Book Review: Rifleman Went to War
A look at Capt H. W. McBride's masterpiece of World War one sniping
The first and some say the most influential book in print about sniping and the art of being a military sniper on the battlefield
McBride's book was seminal in the development of U.S. military sniping doctrine in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and on to the present day. .The U.S. Marine Corps Sniper School has made this book mandatory reading for its would-be snipers.
Capt H. W. McBride ditched a long-held commission in the U.S. Army National Guard (Indiana) to enlist in the Canadian army at the beginning of WWI. He served in the 21st Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force on the front lines of Western Front. Before the war he had worked in the railway and mining industries and had spent a good portion of his life behind the sights of a rifle. He hunted large game in both the western United States and the Northwest Territories of Canada. He was a seasoned National Match competition shooter and mentions his experiences at Camp Perry and the Palma trophy throughout the book. These experiences gave him a martial training over and above that of your average recruit to say the least.
His observations on what makes a rifleman, and what that man will be called upon to do in battle, are as useful today as they were in 1918. While he does spend most of the book covering musketry and sniping, there are also large swaths of the book in which he talks of military training in general, life in the trenches, the anatomy of trench raids, hand to hand combat, and other subjects. McBride’s thoughts on "The Pistol in War" (Chapter 10) were key to the development of Jeff Cooper's "Modern Technique of the Pistol" and that McBride's discussion of the "neatest and handiest military rifle I have ever seen" (pp. 335-6) provided the basis for Jeff Cooper's "Scout Rifle" concept. He also spends a chapter giving a very insightful overview of the British and Colonial Armies of World War one and how it compared to the United States Army of the same time.
Mc Bride relates his experiences first as a machine gun section leader, musketry instructor, and then as a dedicated sniper in a two man sniper/observer team. He relates using a Canadian Ross rifle model 1910, Mark III cal 303 with a Warner and Swasey four power 1913 scope firing at ranges from 100-1500 yards, taking as many as seven
targets per day. The Ross was a straight-pull bolt action rifle only used by Canada. The scope was mounted on the left side and was offset so that the weapon could be loaded via stripper clip from the top while the scope was mounted. It was later removed from service because of action troubles during combat although Mc Bride seems to have loved his and never states a problem with it in the book. He also describes other sniper weapons and machine guns of the time and rates them from personal experience.
His memoirs of the war are very well written, and often very frank. Captain McBride was a product of the Victorian era Midwestern United States and reading his written words are like overhearing a conversation with him complete with the peculiar phrasing and vernacular of a hundred years ago. This does complicate the volume to some degree and at times makes it a difficult read but nevertheless adds something to the 'feel' of the Great War’s battlefield that the author is relating. The book is particularly useful for its detailed examination of the employment of individual snipers on the western front during world war one. An immensely valuable work for the serious student of military history
It is available from Lancer Militaria. Hardcover
