This book covers a tour in Helmand province, Afghanistan by a member of sniper platoon, 1st Battalion, the Royal Anglican Regiment, in 2007. Its American publication has been delayed by a few months, maybe due to fears that it would be overshadowed by the release of American Sniper. I bought my copy through amazon.co.uk
Synopsis:
This is the story of "James Cartwright" (a pen name), whose battalion sniper platoon mostly parceled its snipers out to support the individual companies of their battalion but at times operated together as a platoon. They mostly provided overwatch and flank security for their assigned unit on patrol and pulled observation post duty from their outpost. They struggled with enemy snipers who had average shooting skills but excellent fieldcraft. There were times when the individual company Cartwright was supporting was more in need of a knee mortar operator or machine gunner than a sniper and he would switch roles as needed. Cartwright eventually left the military but later joined the Military Provost Guard Service to accommodate his transition to being a husband and a father.
No Chapter 3.5:
Cartwright details his entrance into the British Army, and then the book takes a curious break. The end of chapter 3 has Cartwright assigned to the Brigade Surveillance Company for a tour in Iraq and the beginning of chapter 4 starts with his transfer from surveillance to sniping after his return from Iraq. Possibly, someone asked for a chapter to be removed from the book.
Training:
Cartwright's training as a sniper is a snapshot in time taken at the tail end of the old British system. As positions in the battalion sniper platoon came open, soldiers who met the prerequisites would volunteer for a selection course run by senior snipers. After passing selection (Cartwright made it on his second attempt), the soldier was assigned to the sniper platoon and began on-the-job training. The line between PIGs and HOGs in the British system was the sniper badge. To become badged, a soldier had to pass a demanding go/no-go skills qualification test run by senior snipers.
British System Overview (as I imperfectly understand it):
In 2004, British sniper training was reorganized with a Sniper Wing at Brecon as part of the Direct Fire Division (snipers and machine gunners) of the Support Weapons School. [Note: McBride, Pavilchenko, and Allerberger were all trained as machine gunners before they became snipers.] The Sniper Wing originally provided Sniper Instructor and Sniper Commander courses to support the old battalion-centric sniper system, but to provide more uniformity of training across the British Army, in 2006 they began to offer Sniper 1 (marksmanship) and Sniper 2 (fieldcraft) courses. The Sniper Instructor and Sniper Commander courses were combined into the 7-week Sniper Section Commander course. The sniper badge go/no-go system has apparently been replaced by a percentile grade on a skills qualification test, possibly because many units were firing up most of their yearly allocation of match ammunition simply to hold qualifications. Later, a sharpshooter (designated marksman) role would be codified and positions in the infantry created, initially using the hand-me-down L96 bolt rifles but then transitioning to the L129 semi-auto rifle. A sharpshooter training package was created to include long range shooting, firing at targets at an unknown distance, and observation techniques. These “junior sniper” positions are seen as a useful recruiting pool by some snipers and a problem for the sniper platoon system by others, as some commanders may prefer to send their soldiers to less away training by simply filling the sniper platoon with sharpshooters who will OJT as snipers.
www.amazon.com/SNIPER-HELMAND
Synopsis:
This is the story of "James Cartwright" (a pen name), whose battalion sniper platoon mostly parceled its snipers out to support the individual companies of their battalion but at times operated together as a platoon. They mostly provided overwatch and flank security for their assigned unit on patrol and pulled observation post duty from their outpost. They struggled with enemy snipers who had average shooting skills but excellent fieldcraft. There were times when the individual company Cartwright was supporting was more in need of a knee mortar operator or machine gunner than a sniper and he would switch roles as needed. Cartwright eventually left the military but later joined the Military Provost Guard Service to accommodate his transition to being a husband and a father.
No Chapter 3.5:
Cartwright details his entrance into the British Army, and then the book takes a curious break. The end of chapter 3 has Cartwright assigned to the Brigade Surveillance Company for a tour in Iraq and the beginning of chapter 4 starts with his transfer from surveillance to sniping after his return from Iraq. Possibly, someone asked for a chapter to be removed from the book.
Training:
Cartwright's training as a sniper is a snapshot in time taken at the tail end of the old British system. As positions in the battalion sniper platoon came open, soldiers who met the prerequisites would volunteer for a selection course run by senior snipers. After passing selection (Cartwright made it on his second attempt), the soldier was assigned to the sniper platoon and began on-the-job training. The line between PIGs and HOGs in the British system was the sniper badge. To become badged, a soldier had to pass a demanding go/no-go skills qualification test run by senior snipers.
British System Overview (as I imperfectly understand it):
In 2004, British sniper training was reorganized with a Sniper Wing at Brecon as part of the Direct Fire Division (snipers and machine gunners) of the Support Weapons School. [Note: McBride, Pavilchenko, and Allerberger were all trained as machine gunners before they became snipers.] The Sniper Wing originally provided Sniper Instructor and Sniper Commander courses to support the old battalion-centric sniper system, but to provide more uniformity of training across the British Army, in 2006 they began to offer Sniper 1 (marksmanship) and Sniper 2 (fieldcraft) courses. The Sniper Instructor and Sniper Commander courses were combined into the 7-week Sniper Section Commander course. The sniper badge go/no-go system has apparently been replaced by a percentile grade on a skills qualification test, possibly because many units were firing up most of their yearly allocation of match ammunition simply to hold qualifications. Later, a sharpshooter (designated marksman) role would be codified and positions in the infantry created, initially using the hand-me-down L96 bolt rifles but then transitioning to the L129 semi-auto rifle. A sharpshooter training package was created to include long range shooting, firing at targets at an unknown distance, and observation techniques. These “junior sniper” positions are seen as a useful recruiting pool by some snipers and a problem for the sniper platoon system by others, as some commanders may prefer to send their soldiers to less away training by simply filling the sniper platoon with sharpshooters who will OJT as snipers.
www.amazon.com/SNIPER-HELMAND
