Sniper.

The very word elicits an emotion of discomfort. 'Evokes mental pictures of that single, perfectly-aimed bullet coming "out of nowhere" to fell a soldier, almost always outside of the chaos of a "battle" situation.

In virtually all land military situations since the American Revolution, the military sniper has played a part in determining the character of the modern battlefield. Osprey's The Military Sniper From 1914 provides the reader with a brief history of this non-traditional battlefield warrior.

When this book came out, it was purchased on the spot, without even a perusal. Much is written about uniforms and hardware, but little about tactics. This book is ALL about a specific sub-flavour of tactics.

When one purchases this book, a pleasant surprise awaits. Though its title infers a 20th century subject history, the author devotes almost 20% of the pages to pre-WW I sharpshooting and sniping. "How skirmishing evolved into sharpshooting and then into sniping," is presented particularly well. Positively fascinating stuff...like when a British rifleman had George Washington in his sights and was ordered not to shoot.

MANY more tasty bits like this, as well are inside the covers, too numerous to even touch upon...but here is a tragic one. During 1915, the average battalion on a quiet front lost more than ten (10) men per DAY to enemy snipers. 'Remember the last scene in All Quiet On The Western Front?

And an interesting one...the Soviet Army in the Great Patriotic War (WW II) used a large number of women soldiers as snipers.

Author Martin Pegler commands his subject, presenting a fine effort in his allotted 64 pages. Especially intriguing and informative is his narration of the sniper's requirements, other than being a competent rifleman, things on equipment, camouflage techniques, likely sites, telescopes. This author knows a good deal about his subject.

Illustrator Ramiro Bujeiro rendered twelve (12!) instead of the usual 8 pages allotted for plate subjects and does them WELL. Excellent depictions of British and German WW I, US, British, German, Soviet and Japanese in WW II, and a good mix of modern soldiers provide gobs of detail, background, scene and inspiration.

Conclusion: Osprey's The Military Sniper From 1914 is a really good read, even for airplane, armour and boat people.

Figure modelers who wish to do one of these shadowy warriors in miniature, rejoice! DML / Dragon offers dedicated sets of: WWII German Snipers, WWII Soviet Snipers, Modern US Sniper Team, a sniper figure in the WW II US Ranger figure set and an SAS Sniper in the Modern SAS set with Kayak. And surely, there are more. There is an old Merite' figure of a US Civil War Berdan's Sharpshooter, the Airfix of a 95th Rifleman of 1815, a large scale resin by Verlinden of a WW II British sniper...and some others...and you can make your own conversions, too.

Surprisingly highly recommended, for students of modern land military history, and for just about anyone else, because the subject is so intriguing.

Review copy courtesy of the reviewer's chequebook, purchased from Timeless Hobbies (R.I.P.), Wheaton, Illinois.

Reviewed by James Hood

For Scott Van Aken's Modeling Madness review of James Hood's novel,
 Adventure--Into The Neverland, go to:  http://users3.ev1.net/~bjmonkeyandcj/James_Hood.htm

May 2005

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