Masters of the Air Bingo Card

Fighting Through Second World War Podcast - Episode 97 -  Sniper Part 2 – Featuring World War II Snipers: The Men, Their Guns, Their Story

More great unpublished history!

More great ww2 history

Fighting through is a regularly recommended WWII memoirs podcast

Gary Yee sent me this second world war story

I once worked with a guy named Kong and in WW2 his uncle killed some Japanese officer at 600-700 yards. Open sights, M-1 Gah Rand Garand. He tried to get a special rifle for that little job but couldn't - but being an expert, felt he could [still] do a chest shot at that distance.

They weren’t actually out hunting for officers but were looking for an artillery piece that was harassing the regiment. After a couple of days, they spotted a cave and watched. They had some binoculars. In the morning an officer appeared and signaled for the gun to be moved out.

The gun would fire a round or too and then be quickly rolled back into the cave before the Americans could retaliate. The scouts called the coordinates in but the artillery never hit it.

Finally one officer suggested they haul an anti-tank gun into position and do some direct fire. The scouts objected as it would compromise their location. So the officer told them that they were on their own then and left them to it.

Anyway, the scouts watched and noticed a pattern that the Japanese officer always came out first. The decision was made to eliminate him.

The scout wanted an M1903 A4 scoped sniper rifle - but his company couldn't provide one. The Garand would have to do. Before that though, he had to make sure he was sighted in at the same distance. Thus [So], the scout moved to another position and sighted his Garand at a patch of light colored earth that was the same distance. With his observer watching on, he quickly dialed it in. After he was dead on, they returned to their observation post and waited.

In the morning when the officer emerged from his cave before the artillery was rolled out … BAM!

According to the other scout, there was a spurt of blood from the officer's chest before he collapsed. A couple of guys came out and hauled him back into the cave. The resistance on the island didn't last much long after that.

End music

Hope this information is useful for your podcast.

All the best, Gary Yee, USA.

And that, chums, is my way of introducing this episode. Gary wrote to me absolutely ages ago to share the Sniper book he was trying to get published - and would I be interested in covering it on this WWII stories podcast. Of course I would, and since Gary wrote in I’ve collected several more Sniper-related stories to tempt your bombed out brain cells.

And I’ve got some great – nay cracking – stories to share with you.

Welcome to this ww2 podcast

Fighting Through is voted one of the best military history podcasts by 5000 regular listeners

So I wish you another warm WW2 welcome to the Fighting Through second world war stories podcast. 

I’m Paul Cheall, son of Bill Cheall whose WWII memoirs have been published by Pen and Sword – in FTFDTH. 

The aim of this podcast is interviews with veterans. family stories and memoirs, from all the countries and all the forces. I dare you to listen!

Today, I’ve got a massive second tranche of Sniper stories.

And I’ve got a great Pacific war PS at the very end so don’t miss it.

Episode 53 was my first sniper episode and it’s been very popular so track back to that if you’ve missed it.

This episode of my ww2 history podcast

Surprise ww2 stories

Getting right to it:

Here’s this week’s surprise family story – two of them in fact – very similar themes. You might even call them … spooky

 This first one is a throwback to the last episode where we featured German V1 rockets.

“After the occupation ended and Antwerp in Belgium was liberated my bonpapa returned home.  Family stories say that his father, who worked at the Antwerp docks, helped the resistance and the incoming Canadians with de-mining of the port.  

My grandfather returned to his family and got a series of odd jobs, and he endured the bombardment of Antwerp by V-1 and V-2 missiles.  

He vividly recounts in his memoirs that he missed the tram one day (probably late '44), and that the carriage he had been attempting to board was subsequently struck by a V-2.  

It's my personal belief that this was a defining moment in my grandfather's life, and influenced his personal and spiritual growth.

Reddit –BlasterKen

My grandpa fought on the eastern front for the Wehrmacht. He escaped death a few times, or so he told my dad when he was drunk.

I actually think he still had some shrapnel somewhere in his body for the rest of his life because they couldn't remove it back then.

Anyways, one time my grandfather was laying behind a fence that was weak enough to shoot through. He laid there for some time, when he stood up to change position.

And at the exact moment he was standing a bullet struck the cover where his head had been seconds ago. Russian sniper.

It's amazing to see how thin the line between living and dying can be. If he had died, I wouldn't be here to tell his story.

Reddit - Hardcore – Link in the show notes.

TR

And that leads in nicely to this episode. It’s all about snipers and leans heavily on what was an unpublished book when I started the project but has now been published in:

World War II Snipers: (1939-45) The Men, Their Guns, Their Story. By American Gary Yee.

Preface

The book isn’t just a bunch of random stories.

– in fact I hesitate to call it a book because Gary sent me a copy and what a glorious encyclopedia it is to the art of sniping.

He takes us through

Selection of personnel, Training, Tactics

The Weapons themselves – There are plenty of photos and illustrations …

And lots of stories and eye witness accounts from around the world of WW2.

And in the words of the intro blurb to the book:

World War II Snipers The Men, Their Guns, Their Story - presents a compelling and authoritative study. It does indeed.

Epigraphs from Gary’s Book - More ww2 history

These are some very short extracts from Gary’s book. They’re individually quite shocking insights into the world of sniping – and so … final. Here goes:

"This way, comrades," shouted Balles, proud of his exploit. 'There's nobody in there.' We all stood up, prepared to join him. He was laughingly nervous. But then A crisp detonation whistled through the leaves, followed by two more. Prinz was running toward us, but Ballers wasn't. He was walking hesitantly, stretching one hand toward us. Then he fell."

#2 "So, just as we're beginning to get ready to move that morning. Frankie gets up and lets out a roar. 'Hey you guys,' he yells, "I am eighteen years old today. Happy birthday, Frankie!' Bang. It's from a sniper. Down goes Frankie. It doesn't look as if he'll make nineteen."

#3 "A single shot punctuated the silence. A sniper. An officer passed the word, 'Tell Osborne to come up here.' He was asking for Pfc. Osborne, 18, an Indian youth from Fort Hall, Idaho, an expert scout. The officer waited, 'Where's Osborne?' he whispered hoarsely. The message came up to him passed from man to man. 'That was Osborne the sniper got. Right between the eyes.'" PFC F Osborne is interred in the National Cemetery in the Philippines.

#4 "I broke out a D-ration hard chocolate candy bar I had in my field pack and gave it to [the guy next to me]. In a ditch beside the road, I closed my eyes again, warmed by the burning buildings all around me. It was 0200 and I had been awake, except for a few catnaps here and there, since leaving Holland the day before. "I think it was about an hour later when I woke up and found the other GI still in the ditch with me, asleep. I looked around but could see no one else anywhere. I got the disturbing feeling the town had been abandoned. I shook the [other guy] and asked where everyone was, and then I saw the dented helmet with a bullet hole in it. My ditch companion was dead, meaning there was a sniper somewhere in the inferno surrounding us."

Gary uses those short stories  at the beginning of every chapter in the book so just to set the scene really to whet your appetite for more..

And here’s just one of the longer stories you’re going to come across:

TR

Story 1 - In the Vosges Mountains, near the French German border …

an American sniper was busying reloading his rifle. If you're familiar with the M1903A4, you know that with the Redfield Junior base a stripper clip can't be used to reload the rifle.

So our hero was busy reloading his empty rifle when a German soldier suddenly appeared not six feet from him and shouted, "Nicht scheessen!" As our hero looked at him, the German pleaded, "Nicht schiessen”.

Don't shoot? How could the sniper shoot an enemy with his empty gun? The German could easily have shot him or even bayoneted him. Grateful he had himself had just been spared, he took the German prisoner and was escorting him back. He was passing the 45th Division area when one GI said, "Let me see how big a hole you can put in his back." Our hero demurred and dutifully delivered his prisoner to a holding area for prisoners. Gary Yee

About Gary

What can I tell you about Gary before I get started? Well there is a mammoth amount about his experience and qualifications which stand testament to his knowledge in this area, but you can read all that in my links. And what impressed me, enthused me most, was the following little narrative about how his own interest in sniping first developed.

1 Blurb.jpg

So that’s the man’s background.

The blurb to the book includes the following overview on the book:

Each of the warring countries had its own unique methodology for selecting and training snipers. They recruited hunters, outdoorsmen, competitive shooters, and military veterans to take on this highly skilled role. They were deployed to ensure battlefield dominance and to instil a paralyzing fear among the enemy. Yee tells the stories of these soldiers who were both admired and at times reviled by their own comrades.

I want to dip straight into the book now, starting off with WW2 sniping strategy

Please note with regret:

It wasn't possible to provide a full transcript of the book extracts on this occasion.

Reviews and Feedback

 I would like to take a bit of time out now to cover some reviews feedback family stories and war stuff. here we go with the first one

Review 1 - More ww2 memoirs and stories

Website reviews

I listen every day at work. Listening to Paul makes one feel like they are there with the soldier. Very well narrated. Makes my day go so much quicker!

Steve1955 from Kessingland, Lowestoft, Suffolk, England  - thanks Steve! I’ll volunteer that I know Lowestoft  is actually pronounced …. Lowestoft. Steve you’re in the next county to me so one does pick these things up. So that’s another word I can add to my rapidly expanding ww2 vocabulary I’m forever rehearsing - leftenant, brisbin, melbun, tilly sur seules, schiessen , scheisen, …  fade

The following people kindly left show reviews in various places:

Reviews

Eric from York in Pennsylvania - Podbean

Eric Nicholls Cornwall – survey thanks

Paul Breen from Ireland – Ur podcast is unbelievable, ur Dad what a man. Thank you Paul.

Review 2 On the web site Bonnie Gordon Ellis – Canada

I had an uncle in Moose squadron during the war for the Canadian Air Force William Keeler and uncle in the army Athol Gordon as a mechanic . My father-in-law James Ellis was in the Royal Canadian Air Force also and he just passed away this years at 99 1/2 years old . My father was too young to enlist but volunteered on an airport in Pendleton Ontario Canada and after the war he and his twin brought a trainer and flew it. Eventually it was sold when a group who built the plane wanted to restore it and now it has a home in the Hamilton Ontario Canada Air Museum . I wear my poppy proudly to honour those who fight for freedom Keep up the great work

Bonnie Gordon Ellis – Canada

Buy me a coffee

Under the Buy me a coffee banner

Captain Paul f Jankel – Calvados

Dave Thomas Oregon

Dave Carroll

Mark Wright-Johnson

Thank you guys, all of you bought me some Calvadoseses

Shout outs

Best military history podcasts

Survey Comments –

Ross Moore

Currently in Canada, formerly South Africa

And Ross you had 3 great great uncles that served in WW1 - one of them served in the 2nd Regt. South African infantry and died in the Arras area of France.  Another uncle served and survived in East Africa with 2nd S.A horse.

“Tracking down family history is a wild ride you pull one string and 5 more strings pop out and I haven't even started on WW2 yet.

I would love to hear any material that covers the South Africans effort in either of the wars.

Ross thanks for that. If anyone has any stories about the SA’s, write em up and send em in

Family stories

Family stories 1 – Mark Petricevic ww2 memoirs

West Michigan just outside of Grand Rapids

Paul –Love listening to your podcasts during my 1/2 hr commute every morning and afternoon.  

 I am a Veteran (4 years in the 82nd Airborne Division) and life long history buff who now owns a Military History Company. https://www.worldwarsupply.com/

I also did a fair amount of training with the SAS while I was in and earned my British Jump wings in Aldershot with the Paras.  

I have had the pleasure of personally meeting numerous Veterans from various Theaters of the war in my life.  One of the many stories is below.

I was a Funeral Director for 30 years and part of my duties, for prearranging funerals, was to get basic information for the Death Certificate.

I was meeting with a Gentleman to make his Funeral Arrangements so he would not burden his family when the time arrived.  One of the many bits of information I need to get is “are you a Veteran”  and he replies “Kind of”

Me “well Sir its like being Pregnant you either are or you are not”

So he replies with this story.

“I was 13 during the war and could not wait to go kill me a Nazi.  So I ran away from home and joined the Army.  I was a big kid and had no issue convincing the recruiter I was old enough.  I went thru Basic Training and shipped out to Europe.  Ended up in Operation Dragoon on D plus 3.  We were in camp a few days later and they said we were going to be moving to the front and to get ready for action.  I thought here is my chance to go kill me a Nazi.  I could not wait.  I rather excitedly get in the back of a truck and you will never guess who is sitting next to me, my Neighbor.  He proceeds to grab me rather roughly by the ear and yanks me off of the truck taking me directly to the nearest officer.  He tells the Officer I was way under age and had ran away from home to join and my parents had no idea where I was.  Within hours I was on my way back home.  So “kind of” turns out to have been the right choice of words.

Mark

Family stories 2 Another email from young Louis Trevett Wah Hekky NZ

Hi Paul - I have news - one of the deep massagers on the island is called mama yenny and she has a Dutch husband who was born before the war. During the liberation of his village in Holland he hid in a barn but left the door open. An American grenade hit a tree outside the barn and exploded putting shrapnel in his right shoulder. After the battle was over an American medic found him and put him in his jeep and took him to a hospital full of wounded Americans where he was treated. I think the reason he didn’t go to a civilian hospital was because it was an American grenade - therefore a military wound and not a civilian one. All of this he told me while my mum was getting a massage.

Thanks for that Louis. It reminds me of an old lateral thinking problem where a plane full of Italians is flying from Germany to France and it crashed exactly on the border of the two countries – the question is where would did they bury the survivors? Think about it and I’ll try to remember to tell you the answer in the PS.

War stuff

Julian Peter 

Hello Paul,

I am researching the story of Avro Lancaster PB958 F2-P, which took off one morning in March 1945 from RAF Downham Market on an air raid to Hamburg. Over the target, the plane was shot down, and crashed only a few streets down from where I live [so in Hamburg]. Of the 7 crew, only 2 managed to bail out, with one becoming a POW, while the other, F/SGT Kevin George Clark was also captured, but handed over to the Volksturm [that’s the sort of civilian militia]  who had him executed the same day. 

With the help of many archival documents, I was able to piece back together F/SGT Clark´s final moments, and am working on a retelling to commemorate his and his crew´s sacrifice.

Nevertheless, I was wondering if you had any information, tips, contacts, places where one could search for more archival documentation.

Thank you in advance,

Julián Péter

Julian thanks for that insight into your research. Great stuff. I’d recommend you look at the research tab on my web site at FTP because all my favoured links are up there including the excellent ww2talk.com forum which is always a good place to start. And there are quite a few good Facebook groups on a huge variety of WW2 subjects, not the least RAF Bomber Command Crews.

War stuff 1 Masters of the Air

Quick shout out for Masters of the Air – gotta do it - a recent series on Apple TV

It features the American 100^th bomb group of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, based in England.

All about the air war over Germany with American bombers carrying out daylight raids over strategic German targets such as Bremen and Berlin.

It’s been met with both critical acclaim and cynical derision. It’s been lambasted for its inaccuracies but lauded for its action scenes. 

I’ve exchanged comments with one or two listeners and I’ve been amused most of all by a Masters of the Air bingo card sent to me by listener Derek Whittle. So the idea is you keep an eye open on tropes and clichés on the card, common phrases used in the movies and see if you can spot them. So to name just a few, there was Glen Miller music – yep. First Nazi attack being a complete surprise – Yep. Oh no, the bombs won’t drop – pretty sure that was there. Can we fly on one engine – absolutely in there. Don’t you die on me! Yep. Look after my girl for me and a British Pub punch up between the yanks and brits – tick for both of them – and so it went on. If you want to see the rest there’s a pic in the second world war show notes.

I didn’t quite get a full house but I’m pretty sure I got two or three lines worth.

But all humour aside, as much as this really is just a story, albeit based on true history, it still pretty well depicts the boredom, the action, the tragedy and the triumph of that theatre of war. 

Above all, it has served very well to remind me of the service of so many of the characters covered in this podcast who served in one of the flying forces. 

Sidney Stevens pilot

Claude Reynolds rear gunner

The crew of Lancaster Lily Mars, my Dad’s pal Don Savage as rear gunner and

Canadian pilot Bertie Delacour both KIA.

Robert Binzer the Indiana Hump pilot who flew to China.

Fill your boots with those splendid episodes if you haven’t already.

And so many elements of this movie bring alive the actions that these men went through. 

For that, I think it’s mission completed. And as Derek added, the cgi of course was incredible.

A last word – if you hanker after more on all this, go no further than a recent episode of the Mighty Eighth podcast with Johann Tasker and Mike Peters – it’s an extremely authentic show to listen to.

War Stuff 5 UXB in Plymouth

This next bit of  war stuff you may already be aware of it but it deserves a mention for posterity.

It’s the recent of a UXB in Plymouth causing 10,000 people temporarily displaced, including 3000 who had to leave their homes for three days. 

500kg UXB. Wow. Some bloke found it in his back garden. 

Distinct connection with the Kisses on a Postcard episode – based in war time Plymouth!

War Stuff  6 BattleWalks

Highly recommended podcast you might like to catch up with – Derek Whittle

I took a listen to a recent episode that tells you almost everything you might like to know about the Battle of Arnhem. Veteran Battle Guide Jo Hook expertly talks us through the ins and outs of that one Bridge too Far – A seriously good job from Jo – That’s Battlewalks.

War Stuff 7 – The WW2 bike

Digging up garden

Tell me what you’ve found digging up your garden to make me feel better.

I decided to take up our 20 year old rotten decking and level our garden a bit then make a seating area. Underneath was a crap load of hardcore. I rented a skip and digger. then i hit a small mountain of concrete that's been dumped there. tried the other side and found an entire retaining wall that had been filled in.

I'm done. wife hates me. kids hate me. i hate me. my back hates me.

And I hate the builders!

r/GardeningUK

HarryP22

Get on with it Paul you may say! There is a point to this because one item is of ww2 historic interest. But just before that …

plnterior

Our friends bought a small terraced house with a massive garden last year. They specifically bought the house because of the garden, they had a whole plan for it. Then winter came and the hedges around the garden started getting sparse and started noticing random stuff in there, just to find bags uppon bags of rubbish. All types but mainly tires and big barrels.

Then they started digging one end of the garden just to level it a bit because it looked weird. They immediately hit something hard. Metal. Dug a bit more. A whole car. They car was stuffed to the brim with more bags,all full of rubbish. Lamps. Documents. Books. They buried it again and decided they don’t want a garden anymore.

Fun-Airport-5038

We found at least a whole wheel barrow full of full sized bricks and breeze blocks.

A lucozade bottle with "orange liquid" in it... I question if this was actually lucozade

Finally, noidea99 wrote:

I once found a motorbike. Wrapped in a sack. From the age of the bike, we believe it was buried during the second world War, when the army started requisitioning vehicles for the war effort. We think it was buried and then the owner died in the war and never came back for it. Finding that was a bit of a surprise!

Now there’s a family story we’ll probably never get down to the bottom of. Kind of sad really if it did belong to someone who never returned after the war.

Just a quick update on the book by master james Papalia.

The Secret Drop: A Kids World War 2 Adventure

That’s the title of James new book which I covered in the Christmas episode, now available from Amazon. Great books to help kids learn about the history of ww2 – link in the shownotes.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CSWGJRTT?ref_=cm_sw_r_apin_dp_GZHD1DWSD9AFSJ9M3YW3&language=en-US&fbclid=IwAR1E2IBqfEsTX0_On3vxT6twWN9SLID7fVRpbeZ2_2ftR6r0Lr2dxMc-svU_aem_AXaujzVFtVPlekILmZr_1-21D6F34E2-lSslmNoaYr5-V0lDjwetkGK2z7GFVNzoFac

Blurb:

Eight year old James is jumping on his friends trampoline with his sisters, when they find themselves high above Normandy on D-Day ready to parachute into one of the greatest battles in history...Follow them as they navigate through World War 2 and see first hand the bravery of allied soldiers as they fight against the oppression of the Axis Powers. Link in the show notes and top of the web site.

TR

Quick funnies

A few quick funny but true stories to share now.

During the Battle of the Bulge,

Allied troops were put on edge by reports of English-speaking Germans dressed and equipped as GIs roving behind the lines.

Bradley was almost shot by a sentry who challenged him and asked him the capital of Illinois.  Bradley gave the correct answer, but the soldier thought it was Chicago, not Springfield. It got sorted after some unpleasant moments.

There's a series of plaques

 at the Normandy museum with stories from veterans. One of them is from a paratrooper who dropped in on D-Day who said that he landed in an orchard with a German machine gun nest nearby. While he was trying to get his harness off somebody knocked the MG out with a grenade, and then a few seconds later he heard the 'click' of one of those cricket things they used to signal each other. He didn't have his ready and was so terrified of someone lobbing a grenade at him he just belted out:

"Baseball! Babe Ruth! Lou Gherig!"

Anything that would indicate he was American.

The other guy just shouted back "shut up Manley, you're gonna wake up the whole German army!"

Dummy tanks

Here's a humorous excerpt from BG Miles Smeeton's memoir, A Change of Jungles:

“One day, when a sandstorm was blowing shortly before the battle of El Alamein, the South Africans rang up to say that some of the dummy vehicles were blowing away. ‘Can’t you fix them up somehow?’ I asked anxiously,

thinking that if the enemy saw them the whole deception would be blown,

and forgetting that even if the Germans could get an aircraft over, they wouldn't see anything in this dust.

“‘Hell,’ they replied, ‘they're blowing on to the minefield.’

“A little later the telephone rang again. It was the South Africans. ‘Those dummy vehicles,’ they said. ‘It's all right after all. It was a dummy minefield’”

War stuff - British teenagers in WWII

Article from the Daily Telegraph that someone sent me:

Details of a secret civilian army of British teenagers who were trained to kill during the Second World War have emerged in research.

The British resistance force, which included young girls, was trained to strike back at the Nazis should they ever invade, sabotage German infrastructure and assassinate key personnel.

Four youngsters, who were the best shots in their school cadet corps, were selected as snipers.

A book to be published this year details how the clandestine unit, known as Section VII, was trained by the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS).

Little is known about the resistance force because the invasion never transpired and all recruits had to sign the Official Secrets Act. Section VII was developed in the summer of 1940 after the SIS was deployed overseas to help equip foreign resistance movements.

Among those to join was Irene Lockley from South Milford, North Yorkshire. Before her death she revealed to her daughter, Jenny, how she had been trained to “kill and maim and cause as much damage to the enemy as possible”.

She disclosed how she and other family members “were taught how to derail trains, how to make Molotov cocktails, how to garrotte and many other skills related to warfare”.

Andrew Chatterton, author of the new book Britain’s Secret Defences: Civilian Saboteurs, Spies and Assassins, told The Daily Telegraph: “In the summer of 1940 SIS was beginning to recruit ‘cells’ of civilians.

“Teenagers tended to make good recruits as they were naive enough to carry out actions without thinking too much about the consequences as well as being fit and active.”

So that mention of snipers brings us back Full Circle to the subject of this episode.

But sadly That’s it for this, part 1 of the episode - Please do join me again shortly for some more Adventures from Gary yees book.

In part two We're going to be covering women snipers, tips from British WW2  veteran Harry Furness, Crete, Sicily, the psychology of sniping and so much more

You've been listening to extracts from World War II Snipers: The Men, Their Guns, Their Story. Written by Gary Yee, Published by Casemate 2022. There's a link in the show notes if you're interested in getting hold of this excellent book - indeed it’s a one-stop shop for everything WW2 snipers. And I must say thank you to Gary Yee for his help in getting this all together.

Before I forget …

The crashed plane problem

a plane full of Italians is flying from Germany to France and it crashed exactly on the border of the two countries – the question is where would did they bury the survivors? The answer is - you don't bury survivors because they won't be able to breathe - catch question! Arghhh! I hear you say.

After that I think we're going to have to have a final short story as a PS, so here goes:

I'm Paul Cheall saying bye for now, and I’ll see you in episode 98 coming up before you can line up your gun sights.

Apology

Before I go any further I want to apologise for the delay in bringing this episode to you. It wasn’t planned liked this.

I have absolutely no intention of stopping and I’m really grateful for your continued support and to those of you who've written in to check I’m OK. I am indeed OK but after over 10 years of doing this, I'm realizing that there are times when I just need a bit of a rest before I crack on recording the next episode.

I do try to deliver a decent quality product and as a result it is very time consuming to create each episode, and there are occasions when this process just drags out. But I have to say I just love it when the episode finally goes out – it’s such a nice feeling – such a buzz. And this time it’s a double episode. Woop woop.

The show is doing very well in the podcast charts thanks to you and I’ll be sharing more on that in the forthcoming 10^th birthday episode.

For now, keep in touch, stay curious, and keep yer ears peeled! And I’ll do the same.

PS Western Desert WWII

When I first heard royal Engineer Brian mosses stories of dismantling bombs in the second world war as depicted in episodes 2 and 3 and more I became enthralled with the idea of soaking up the detail of how these tasks were carried out. If you haven't listened to Brian Moss's memoirs, which are now published, I would highly recommend them. But this enjoyment of the small details that I've acquired has now carried through to the art of sniping. I just love these tiny Fragments of how everything is done. Gone are the days when some bloke just shoots another bloke. It's far more than that. Anyway slightly in that vein, Gary Yee sent me this one … from the Western desert.

Paul, Here's a non-sniping tidbit but it has all the aspects of preparation for a shot:

A rangefinder was brought in to confirm the distance. A gun was set up ready to engage. The target had established a pattern. This incident took place in the Western Desert near El Agheila (450 miles from Tripoli and 700 west of Alexandria).

"The El Agheila position was direct in front and facing us about 700 yards away were Italians with a stiffening of Germans. Due to the supply problem, orders were given that ammunition could not be fired unless attacked. After a short while the Italians began to realize this and started to take liberties.

One day, before the heat haze occured, an Italian climbed out of his trench, raised his hand in the Fascist saluted and shouted, 'Viva Mussolini.' Turning his back to us, he dropped his pantaloons and squatted to answer the call of nature. We observed with surprised interest.

The next day, this fearsome Italian soldier gave a repeat performance. This was going too far for Frank Dillon and he said, 'We're not taking that!' The following day our range-taker, Chris Shambroook ensured that we had the correct distance, and Frank expertly laid his Vickers on the correct spot. Being good soldiers, we had some spare ammunition.

As we waited, a jeep pulled up and out got Brigadier Douglas Graham, the Officer Commanding 153 brigade. He immediately wanted to know what was going on, so the situation was explained about trying to teach this Italian a lesson and also that we had some spare ammunition. He said, 'All right, but you had better not miss!'

Our Italian did not let us down. He jumped up to what was to be his third performance and although he did not know it, his finale. When he began to exalt his love for Il Duce, Frank made final adjustments to the Vickers.

Suddenly, the Brigadier's telephone began to sound, but he ignored it! The Italian duly dropped his trousers, Frank fired a short burst and the Italian fell headfirst into his trench. The Brigadier laughed and congratulated us. A wound in the bottom is not generally considered life threatening, but the next time that Italian used the toilet, he would have to decide which hole to wipe. When the Brigadier returned the call from HQ, they asked why he had not answered. He said, 'I was busy watching my men shoot an I-tie up the arse!'"

end