The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1915-10-15
SHIPPER On The Job
Crack Shots on Both Sides Make Life in Trenches Misery
for Soldiers Trying to Take Rest

BRITISH HEADQUARTERS, Oct.
15.-It would be interesting. II such q
calculation were possible, to classify
the agencies to which the total daily
casualties are due Whatever the sta.
tistics might prove. the most formid.
able agency is still the sniper's bullet.
It IL possible, perhaps even probable.
that the majority Of British casualties
would be found to be attributed to
shell fire. It might be found that
along particular line OF trenches the
bulk Of the men are knocked out by
hand grenades. But the sharpshooter's
bullet has a special formidableness Of
its own such as is enjoyed by no other
weapon.
The shell, the rifle grenade, the
trench mortar at least give some warn.
ing to the ear; the bomb and the aer-
ial torpedo are visible as they come
through the air In the day time, and
may frequently be lodged. The Ills.
teners" are generally able to give some
warning as to the operations and pro.
gress of hostile miners. The bullet
alone is absolutely unobtrusive, in.
stantaneous and unceasing.
One may take certain amount OF
liberties, as 1t we're, with shell fire. A
single man, or even two men, provided
that they are not obviously people of
importance, may risk walk along a
stretch Of ground In view of the enc
my's guns. simply because 1t is not
worth gunner's while to shoot at ev-
cry individual enemy he sees.
SnIper on Job.
No such familiarity is safe with a
sniper. He is always on the lookout
for unconsidered trifles. and all the
more ready to fire that his ammuni-
ton is so cheap and plentiful.
This static trench warfare has large
ly curtailed the activities Of the old
type of sniper-that is to say, who
concealed himself in some neat piece
Of cover, and thence, with the aid Of
telescope sights, picked OF individu-
ais at long range. And this. for two
reasons.
In the first place, as soon as the two
armies realized that trench warfare
was likely to last for months, they set
to work very naturally to elaborate
their defenses, and have largely de-
feated the sniper proper by the very
and multiplication of their
renches. And second
ly, the immobility of the front has
meant that very many of the sniper's
haunts have gradually become found
out and are so carefully watched as to
be almost untenable.
The old sniper has thus been forced
more and more into the background,
and finds it increasingly difficult to
get anything like good days bag.
The other afternoon l was with two
snipers when they at last spotted
German summing himself in a field.
The distance was made out to be just
over two thousand yards. Each of my
companions was well-known big
game shot, and they each fired a
couple of rounds at the enemy.
Victim Escapes.
The bullets must have gone uncom-
fortably near the mark, for after each
shot the man started abut him with a
puzzled movement, but he stalked of
unhurt. This was, of course, an ex-
IRENE range. but the marksmen were
exceptionally good, and their failure
to find anything but so unpromising a
target shows clearly enough that the
only possible marks are frequently
set at virtually impossible ranges.
But, with the temporary extinction
of the sniper proper there has grown
up host of trench snipers, men who
are constantly firing as from twenty to
three hundred yards or whatever may
be the ridiculously small distance sep
arating the opposing lines. One of the
bewildering features of the war is the
daily publication of long lists at time
when there Is nothing sufficiently i'm
portant to justify a British commu.
niQue. Behind the rows of sand bags
which face one another with such ap.
parent purposelessness. there are the
snipers who will spend hours waiting
for the opening of loophole, the sight
of cap or hand incautiously raised
above the parapet, the hosting of a
periscope. a shovel-anything which
may betoken the least undue activity.
There is Is constant pitting of pa
tient vigilance against ignorance, care
lessness, or the sheer recklessness
born of physical fatigue. The strain
of being under shell fire may be more
acute while it lasts, but, in the long
run, it is the unintermittent crack of
the bullet which jars the nervous sys.
TEN most permanently.
A man, whom l will call "A", was
admittedly one of the first half-dozen
rifle shots in Great Britain. In the
as rapid firer during the German
attacks in masses was great. "A" was
later put in a machine gun section,
OV1.