A Rifleman Went To War

Over 70 years after it was first published, this book remains one of the all-time classics on the art of military sniping, and is still on the required reading list of the U.S. Marine Corps Sniper School. The author grew up learning to shoot and hunt in the woods of Indiana, and went on to compete nationally as a sharpshooter. When World War I broke out in Europe, he was so eager to fight that he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Wounded seven times and finally invalided home after two years on the front lines, he was an enthusiastic soldier and a superb sniper, with over 100 confirmed kills. His story includes frequent digressions on the mindset, the tactics, and the weapons of sniping, and has many hard-won lessons about personal survival on the battlefield. It stands out as one of the best first-person accounts of World War I.