Adrian Gilbert (2)

Modern warfare is an impersonal business over which one has little direct control. But for the sniper it is a deadly one-on-one confrontation in which he may have to wait motionless for days before firing a single shot-a shot that can change the outcome of a single battle or even a war.
In Sniper, military historian Adrain Gilbert presents a comprehensive study of combat sniping in all its facets. He examines its historical background-from sniping's origins in the American Revolution to its establishement as a tactical discipline during the World Wars as well as technical developments-from the development of the snper rifle and the importance of ammunition to the impact of the elecronic revoluton that has enabled the sniper to see in the dark and locate a target with pinpoint accuracy.

Extensive eyewitness accounts-from the WWII sniper battles between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army, to the long-range firefights of Vietnam, to the recent Gulf conflicts-provide the reader with valuable insights into the reality of combat sniping. Sniper is the authoritative study of this most crucial of modern military arts.

Adrian Gilbert is a military historian who has written extensively on modern warfare. He lives in England.

Contents

Acknowledgments
Figures in thetext
Introduction
A note on measurements
Part One The historical background
1 Fiflemen and skirmishers
2 The American Civil War
3 Sniping and nineteenth-century technology
Part Two Sniping in the two world wars
4 The sniper emerges: 1914-16
Trench warfare
Gallipoli adventure
Violence and moderation
5 A fully-fledged article: The sniper 1916-18
The new professionals
Sniper versus sniper
Camouflage and observation
6 The second world war
Opening rounds
Barbarossa and after
War in the West
Sniping in the Pacific
Part Three The modern sniper
7 The Korean War
8 Wound ballistics
9 The war in Vietnam
Snipers from the North
The Marine Corps response
The Army sniper programme
Technology and th esniper
10 British sniping after 1945
11 The basics of sniper training
Marksmanship
Field trainng
Sniper employment
12 The sniper training course
13 Sniping in recent conflicts
14 The sniper today
Part Four Weapons of war
15 Rifles
16 Ammunition
Notes
Bibliography
Index… (més)

In this wide-ranging study of the notorious SS field force, the main theme is on how much validity there is to Himmler's boast that he was building a pan-Germanic army to defend European values. In this kind of analysis units such as the Flemish and Dutch legions are as relevant as the panzer divisions and Gottlob Berger, Himmler's chief of recruitment, is as important a personality as field commanders such as Sepp Dietrich or Paul Hauser. This is particularly true as the dwindling area of control of the Third Reich was obsessively trawled for any manpower that be considered even marginally German, even for the front-line armored units. Perhaps the only thing that I can mark down this clear-eyed narrative for is that so much is covered at an increasing gallop that the chapters dealing with the climactic campaigns of 1944-1945 feel a bit shallow; it is a lot to cover organization, operations, atrocities and aftermath, even with 500-odd pages to work with.… (més)

Great book. There's been a lot of books about individual camps, but this is the first I've read that covers the whole POW experience in Germany and Italy. Gilbert weaves his book around the individual stories of 11 individuals from Britain, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, representing all the armed services and all ranks, and covers all the main camps in both Axis countries. Some surprises, the Italians were much stricter in some ways than the Germans, prisoners were able to undertake exams from British universities with unbelievable co-operation between Britain and Germany meaning exam papers could be sent to the camps and returned to Britain for marking, and that some prisoners on work details even managed to have romances with German women. The way the prisoners rose above their miserable situation to make the best of things is quite inspiring, although there are some dark tales of crime and violence. Terriffic read for anyone interested in WWII or war history in general.… (més)