Military Model Scene

Title: Sniping Rifles in World War I
Author: Martin Pegler
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-4728-5076-8

Weapons number 83 from Osprey, an 80-page soft-cover book examining the assortment of sniping rifles used by the major combatants of the Great War.
The introduction starts it off nicely and where I learnt something new, that 'sniping' was quite a new role. There were marksmen, or sharpshooters. It was apparently the German army that started off using snipers, using what were mostly civilian hunting rifles. They had an impact which resulted in other nations also developing their own specialist snipers, along with military rifles and telescopic sights to go with them. It then gets into the development of the various rifles and optics used by the different nations, including Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada the USA and more. The next major section looks at the Use of snipers, their selection and training, as well as how they operated on the the various fronts during the war. Everything is rounded off by a consideration of their Impact on the war and a final conclusion. Spread throughout the book are plenty of archive images, plus some modern photos illustrating preserved examples of the various types of rifle and sight, along with some super artwork which does include some lovely cross-sections showing the mechanism of examples such as the Enfield Model 1917, Mauser GEW 98 and Ross rifles. Add details on the different ammunition there is a lot in here.
I found this a really interesting read, including the notes in the Conclusion about what happened in the different countries regarding snipers once the war was over. A lot of skill required in those days and it was a dangerous job.
Thanks to Osprey for this review copy.

Robin