Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1915-11-10
SN|PER'S GRIM WORK
SharpShooter's Bullet Has Spe-
CiaI FormidableneSs.
For Hours the Sniper Patiently Waits
for the Opening of LoophoIe
or the Sight Of
Cap.

British Headquarters.-It would be
interesting, if such calculation were
possible, to classify the agencies to
which the total daily casualties are
due. Whatever the statistics might
prove, the most formidable agency is
still the sniper's bullet.
1t is possible, perhaps even proba-
BILE, that the majority of British cas-
ualties would be found to be attributed
to shell fire. 1t might be found that
along a particular line of trench the
bulk of the men are knocked out by
hand grenades But the sharpshoot-
ers bullet has special formidable
ness of it's own such as is enjoyed by
no other weapon.
The she'll, the rifle grenade, the
trench mortar at least give some
warning to the ear; the bomb and the
aerial torpedo are visible as they come
through the air in daytime, and may
frequently be lodged. The listen
ers" are generally able to give some
warning as to the operations and prog
ress of hostile miners. The bullet
alone is absolutely unobtrusive, instan-
taneous, and unceasing.
One may take a certain amount of
liberties, as it were, with shell fire.
A single man, or even two men, pro-
vided that they are not obviously peo-
pie of importance, may risk walk
along a stretch of ground in view Of
the enemy's guns, simply because it
is not worth a gunners while to shoot
at every individual enemy he sees.
No such familiarity is safe with
sniper. He is always on the lookout
for unconsidered trifies, and all the
more ready to fire that his ammuni-
ton is so cheap and plentiful.
This static trench warfare has large
" curtailed the activities of the old
type of sniper-of the sniper. that is
to say, who concealed himself in some
neat piece of cover and thence, with
the aid of telescope sights, picked off
individuals at a long range. And this,
for two reasons.
In the first place, as soon as the
two armies realized that trench war
fare was likely to last for months,
they set to work very naturally to
elaborate their defenses, and have
largely defeated the sniper proper by
the very elaboration and multiplicity
of their communication trenches. And,
secondly, 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 | was with
two Shippers when they at last spotted
a German summing himself in a field.
The distance was made out to be just
over 1000 yards. Each of my COM
nanions was a well-known big game
shot and they each fired couple Of
rounds at the enemy.
The bullets must have gone uncom-
fortably near the mark, for, after each
shot the man stared about him with a
puzzled movement. but he stalked OH
unhit. This was. OF course. an ex-
creme range, but the marksmen were
exceptionally good, and their failure
to find anything but so unpromlslng
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 VINO