Marine scout sniper book "40 Thieves in Saipan"

[cplstevennorton]

When you read the syllabus of sniper school during WWII, most of the school was on scouting or reconnaissance. Very little was about shooting. The role we think of snipers today is not what they were back during WWII.

About 3 years ago I talked to a 95 yr old graduate of sniper school in 1944 who served on Iwo Jima as a company runner. He was put in the school not because he volunteered, but because he was the top shooter in his company in boot camp. So they sent him to Scout Sniper School.

He said he shot very little at the school, and most of was learning to patrol and read maps and all the normal scouting stuff. He said they learned a lot on how to maneuver behind enemy lines.

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almost every island after action report stated the telescopic equipped m1903 was not useful with the terraign and the way the Japanese fought.

So that is why they really didn't use a lot of sniper rifles in the Pacific and also why the contract to build more rifles was cancelled.

The only islands where they were used and praised were Saipan and Okinawa. Everywhere else they stated a regular m1 was more effective as a rifle for the school trained sniper.