GERMAN MARKSMANSHIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15948, 19 June 1915, Page 5 (Supplement)

GERMAN MARKSMANSHIP.

Until tlio British public began to realise I the very large proportion of officers to men who have been killed and wounded during the eight months of the war, like our own men at tho front, they were apt to speak in disparaging terms of German marksmanship. The marksmanship of the average German soldier is very indifferent (says a military correspondent of the Globe), but it is not so in the case of the picked shots. It has been isaid that at least 50 per cent, of the officers of the allies who have been killed have met their deaths from individual rifle fire, usually delivered by marksmen separated from the main body; either by being behind, in the front, or on one side of it. We have before this alluded to the skill of the German sniper, who is armed, as we know, with a rifle equipped with tele scopic sights, and' we have strongly recommended picked shots in our army being similarly favoured. The authorities are quite alive to the importance of the matter, and our men are beginning to prove that they can be a match, and more than a match, for the German barbarians . opposed to them.