When one thinks of what the life of a sniper
is like, it is a common misconception, probably as a result of modern-day films like American
sniper, that snipers in the field are always out there taking out bad guys and carrying
out high-risk, secret missions. While that is undoubtedly the case as part
of their job description, both historically and today, the life of a sniper has varied
widely due to both the country and conflict. In today's video, we will look at how the
life of a sniper has evolved from its humble beginnings to the professional marksmen they
are today. Snipers in American military history first
came about during the French and Indian War. However, if you called any of these skilled
marksmen and backwoodsmen sniper, they would probably look at you funny. That is because back then, through the Civil
War, snipers were known as sharpshooters. Sharpshooters during the War were usually
men selected for not only their prowess with a rifle, but also their ability to track and
hunt down the enemy in rugged environments, operate independently for long periods of
time, and report back vital information on enemy movements. For that reason, the first American sharpshooters
were men who had a wide range of experiences operating in the backwoods. The first organized unit of sharpshooters,
Roger's Rangers, organized by Major Robert Rogers, came about during the French and Indian
War. Before this time, sharpshooting and tracking
were seen more or less as a dirty, non-honorable way of warfare. British and other European commanders looked
down upon these "savage" modes of fighting beneath the classic line style fighting designed
for European battlefields. However, in the backwoods of Pennsylvania,
New York, and Maryland, new methods of fighting had to be tried after several disastrous defeats
of British regulars at the hands of the French and their Native American allies. Luckily for the British, they found their
answer in Major Robert Rogers. As a boy, Rogers had witnessed the aftermath
of a French-led Native American raid on a nearby town. After being forced to pull down the inhabitants'
entrails and body parts that were strewn about in the trees, he made a promise that he would
avenge these people and fight back just like them. After joining the British army, his ideas
were not met with much enthusiasm until 1757, when he was finally authorized to recruit
a crack unit of sharpshooters to counter strike at the enemy since the War was not going well
for the British. Roger’s Rangers soon grew to seven companies
strong and were made up of the most rugged backwoodsmen and marksmen that the new colonies
could muster. These men were tasked with bringing the fight
back to the enemy any way they could. They were ruthless in their fighting style,
with one of Roger's standing orders stating that after engaging the enemy with their rifles,
they were to close with their hatchets to finish the job. They were also paid a five pound sterling
bounty, worth almost 1000 US dollars today, for each French or Indian scalp they brought
back from raids. Roger's Rangers were also always expected
to be on the move and travel lightly save for a large quantity of powder and ammunition
since they were always expecting to do a lot of shooting. The men operated mainly as a sort of what
is today called a quick reaction force. Whenever there was an attack, the Rangers
were sent out to find, track, and ambush the enemy responsible. When they were not doing that, they would
embark on their long-range patrols of scouting enemy positions and ambushing anyone they
could anywhere they found them. Throughout their existence, Robert's Rangers
were involved in hundreds of skirmishes and battles throughout the North American wilderness. Their prowess and capability cannot be underestimated
as their consistent harassing attacks and intelligence provided British commanders with
the ability to maneuver their forces smartly to avoid being cut off and surrounded like
they were earlier in the War. After the end of the French and Indian War,
the American colonists formed their own crack unit of Sharpshooters known as Morgan's Rifles
during the American Revolution. This unit, led by Colonel Daniel Morgan, would
become the eyes, ears, and surgical precision instrument of Washington's army. Recruited from the same stock of men as before,
their role still included plenty of scouting and harassing of Native American settlements
in retribution for raids earlier in the War. However, as the War progressed, the men became
less and less of a long-range reconnaissance group and more of a tactical element to be
employed on the battlefield. One of the first instances of this was their
consistent harassing of General Howe's army as it retreated from New Jersey. Along their entire march, Morgan's Rifles
used their superior Kentucky rifles to snipe at the Redcoats at distances of up to 500
yards, an unheard-of distance, and tactic for the time. As the men fought with the British more often,
towards the end of the War in 1781, the men formed part of a core infantry battalion that
under the leadership of Morgan himself was crucial in defeating the British in the Battle
of the Cowpens. This battle forced Cornwallis to abandon his
invasion of the South and seek refuge at Yorktown for rest and refitting. After that, well, you all know the story. After the American Revolution, it seems that
the practice of employing sharpshooters fell largely out of favor until the advent of the
American Civil War. It was here that sharpshooters would begin
to become assets whereby their tactical decisions would have long-term operational and strategic
impacts on the War itself. Shortly after the war broke out, sharpshooters
began to take well-aimed shots at high-ranking officers and generals on both sides. The first general officer casualties to snipers
happened during the first few months of the War, and the practice of sharpshooters aiming
to take out generals would become standard practice throughout the War. However, the life of a sniper in the Civil
War and who could become a sniper was radically different than before. Prior to this conflict, sharpshooters would
have acquired the skills necessary to become a sniper years before joining the army. However, now with the meat grinder of the
War in full swing and no end in sight, the Union needed to pump out several regiments
of sharpshooters for frontline service and did not have the luxury of waiting. Initial qualifications to become a sniper
were, of course, the ability to be a good shot. Their own commanding officer also had to be
recommended as only mature, physically fit, and intelligent men could become a sharpshooter. Once passing a shooting test, those that made
it were given a lot of on the job training by veterans who had already experienced the
horrors of modern combat. One of the most significant changes that came
about was how snipers would operate on the battlefield. Instead of scouting and harassing the enemy
far behind their lines, their main job now was to support the infantry and exploit weak
points in enemy positions. A perfect example of their life during this
time comes during the Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi. During the siege, the Confederates were holed
up in a fortress of a city that had repelled with heavy casualties several Union assaults
to take it. As a result, hundreds of sharpshooters were
let loose about their deadly work to degrade Southern morale and take out any Confederate
that dared move around. From the memoirs of a Confederate Captain
who survived the battle, the effects of the sharpshooters were astounding. They would shoot at anything and everything
that moved. No matter the time of day or where they were,
the men were always in a constant state of fear. Even looking over the parapets of the trenches
for even a moment was a probable death sentence. The snipers shot so much that it was literally
impossible to move during the day. Only at night could the men leave the comfort
of their trenches, and even then it was still risky. While his men took serious casualties during
several Union assaults, it was the consistent, daily casualties from sniper fire that dwindled
down his numbers and sapped the will to fight from the survivors. Such a strategic implementation of employing
snipers had never been seen before on the American continent and would not be seen as
a terror weapon again until World War Two. Though World War One saw extensive use of
snipers, especially with the advent of new technology such as telescopic sights, the
use of spotters, and decoys, beyond these tools their life did not differ much from
that of an ordinary soldier due to the essentially static nature of the conflict. It was during World War Two, however, that
the life of a sniper changed dramatically due to the largest and most intense theater
of War in human history: the Eastern front. Snipers on the Eastern front faced a genuinely
unique experience. Due to the sheer scale of the German invasion
and the need for practical tools to stem the enemy tide while the Red Army recuperated
from its losses, snipers here saw arguably the most widespread use and, thus, were the
most successful snipers in the history of warfare. A perfect example of how many of the highest-scoring
Soviet snipers got their feet wet in the field was none other than Vasily Zaitsev. Beginning the War as a clerk in the accounting
department of the Navy in its Far Eastern Fleet, Vasily yearned for a chance to fight
at the front. After his request to go into combat was approved,
he was attached to the 284th Rifle Division and sent into the Battle of Stalingrad. It was here in the autumn and winter of 1942
that Vasily would learn how to become a sniper and change the course of history for Soviet
and future snipers altogether. In the rubble of the ruined city, he first
began his forays on his own time after the unit had stopped fighting for the day. He would set out with his standard-issue Mosin
Nagant rifle and attack any targets of opportunity that he could. Officers, artillery observers, machine gunners,
radio operators, and, of course, other snipers were the primary targets he would hunt. Unlike the famous Finnish sniper Simo Haya,
Vasily wanted to effect real change on the battlefield with just his rifle. As a result, though he would take shots at
average German troops, he would always try to take out high-value targets first so that
the infantry would have an easier time on the ground. His tactics paid off, and within a matter
of months, he rose from relative obscurity to a national hero. Soviet leadership, sensing his value as a
trainer for future generations of snipers, removed him from the frontlines and had him
teaching new crops of snipers to carry the fight to the enemy. After Vasily’s successes became widely known,
Soviet doctrine also began to change so that by the end of the War, the average infantry
platoon was assigned at least two snipers for long range fire support. However, life as a sniper in World War Two
varied greatly depending on the front and the combatant. While the allies such as the Soviet Union,
the US, and Great Britain all began embedding snipers as a direct infantry support weapon,
countries like Nazi Germany began to use them as a terror tactic once more. While professional German snipers continued
operating through the end of the War in the same way as their enemy counterparts, larger
and larger numbers of semi-professional and inexperienced snipers were employed to cause
havoc beyond the frontlines. It was quite common, especially on the Western
front, that when German forces retreated, they would leave dozens or sometimes hundreds
of sacrificial snipers beyond to cause as much damage as possible. These snipers often times wreaked havoc on
advancing allied troops who thought they were safe from German gunfire only to be cut down
miles behind the front from concealed snipers in trees, bushes, buildings, and chimneys. Though often successful in striking their
enemy, these snipers were less trained and less experienced than their counterparts,
who had been fighting for years already. Oftentimes, these were one-way suicide missions
with massive retaliation in the form of artillery, plane, and tank attacks being used to flush
out these last-ditch defenders. After the end of World War Two, snipers still
retained this infantry support role. During the Korean War, they proved vital at
striking at the unseen enemy in the mountains and valleys of the Korean peninsula. In Vietnam, the American military began to
employ them once again into what has morphed into their modern-day role as a scout sniper. The role of a scout sniper is two-fold. Their primary job is to be inserted behind
enemy lines to operate independently to report on enemy locations. Such actions were as vital then as today in
fighting a guerilla war where large bodies of troops can move unseen and are hence avoided
by the enemy. Snipers operating in small teams can easily
blend in with the environment and report back vital intelligence that can either be used
to rain down indirect fire on an unsuspecting enemy or help plan coordinated search and
destroy missions. Snipers today too are fortunate to have years
of modern developments in ballistics, scopes, and rifles at their fingertips. Because of this, snipers in an infantry support
role can now consistently hit targets over a mile and even a mile and a half away. Because of this, snipers can provide valuable
top cover to infantry operations where they can take out or at the least suppress enemy
movements to cover advancing troops.
