The History Of Sniping And Sharpshooting
by John Plaster
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Book Summary Information
Author: John PlasterEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-01-01
ISBN: 158160632X
Number of pages: 687
Publisher: Paladin Press
Book Reviews of The History Of Sniping And Sharpshooting
Book Review: A shooter's must-have
Summary: 5 Stars
In November 2007 I got an email from Greg Nichols at Paladin Press, asking whether I would be interested in reviewing Maj. John Plaster's latest book, "The History of Sniping and Sharpshooting", to come out early in 2008. Of course I would. What a question to ask of somebody from a site called Sniper Country.
Shortly before Christmas 2007 the book arrived, and I was immediately impressed. Due to their prices I don't have valuables such as the Chandlers' series (Death from Afar) on the US Marine Corps' sniping, nor Peter Senich's books on sniping in specific wars (WWI, WWII, Vietnam, etc.) - though I would love to still get them. Thus I don't have anything to compare this volume with, but then, quality shows and need not be compared to be appreciated. And this book shows quality from start to finish.
A large book, coffee-table quality, with lots of drawings, illustrations, photos and facsimiles of brochures - all black-and-white - it is an excellent read. Its 670-odd pages are crammed with information, and the bibliography alone is a veritable treasure trove.
It is divided into six parts, namely:
* Early Wars in the New World and on the Continent
* The American Civil War
* Sharpshooting in Transition
* The Two World Wars
* The Asian Wars
* Sniping into the 21st Century
Each of these parts is further divided into chapters covering specific periods of interest, for example The Asian Wars is divided into two chapters, one each on Korea and Vietnam.
The book starts at the beginning of it all, in essence the first rifled-barreled rifles appearing around 1450. And it ends with sniping in Afghanistan and Iraq as late as 2007.
And basically every page I said to myself "I have to remember this" only to repeat it later on the same page, or on the next page. The book does not go into all the technical detail of every firearm discussed, neither is that the intention. It discusses the different developments and how it evolved through the ages, and how these developments affected the wars they were used in, from being new in one and the standard in the next, leading to new innovations. And around every war or era it also goes into more details on specific inventors, shooters and shots, and their influences on it all.
An incredible revelation is that, after EVERY war, right from the start until after Vietnam, that which was just learned at the cost of much blood and many lives, were just discarded, and all training stopped. All the lessons learned regarding musketry, accurate shooting, sharpshooting, sniping - all just swept under the carpet. And after Vietnam it may have well happened again, had it not been for Major Jim Land, who bullied Marine HQ until the Marine Corps started a sniper school. Thus he ensured that with Desert Storm invasion of Iraq in the early 1990's, the US Armed Forces were for the first time ready in terms of their sniper capability when going into a war.
And that is my one beef with this book, albeit a small and understandable one - it is written very US-centric. Other countries are mentioned almost as a matter of fact, or merely because they are part of the same war as the US - most often on the other side. In those cases Plaster does not neglect them, not at all, but other than the US conflicts he barely touches anything else. Being a South African I would obviously have wanted to see more on the Anglo-Boer War, but that is only very briefly mentioned. But then, there's not necessarily all that comprehensive documentation available on specific shooters and techniques employed in all these other countries and conflicts.
This is almost a lifetime of work, being the result of Plaster's own research, originally just done in order to be able to better teach his sniper students, later to ensure that the information is not lost - in all the work of almost three decades. Drawing on his 36-month combat experience as a operative with the top-secret MACV-SOG in Vietnam and later 24 years as a sniper instructor, Plaster combines this with his writing skills to put together a very definitive work.
This book is a must on the shelves of anybody who is serious about precision shooting, or who is in any way interested in the development and influence of firearms over the centuries. At more than $90US it is not cheap, especially if one has to multiply that by eight or more to get it into South Africa, but it is well worth the money.
Summary of The History Of Sniping And Sharpshooting
Thirty-six months in combat. Twenty-four years as a sniping instructor. Twenty years of exhaustive research, including decades spent seeking out hundreds of historic volumes long out of print, test-firing historic firearms, walking Revolutionary and Civil War battlefields with a laser rangefinder, and visiting military museums in the United States and Europe. Only Major John Plaster, author of the highly acclaimed The Ultimate Sniper, has the background and knowledge to bring you this authoritative history of sniping and sharpshooting ? the first such book from a combat rifleman's unique perspective.In The History of Sniping and Sharpshooting, John Plaster has assembled the most comprehensive combat history ever published on the subject. It begins in the 15th century, with the first use of "precision" musket fire in Europe and continues into the 21st century with the significant role sniping is playing the Iraq and Afghanistan and the global War on Terror. Detailing major engagements and minor skirmishes over five centuries of warfare, Plaster has unearthed hundreds of incidents where calculated precision rifle fire has changed the course of battles ? and, sometimes, history. He fittingly addresses well-known sharpshooters and snipers ? Hiram Berdan, Vasili Zaitsev, Carlos Hathcock ? but also pays tribute to forgotten riflemen such as John Burns, Benjamin Forsyth and Arthur Wermuth, to name but a few. He also explains how the evolution of firearms and optical technology has intertwined with sniping on the battlefield and how it has influenced tactics, organizations, and capabilities ? a subject that has never before been address adequately.
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