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| Article by: Jamie
Mangrum |
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| I read. I read a lot. I think I have that
disease where I cannot fall asleep unless I have
read for little while. My wife calls it
getting old.
My job or career has a lot of
technical documentation associated with it and
my peers choose this as the topic for their
after hours reading. I decided a long time ago
that I give my job eight to twelve hours a day
of my life and anything afterwards is mine to do
with what I like.
So, the topic of my reading is
military history. I love the stuff (like you
could not tell). Years ago I started reading
everything I could lay my hands on about World
War II (WWII). Then I progressed to World
War I, the Korean War, and Vietnam. Heck, you
could spend a lifetime on just the subject of
WWII alone.
The
Military Book Club is like the corner drug
dealer - the first four books are cheap, almost
free and once you are hooked you start paying (willingly)
for one or two selections per month. There have
been times when I have accidentally
forgot to respond to the mailers so they do not
automatically send me the main selections of the
month. I think my wife has figured out my
accidents.
Because of my love of military rifles
I am drawn to stories about snipers. It is not difficult to understand why
we have a fascination with snipers. The sniper
is the one person that can change the course of
a battle, completely demoralize the enemy, and
make them wish they had never walked onto the
battlefield. The enemy despises them and their
own troops ostracize them because they are
loners and stand out from the rest. To me they
represent the modern gunslinger. The good guy
who does not wear a white hat and always gets
the bad guy. They don't ride off into the
sunset, they stay hidden under deep undergrowth
until the sun sets and then they crawl inches
per hour until they reach their next target of
opportunity. They are the best at what they do:
shooting, concealment, and fieldcraft (The
ability to navigate, track, remain concealed,
engage the enemy, and escape undetected).
I have included a list of books that would make
a good starter reading list for those interest
in learning more about snipers, the rifles they
carried, and the enemy they struck fear into the
heart of. |
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| Without Warning - Canadian Sniper
Equipment of the 20th Century, Clive M. Law
An excellent new release by Clive M. Law on the
subject of Canadian snipers. Great book for
anyone interested in sniper variations of the
Enfield No. 1 Mk III,
Enfield No. 4,
FAL (C1 and C2), and
M1 Garand rifles. Beautifully illustrated
with hundreds of large, clear, and interesting
photos. Includes history of the Canadian sniper,
training, equipment, and combat from the Great
War (WWI) on. I am confident that it will hold
your interest from cover to cover as it did
mine. It now finds a place in my reference
library as a great source of information and
history.
Without Warning - Canadian Sniper Equipment
of the 20th Century, Clive M. Law, 88 pages, 140
ill. CDN$29.95 (approx US$22.50)
Can be purchased at:
http://www.servicepub.com/ |
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Note: Since Canada was one of very few countries
that recognized the value of snipers, earlier than most
other countries, they produced some of the top recorded
snipers of WWI. |
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High Count Canadian Snipers WWI |
Count |
| Francis Pegahmagabow |
378 |
| Henry Norwest |
115 |
| Johnson Paudash |
88 |
| Philip McDonald |
70 |
| P. Riel |
30 |
| Source of
Information:
Snipercentral.com |
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| Dead Center : A Marine Sniper's
Two-Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War by Ed
Kugler
A former Marine scout-sniper, Ed "Kug"
Kugler served two tours in Vietnam as a
sniper and sergeant with the 4th Marines in
I Corps. Written in his own unvarnished
words, Dead Center is a great read that
recounts in vivid detail Ed's adventures
before and after becoming a sniper and then
his two years spent in Vietnam.
Dead Center : A Marine Sniper's Two-Year
Odyssey in the Vietnam War by Ed Kugler
Paperback: 384 pages ; Publisher: Ballantine
Books; 1st edition (May 29, 1999)
$6.99
Can be purchased
at
http://www.amazon.com |
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| Notes of a Sniper by Vassili Zaitsev
"Notes of a Sniper" by Vassili Zaitzev is
just that - a compilation of notes compiled
and loosely ordered by the sequence of
events as they occurred. Vassili wrote his
book in a raw unfinished fashion. It is not
a polished novel by any stretch. This is not
meant to be a criticism, just a statement of
fact. It is always a treat to get inside a
historical figure's mind and really
understand what they were thinking while
historical events were happening. Because
the "Notes of a Sniper" is written by the
person that actually "did the deeds" - I
found the book to be a very interesting
read.
More
Publisher: 2826 Press, Inc
This book can be purchased for around $9.95
+ S&H at -
http://www.notesofasniper.com/index2.htm |
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Note: The USSR heavily depended upon snipers in
WWII. An astonishing statistic is the fact that the
Soviets had 40+ WWII snipers that had recorded kills of
over 300. |
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| Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills by
Charles Henderson
You cannot read about Amercian snipers without
reading about
Sergeant Carlos Hathcock, Marine sniper. The
man was a legend and a god among snipers.
Marine Sniper is not the definitive
historical reference of Hatcock's exlpoits,
but is a very good to excellent read and
covers all of the well known basics.
291 pages ; Publisher: Berkley Publishing
Group; Reissue edition (September 1, 1991);
$7.99
Can be purchased
at
http://www.amazon.com |
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| One Shot One Kill : One Shot One Kill
by Charles W. Sasser, Craig Roberts
A great collection of short stories of
renown 20th Century snipers including
conflicts: WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. Very
easy to read a little, put it down, and pick
up later. One of the better
entry/starter publications on the topic
of snipers.
Paperback: 288 pages ; Publisher: Pocket;
(April 1, 1990) ; $6.99
Can be purchased
at
http://www.amazon.com |
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| Sniping in France 1914-18. With Notes
on the Scientific Training of Scouts,
Observers and Snipers. Review by R.
Ted Jeo
Okay, imagine this. It’s 1915 and you are
an English solider of the BEF in the
trenches in WW1 France. You have only been
on the line for a week. During that time,
you have barely seen anything of an enemy of
any sort. It is such a nice day right now.
Finally, it gets to be too much, so you very
slowly raise your head to take a peek over
the nice neat English sandbag parapet….you
see the German trenches about 200 yards
away…funny, their sandbags are all jumbled
and scattered looking. Then…...it is the
last thing you see, because in that scant
minute you are hit smack in the forehead by
a Mauser bullet that keyholes on impact and
scrambles your brain. Your body slumps
forward. It’s over. Such is the story that
is told over and over by the author of this
book on sniping in WW1 France. Except the
story is told from both ways. A German
officer gets too bold and pops up for a
quick peek with his binoculars….his life
ends the same way as described above. The
author of the book is the original developer
of the SOS (Sniping and Observation School)
for the BEF (British Expeditionary Forces)
in France starting in about 1915 and he
describes the death by sniper fire of both
British and German soldiers in a near
nonchalant way.
More
Sniping in France 1914-18. With Notes on
the Scientific Training of Scouts, Observers
and Snipers.
By Major H. Hesketh-Prichard D.S.O. M.C.
Helion & Company Limited, 176 pages,
hard cover
Originally written in 1920, this book will
be re-released in March of 2004 by Helion as
part of the Helion Library of the Great War
Volume 1.
(The reviewed copy is from the 1993 reprint
that was obtained from a library) |
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jlm;) |
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