sniper rifles in the Napoleonic Wars? there were sharpshooters but that's not comparable to a sniper rifle with scope. never mind the tactics of those units.
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Looking forward to this series.
Hope it covers the M1 Garand someday.
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I think a single title in this new series that goes all the way from the sharpshooting weapons and tactics of the Napoleonic Wars to present day sniping, risks spreading the subject matter too thin, especially as the story should begin in the American War of Independence. I mused about this in a post I did a couple of years ago see
http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/sniper_aces/
and followed that up more recently at http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/snipers_and_service_aces/
My vote would be for two titles, with the second probably beginning in WWI.
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popular at that date in the English speaking world due to the adoption of units equipped with rifled muskets like the 95th Rifles popularized by Sharpe. but those were simply light troops, armed with rifled muskets instead of (shortened) regular muskets, as France had. this was a matter of doctrine however, since the French were actually in posession of a rifled musket (called Carabine de Versaille) at the beginning of the Revolutionary Wars. hoever French doctrine put an emphasize on continual fire rather than pinpoint accuracy (musket rifles took longer to reload). some countries like Württemberg had a rifleman tradition on their own (Jäger) but were also influenced by the French, thus Württemberg's light infantry featured both Jäger armed with rifled muskets as well as French-style Leichte Infanterie armed with shortened regular muskets. those units performed extremely well in many batles but no one ever made a TV show about them like Sharpe, but i still have hopes...
at this point i have to mention that those were all western hemisphere developments, since countries like the Ottoman empire and Iran all had their own opinions on tactcial doctrine and for exampel Nadir Shah employed a highly successful corps of mounted sharpshooters, also of note are the Afghan Jezails used in the British invasions of Afghanistan.
sniper rifles of today have various origins, high caliber anti-materiel sniper rifles originate from anti-tank rifles of ww2 and ww1, which are technically large bolt-action rifles but rather should be tactically grouped with bazookas. the 'regular' sniper rifles of today originate from ww1, were regular service rifles were equipped with a scope for long range sniping, similar to how the anti-tank rifles received scopes. this is today largely forgotten because the modern service rifles are assault rifles not used for sniping.
so the point is, "sniper rifles" in my understanding are not older than ww1, since a sniper rifle in the modern meaning is basically any scoped rifle that can be used for individual long-range sniping.
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Wurttemberger.
Be they skirmishers, marksmen or snipers in name, the weapon they used, the sniper rifle, does actually pre-date World War One. A " scoped rifle that can be used for individual long-range sniping" was developed and used in the field during the American Civil War. More than one type actually.
Here's a brief discussion and some links about these early scoped rifles.
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=79979&p=812186
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Yes, there are good illustrations of ACW scoped rifles in Martin Pegler's excellent "Sniper" and I've seen examples in ACW museums (and also some eerie blue-tinted spectacles/eyeglasses that were issued to sharpshooters!). But there is a useful distinction to be drawn between the adaptation of a standard rfle by the addition of a scope and the development of purpose-built sniper weapons (an example of tactics leading developments in weaponry, though it also happens the other way round). By the way, is there evidence of comparable sharpshooting in the Franco-Prussian war or in other wars immediately following the ACW in other parts of the world?
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GI Gene I can confirm that we will definitely be doing the M1 Garand but it won't publish until the second half of 2011 or early 2012 unfortunately. Hope you enjoy the launch titles in the meantime.
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GI Gene I can confirm that we will definitely be doing the M1 Garand but it won't publish until the second half of 2011 or early 2012 unfortunately. Hope you enjoy the launch titles in the meantime.
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I think you all make a good point about the Sniper Rifles. We did actually consider the two volume approach. However, as it wasn't until the post Vietnam era that you start to see rifles being specifically created for military sniper use (before then sniper rifles were usually adaptations of military rifles in mainstream use) we would have created too much overlap with the later Weapon volumes we have planned on many of these individual rifles. With the one volume approach we were able to do an overview of the development of sniping from the American Civil War through to the present day as well as covering the major rifles and optics used. Martin Pegler, author of our bestselling volumes on the military sniper, has written this book and done a fantastic job so I hope you will check it out when it is released in November. If you would like the full contents list or any more info about the series please feel free to email me directly (kate.moore@ospreypublishing.com).
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