Target Sports

SNIPING REMARKS: SNIPERS SUPREME

Created on 27th May 2009

NIGEL GREENAWAY introduces us to a key British figure in WW1 sniping, and documents early scope sights

BEFORE STARTING to describe the different scopes and mounting systems used by the British in World War One, it would be remiss of me not to give some more information about the Grandfather of British sniping - H Hesketh-Prichard (the H stands for Hesketh). Hesketh-Prichard had already established himself as an author and explorer/hunter of some note before the war started. His writing skills meant he was given the role of officer in charge of war correspondents. While escorting these correspondents around the trenches he soon realised how dominant the Germans had become in the art of sniping. Hesketh decided to do something about it and badgered officialdom to allow him to set up a training school. In the meantime he used his connections to arrange for telescopic sights and sporting rifles to be sent to the front.

Two books relating to Hesketh-Prichard were published after the war. His own Sniping in France contains many sniping exploits described in the third person: ‘a sniper officer shot a...' The second, a very rare book published after his death, is called Hesketh Prichard - A Memoir by Eric Parker (another noted author on English game shooting) and is very different. The last seven chapters of this book are largely taken from Hesketh-Prichard's letters written home to his wife. It is fascinating to compare what Hesketh wrote in his private letters compared to what he wrote in Sniping in France. Obviously he never intended his letters to be published: "If it is any satisfaction, I shot a German between the eyes at five o'clock today. My job is to kill Germans; I can do it best by teaching, by training and I shall teach and train." This was written in response to the news that his best friend had been killed. Another letter says: "I can get a head shot at 600 yards with the rifle mother gave me, pretty often if there is no strong wind." I bet we all wish we had mums like that, but you soon realise that he was not an armchair theorist. Instead he was putting his theories in to deadly practise. On 6 October 1915 he writes to his wife: "I do not think I wrote you the story of the killing of the sniper on Sunday." He then relates how he achieved a 420yd head shot. The next day he writes "I am called in a kindly way - The Professional Assassin."

Periscopic Prism Co scope sight

It was around this time that the first of the official sniping rifles, produced in quantity, started to be used at the front - a SMLE fitted with a side mounted Periscopic Prism Company Ltd (PPCo) telescopic sight. It was the most numerous of the British sniper scopes, with 4,830 made. It was a 2x magnification scope, just over 12" long with a single male dovetail ring mount on the scope that slides into a single female dovetail bracket that is screwed and soldered on to the side of the SMLE receiver. Two springs are used to help maintain a tight fit, one on the side of the male dovetail and the other with a thumb latch at the end of the spring which lies in the bottom of the female dovetail mount base. There is a positive click when the scope is slid home as the thumb latch clicks over the rear of the male dovetail. The scope has a range drum calibrated to the trajectory of the .303 MkVII round, from 100-600yd in 100yd increments. Elevation zeroing is easy - to quote from pamphlet SS195 - Scouting and Patrolling:

Shoot at a known range and adjust drum till the shots are hitting at the correct elevation. (i) Clamp the range drum by tightening the clamping screw. (ii) Slacken the central screw and small setscrew, care being taken that the drum does not move. (iii) Turn the scale only till the correct range figure is opposite the reading line. (iv) Tighten the setscrew and main central screw.

Windage adjustment is catered for by two capstan screws on the sides of the scope beneath the elevation drum. To adjust for windage one screw is slackened off and the slack is then taken up by tightening the opposite screw. If the shooting is to the right then tighten the right hand screw after first having loosened the left hand screw. One complete turn is about 8" at 100yd. The scope's origins are somewhat obscure, but it bears a remarkable resemblance to a pre-war German commercial scope - as shown in the picture of what look like three PPCo scopes (above right). The bottom two show the two types of PPCo with different shaped rear ocular lens housings, the bottom one with its male dovetail ring mount still fitted. Both are clearly marked with Periscopic Prism Co. Ltd London. The top scope has no manufacturer markings other than Purdey's name on the rings, and the objective lens housing is different. The same Purdey mounting system was more commonly used on the later Aldis scopes. All three scopes are marked with the rifle number and are graduated up to 600yd.

It is a well made scope but it was prone to developing excessive play in the dovetail slot and the capstan screws invited fiddling which then wrecked the zero! It was also awkward to shoot because it was mounted so far over to the left - as you can see from the overhead view of the PPCo fitted to an SMLE. No official wooden cheek pieces or shell dressings were fixed to the side of the butt to alleviate this problem. However, if this positioning of the scope was somewhat inconvenient, it was very dangerous when used in conjunction with a metal loop-hole plate. The British had to cut bigger L-shaped holes in their sniper plates which made it easier for the highly accurate Gew' 98 sniper rifles to put bullets through these larger loop holes. If you find that hard to believe then consider the demise of 2nd Lt Lutener, the 6/KSLI's sniping officer, who was killed while sniping on 6 April 1916. The Regimental History recorded that:

This young officer had organized and trained the battalion snipers to a very high standard of efficiency...on finding that one of his best snipers was unable to account for a German sniper, who had bagged three men, [Lutner] took his place, and was shot through the head as he opened the shutter in the shield.

The Germans did not have to cut L-shaped loop-holes in their sniper plates, thanks to overhead mounted scopes - as you can see in the pictures. You can see the shutter on the outside of the plate - the sniper can move this from the inside, as Lt Lutener found out to his cost!
My thanks to fellow sniping enthusiast Dr
Roger Payne for letting me photograph some of his collection of scopes and rifles.

Next month I will go in to detail about Aldis scopes and the different mounting methods.