Sniping in France, 1914-18

By Hesketh Vernon Hesketh-Prichard

Subjects: Western Front, Shooting, military, Great Britain, World War, 1914-1918, World war, 1914-1918, great britain, trench warfare, First army school of scouting, observation and sniping, World war, 1914-1918, campaigns, Military art and science, history, Sniping (Military science), Army, First Army School of Scouting, Observation, and Sniping (Great Britain), Military Shooting, Great britain, army, British Personal narratives, Great Britain. Army. First Army School of Scouting, Observation and Sniping, Trench warfare, British Army, Personal narratives, British, World War I

Description: Major Hesketh Vernon Hesketh-Prichard was an explorer and adventurer who revolutionized the training of British Army snipers during the First World War. In this richly-detailed book, he explains his constant efforts to improve sniping standards, which finally resulted in the First Army School of Scouting, Observation and Sniping. Drawing on his experience as a big-game hunter and marksman, he emphasized the importance of camouflage, careful observation, the ability to shoot quickly and accurately, and above all the necessity of out-thinking the opponent – for as he noted, sniping in the trenches was “really neither more nor less than a very high-class form of big game shooting, in which the quarry shot back.” The book includes many anecdotes of his times on the front lines, the various ruses and counter-ruses employed by the snipers on both sides, and his musings on the responsibilities of the sniper in future wars – in which he accurately predicts the role of the scout-sniper teams of today. Detailed appendices reproduce the early curriculum of his sniper school. A contemporary estimated that Hesketh-Prichard’s training saved the lives of over 3,500 Allied soldiers: this book explains how he did it.