sniper book review

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New sniper book on WW II sniping. Here are two reviews:

https://www.argunners.com/world-war-ii-snipers-sog/

https://www.amps-armor.org/SiteRevie....aspx?id=14960

Dust off your library card and get it free from inter-library loan.

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Got a glimpse of a review by Martin Pegler:

Sniping is, of course, all about the men and women behind the trigger, but it is also a very technical subject involving many disciplines, and Gary Yee has covered these in detail. Selection and training were the most vital elements in producing an efficient sniper. The failure rate for sniping courses was very high, but a bad sniper would inevitably soon be a dead sniper, proving a waste of time, money and effort. It was crucially important to ensure that only the most suitable were selected, not only for the sake of the armies they represented, but for themselves. Training, fieldcraft and camouflage are sometimes regarded as secondary skills to shooting, but whilst being able to shoot accurately was indeed a vital part of sniper training, if he or she was unable to get close enough to guarantee a hit without being detected, then it mattered little how accurate the rifle or how talented the sniper was. Many authors have concentrated solely on the weapons, but this is to ignore two of the most important elements of sniping: observation and intelligence gathering. These skills became increasingly vital as the Second World War progressed, snipers frequently being the only soldiers able to see and report on enemy forces. Yet the training that the combatant nations gave to their snipers was astonishingly varied. This did to some extent reflect on the regions where fighting took place. Russian tundra in winter was a different world to the Pacific Islands, which in turn bore little resemblance to Northern Europe. To show how the warring powers found solutions to problems that their training manuals did not even begin to tackle, Gary has taken an in-depth view of each of the major areas of conflict, looking at how sniper training was adapted and improved to enable the snipers to become as efficient as possible. Indeed, how each country modified its training and equipment to suit the tactical demands is a fascinating, and often a surprising story.

I think Gary Yee has done an exemplary job in World War II Snipers. It deserves to stand as both an achievement in telling the stories of those most secretive of soldiers, the snipers, whilst at the same time providing a unique historical insight into their tactical employment and effectiveness which is so frequently absent from post-war military histories. No reader buying this book should be disappointed for it deserves a place alongside the very best published work of its type.

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Author of World War II Snipers is interviewed by Frank Galii (former USMC sniper), the HMFIC of Sniper's Hide website:

https://theeverydaysniper.podbean.co...-wwii-snipers/