Snipers are soldiers specializing in rifle marksmanship whose role is to pick off unwary enemy soldiers, usually at medium to long range and from cover. This is in contrast with the ordinary rifleman, whose fire is rarely carefully aimed and is often expected to do no more than distract the enemy or force him to take cover or retreat. The sniper relies on surprise, and he shoots to kill.
Although snipers could use standard issue rifles
if necessary, they typically used rifles that were selected and
modified for the sniper role. In the British Army, this was a
standard
Lee-Enfield rifle individually selected for accuracy and equipped with
a telescopic site and other accessories. Likewise, the Japanese sniper
used a standard Arisaka rifle to which a telescopic site was added. The
American sniper used a 1904
Springfield with telescopic sight even
after the M1 Garand became widely available. Whereas the ordinary
rifleman required a weapon that was robust and easily maintained,
capable of producing a high volume of fire, and appropriate for fluid
combat situations, the sniper needed accuracy above all else. A
telescopic sight and bipod were more trouble than they were worth for
an ordinary rifleman in fluid combat, while a semiautomatic action made
little sense for a sniper attempting highly accurate fire from a
concealed position.
Snipers themselves were often little more than
riflemen selected for their superior marksmanship, equipped with a
sniper rifle, and deployed to the appropriate slot in a company TO&E.
This was particularly true early in the Second World War. However, the
British had instituted
specialized sniper training by
the time war broke out in the Pacific,
and the Japanese also trained
snipers during the war. The United
States Army gave snipers only rudimentary training which emphasized
marksmanship, while the Marines
gave somewhat more thorough training to specialist scout-sniper teams.
A Scout and Sniper School was established at Guadalcanal in September 1942 to
train two snipers in each rifle company, plus additional snipers for a
Scout and Sniper Detachment for 1
Marine Corps. In April 1943 a 43-man scout and sniper platoon was
authorized for each Marine infantry
regiment.
Green troops often went to ground after one of their number was hit by a sniper, which simply gave the sniper a selection of immobile targets to pick off at his leisure. Experienced troops knew that a sniper could not produce a high volume of fire and that the best chance to avoid being hit was to continue the advance. Eventually the sniper would either retreat or give away his position, and because a sniper could not produce a high volume of fire, a located sniper was highly vulnerable to being rushed or overwhelmed by superior firepower.
Bergerud (1993) quotes a Marine historian, John Miller, Jr., who repudiated a common myth about Japanese snipers in the Pacific:
One of the great bugaboos of the Guadalcanal campaign which slowed nearly all advances by the infantry was the belief, firmly held by nearly all troops, that Japanese "snipers" operated from treetops. But this belief, which the Japanese curiously entertained about American "snipers," was seldom supported by facts. The Japanese rifleman was not especially equipped for sniping, nor did he usually climb trees to shoot.
Most "snipers" were actually outpost guards or
members of small patrols.
References
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2008 by Kent G. Budge. Index