The father of modern sniping?An American joins the Canadian Army

[Cunuckgaucho]

Herbert Wesley McBride was a Captain in the Twenty-first Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, during the First World War. He was a sniper and commander of a machine gun unit known as the “Emma Gees.” He was also the author of two books on the war: “A Rifleman Went To War” (1933) and “The Emma Gees” (1918)...When the war started, he volunteered in a Canadian rifle company in Ottawa because he wanted to see action as quickly as possible. He was commissioned as an officer, but was reduced to a private due to several drunken incidents. He shipped to England for training and then to the Western Front, where he participated in battles around Ypres and the Somme throughout 1916.

In his book, “A Rifleman Went To War,” he recounts killing more than 100 German soldiers as a sniper. This book is highly regarded by students of riflery, it’s mandatory reading in the U.S. Marine Corps Sniping School. It is also considered one of the best first-person accounts of World War I, often being compared favorably to “Storm of Steel” by Ernst Junger.

Armed with a Ross rifle and a telescopic sight, he kept notes on how ballistics were affected by such externals as temperature, humidity, wind, and other changes in weather and lighting conditions. He improved upon techniques of camouflage and concealment and developed methods of fooling the enemy as to a sniper’s exact location. All these techniques were passed on and used by snipers around the world.

 

 The Canadian Ross rifle excelled as a sniper rifle but as a general front line infintry weapon it was not the best choice. 

 

Edited March 20, 2023 by Cunuckgaucho

[unforgiven]

Thanks for the share brother, Mr.McBride was an extraordinary man with nerves of steel. To have survived the Ypres and the Somme. 🇨🇦 God bless him 

[98Z5V]

Pretty cool piece of history, great find, brother!     I love stuff like this. 

[Cunuckgaucho]

I ordered his book and it should be here end of month. I wanted the hardcover rather than paperback or kindle version