The bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1916-06-02
BULLET
GRAvEST Peril
TO THE SOLDIER
Concealed Marksmen Deal Death
With Consistency, Rarely
Missing Victim.
DISGUISE BATTLES ENEMY

Methods Of conceaIment Adopted
A Seconds Pause In AMI Exposed
Section Of the Line SPELLS
Death to the Soldier.
London.-While the charge, the
bursting Of shells and the hand.to-hand
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 sone
position where they are almost invis
ible to their opponents and send we'll
directed bullet at each target which ID
exposed for o 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 we're recently
compiled by an English newspaper and
give an insight into this method OF
warfare-an art which has been raised
80 high that moments forgetfulness,
Q 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 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, az 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 be raised up his head Another
wounded soldier started to walk back
to the trenches. A moment later he
pitched forward, shot through the tenn
pie by Q 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 1t would from body pass
ing through it, the grass itself ap-
peared to be coming forward.
For a minute the movement Of the
grass stopped and then 1t 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 fred three volleys in rapid sue
cession. Crawling over to the spot
where the mound of grass had sud-
denly stopped twitching, he found a
dead German sniper. Real sods Of
grass had been bound by cords to a
waterproof sheet, which had been
strapped to the sniper's back, making
a perfect disguise for him.
Continuing its 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 Shippers.
along one stretch Of 'front.'" he
says, I'VE were much puzzled by the
angle at which the sniper's bullets
were coming over. On the left was a
line Of leaness pollard willows. but we
could see that there was nobody be-
hind the trunks.
Several of our officers tried to find
Q solution, but all to no purpose. At
last Captain K, who happened to
be familiar with the ways of old will
lows. took charge and ordered three
men to fire q few shots at each willow
The sniping 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 90 revealed the enemy's
cunning. Inside the willow we found
not only q German but steel plate
which fitted outside him and inside
the willow, making q proof against rife
bullets.
while that was 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 was lying.
The top glass panels Of 1t were broken.
the wood beneath them was broken
and over the woodwork a gaudy paper
had been pasted. Its only use was as
q test for our sights. which we got
by hitting the door knob or breaking
OF q splinter Of glass. .s,a.g q ...-
zone day, however, we were sur
prised to ind that when bullet struck
the glass It left q white streak and
brought no tinkle. Hitting the wood
work had the Same effect; It brought
= while smear. but no splinters. W.
knew something was wrong and, that
ALLIES DIVIDED on WEIGHTS