THE GERMAN SNIPERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16020, 11 September 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE GERMAN SNIPERS.

STALKING WITH A RIFLE.

NON-COM. AS A WOMAN. In each dispatch, in private letters and diaries, our officers and men deplore the sniper's depredations. Leaders are picked off, gallant lads struck down at their chum's side, with never a foe to be seen and apparently no war in progress at all. The whole countryside cracks here and there with mysterious death . That -shot came from the window of a ruined cottage! Another from behind our lines where the slim sniper lay hid all night, clothed in khaki from our own dead. Shots appear to come from the wounded far out on the stricken field; from leafy trees, and windmills, and ruined barns. It is horribly perplexing. The Prussian's Teacher. Now it's safe to say that sniping was not part of the Prussian's training for war. It's too loose a plan, too individual, this free-lance roaming with a gun and little else beyond a fine store of ready wit and uncanny skill in disguise. But the German learned it from us, just as we learned it from the Boers— splendid independent marksmen and born guerilla troops. And the German improved upon his instruction till he became a real terror, calling for counter-sniping on a large and deliberate scale. The old " woman" refugee who brought water to our foremost works turned out to be a Prussian noncom., who, before he died, gave up a book accounting for fifty British officers, cruelly picked off. Head-money is given for these, it seems, after official investigation of each claim. Day and night these picked shots are at work with extraordinary daring. Even machine-gun snipers have been found in our own lines, and that at infilading centres whence in a few seconds these desperadoes work frightful havoc. They lie low in the maze of ditches. They let our advance sweep by, and then coolly kill our men from the rear. The fact that they wear our uniforms and speak fluent— slangey—English ("Got a fatr about yer, matev ? ") makes it very difficult to detect these deadly pests, especially in the excitement of preparing for a new advance. Here is a typical instance. A casual crack as from a distant whip, A zip-putt—! and one of our fellows falls mortally injured. The sniper shoots to kill, being an enthusiastic professional, armed with a match rifle, fine glasses, and telescopic sights. The Gleam in the Twilight. Each sniping crack means a serious casualty, and the shots seem to come out of the sky.. No flash is seen, thanks to bright sun and smokeless powder. The day wears on ; losses are suffered in grim silence,' and dusk steals over a seamed and thunderous land. ..." That tree!" murmurs the beat shot in the regiment. ..." Thought I saw a gleam that time amid the leaves." It's darker now, you see; rifle-flashes show faintly— if you know where to look for them. Another crack ' Ay there's a sniper in that lofty branch. Out with him! " Nine hundred yards," our marksman murmurs, weighing the problem calmly. "Gimme them glasses, Joe. Why, there's a fella below him too, passin' up the cartridges. I'll take him first. Wait—he's behind. Now he shows! You take the flash in the tree, Tom." Two careful shots whip out. Two more —half a dozen r whole volley !. . The snipers are sniped at last. The man high up in the leaves swings to and fro, meet andrdeadj-securely roped to his perclj» His companion fell over in the very S£E of filling a new clip and dropping it into a bag which the marksman hauled .tip "by & string. . i-■/''" The sniper is, indeed, the very eye of the siege warfare now in progress. To show hfad or limb above the parapet is fatal, or at any rate, invites a wound. Keen watchers stand in enemy trenches with rifles fixed, and sights aligned over ranges known to a yard. Our men tease these sharp-shooters with dummies, and signal hit or miss with all the zeal of Bisley recorders on an international day. The ' Indian Snipers. The German sniper aimed specially at our officers, and that with such success that now our subalterns carry packs and rifles, so as to be indistinguishable from the private soldier. In our own lines counter-sniping has been brought to an uncanny pitch of perfection, especially by the Indian —Pathans and Sikhs and Garhwalis, who can hit a 6in German loophole at 200 hundrer yards five times out,of' six. Turbaned figures stand like statues in sinster patience, to be rewarded, sooner or later, by an incautious victim. Some regiments make it a point of honour to repay each sniper casualty with at least three against the enemy. Here our officers take a hand, for the sword is an outworn weapon, and the rifle, when all is said the king of the whole armament. Trencli sniping is confiined to selected shots; an able and watchful man can do great damago in the long summer's day.. The Mystery of It. It is the mystery which is found so demoralisingfaint cracks from nowhere, and chums dropping in the twilight of a village street commonly thought quite secure. Or sudden death in the narrow ditch, at dusk, when the star-shells soar and light the rugged places with ghastly radiance. One's pal behind falls headlong suddenly. Who can have shot him? No one in someone behind there, one of those cursed snipers who follow, persistent as flies upon our food ! So the successful sniper is a demoralising influence. At any cost he must be located and shot downno easy task, seeing that all German cunning goes to this work, all German genius for deceit and treacherous dealing. The English captain of a Pathan regiment was sorely troubled in this way, and bade his Moslem sergeant keep a sharp look-out. " Sir," said the sepoy at length, " the foe is there." " Where I see nothing but a haystack." In the hay." To reach it unsuspected, the officer made a detour of three miles, then crawled to the base of the stack through long grass, and remained motionless as his Pathans, a party of whom had followed close behind. Crack A faint explosive 'lash, a barely perceptible movement in the apparently solid wall of hay. Swiftly, though without a sound, the officer rose and pointed a magazine pistol at the tell-tale place. When he'd emptied it his men rushed up and tore away the hay, revealing a regular chamber, loop-holed and aired, with a store of water, provisions, and 900 rounds of ball cartridge. In this snug hiding-place, a young German officer sat collapsed, with six bullet holes in his head. ,f It's high time," the avenger said, recalling days of inexplicable loss and grave anxiety.

The Greatest Game. So to snipe the sniper is now the greatest game in the British lines, one calling for peculiar gifts of mind as well as trained marksmanship. "I cleaned out a whole nest." an Essex man reported. " Mind you. it's a coldblooded, far from pleasant job. this longdistance shooting, but our whole safety and comfort depends on it. First of all I spotted a Bavarian officer at 950 yards, bv means.of the telescopic sight and .my observer. His men were filling sandbags and building a regular sniper's paradise for our benefit. "Well, I killed him. I killed the two men who ran out to haul his body in, and I brought down a fourthe fellow who was making loopholes in the parapet. Then we had peace. We could stretch our legs and lift our heads for a —to say nothing of starting a sniping campaign of our own that inspired real respect. We must be fcpp-dog with these Germans. That's why we trot out our crack shots and show the foe fresh wiping feats each daj/t