anyone still using sharpshooters?

[JasonC]

The CM unit is called a sharpshooter, but if you look at his armament (hit return, or put your cursor over one on the unit screen and read the lower left hand information window) it is listed as one "sniper rifle". They are not just a guy who happens to be a decent shot with a standard rifle. They have a scope. They fire out to 600 yards.

But sniper is a term that was used more and less loosely. To guys being shot at, any unlocated enemy rifleman was "a sniper". This was not paranoia amplifying the threat faced, as though the men saying so literally thought everyone shooting aimed single rounds at them, as yet undetected, must be using a scoped rifle or be a trained sniper, in military designation terms, within his own formation.

They just meant "somebody out there is shooting at us with aimed rifle fire, can see us, might hit any of us at any time, and none of us has the foggiest idea where he is". Which is, needless to say, an unsettling experience, whether the shooter is particularly trained, or using a scoped rifle, or not. When a combat AAR says "we entered the town, but soon were pinned down by snipers", they don't mean anything more than this.

Any good shot might do that successfully, and so cause considerable trouble. Any good rifleman can thus be a "sniper" - to the enemy, not to his own force.

Anyone with a scoped rifle could do it from significantly longer ranges, which makes detection far more difficult. At long range, the bullet takes half a second to a second to arrive. It is supersonic, and the report is not heard until after the shot has passed by. The shooter may long since have returned to cover.

Anyone trying to suppress or kill the enemy with scoped rifle fire may be considered a sniper, in a stricter sense of the word that the above. And that would apply to CM sharpshooters, because that is what they are armed with. If a company has 2 guys with scoped rifles to go after important targets at range, then that is how they would be used, and that is what a CM sharpshooter most closely resembles.

But elite trained snipers are something more again. They aren't part of the local infantry unit - platoon or company. They are special forces on special details, often attached very high up the organizational tree. They operate almost autonomously on the battlefield. They don't take orders from any of the regular infantry officers. They don't bother trying to integrate their plans with those of their units, or even react much to specific enemy operations.

Instead they just hunt in the war zone, at range, by stealth. Hunting is exactly what it is, even if it is hunting men. It isn't militarily coordinated, really. The individual operatives simply focus on (1) staying alive and (2) getting their kills. They are extremely patient about it, and do not care how much the war moves from here to there, or what operations succeed or fail in the meantime.

If they hit one man a week, they are doing just fine. Because they stay alive. The whole idea of these specialists is unreturned damage inflicted on the enemy. They are made independent because any attempt to force them to adapt to a plan or a crisis situation means compromising their absolute focus on their own survivability. And overall, that is a plain waste of their skills.

Ordinary riflemen sacrifice themselves for missions, or one another. Specialist snipers stay alive to get the kills they can in the 51 weeks after the present one. It is their cumulative effect that makes them potent, not their contribution to the cause on any given occasion.

In CM terms, a true sniper of this sort would be an elite sharpshooter controlled by a second player on the same side, as this second "commander's" only unit. He would hide most of the game, and perhaps straight through the whole thing without moving an inch or firing a shot, or caring about the battle. If he had a clean shot without danger to himself, he would take it. Then he would "D" - disengage, leave the map, alive.

In one battle, he would show up as nothing more than a single nearly random bullet hit, lost in the noise of the engagement, like as not. But he would kill hundreds before he was killed himself - over months or years - or perhaps before he was even detected.

There really wouldn't be much point in having true snipers in CM, but if you like and have elite sharpshooters you can use them that way. 9 times out of 10 a CM player would push them too hard, risk them too much, try to get off more like all 10 shots instead of just 1 as safely as possible, and try to get them to contribute more to the overall plan.

Because CM players are focused on the outcome of the next 30 minutes, not the outcome of the next 30 weeks. Snipers in the strictest sense, do not take risks like that. It would be a waste of their talents.

[illo]

More überfinns.

Simo Häyhä. Finland. 1939 - 1940.

A member of the 34th Infantry Regiment and a farmer by trade, Simo Häyhä became a most feared sniper during the 1939-40 Winter invasion of Finland by the Soviet Union. Using nothing more than an iron sighted Mosin-Nagant Model 28, Simo is credited with killing 505 Russians during a three month period - a feat still unmatched today by any sniper in any conflict. The impact of Simo and men like him forced the Soviets to pay dearly for their transgressions. While Finland lost the Winter war, it cost the Soviets 1,000,000 men killed out of the 1,500,000 man invading force*. The Finns lost a total of 25,000 men in that conflict. A testament to their bravery and determination in the face of amazing odds.

At the time of this writing, March 1999, he still lives in Finland, now over 95 years old, but still kicking!

Simo Häyhä

Suko Kolkka. Finland, 1939 - 1940.

During 105 days of combat Suko was credited with 400+ enemy kills as a sniper in the Winter War. He used an iron sighted Mosin-Nagant rifle. He often took the war to the rear of the Soviet lines, causing much fear and frustration as this area was supposedly safe. In addition to the kills he made as a sniper, Kolkka also was apparently quite fond of the submachine gun as he made an additional 200 kills with it during this same time frame. Hunted often by the Soviets, he outlasted them all, killing the sniper sent to hunt him at 600 yards with a single shot after a running duel of several days. Like Simo Häyhä, Suko Kolkka exhibited the hard determination and skill that kept Finland a sovereign nation even after its inevitable defeat. At the end of the Winter war a Soviet General is said to have quipped, "We gained 22,000 square miles of territory. Just enough to bury our dead".*

*Information gleaned from Rifles of the White Death. Doug Bowser. Camellia City Military Publications.

So you can call finnish sharpshooters sniper in CMBB...they didnt have scopes anyway. Just über-vision to spot and kill soviet snipers and their fancy scopes and whistles.

[Panzer Leader]

Wow, I always thought it was a joke, but it turns out the Finns really ARE Gods among men...

[illo]

Well i think answer is more simple. Most people in finland lived at countryside at time. So about every boy had years of experiece of hunting and stalking in woods. They had knowhow for surviving in woods alone in the winter. Also training and shooting hobbies they had in Suojeluskunta (Home Guard?) with it's many shooting contests must have been for huge effect.

I think Simo Häyhä said many of boys in his Suojeluskunta could hit head of squirrel with Suomi SMG at 50 meters. So these regular boys even trained with SMG during 1930s...as hobby:) Quite different from most nations.

[ March 07, 2002, 09:16 AM: Message edited by: illo ]