Sniping from the wings

Some Americans get in such a hissy fit over almost nothing. The big movie of this week is "American Sniper". Michael Moore got severely criticized for calling snipers cowards. The social media critics went apoplectic.

This is understandable. Moore's uncle, serving in World War II was killed by a sniper. That is an important aspect to consider. Secondly the mindset about the killer craft is different in the modern world than it was 70 years ago in the actual war.

 That aspect comes from my own father who belonged to the Royal Canadian Engineers Regiment. It was shown in training that he was also an exceptional shot. As such, the Canadian Army inflicted a set of  cross rifles on his sleeve. In the Canadian combat units at that time, especially in the engineer units, there weren't that many specialized snipers.

I mean he was a really good shot. He owned a Fabrique Nationale. .270 Win bolt action. Apparently, he went hunting a couple of times, knocking the heads off some partridge. Its way too easy to say than to make that shot.

Normally, when a combat squad went into action if the unit ran into a situation where a good shooter was needed to function as a sniper then the corporal or sargeant would tap the best shot on the shoulder and tell him that he volunteered. Some guys did take to the job. But most riflemen didn't like the job for a couple of reasons, always happy to go back to the regular group.

There were enormous downsides to being the sniper. First, you were out there on the edge with no support if things went wrong. Second, its a lonely job. Third, if caught snipers, despite wearing uniforms, usually suffered swift summary execution as if they were spies.

A prime reason that snipers were killed immediately belied the attitude of the day that these people were evil cowards. Snipers usually weren't prisoners, nor did they take prisoners.

The Old Man did relate an important bit of information not shown in today's cinematic fantasies. During the sniper's course which cross rifles shooters attended the soldier experienced in sniper tactics, revealed one startling fact. Snipers don't normally shoot to kill.

This lecturer  outlined why snipers on both sides weren't encouraged to kill outright. Basically, it had everything to do with the old phrase, "Dead men don't tell tales."

If a sniper killed a target, the man would simply fall down and die, his buddies move in, spend a moment, then move on. One enemy soldier taken from the field. Instead, snipers on both sides preferred to target the bottom of the spine. The result would be a severely wounded screaming man not likely to die anytime soon. Plus the genitals usually were collateral damage. One or two soldiers usually came to attend the casualty. After preliminary first aid by another specialist soldier known usually as a corpsman the casualty, two soldiers carried the moaning human through the positions into the rear area.

So wounding a human took three men out of the field of combat. Plus the tactic worked on the morale of the victim's unit. In addition medical resources would be used on the casualty. This meant that trucks otherwise carrying ammunition wound up carrying noncombat resources. Killing a guy did nothing but provide a momentary sadness. Wounding a guy drains the support resources, wrecks morale and makes problems for the enemy long after the war ends.

Then one can understand why Moore would mention that snipers were cowardly. My father was a designated sniper and he considered it rather a dirty cowardly job. In times since, snipers have been glorified as courageous. A large part of this sea change has been the entertainment and media  fantasies that emerged around this job. Its a very dirty job. Regular soldiers regard snipers, even their own snipers as rather out there.

Keep in mind that Moore grew up within a group of people, at a time when that opinion about snipers existed commonly shared.