Sniping in France: With notes on the scientific training of scouts, observers, and snipers

by H. Hesketh-Prichard

After eight days with the open sight, those who were considered worthy passed on to practise with the telescopic. One of our great difficulties was that the telescopic sights were so much wanted in the line that it was hard to call them away for courses; but, as a matter of fact, many battalions seemed to keep a telescopic sight which they always sent on the course. It was generally a bad one, but this did not much matter, as we were continually having snipers sent up with the rifles they were actually using, in order that they might shoot them at the school. Thus a man might come on a course, and if he got a good report, might be back at the school within a week with a telescope sight which he was thence-forward to use and which we were asked to regulate to his hold.

1. There are two snipers here—one in uniform and one in a “sniper’s robe.”

But I do not want to go too far into this question of shooting, and it will not be necessary to say more than that of every hundred students who came to a course, somewhere about seventy-five went back as quite useful shots. We had many, of course, far above the class of “useful,” and sometimes the competition for the champion shot of the classes was extraordinarily keen. Considering the very small bulls and the continually moving targets, the scores made at the school reflected great credit upon the students.

But though there was a great deal of shooting at the school there were many other subjects also in which students were instructed. One of these was observation. The way that this was taught was exactly the same that I had used from the earliest days of 1915. Two trenches were dug at a distance of three or four hundred yards apart, and one of these trenches was an exact imitation of a piece of German line. Those who were to be taught observation were put with their telescopes and note books in the other trench, while a couple of scouts dressed in German uniforms showed themselves at certain points of the German trench, and generally attempted to produce the exact happenings that would occur were those under instruction watching an actual piece of German line. Thus at one point of the trench earth would be thrown up, and five minutes later at another a man in a helmet carrying a pick would pass along. Here and there a loophole would be opened, and so on. The observation class kept a look-out upon the German trench, and noted down in their note books the time and place of all that happened therein which they were able to observe. As far as possible, every member of the class was given a telescope of equal power, and it was an extraordinary thing to see how while some men sent in excellent reports, others seemed to be quite incapable of accurate observation.

Besides teaching the use of the telescope for front line work, this system gave a very useful practice lesson in the art of reporting things seen. Sometimes the officers of the staff or the Lovat Scouts attempted to crawl out of the German trench without being seen, and on one occasion two Lovat battle observers who were resting at the school crawled clean round an officer class unseen, and took them in the rear. This is an easy enough thing to do when the ground is favourable, but our trenches had been very carefully sited, so that there were at least three or four spots in which a man crawling was well within view, and in passing across these he had to exercise the most infinite care if he wished to obtain success.

2. A contrast showing the drawbacks of uniform and a “correct” position.

At night time these two trenches were used for another purpose—that of teaching patrolling. Between them was a strip of typical No Man’s Land with shell holes which we spent a whole day blowing up, wire, old uniforms—in fact, everything to make it as like the real thing as possible. After I left the school, Major Underhill had the bright idea of putting out in this No Man’s Land a number of imitation German dead. In the pockets of these “dead” were soldbuchs—that is, the German pay-books—and various other identifications which it is the duty of scouts to collect and send to H.Q. I think there can be very little doubt that the conditions under which patrols worked and practised at First Army Sniping School approached the real in a very high degree. For instance, all our work was in competition, very often the officers against men, or Colonials against the World. Sometimes the defenders were supplied with pistols and Verey lights, which they fired off just as do the Germans. The attacking patrol carried with it small pegs with the patroller’s name marked upon them. These pegs they stuck into the ground at the most advanced or important point which they attained.

A certain amount of teaching of patrolling was done in the daytime by the use of night glasses. These were the invention of Major Crum, of the King’s Royal Rifles. On the sunniest day, once one had put on one of these pairs of goggles, one could not see more than was possible on the darkest night, and there is no doubt that a great deal was learnt by watching in daylight the kind of movements that a man must make at night.