Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1916-06-02
Concealed MarkSmen Deal Death
With Consistency, Rarely
Missing Victim.
DISGUISE BATTLES ENEMY
Remarkable Ingenuity Displayed In
Methods Of conceaIment Adopted
A Seconds Pause in an Exposed
Section of the Line Spells
Death to the Soldier.


combats make up to great extent the
picture of war, one of the gravest dan
gers which the soldiers face in the field
is the bullet of the sniper They are
the clever marksMen who select some
position where they are almost invis.
lble to their opponents and send we'll
| directed bullet at each target which is
exposed for a fraction of minute.
Remarkable as examples of the in
genuity of these snipers are some of
the stories of their methods of dis
guise which are related by the soldiers
who return from the trenches A
number of such stories were recently
compiled by an English newspaper and
give an insight into this method of
warfare-an art which has been raised
so high that moments forgetfulness,
a seconds pause in an exposed section
of the line spells death to the soldier.
"A Tommy, recently returned home,
tells an extraordinary story of the in
genuity and death of a German sni-
per-" says the newspaper. This par
ticular sniper was encountered on Hill
Seventy. When dawn broke the sol
der was chilled to the bone and weak
ened with loss of blood. as he had been
wounded the night before. Unable to
move, he lay fiat on his back and tried
to get some sleep. The rest and the
warmth of the sun revived the soldier
and he raised up his head Another
Nxrn Tod cko 20 II IL
to the trenches. A moment later he
pitched forward, shot through the tenn
pie by a sniper.
Grass Arouses Suspicion.
Five minutes later another man
moved. He started to get to his feet,
but seemed startled by something and
lay down again quickly The other
wounded man followed his example
A moment later he saw the grass,
about twenty yards away, move in a
peculiar manner. Instead of moving
sideways as it would from body pass
ing through it, the grass itself ap-
peared TO be coming forward.
For minute the movement of the
grass stopped and then it began again,
this time coming toward the wounded
soldier. Suspicion was now aroused
to such an extent that the soldier final
ly took aim at the moving tuft of grass
and fired three volleys in rapid sue
cession. Crawling over to the spot
where the mound of grass had sud
denly stopped twitching, he found
n nf
grass had been bound by cords to a
waterproof sheet, which had been
strapped to the snipers back, making
perfect disguise for him."
Continuing it's anecdotes of the
snipers, the newspaper quotes from
long letter written by soldier, in
which he explains the dangers present
ed to the men by the snipers.
along one stretch of 'front.'" he
says, I'VE were much puzzled by the
angle at which the snipers bullets
were coming over. On the left was a
line of leafless pollard willows, but we
could see that there was nobody be-
hind the trunks.
Several of our officers tried to find
a solution, but all to no purpose. AT
last Captain X, who happened to
be familiar with the ways of old will
lows, took charge and ordered three
men to fire few shots at each willow.
The shipping ceased. Two of the will
lows were hollow and the Germans
had crept inside the trees and were
firing through cracks in the stem with
automatic revolvers. For two days
there was no more sniping, but on the
third the fire was resumed as briskly
as before and with just as deadly an
effect. Fire was opened again on the
willows, but this time there was no re-
suit.
Steel Plate in Hollow Tree.
Captain x was just as SUSPECT
GUS as ever, and he instructed the
nearest battery to make short work
of the willows. This was done. and
the third to go revealed the enemy's
cunning. Inside the willow we found
not only a German but steel plate
which fitted outside him and inside
the willow, making proof against rife
bullets.
While that was a clever trick it
was little better than the work done
with the old door. At one spot where
our trenches were not more than 100
yards apart an old door vas lying
The top glass panels of it were broken,
the wood beneath them was broken
and over the woodwork a gaudy paper
had been pasted. Its only use was as
a test for our sights, which we got