. Hence, as a Sniper, you 
 will fire without your bayonet fixed. 
 
 {Note : — From tests carried out at this First 
 Army School of S.O.S. it would appear that 
 Musketry regulations greatly over-estimate the 
 effect caused by fixing the bayonet.) 
 
 HOLD : 
 
 Unless the Sniper reproduces the same hold 
 for each shot and when he rests his rifle rests it 
 always at the same point (for preference the 
 middle band), his shooting can never be con- 
 sistent. 
 
 AMMUNITION : 
 
 Different makes of S.A.A. give slightly dif- 
 ferent elevations on the target. This is because 
 the Powders burn at different rates, thus slightly 
 altering the jump. 
 
 WARPED WOODWORK : 
 
 The fore-end is fitted so as not to influence 
 the barrel when firing. The barrel must be able 
 to lie perfectly straight as each shot leaves it. 
 If the fore-end is warped (and warped fore-ends 
 are common) the barrel will be unable to lie as 
 was intended, and erratic shooting will result. 
 224 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 CAUSES : 
 
 1. Wet entering between the barrel and the 
 
 fore-end. 
 
 2. Unequal dryness such as caused by rifle 
 
 lying in hot sun or in front of fire. 
 
 3. Dry woodwork. 
 
 4. Twisting of wood through insufficient 
 
 seasoning before use. 
 
 PREVENTION OF : 
 
 Oil all woodwork daily, ensuring that the oil 
 penetrates between the hand-guard, fore- 
 end and barrel. 
 
 CURE OF : 
 
 Armourer refits fore-end. 
 
 Some Unavoidable Causes : 
 nickelling or metallic fouling : 
 
 Is really an obstruction in- the bore caused by 
 a portion of the envelope of the bullet becoming 
 brazed on the surface of the bore. It is a cause 
 of great inaccuracy, and its presence should always 
 be looked for. When found, it must be removed. 
 This should be done by an Armourer. 
 
 EROSION : 
 
 Is the gradual increase in the size of the bore, 
 
 and is caused through the heat generated by the 
 225 15 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 gases slightly fusing the metal. The gases 
 rushing over the metal carry away minute par- 
 ticles of the steel. This is the factor which 
 decides " The Life of the Barrel " for purposes 
 of real accuracy. 
 
 DRIFT : 
 
 Is the continual deviation of the bullet in the 
 direction of the rifling. About one minute, 
 i.e., one inch per loo yards, must be allowed for 
 this at the longer ranges in sniping. 
 
 Other Definitions : 
 superficial fouling : 
 
 The fouling that appears in the bore im- 
 mediately after firing. It is then quite soft 
 and easily removed, but if allowed to remain, 
 it becomes hard, difficult to remove and, by 
 attracting moisture from the air, begins the 
 rusting process. 
 
 INTERNAL FOULING : 
 
 Fouling that actually gets below the surface 
 of the metal when firing ; this gradually sweats 
 its way to the surface and should be removed 
 as it appears. 
 
 {Note : — If cleaned with really boiling water, 
 
 the pores are reopened, internal fouling is re- 
 226 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 moved, and thus the cause of sweating is done 
 away with. The Barrel must, however, be 
 dried immediately, or the cure wUl be worse 
 than the complaint.) 
 
 CORROSION : 
 
 Is the black pock-mark or indentation left in 
 the bore after removing rust. 
 
 CLEANING RODS : 
 
 Finally it is suggested that a cleaning-rod 
 properly used is better than a pull-through : 
 each Battalion is authorized to hold 32 of these 
 Rods on Charge. (See G.R.O.'s 512, 540 and 
 2,094.) 
 
 Grouping and Range Practices : 
 It must be understood that Grouping with the 
 Open Sights is a definite test of {a) the rifle, 
 and (b) the man. 
 
 Grouping is a practical system of locating 
 faults, and it is of the utmost importance that 
 such faults, having once been located, should at 
 once be corrected. It should also be clearly 
 understood that a man's average group at a given 
 range, i.e., 100 yards, will (except for the error 
 of the day) be the measure of his capacity at all 
 ranges. For instance, if his average at 1 00 
 yards be a 3-inch group, his best standard will be a 
 227 15* 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 6-inch group at 200 yards, 9-inch group at 300 
 yards, 12-inch group at 400 yards, and so on. 
 
 Unless this fact is clearly understood, we shall 
 have our men making shot corrections when actu- 
 ally shooting up to standard, and if this is done, 
 consistent shooting can never be obtained. 
 
 LESSONS TO BE LEARNT FROM A GROUP : 
 
 1. If a man makes a vertical group it is fairly 
 safe to assume that he is making one of the follow- 
 ing errors : 
 
 (a) Varying amount of fore-sight taken. 
 
 (b) Varying point of Aim. 
 
 (c) Not restraining his breathing when 
 
 trigger-pressing. 
 
 2. If he makes a lateral group his error will be 
 usually found among the following : 
 
 (a) Incorrect centreing of fore-sight. 
 
 (b) Varying point of Aim. 
 
 (c) Bad let-off. 
 
 3. If he gets a good group, but wide of the 
 
 aiming mark, it will be safe to assume that his 
 
 rifle is throwing wide and should be corrected at 
 
 once by alteration of fore-sight. For this reason 
 
 the Armourer or other qualified person should 
 
 be present when grouping is being carried out. 
 228 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 4. If a man's shots are widely scattered, it 
 will be necessary to carry out the Analysis of 
 faults, i.e. : 
 
 R. Test Rifle. 
 
 A. Test Aim. 
 
 T. Test Trigger-pressing. 
 
 S. Test Sight. 
 
 You should by this time have discovered the 
 fault, but remember it is of no use having found 
 • it unless you can cure it before proceeding 
 further. 
 
 5. If the rifle be correct the point of Mean 
 Impact should be 5 inches above the point of Aim. 
 If incorrect the fore-sight should be altered. 
 The following can be got on indent for this 
 purpose. 
 
 Cramp R.S.L.M.E. 
 
 Supply of fore-sights in nine different heights. 
 
 RANGE PRACTICES : 
 
 Nothing definite can be laid down on account 
 of the lack of uniform targets, ranges, etc., but the 
 following hints may be of value : 
 
 I. If a liaison be cultivated between Battalion 
 
 Sniping officers in the Brigade, it will be easy to 
 
 improvise a Range and Target for the use of the 
 
 Battalion in rest. 
 
 229 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 2. When in divisional rest it is usually possible 
 to find a Range ready for use in the Training 
 Area. 
 
 3. Excellent work and all Zeroing can be done 
 on even a 30-yard range by the really keen officer. 
 
 4. Training in shooting should be carried 
 out with an Open and not a Telescopic sighted 
 rifle, which should be kept for : 
 
 (a) Snapping Practice. 
 
 (b) Shooting in order to Zero. 
 
 (c) Killing the enemy. 
 
 It is important that the barrels of these rifles 
 should not be worn out in practice shooting. 
 
 5. All training should be made progressive 
 and where possible competitive. 
 
 6. The first essential is extreme accuracy, after 
 which the Instructor must coach up for rapid 
 snapshooting, the ultimate standard being looked 
 upon as the ability to get off a really good shot 
 under two seconds. 
 
 7. Always start with a Grouping Practice 
 and eliminate faults as they are discovered. 
 
 8. Re zero Telescopic sighted rifles : to ascer- 
 tain that they have maintained their correctness 
 each time you are out of the trenches, and arm 
 only your best shots with these rifles. 
 
 9. Improvise cover on the Range and make 
 
 230 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 all Snipers' fire practices under as near as possible 
 Service Conditions. 
 
 10. Although normally he will not fire Rapid, 
 keep your sniper efiicient in this valuable art. 
 
 11. You may at any time become a casualty, 
 therefore train your N.C.O.'s to carry on in your 
 absence. 
 
PART II 
 
 Patrolling and Scouting 
 
 patrols and patrolling : 
 
 The importance of patrolling cannot be exag- 
 gerated. It is a means of keeping in touch with 
 the enemy and of obtaining much valuable 
 information. 
 
 In open warfare we must patrol day and night. 
 In trench warfare, observation to a great extent 
 does away with patrolling by day. We should 
 — -always look upon the ground between the hostile 
 armies as being ours, and should make it so by 
 patrols. This gives our men a greater sense of 
 security, and also has the effect of destroying 
 the enemy moral. 
 
 Patrolling is looked upon by some as being 
 particularly dangerous work. This is not so 
 if patrols are carefully carried out by trained 
 men. 
 
 232 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 Training beforehand is essential ; to send out 
 untrained men in a haphazard manner is worse 
 than useless. 
 
 No patrol should go out except for a distinct 
 and definite object. 
 
 Types of Patrols in Trench Warfare 
 reconnaissance patrols 
 
 Are the work of scouts who go out on some 
 specific mission. Numbers should be as small 
 as possible. A party of two or three will pro- 
 bably obtain the best results. 
 
 FIGHTING PATROLS 
 
 Should consist of Lewis gun and gunners, 
 bombers and scouts. Strength 10-15. Object 
 to disperse enemy working parties, to engage 
 enemy patjols, to obtain identifications. 
 
 Note : — It may often be necessary to com- 
 bine these patrols ; the Fighting , Patrol 
 going out to form a screen in rear, while 
 the Reconnaissance Patrol pushes forward 
 to complete its task. This has the effect 
 of giving the Reconnaissance Patrol con- 
 fidence, of assisting them to pass back 
 any casualties they may suffer, and, in 
 fact, provides them with an Advanced 
 233 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 Headquarters from which they carry out 
 their reconnaissance. The system is par- 
 ticularly useful, and, in fact, necessary, 
 where a great distance separates the oppos- 
 ing lines. 
 
 PROTECTIVE PATROLS 
 
 Should consist mainly of Bombers, and are 
 used in front of our wire, or between Isolated 
 Posts. Numbers depend on circumstances. Ob- 
 ject : Protection of our line from surprise 
 attacks. 
 
 Open Warfare 
 
 It is not necessary here to classify definitely. 
 
 The Reconnoitring Patrol should always be 
 
 prepared to fight. In fact, all Patrols, at all 
 
 • times, should be fully organized self-contained 
 
 fighting units. Numbers depend on conditions, 
 
 but Scouts will be largely used. 
 
 TRAINING : 
 
 The general principles of training both for 
 Trench and Open Warfare are a thorough training 
 in the following : 
 
 1. Map Reading. 
 
 2. Compass Work. 
 
 3. Reports. 
 
 234 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 4. Use of Ground and Cover. 
 
 5. Reconnoitring through Periscopes and 
 
 by means of Aeroplane Photographs 
 and Maps by day, the ground over 
 which patrol must pass at night, 
 and selecting the best method of 
 approach. 
 
 6. Actual Patrolling by day and night. 
 
 7. Keeping touch. 
 
 FORMATIONS : 
 
 Nothing definite can be laid down, as, of 
 necessity, formations will vary with the pre- 
 vailing conditions. It is essential, however, that 
 all formations shall be so simple as to ensure that 
 they can be maintained even on the darkest 
 night and when working over very rough 
 ground. 
 
 The Lewis gun, when it forms a part of a 
 Patrol, must be well protected and in such a 
 position as will enable it to be used at a moment's 
 notice. 
 
 The Officer or N.C.O. in charge should always 
 lead the Patrol, and there should be a Second- 
 in-Command, whose position should be in the 
 centre and rear of the Patrol ; he will specialize 
 in keeping the men in their proper places and 
 maintaining touch. 
 
 235 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 EQUIPMENT : 
 
 The rifle often hampers movement, particu- 
 larly when crawling, but it is essential that both 
 this and fighting order be carried when patrolling 
 in open warfare. In trench warfare it should 
 usually be sufficient to carry the rifle, a bandolier 
 of S.A.A., the web belt with bayonet and 
 scabbard attached, a bomb in the pocket and a 
 compass. Steel helmets should not be taken, 
 the cap-comforter being worn instead. 
 
 If necessary to fix the bayonet, such as when 
 rushing an Isolated Post, it should be fixed with 
 the scabbard still on ; both bayonet and scabbard 
 should be well oiled ; the scabbard can then be 
 taken off quietly just prior to the rush. 
 
 INSTRUCTIONS TO BE GIVEN : 
 
 Before going out personnel should be given : 
 
 1. All known information ; 
 
 2. An opportunity to examine by day 
 
 through periscope, by aeroplane 
 photographs and maps, the ground 
 to be covered at night. 
 
 3. The object of the patrol. 
 
 4. The pass-word. 
 
 Everything that is liable to give information 
 236 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 or identification, if captured, must be carefully 
 collected before the party goes out. 
 
 All men in the Garrison and battalions on right 
 and left must know when the patrol is out, and 
 also the pass-word. 
 
 The patrol leader, both on leaving and return- 
 ing, will himself pass the word along to this effect. 
 This is very important. He cannot forecast 
 how long he will be away, or the point at which 
 he will return, therefore, the trench garrison 
 must be prepared to receive him at any time or 
 place. 
 
 GENERAL : 
 
 Patrols often give themselves away by leaving 
 their own trench in a careless manner. The 
 firing of rifles and lights should continue as usual 
 when a patrol is out, but in such a manner as 
 not to interfere with the patrol. Two patrols 
 should never be sent out on the same front at 
 the same time, as this only leads to their mistak- 
 ing each other for the enemy. Often, the 
 most suitable time for patrolling is when the 
 weather conditions are very bad. In addition 
 to taking precautions against Verey lights, 
 men on patrol can often take advantage of 
 their brightness to obtain the information 
 
 required. 
 
 237 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 A FORM OF PATROL REPORT : 
 
 PATROL REPORT 
 
 Blankshire Regiment. 
 Night of i2-i3th/6/i7. 
 Ref. Map Sheet 54 S.E.i. 
 
 Composi- 
 tion. 
 
 Time and 
 
 Point of 
 
 Exit. 
 
 Object. 
 
 Information gained 
 and action taken. 
 
 Time and 
 Point of 
 Return. 
 
 I Offr. 
 
 II p.m. 
 
 To report on 
 
 Gap in wire at Points 
 
 2 a.m. 
 
 and I 
 
 Trench 
 
 enemy wire from 
 
 No. I A5a65.75 
 
 Trench 
 
 o/Rk. 
 
 Willow 
 
 High Command 
 
 2 A5b2o.35 
 
 Willow 
 
 Lt. Tew 
 
 Walk. 
 
 Redoubt to No 
 
 3 A5d85.87 
 
 Walk. 
 
 Pte. Dew. 
 
 A6a92.85 
 
 Man's Cottage 
 
 Width in Gaps : 
 
 1 about 4 yards. 
 
 2 » 2 „ 
 
 3 ,> 3 » 
 Average depth of 
 
 wire 10-15 yd'- 
 General condition : 
 High, barbed, and 
 
 fairly strong. 
 
 A6a95.87 
 
 Handed in at 3 a.m. 
 Date: 13/6/17. 
 
 (Sgd.) R. G. A. Tew, Lieut., 
 Blankshire Regiment. 
 N.B. — These headings, etc., are given as a guide. 
 They will vary according to the nature of the infor- 
 mation required, and the circumstances under which 
 the Patrol is working. 
 
 238 
 
PART III 
 
 The Stalking Telescope 
 
 Apart from the regular issue of G. S. Tele- 
 scopes, there are now in the B.E.F. about 40,000 
 or 50,000 more or less high-class telescopes. 
 These have been obtained from all kinds of 
 sources, from deer-stalkers, yachtsmen, etc., 
 and the care and use of these glasses has become 
 a matter of great importance. 
 
 CARE AND CLEANING : 
 
 The first thing to remember is that the lenses 
 of all telescopes are made of very soft glass, and 
 that this glass is polished to a very high degree. 
 A few scratches on the outer surface of the object- 
 glass will negative the value of the best telescope. 
 When the telescope is first taken from its case, 
 a light film of dust will usually be found to have 
 formed on the object-glass. This should be 
 239 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 flicked off with a handkerchief, and if any polish- 
 ing is necessary, it should be done with a piece 
 of chamois leather or well-washed piece of four- 
 by-two ; this cleaning material should be free 
 from grit, and should be carried in a pocket or 
 in the pay-book, where it will be kept clean. 
 Over 50 per cent, of the telescopes in use, in or 
 about the front line, have been scratched more 
 or less badly, owing to the neglect of this simple 
 precaution. 
 
 Special attention should be paid to the clean- 
 ing of the objective lens, which is liable to become 
 covered with dust owing to its position in the 
 telescope and the opening and closing of the 
 draws. 
 
 Never on any account touch the glass with the 
 finger or thumb. If the glass be allowed to get 
 damp, fogging will result. To cause the fogging 
 to evaporate, remove object-glass and eye-piece, 
 lay the telescope out in the sun or in a warm 
 room. Never permit the metal work to get 
 hotter than the temperature of your hand, 
 otherwise the Canada Balsam (which is used to 
 join the concave and convex lenses in the object- 
 glass of all high telescopes, except the G.S.) 
 will melt. If the draws get wet, they must be 
 thoroughly dried and slightly lubricated. The 
 same applies to the sun-shade. When an officer 
 240 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 is inspecting telescopes, he should inspect the 
 cases also. In screwing tubes or cells into place, 
 great care must be taken not to damage the 
 threads. It is often as well to turn the screw the 
 wrong way with a gentle pressure ; the threads 
 will then come into correct engagement, and a 
 slight click may be heard. 
 
 The General Service Telescope 
 As has been stated above, Canada Balsam is not 
 used between the lenses of the object-glass of 
 the G. S. telescope. When a G. S. Telescope 
 has been taken to pieces, the only difficulty 
 experienced in assembling it again will be 
 in the replacing of the lenses forming the 
 object-glass. To do this two rules must be 
 remembered : 
 
 1. The convex lens is always the nearest 
 to the object, and, therefore, must be 
 replaced first. 
 
 2. On the side of the lenses forming the 
 object-glass an arrow-head will be found cut 
 into the glass. 
 
 Before the lenses are put back the arrow- 
 head must be completed, and the middle of 
 the arrow must be allowed to slide over the 
 
 barb or raised line in the cell. 
 
 241 16 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 RULES FOR USE : 
 
 1. Always extend your sun-shade (more O.P.'s 
 
 have been given away by the light shining 
 upon the object-glass of telescopes than 
 in any other way). 
 
 2. Always mark your focus by scratching a 
 
 circular ring on the focussing draw. 
 (This will allow you to focus your glass 
 correctly and quickly before putting it 
 to your eye.) 
 
 3. Always pull out or push in the draws of 
 
 your telescope with a clock-wise circular 
 motion, and keep them slightly lubri- 
 cated. 
 
 4. Always carry your telescope slung on your 
 
 body. If you take it off and let it travel 
 in a lorry or car the jolting will almost 
 certainly ruin it. 
 
 5. Always use a rest when observing. 
 
 6. When looking into the sun, make a sun- 
 
 shade nine inches or a foot long, to fit 
 on the short sun-shade of the telescope. 
 This will give you great assistance when 
 the sun is over the German lines. It is 
 a trick borrowed from the chamois-hunters 
 of the Pyrenees. 
 
 7. Remember that when there is a mirage you 
 
 will get better results with a low than 
 242 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 with a high power of magnification. 
 Conditions in France are more suitable 
 to a magnification of under than over 
 twenty-five. Excellent work can be done 
 in the front line with a glass that magnifies 
 only ten times. If the high-power eye- 
 piece is used for any special purpose when 
 reconnaissance is finished, it should be 
 replaced by a low-power eye-piece. 
 
 8. When searching a given sector of ground or 
 
 trench divide it into " fields of view " 
 work slowly allowing each field to over- 
 lap. Never leave any suspicious-looking 
 object without having ascertained what 
 it is and why it is- there. 
 
 9. Slight movement is more easily detected 
 
 if you do not look straight at the object. 
 Always look, a little left, right, high or low. 
 Keenest vision is at the edges of the eye,. 
 This particularly applies to dusk or dawn. 
 
 10. When your object is found, consider : 
 
 (a) Distance. 
 
 (b) Shape. 
 
 (c) Colour. 
 
 (d) Size. 
 
 (e) Position. 
 
 Use each detail to check other details ; 
 243 16* 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 for instance, if you can distinguish the 
 state cockade upon a German cap you may 
 be certain that you are not more than 
 two hundred yards distant. 
 
 11. Do not forget that good results can be 
 
 obtained on clear starlight or moonlight 
 nights, by the use of night-glasses or 
 telescopes, especially if working in con- 
 junction with a Lewis or Vickers Gun. 
 Generally speaking, the bigger the object- 
 glass and the lower the magnification 
 the better will be the results obtainable at 
 night. 
 
 12. In trench warfare a really good glass-man 
 
 working from our front line by day can 
 make a most valuable wire reconnais- 
 sance. 
 
 13. Remember that the conditions of visibility 
 
 are constantly changing ; an object which 
 is indistinct at eleven o'clock may become 
 quite clear at eleven-five. 
 
 14. Always be ready to avail yourself of natural 
 
 conditions. The visibility after a rain- 
 shower is almost always good ; it shows up 
 wire and gaps in the wire, paths, ground 
 traversed by patrols, etc. The best 
 season for " spotting " O.P.'s is autumn, 
 
 when the leaves fall and the grass withers. 
 244 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 15. It is a good thing to disguise the whole of 
 the telescope by use of sand-bags or other 
 material around it. Great care must 
 be taken to ascertain that such disguise 
 is kept free from dust or grit. 
 
 245 
 
PART IV 
 
 Front Line Observation and Reports 
 
 Remember that straws show which way the wind 
 blows, and that apparently trivial information may 
 be of great importance if considered in correct per- 
 spective. For instance, three small parties of Germans 
 seen in front of a battalion sector is not an item of 
 much interest, but if such parties are seen by all 
 or most of the observers on a divisional front, enemy 
 movement of importance is indicated, so include every- 
 thing observed which is of the slightest importance. 
 
 Remember that your report passes through the 
 hands of the Battalion Intelligence Officer, and by 
 him the information it contains is passed on to 
 Brigade, thence to Division, and so on. During the 
 whole of this process, the information is weighed, 
 sifted, and compared over and over again. Hence, 
 that which really proves to be of no importance will 
 be eliminated, while that which is of value will reach 
 those to whom it may be of use. 
 
 Remember that you are in close touch with the 
 
 246 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 enemy, and that you, and you only, are responsible 
 for the observation of his forward area. You must 
 not rely upon the Divisional or Corps Observers to 
 do this work for you. 
 
 When taking over a post for the first time you 
 must study the ground carefully and get to know 
 the exact location of aU prominent objects. Then, 
 in a few days' time, you will be capable of giving 
 map locations of targets without bearings. 
 
 It is of little or no use to look for movement until 
 you know your front by heart, the good observer 
 is the man who can almost- see the co-ordinates lying 
 on the ground. In this way some of the Lovat Scouts 
 can give the map references of a moving object as it 
 moves, without a glance at the map. 
 
 The best times of the day for you, as a front-line 
 observer, are dawn and dusk. Ration parties, working 
 parties, reliefs, etc., are all waiting to move forward 
 at dusk, and much good work can be done by picking 
 up these targets and reporting them to the Artillery. 
 The same or similar parties can often be seen returning 
 at dawn, particularly after a night during which our 
 harassing fire has been heavy. 
 
 Again, a misty day — although the definition ob- 
 tained through your telescope is not so clear as usual — 
 is often excellent for observation of the enemy's front- 
 line system, as, on such days, through a false sense of 
 security, the enemy often shows himself in concealed 
 
 247 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 posts, etc., which he would never give away hy care- 
 lessness during clearer weather. 
 
 Always note time (signal time) and map co-ordi- 
 nates of anything observed. 
 
 If anything of importance be seen, such as abnormal 
 movement, suspected reliefs, etc., report them at 
 once. Don't wait until you come off duty. 
 
 All targets should be reported as soon as possible 
 to the Artillery. 
 
 If there are any Artillery O.P.'s in your vicinity, 
 they should be visited, as the occupants can often 
 assist you by " placing " objects, the exact location of 
 which you yourself are doubtful about. The Ar- 
 tillery Observers should be shown all tracks where 
 movement has been observed to enable them to get 
 a gun trained on to them. 
 
 AU new enemy work must be followed closely and 
 its object, if possible, ascertained. 
 
 Take a pride in extreme accuracy, let a direct 
 
 statement represent fact, but do not hesitate to include 
 
 information of which you are not quite certain. You 
 
 must, however, never fail to indicate clearly the degree 
 
 of accuracy or certainty which you yourself feel. Useful 
 
 words for qualifying your statements are as follows : 
 
 Possibly ; 
 
 About ; 
 
 Probably ; 
 
 Approximately, etc., etc. 
 248 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 Remember that your duty is rather to observe and 
 report your observations than to interpret what you 
 see. At the same time, give personal impressions. 
 These may start a new line of thought in the minds of 
 those who read your reports ; also, if two or three ob- 
 servers, from different points, think that they have 
 seen a certain thing, then there is at least a strong 
 probability that a foundation existed for their belief. 
 
 Realize that your observation is part of a huge net 
 which is continually trawling the whole enemy world 
 for information, and see to it that not even the smallest 
 fry slip through the meshes for which you are per- 
 sonally responsible. 
 
 For purposes of actual observation a rough log- 
 book must be kept in the sniping or observation post. 
 In this book everything seen should be noted as it 
 occurs. From it each evening the information must 
 be set out under suitable headings, and your report 
 rendered to the Battalion Intelligence Officer. Cus- 
 toms vary in battalions, but the following list of 
 headings may help you in this matter : 
 
 OPERATIONS, ENEMY : 
 
 ^' T^^f^^ \ No. and Calibre of projectiles 
 
 4. A. A. Guns.. Activity. 
 
 I' S^f^* J'"^} Methods and Targets. 
 6. Rifle Fire j " 
 
 249 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 MOVEMENT, ENEMY : 
 
 1. Aircraft. 
 
 2. Trains. 
 
 3. Transport. 
 
 4. Men actually seen. 
 
 5. Indication of movement (periscopes, loop- 
 
 holes, etc.). 
 
 6. Patrols. (Seen, heard or encountered.) 
 
 {Note : — Time and place must always be 
 given.) 
 
 BATTALION INTELLIGENCE REPORT TO BRIGADE : 
 
 The subject matter forming this falls naturally 
 under the following main headings : 
 
 1. Operations. (Enemy.) 
 
 2. Movement. „ 
 
 3. Work. 
 
 4. Signals. ,, 
 
 5. General Intelligence. 
 
 6. Weather. 
 
 Under these six main headings are the follow- 
 ing sub-headings : 
 
 WORK, ENEMY : 
 
 {a) Changes visible in enemy line. 
 250 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 Q?) Working parties seen or heard. 
 
 {c) New wire observed or reported by patrols. 
 
 SIGNALS, ENEMY : 
 
 (a) Flash lamps. 1 -^ n , . . , , 
 
 {b) Verey lights. Y""^^ description of and any 
 {c) Rockets J aPP^ent results. 
 
 GENERAL INTELLIGENCE : 
 
 Information of a doubtful or uncertain nature, 
 general impressions, etc. 
 
 WEATHER ; 
 
 {a) General conditions. 
 
 (b) Light and visibility during the day. 
 {c) Wind, its strength and direction. 
 
 In some Brigades, reports on our own operations, 
 particularly observation of our own Artillery and T.M. 
 fire are required in the Battalion IntelUgence Reports, 
 but this is a mistaken policy. 
 
 A FORM OF OBSERVATION REPORT. 
 
 OBSERVATION REPORT 
 
 No. of Post (Map Ref.) : Teapot Post N33C55.90 
 
 Sheet 17A N.E. 
 
 Time on Duty : 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. 
 
 Date: 20.6.18. 
 
 251 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 Observers on Duty, Name, Rank and Regt. 
 
 H. Smith Pte. 
 
 G. Shaw L/Cpl. 
 
 Wind: Gentle S.W. 
 Visibility : Fair. 
 
 Time. 
 
 Map Ref. 
 
 Event. 
 
 Rem 
 
 arks. 
 Probably work- 
 
 7.30 a.m. 
 
 M39d45.35 
 
 I German 
 
 Ptes. carrying 
 
 
 
 N.C.O. and 
 
 wood, corru- 
 
 ing on entrance 
 
 
 
 14 Ptes. 
 
 gated iron and 
 sandbags. 
 Wearing caps 
 with red 
 bands. Badges 
 not visible. 
 
 to dug-out at 
 M39C78.65. 
 
 8.45 a.m. 
 
 Over trench 
 
 Enemy Aero- 
 
 Opened fire on 
 
 Enemy prob- 
 
 
 at 
 
 plane Pilot 
 
 trench. Flying 
 
 ably suspects 
 
 
 M28C36.03 
 
 and I other. 
 
 low, about 700 
 feet. Flew off 
 in S.W. direc- 
 tion. Not 
 fired on by our 
 men. 
 
 concentration 
 in this area. 
 
 (Changed 
 
 over 9 a.m.) 
 
 
 Observer — Shaw 
 
 
 9.15 a.m. 
 
 
 
 Writer— Smith. 
 
 Possibly am- 
 
 030340.92 
 
 Horse trans- 
 
 15 wagons, 4 
 
 
 
 port. 
 
 horse, all very 
 heavily loaded, 
 moving N. on 
 Vitry-Douai 
 Road. 
 
 munition or 
 heavy material. 
 Had difficulty 
 in ascending 
 slight hill. 
 
 Relieved at 10 a.m. 
 Handed in at 10.15 ^•"^• 
 
 Observer : Shaw 
 Writer : Smith. 
 
 (Signed) H. Smith. 
 G. Shaw. 
 
 252 
 
PART V 
 
 Some Uses of Scouts, Observers and Snipers in 
 Attack, Defence and Open Warefare 
 
 It is difficult to lay down any hard and fast rules on 
 this subject, as so much depends upon the prevailing 
 conditions. ■ The foUov^ing notes should therefore 
 be looked upon as tentative hints or suggestions. 
 
 To commence, it is well to remember that these 
 men, in addition to being fully-trained soldiers, have 
 received speciaHst training in such subjects as map- 
 reading, obtaining and reporting information, scout- 
 ing, accurate shooting, etc., therefore their value to 
 the Company Commander, whether in Attack or 
 Defence, in trench warfare or in open warfare, has 
 been enhanced, and he should keep this in mind when 
 making his dispositions. 
 
 Prior to attack on any given objective, the Scouts 
 and Observers can obtain much valuable information ; 
 in fact, the actual plans for local attack will often depend 
 upon the information so obtained. 
 
 " 253 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 The following are some of the points that should be 
 ascertained either by direct observation or patrolling 
 or both : 
 
 1. Location of enemy M.G.'s and strong points. 
 
 2. Whether the enemy is holding his line con- 
 
 tinuously or by isolated posts ; if' the 
 latter, the location of each post should, 
 if possible, be ascertained. 
 
 3. If our wire-cutting operations have been 
 
 successful, and the location and width 
 of the gaps. 
 
 Vigorous patrolling should take place for some time 
 prior to attack, to ensure that the enemy is driven out 
 of " No Man's Land," thus enabling us to " jump off " 
 from a point as near as possible to the enemy line. 
 
 The Snipers can, by maldng each enemy periscope 
 and loophole a target, render the enemy to a great 
 extent blind in Front Line Observation. Before the 
 actual assault has commenced, our snipers can be 
 established in shell holes in " No Man's Land " from 
 which they can command any known machine-gun 
 emplacements. They should always carry a few rounds 
 of armour-piercing S.A.A., and should look upon the 
 breech casing of the gun as their target rather than 
 the gunners. (Your good sniper will appreciate the 
 fact that one hit on the breech-casing of a machine- 
 
 254 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 gun with armour-piercing S.A.A. will definitely put 
 the gun out of action, as it ruins the vital portion, i.e., 
 " the recoihng portion " of the gun.) 
 
 After the objective has been gained, the snipers 
 should push forward beyond our new line and establish 
 themselves in shell holes or in old trenches. From 
 these positions their fire will be of great value in con- 
 junction with the Lewis gunners in keeping down the 
 enemy during consolidation. 
 
 The Scouts should be able to fill in the dispositions 
 of the troops and maintain touch with flanking units ; 
 they should form part of exploiting patrols, locate the 
 enemy's new positions and ascertain their attitude, i.e., 
 whether they are demoralized and retiring in disorder 
 or whether they are under control and likely to counter- 
 attack. 
 
 The Observers must be in a position from which they 
 can watch the whole of the attack, and must be pro- 
 vided with a means of communication whereby they 
 can constantly report upon the situation. After the 
 objective has been gained they can push forward and 
 locate enemy machine-guns and battery positions ; 
 this will be comparatively easy as, if the enemy is put- 
 ting up a fight, machine-guns, etc., will be advertising 
 
 themselves. 
 
 The Brigade and Divisional Observers will also be 
 in positions from which they can follow the whole of 
 the attack, and will constantly report its progress. 
 
 255 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 They should particularly watch for any massing of 
 enemy troops in the back areas for counter-attack. 
 
 IN DEFENCE : 
 
 The Snipers can be of great value in defence, and 
 should be given a definite " battle station." If the 
 attack be delivered in daylight, the snipers' special 
 task should be to pick off the leaders, and members 
 of machine-gun and fiamenwerjer detachments. 
 If the enemy succeed in occupying our trenches 
 the snipers must have in readiness alternative 
 posts that command stretches of our trenches ; 
 they will thus be in a position to inflict heavy 
 losses upon the new occupants. In this way 
 and by working in conjunction with Bombers, 
 they can do much to prevent the enemy from 
 establishing himself. 
 
 The Observers can, in defence, find out much 
 valuable information, and the good observer can 
 usually foretell an enemy attack by carefully 
 watching for the following signs of offensive 
 operation : — 
 
 1. Construction of new T.M. emplacements. 
 
 2. Registration of new T.M.'s. 
 
 3. Increased artillery registration. 
 
 4. Bridging of trenches. 
 
 5. Cutting of wire. 
 
 256 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 6. Additional dressing stations instituted. 
 
 7. Signboards erected. 
 
 8. Unusual amount of movement in back 
 
 areas. 
 
 9. Increased aerial activity. 
 
 10. Reconnaissance of front by enemy officers. 
 
 OPEN WARFARE : 
 
 In open and semi-open warfare it is essential 
 that observers push forward from one post to 
 another. They must keep in touch with the 
 attack, with flanking units and with headquarters. 
 
 The most important duties of scouts and snipers 
 will be reconnaissance. By pushing forward as an 
 advanced screen to cover the advance, they can 
 collect much valuable information and, if cor- 
 rectly organized, can get such information back 
 quickly to the officers whom it concerns. The 
 following are some of the things upon which they 
 should report : — 
 
 1. Where the enemy are, and if holding a 
 
 continuous line or isolated posts. 
 
 2. Condition of roads, etc. 
 
 3. Best approaches for Infantry, Machine- 
 
 guns, Artillery, etc. 
 
 4. Any obstacles such as rivers, etc., and the 
 
 best means of negotiating them. 
 257 17 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 5. Places which are exposed to fire. 
 
 6. Any topographical features from which 
 
 the enemy can be commanded. 
 
 In fact, there is no limit to the amount of use- 
 ful information that scouts and snipers can obtain. 
 They can also be of extreme value in working round 
 and cutting off isolated posts. They may also 
 form a thin but effective firing-line that can delay 
 considerably a small counter-attack, and thus 
 enable their unit to complete the, of necessity, 
 hasty preparations for holding its gains. 
 
 258 
 
PART VI 
 
 The Enfield 1914 Pattern " Sniper's Rifle " 
 
 As each battalion now holds three of these rifles on 
 charge for sniping purposes (G.R.O. 3567) it is essential 
 that your snipers shall understand the main differences 
 between this and the R.S.M.L.E. 
 
 It is as well to understand at once that a far higher 
 degree of accuracy can be obtained from the Enfield 
 1914 than from the R.S.M.L.E., and this is the reason 
 why it has been issued to snipers. The higher degree 
 of accuracy is due to two main causes : — 
 
 1. The rifles so issued have been specially selected 
 from thousands of other rifles of the same 
 pattern, on account of their accuracy, after 
 severe and exhaustive tests. 
 
 2. The rifle is fitted with an aperture or peep 
 sight, which, as will be readily acknowledged by 
 most expert riflemen, possesses a great advantage 
 over the open U or V backsight. It is therefore 
 unnecessary to focus the backsight, and the blur 
 
 259 17* 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 which is unavoidable when aiming with the 
 open U or V backsight is entirely absent with 
 the aperture or peep sight. 
 
 The following are the main differences which must 
 be noted and thoroughly understood in order to get 
 the best results from the new rifle. 
 
 THE SIGHT 
 
 The rear of the body is made in the form of a 
 bed in which the sight should always lie when not 
 in use. In this position the aperture battle sight 
 can be used if desired, but it should seldom be 
 necessary for the sniper to use this sight. The 
 battle sight is actually sighted to hit on the 
 aiming mark at about 400 yards' range. 
 
 The sight leaf is hinged on to the sight bed 
 and is raised to an angle of about 90° from the 
 sight bed for use. There are in all four positions 
 in which it will rest. (See diagram i.) 
 
 1. At an angle of about 45° from the sight 
 
 bed ; this is the most convenient posi- 
 tion for " sight setting." 
 
 2. At an angle of about 90°; this is the posi- 
 
 tion when in use. 
 
 3. At an angle of about 135°. 
 
 4. At an angle of about 180°. 
 
 The two last positions have been made 
 260 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 possible so as to avoid damaging the 
 sight by^accidentally knocking it, if 
 raised against undergrowth, etc., when 
 skirmishing. 
 
 Note: — The bolt lever must not be raised and 
 drawn back when the sight is in No. 4 position, as 
 if this is done the battle sight is sheared off. 
 
 N?2 
 
 
 yN2 1. 
 
 ELEVATION 
 
 The elevation is obtained by raising a sHdc on 
 the leaf. This slide carries the aperture, and, 
 when set, is held in position by a spring-catch 
 adjustment on the right of the leaf. The leaf is 
 graduated from 200 to 1 1 00 yards in hundreds of 
 yards, and from 1 100 to 1650 yards in fifties. The 
 reading line is situated in the centre of the slide, 
 a6i 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 and care must be taken to point out this fact 
 clearly, otherwise men are apt to take readings 
 from the top or bottom of the slide. 
 
 FINE ADJUSTMENT 
 
 The sight is fitted with a fine adjustment in 
 the form of a worm screw with a milled head. By 
 rotating the milled head clockwise we raise the 
 elevation, and by turning it anti-clockwise we 
 lower it. The top of the milled head is marked 
 off into three divisions, each of which is equivalent 
 to one minute of angle, which is about i" per lOO 
 yards of the range. Thus at lOO yards it would 
 equal x" rise, or fall, on the target ; at 200 yards 2" ; 
 at 300 yards 3", and so on. A reading line is 
 marked on the top of the sight leaf to enable these 
 minute adjustments to be made. (See diagram.) 
 
 The advantage of a fine adjustment screw on 
 this principle lies in the fact that, without 
 alteration of foresight, the rifle can be zeroed 
 with exactness in a vertical sense, for any in- 
 dividual hold, thus : If a man, when zeroing 
 his rifle at 100 yards' range, finds the point of 
 mean impact to be 3 inches low, or high, he has 
 only to remember that he must first reproduce on 
 his backsight the range for which he is firing, 
 and then add, or subtract, 3 minutes of eleva- 
 tion, i.e., by giving the milled head one com- 
 262 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 plete turn or revolution in the required direc- 
 tion ; he will then have his correct zero for 
 that particular range. {Note : — Before starting 
 to zero at lOO yards, he must raise the sight to 
 200 yards, and then take off 3 minutes ; this is 
 equivalent to setting his sight to 100 yards 
 (which is not marked). With the sight so set, 
 the " point of mean impact " should be li 
 inches to 2 inches above»the point of aim.) 
 
 In addition the fine adjustment can be used 
 to overcome the difficulty of not havmg the 
 sight calibrated to read to fifties at the closer 
 ranges. By memorizing the following table, 
 the sniper will have no difficulty in adjusting his 
 sight to 250, 350, 450 yards, and so on : 
 
 To Add to Column i . 
 
 yards i minute 
 
 „ li minutes 
 
 5) ^ 55 
 
 5 5 ^-J ,, 
 
 55 3 55 
 
 The table has not been taken further, as 600 
 yards is the limit of " individual effort." 
 
 LATERAL ZERO 
 
 If there should be a lateral error when zeroing, 
 the foresight should be moved as in the 
 263 
 
 To raise from 
 
 r 
 
 200 
 
 yards 
 
 250 
 
 300 
 
 55 
 
 35° 
 
 400 
 
 55 
 
 450 
 
 500 
 
 55 
 
 550 
 
 600 
 
 55 
 
 650 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 R.S.M.L.E., except that the cramp is made to 
 fit over and through the foresight protectors, 
 and, as there is no nose-cap to remove, it is a 
 simpler operation. 
 
 AIM, HOW TAKEN 
 
 Diagram 2 will illustrate far better than a 
 
 -l?eGdi 
 
 2. 
 
 Sights-. 
 LnMd ^1914 Rifle . 
 
 N^Z 
 
 word picture how aim should be taken. The 
 main thing is to look through the aperture, and 
 not at it. The foresight will be centred in the 
 aperture, and the tip of it placed at 6 o'clock 
 in the ordinary way. [Note : — It will be found 
 that with very little practice the eye will in- 
 stinctively centre the foresight, and that aim- 
 264 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 ing, with this sight, will in reality simply be the 
 action of holding the tip of the foresight on to 
 6 o'clock.) 
 
 THE MAGAZINE 
 
 The magazine holds five rounds only, and is 
 constructed in such a manner as to permit the 
 magazine platform to rise and engage the face 
 of the bolt-head when the magazine is empty. 
 This advertises the fact that " re-loading " is 
 necessary. At the same time, it prevents giving 
 practice in " rapid manipulation of the bolt," 
 unless the " Depressors magazine platform," or 
 a coin such as a franc (which will serve the 
 same purpose) be used to hold down the 
 platform, thus enabling ,the bolt to pass freely 
 through the bolt- way when the magazine is 
 empty. 
 
 It is of simple construction, consisting of 
 three parts only : the platform, the spring and 
 the bottom plate. To remove : press the point 
 of a bullet into the hole that will be found in 
 the bottom plate, in front of the trigger guard, 
 then push downwards and in the direction of 
 the trigger; this releases the spring and allows 
 the magazine to be removed and cleaned. To 
 replace : reverse the above process. Care must 
 be taken when loading to ensure that the charger 
 265 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 is placed vertically in the charger guide ; if 
 allowed to lean forward the first cartridge will 
 foul the padding of the magazine, and loading 
 will become difficult. 
 
 There is little possibility of a jam if the bolt- 
 way, the breech and the magazine are kept 
 clean. 
 
 SAFETY DEVICES 
 
 1. The Safety Catch. — This is similar to the 
 R.S.M.L.E., but is on the opposite side, i.e., 
 the right side of the body. If the thumb piece 
 is turned over to the rear, it performs two actions. 
 (a) Rotates the half-moon on the eccentric 
 stem until it engages in the recess in the cocking 
 piece, thus preventing the cocking piece from 
 going forward if the trigger be accidentally 
 pressed, (p) Pushes forward the locking bolt 
 plunger until it is engaged in the locking bolt 
 recess in the bolt lever, thus preventing the 
 rotation of the bolt. 
 
 2. Bolt Lever. — This when turned down, i.e., 
 when the breech is closed, fits into a recess in 
 the body of the rifle, and ensures that the bolt 
 cannot be blown back, even should the resisting 
 lugs give way. 
 
 3. The Safety Stud. — This is in direct com- 
 munication with the sear, and is constructed 
 
 266 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 in such a manner as to ensure that the sear 
 cannot be depressed without the safety stud 
 rising. On the under side of the bolt is a recess, 
 which comes immediately over the safety stud 
 when the bolt lever is turned fully down. It is, 
 therefore, impossible to press the trigger, which 
 depresses the sear, until the bolt lever is fully 
 turned down and the action sealed. 
 
 GAS ESCAPES 
 
 Of these there are three. On the right 
 of the hood ; on the under side of the bolt, 
 one in front and the other in rear of the ex- 
 tractor ring. They perform the same duties 
 as the gas escapes in the R.S.M.L.E., except 
 that the one in front of the extractor ring pre- 
 vents air-pockets — which would act as brakes — 
 from forming. 
 
 i- 
 
 PULL OFF 
 
 This is slightly different to that of the 
 R.S.M.L.E., the first pull being from 2 to 3 lbs., 
 and the second from 5 to 6 lbs. The first pull 
 is comparatively long, and it is necessary to 
 obtain, by practice, the correct " trigger 
 squeeze " before firing the rifle for the first time. 
 
 CARE AND CLEANING 
 
 In order to take full advantage of the rifle, 
 267 
 
SNIPING IN FRANCE 
 
 it is essential that it be kept absolutely clean ; 
 the following parts should receive special 
 attention : 
 
 The Bore. — This should always carry a high 
 polish. 
 
 The Sights. — Must be kept free from oil, 
 and the aperture free from fluff. 
 
 The Hood. — Must always be free from oil 
 and dirt, as it contains the recesses in 
 which the resisting lugs work, and if dirt 
 be allowed to gather there, the shock of 
 discharge cannot be evenly taken on both 
 sides, and accurate shooting under these 
 conditions is unattainable. 
 
 The Breech. — Must be kept clean and free 
 from oil by means of the stick which is 
 provided for the purpose. 
 
 The Bolt. — Must be kept free from oil, 
 and must be the correct one for the rifle, 
 i.e., must carry the same number as that 
 shown on the hood and on the sight leaf. 
 
 Gas escapes. — Must be kept free from oil 
 and dirt. 
 
 GENERAL. 
 
 The rifle is issued specially as a sniping rifle, 
 and although a bayonet is issued with it, it should 
 268 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 not be used for bayonet fighting practice. The 
 woodwork of the rifle must on no account be 
 cut down, and as, when it is issued, it is correctly 
 zeroed to suit one man's hold, it should not be 
 transferred to another man without re-zeroing 
 it to suit his particular hold. 
 
 THE END 
 
PRINTED AT 
 
 THE CHAPEL RIVER PRESS, 
 
 KINGJTON, SURREY 
 
=ig^cwE:,c.i gaja Sy