Voices of Snipers: Eyewitness Accounts from the World Wars

John Walter

Mey 2022 · Greenhill Books

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Based on an incredible breadth of first-hand testimony, this is a unique collection of eyewitness accounts from World War I and II. John Walter draws on meticulous research and the reminiscences of more than fifty snipers, tracing their journeys from recruitment and selection through training, combat and its aftermath to reveal a surprising commonality of experience, even across nationalities. Laying bare the triumphs and brutalities of sniping, the personalities and psychologies of those who found themselves doing it and considering the immediate implications on both the sniper and the wider theatre of war, this is a fascinating, detailed insight into frontline combat and the experience of sharpshooting in its historical context. The book is appended with the complete diary of Russian sniper Roza Shanina, who is still celebrated today for her remarkable shooting accuracy and astonishing bravery. Her diary offers a rare insight into the complexities of what it was to be both a sniper and a woman on the frontline.

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John Walter, born in Glasgow in 1951, is among the world’s most prolific writers on small arms—author of seventy books, translated into more than a dozen languages. Walter has worked with edged weapons, bladed tools, firearms, railway locomotives, warships, scientific instruments and even heraldry. Among his published works have been several studies of the Luger pistol; four editions of Rifles of the World; The Airgun Book; The Rifle Story and The Handgun Story; Guns of the Elite and its current successor, Guns of the Elite Forces; The German Rifle; and The Greenhill Dictionary of Guns and Gunmakers.