Re: Snipers, Mr. Sarno!

On Mon, 13 Dec 1999 22:59:38 -0500, kaladorn@fox.nstn.ca wrote:

>But were they really effective war
>winners? Who can say? Not I. 

I've recently been readind Stephen Ambrose' excellent book _D-Day_. The
Germans made extensive use of snipers, but these were not specialized
marksmen, I don't think. They were lone soldiers hidden away and taking
pot
shots at the enemy. In many cases, a "sniper" is what the Americans
called
him, when in fact it was just a regular soldier all by himself. 

They were effective for the reasons they are effective in SG2. They made
men
keep their heads down. They pinned them, and usually rather well. They
delayed
the advance of troops, particularly in front of minefields.

Though effective, they were limited in application. The Germans needed
to
throw the Allies off the beach. All snipers succeeded in doing was
slowing
their advance. But they were effective. 

Mind you, these men who were snipers but not marksmen were easier to
eliminate
than is the case in SG2. They often stayed too long in one place, or
took
positions that were too exposed once identified. There were specialized
marksmen (I have a 12" Wehermacht sniper "doll" made by Dragon, for
instance)
but these were not the majority of "snipers" during D-Day, and probably
the
case for the entire war. 

Allan Goodall		       agoodall@interlog.com
Goodall's Grotto: http://www.interlog.com/~agoodall/

"Surprisingly, when you throw two naked women with sex
toys into a living room full of drunken men, things 
always go bad." - Kyle Baker, "You Are Here"