Peter ? Air Force snipers????

[breakeyp]

Peter I was reading with interest your comments regarding Scout/Observer's telescopes. Am I misreading your comments that seem to indicate that the Air Force had sniper rifles on issue? Or is it just that they had the telescopes? I am having trouble seeing air force personnel with sniper rifles===air field protection yes but snipers?

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[jmoore]

British SAS aren't AF, never mind me, nothing to see here, move along....

[Thunderbox]

Possibly the RAF Regiment, rather than the actual fly-boys. The Rock Apes have snipers today, but I'm not sure this specialisation existed before the 1980s/90s.

[Peter Laidler]

Yes, the RAF Regiment did have snipers but quite how they fitted into the order of battle has always been quite beyond me. They regularly used to come onto the sniper courses here at Warminster into the late 80's and would bring with them their No4T's when the rest of the regular Army and Territorials were using L42's.

Capt CHristopher Shore, author of With British Snipers into the Reich was an RAF regiment Officer who was i/c their snipers. Yes......, RAF regiment snipers ......... Sounds strange to me - but they did exist! Don't see them now though. They wouldn't be able to fathom out the new S&B telescopes!

[breakeyp]

Thank you Peter! I now will be having strange dreams of air crews carrying cases of bomb sights and No.4 Mk1(T)s to their Halifax bombers for a run over the fourth reich. Deflection shots with a No.4 from a Defiant would be quite a challenge. I agree that a TO&E chart for RAF ground security would be most interesting. I shudder to think of what they did with the bayonet. best, p.

[Badger]

Thank you Peter! I now will be having strange dreams of air crews carrying cases of bomb sights and No.4 Mk1(T)s to their Halifax bombers for a run over the fourth reich. Deflection shots with a No.4 from a Defiant would be quite a challenge. I agree that a TO&E chart for RAF ground security would be most interesting. I shudder to think of what they did with the bayonet. best, p.

Regards,
Badger

[Terry Hawker]

Dad was a bomb aimer on a Halifax with my Uncle Tim the pilot, and, as they didn't even carry pistols, ("Wot's the point, if you went down they wouldn't be looking for you with pistols... pistols would only get you shot!"). A transit chest for a No.4 (T) on their "kite" would have been a very strange sight indeed!

[BIG D]

Yes they do have snipers today and with all the latest kit, they do their job and do it well, we have a Regiment squadron on our Airbase and they have spent many a long tour in the latest hotspots and you can rely upon them,
their roles are also exspanding.

BIG D

[breakeyp]

Yes they do have snipers today and with all the latest kit, they do their job and do it well, we have a Regiment squadron on our Airbase and they have spent many a long tour in the latest hotspots and you can rely upon them,
their roles are also exspanding.

BIG D

Wow! Bless them and their endeavors. It guess it fits, the US Army at one time and maybe today has the second largest air fleet and during WWII had more ships than the Navy and had their own railroad equipment. What next, the Submarine service fielding jet fighters!

[Surpmil]

Capt. C. Shore, RAF Regiment: "With British Snipers to the Reich".