Sniping in the Great War

Great book, arrived quickly and was in great condition for it being a used book.

Martin Pegler's books on sniping never fail to be interesting. He is a knowlegeable writer on the subject which obviously fascinates him. World War 1 was by its nature a snipers war for most of its duration. A static front with little room to move lent itself to sniping. The German forces understood this and was ready, the Allies were not. This book is how the Allies, through the efforts of a few motivated officers, corrected the situation and eventually reversed the tables on the Germans. Pegler does not restrict his narrative to the Western Front but also reviews the Gallipoli campaign and the war in Palestine and Macedonia. He notes that Gallipoli was nearly entirely a snipers war fought with open sights and at quite close ranges. He notes the skill that the Turkish snipers had and how on the Allies side it was the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who had been civilian hunters who were able to counter the threat. A fascinating side to the book is the distaste for snipers by their fellow soldiers and especially high ranking officers but that when a unit was being pinned down by enemy snipers it was their own that they first turned to. Undoubtedly it was the distaste for the sniper that led to their skills being allowed to lapse as soon as the conflict was ended. Something that Pegler has noted in other books he has written because the same thing was to happen at the end of the Second World War and the Korean War. Altogether, this is a worthwhile addition to any military library although a well-read reader will find many well-known references from other books on the subject.