"Although they had initially evolved in the Napoleonic era as marksmen and skirmishers, it was during the tumultuous years of the Great War that the military sniper was to come of age. As technology and training improved, their scouting and intelligence-gathering skills made them an increasingly vital arm of the armies who fought across Europe. As Martin Pegler shows ... the technique of sniping adapted rapidly to the conditions of static warfare that prevailed through much of that conflict. His account follows the development of sniping from the early battles of 1914, through the trench fighting and the attritional offensives of the middle years, to the renewed open warfare of 1918. He concentrates on the British and German sniping war on the Western Front, but also looks at how snipers operated in other theatres, at Gallipoli and Salonika and on the Eastern Front"--Jacket.

The genesis of the rifle -- The tools of the trade -- Early days -- The tools for the job -- A gradual response -- Selection and training -- The Commonwealth snipers -- The beginning of the end.