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America’s Snipers In The Great War
A century ago, American snipers fought in both the trenches of France and in the open warfare that followed cracking the German lines. The courage, sacrifice and marksmanship of trained American snipers made a difference on the battlefield.
MAJ. JOHN L. PLASTER, U.S. Army, (Ret.)
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hen the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917, not a single American division existed, just a regular army of 127,000 men organized as regiments. After hurried stateside training, the fall of 1918 would see 98 divisions under arms with nearly 2 million soldiers and Marines in France.
Getting there from the United States was no small accomplishment. The summer of 1917 saw 32 training camps pop up across the country, like mushrooms after a spring rain. After just 16 weeks of training, each camp shipped off a freshly trained division to France and then began training the next.
Fortunately, before being sent into combat, these newly arrived divisions had several months to train up, which included exercising the 4,000 or so soldiers and Marines who’d completed stateside sniper schools. The French commander-in-chief, Gen. Philippe Petain, applauded, “the partiality of the American soldiers for sniping,” a role, he found, “in which they easily excel.”
While their divisions conducted pre-combat training, selected soldiers were sent off to France-based British sniper schools, where they were found to be similarly pro cient. The commandant of the British 1st Army Sniping, Observation and Scouting School, Maj. H.V. Hesketh-Prichard, shared Gen. Petain’s view, nding America’s hunters and ri emen, “especially right material” for the job.
For some Americans attending the British schools, this sniper training became extraordinarily realistic; when Germany launched its March 1918 Spring Offensive, the schools suspended instruction to rush instructors and students— including Americans—to help hold critical sectors. Among those unexpectedly thrust into combat was Lt. Edward Klepfer, a New York Yankee pitcher who’d earned a 1917 record of 14-4 with a 2.37 ERA in 213 innings. Klepfer, a sniper platoon leader, later wrote of his experience under enemy re. “You know what it’s like when you’re at bat and Walter Johnson buzzes one of his fast ones past your ears?” he penned. “That’s what it feels like when the Huns are trying to pick you off.”
It appears that French units, too, received U.S. sniper support. During the rst German offensive, a March 1918 stateside newspaper described a French of cer pinning a Croix de Guerre to the cof n of a U.S. soldier who’d fought to the death from, “a sniper’s nest,” holding off German attackers until French reinforcements could arrive.
Snipers were issued the Model of 1903 Spring eld with the Warner & Swazey “Telescopic Musket Sight.” The Model 1908 (top) had 6X magni cation while the Model 1912 had 5.2X. The Winchester A5 ri escope was also tted to the ’03 Spring eld (below). The A5s were procured by both the Army and Marine Corps.
In The Trenches
When American divisions reached the front lines, they initially fought the same trench warfare as had been the case since late 1914. Each U.S. Army or Marine battalion included a sniper platoon within its intelligence section, led by a lieutenant or sergeant, and containing three to ve sniper teams. Their missions were counter-sniping, precision shooting, scouting and observation—with special emphasis on dominating “No Man’s Land.”
Some inexperienced Doughboy snipers were eager to demonstrate their skills, which could get them into trouble. Three Alabama snipers, “went out in broad daylight to see if their new camou age suits would camou age,” a journalist wrote home. They nearly reached an enemy dugout before being discovered, then the Alabamans, “began ring as fast as they could load,” and quickly retreated. One sniper did not make it back. Never again would that platoon take combat so lightly.
Journalists were especially impressed by the snipers’ marksmanship. New York Sun correspondent Herman
World War I Sniper Medals of Honor
The rst Medal of Honor ever awarded to a sniper went to U.S. Marine Cpl. John Henry Pruitt (r.), with the 78th Company, 6th Marine Regiment. While supporting an attack on Oct. 3, 1918, the young Arizonan spotted two German machine guns that were impeding his company’s advance. Pruitt took on the two guns, rushing and killing the crews with well-aimed re and capturing both. Totally amazed, 40 enemy soldiers surrendered to the lone Marine. Afterward, Cpl. Pruitt was sniping at more Germans when an incoming shell mortally wounded him.
The war’s most remarkable one-sided engagement had to be that of U.S. Army PFC John Lewis Barkley, a 3rd Division sniper. On Oct. 7, 1918, while scouting ahead of his unit, he observed 500 to 600 Germans massing to attack across an open eld. Taking cover behind a knocked-out French tank, he noticed a nearby abandoned German Maxim machine gun and a pile of ammunition belts. Setting aside his sniper ri e, Barkley dragged the Maxim into the tank and then fetched 4,000 belted rounds. Loaded and ready, he poked the Maxim muzzle through a hatch and opened re, pouring belt after belt into the Germans, who fell in droves. So much return re hit his tank that it sounded like a hailstorm, and then a 77 mm German shell slammed home, knocking him unconscious—but he awoke in time to engage a second wave of Germans until they abandoned the ght. Barkley was credited with singlehandedly ghting off a battalion-size enemy attack.
Painting courtesy of the National Museum of the Marine Corps
Whitaker wrote of a “Tennessee moonshiner” who “simply couldn’t stand discipline.” Of cers usually looked the other way because, “He’s the nest shot we’ve got; can pick an eye out of a Boche at 300 yards.” His commander gave the Tennessean free reign anywhere along the line. “When he draws a bead on one,” an of cer said, “it’s good night nurse, for he never lets loose until he’s certain.”
New York Herald reporter Haywood Broun told of several U.S. Army snipers irritated to see a German soldier walking nonchalantly beyond the trenches, 1,700 yds. away, thinking himself immune from long-range re. Knowing the odds were all but impossible to hit at such extreme range, the entire group, “agreed to count to ve and re together.” Sure enough, the snipers red as one, and, Broun reported, “down he came.” In another case, witnessed by a Stars & Stripes reporter, three American snipers red a precision volley to hit a German of cer well beyond 1,000 yds.
Among America’s snipers, Native Americans stood out. According to Cato Sells, the U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the Germans especially feared Native American soldiers and snipers. He told Congress of a captured American of cer whose interrogators asked not about his unit strength or future plans, “but on how many Indians there were” opposing them. To Sells, the American Indian made an ideal sniper because he was a “born sharpshooter, a scout by intuition and an instinctive artist in the intricacies of camou age.”
Private Ewing Peters, a Klamath tribesman sniper, found himself entirely suited to sniping. “I felt as though I were hunting deer, only the German was the devil.” During his rst of many missions he killed two such “devils.” A Literary Digest writer interviewed Silas Samuels, a Choctaw from Oklahoma and a sniper with the 312th Infantry Regiment, whose “eyes danced” as he told of one night engagement. “This Jerry was peeping over a trench one night,” his story went, “when Samuels was exploring around in a shell hole. Years of hunting deer at night gave the Indian a skill with the ri e that can be obtained in no other way, and the German ‘went West’ on one bullet.”
Out Of The Trenches, Into The Open
By mid-summer 1918, Germany’s nal offensive had been repulsed and the Allies went on the offensive, beginning a new phase of maneuver called “Open Warfare.” Left behind were the tactics of trench warfare, but when it came to snipers, some commanders did not understand how to employ them effectively in this new, offensive, environment. However, other commanders appreciated their shooting and scouting abilities, and employed them to the fullest.
All along the Western Front, the Kaiser’s army had had more than three years to dig in, expand and improve its formidable defenses. Some positions even included concrete and steel bunkers. Anchoring these strong points were machine guns that covered approaches, anks and obstacles, often with multiple guns integrating re for a seemingly impenetrable defense. Entrenched infantry were arrayed to protect the machine guns.
Thus, the key to cracking German defenses was locating the machine guns and then suppressing their re or killing their crews—an ideal mission for the keen observation and precision shooting of scout-snipers. Attesting to the courage and skill of American snipers in this role are the numerous award citations which describe their actions.
Army Cpl. George Ogden, “while acting as a battalion scout,” drove the crews from two German machine guns “by sniping,” and then, with a buddy, turned the captured guns on the enemy and defeated a counterattack. Another time, his well-aimed ri e re forced 100 Germans to abandon a trench, allowing its capture. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC), our nation’s secondhighest valor award.
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Unusual Tools of the Sniper’s Trade
World War I’s protracted trench warfare saw many sniping improvisations. The most elaborate were arti cial trees designed to conceal snipers and observers. An exact copy of a tree in No Man’s Land—lined with 1/2"-thick chrome-steel—was fabricated and switched at night for the real one. “A man could walk past within two feet of one,” reported Australian sniper Ian Idriess, “and not realize it was a dummy—unless he tapped it.”
Paper-mache horses and cows— similarly steel-lined—replaced carcasses in No Man’s Land, providing snipers concealment and armor protection. If detected, of course, the sniper was trapped in No Man’s Land.
Promoted with exaggerated claims, several countries developed body armor. An American inventor, Dr. Guy Brewster, offered his “Brewster Body Shield” to the Army. Although he demonstrated it could withstand a .30-’06 Sprg. bullet at 60 yds., he failed to convince the military of its utility.
For counter-sniping, the British and Americans manufactured paper-mache heads to attract enemy sniper re. A more advanced version added a periscope to look down the tubelike bullet path through the paper-mache to discover the sniper’s hidden lair.
Another sniper’s tool was the Fixed Ri e, which used a cradle to hold a ri e rmly in place. In daylight it was carefully aimed at a spot enemy troops likely would congregate after dark. After sundown, the sniper red his Fixed Ri e to hit enemy soldiers who’d assumed that since they couldn’t be seen, they couldn’t be shot.
Widely used were Periscope Ri es which enabled a sniper to aim and re from a trench without exposing himself to enemy re. The shooter manipulated a rod or cord to pull the trigger on his frame-mounted ri e.
The U.S. Ordnance Dept. developed the Elder Periscopic Attachment, Model of 1918, for M1903 Spring eld and M1917 En eld ri es. Also a unique 1903 Spring eld stock (above) was built; by pushing a button, the soldier pivoted the stock open, scissors-like, and locked it into place 35 degrees below the receiver and aimed via an Elder Periscope. Neither device reached France before the Armistice.
Although useful during trench warfare, once the Allied armies left the trenches and maneuvered on open ground, these clever improvisations became obsolete.
