WWII Snipers sucked and couldn't kill anything past 300m! Say whaaat?!

as usual, good video Rob. I enjoy listening to Tony (Tennessee accent) meet up with your accent... Could be a step up from that goofy guy you had on from Albuquerque New Mexico. ;)
 
Informative video. I’ve never really thought much about sniper rifles as Dave Roberts sucked the wind out of the room when you tried to buy one, but lately I’ve been looking at them more seriously and videos showing you shoot a Kriegsmodell high turret are nice to see.
 
mrfarb said:
Informative video. I’ve never really thought much about sniper rifles as Dave Roberts sucked the wind out of the room when you tried to buy one, but lately I’ve been looking at them more seriously and videos showing you shoot a Kriegsmodell high turret are nice to see.
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Thank you.
On the shooting note, I absolutely love shooting those old rifles and see what could be done with them or what shortcomings or limitations soldiers using them were facing. You can theorize about many things or try to guess it, but unless you go behind the rifle, look through that glass and pull the trigger and absorb the recoil, it's hard to get the "full experience". Reading about "them making that shot" and trying to duplicate it is tons of fun, but it also helps me to understand better their tactics and how they really worked with what they had.
Now, if I could only talk @alund into letting me use that nice scoped G43 he has... :ROFLMAO:
 
The video is correct in that most sniper hits were 300 meters or even less and the circumstances are worthy of discussion.

Stagnant warfare as in city or trench fighting lends itself to closer shooting. In a sense because of the distances involved, so does jungle warfare. Mind you, there were exceptions on the Pacific Islands where some long range hits were made. Mobile warfare, desert and mountainous terrain offers more opportunities for longer range shooting and there are no shortages of examples of long range shots/hits during WW II. There are examples too of Americans trained to use their iron sights to score some impressive hits. Concurrently there is also the harassment value of long range shooting. My book on WW 2 sniping will cover these subjects and the circumstances under which the shooter killed at greater than 300 meters.
 
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Blackpowderresearcher said:
The video is correct in that most sniper hits were 300 meters or even less and the circumstances are worthy of discussion.

Stagnant warfare as in city or trench fighting lends itself to closer shooting. In a sense because of the distances involved, so does jungle warfare. Mind you, there were exceptions on the Pacific Islands where some long range hits were made. Mobile warfare, desert and mountainous terrain offers more opportunities for longer range shooting and there are no shortages of examples of long range shots/hits during WW II. There are examples too of Americans trained to use their iron sights to score some impressive hits. Concurrently there is also the harassment value of long range shooting. My book on WW 2 sniping will cover these subjects and the circumstances under which the shooter killed at greater than 300 meters.
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That is correct. This is really getting interesting as war goes on. When soviets started their push to Berlin at the Eastern Front, more precisely at the Ukrainian Front, landscape offered tremendous opportunities for the extended range shots. Since it was later in the war too, both sides had their sniper programs running at the full speed by then.
Also, let's not forget about Africa, tons of open spaces - but on that note, I have hard time pulling out anything about German snipers inside Afrika Korps...I have found some data from British about testing No32 scopes in the desert environment, but I got nothing (so far) about German snipers...
 
Soviet desanti snipers had a new role during Nach Berlin! The desantis were tank mounted soldiers who rode the tanks and protected them. Their snipers were expected to kill any panzerfaust armed landser/soldat/jugend before the tank got hit. That's covered in the chapter of the same name.

The British found their balsam melted in the desert and ran over the lens. Very few accounts of sniping from either side but there were sniping schools both in the UK and Middle East in anticipation of liberation Europa.

BTW Rob, I enjoy your videos. Thumbs up!
 
rob ski said:
Also, let's not forget about Africa, tons of open spaces - but on that note, I have hard time pulling out anything about German snipers inside Afrika Korps...I have found some data from British about testing No32 scopes in the desert environment, but I got nothing (so far) about German snipers...
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There is one photo known showing a soldier on a truck in the desert with a scoped K98b.
 
Amberg - it is! It is a Chevrolet 30 CWT! BTW, where are the feldgendarme when you need them? Driving with a broken headlamp? No cat eye cover/blackout lamp? Afrika Korps advance on Alexandria stopped by Feldgendarme.

Snipers (1939-1945): The Men, Their Guns, Their Story. The publishers may want to change it to WW II Snipers: The Men, Their Guns, Their Story. A lot of awesome members here helped by answering questions and providing photos for the book. It's being edited now and is scheduled to be released in 2022.

I choose that title because it is similar to my first book, Sharpshooters (1750-1900): The Men, Their Guns, Their Story which is still available from The Log Cabin Shop in Lodi, Ohio. Don't buy from that private Amazon seller who wants $800 bucks plus.
 
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