In the trenches-

[JBinIll]

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world-war-1/464060/Forbidden-World-War-1-images-saved-from-a-bonfire

[SMOKEY]

Damn, isn't that goo? Visual proof that he is older than dirt.

[JB White]

Those periscope rifles had to be awful to fire. Always wondered how many actually fell to one of those.

[John Sukey]

I an sure quite a few germans fell to those rifles or they wouldn't have bothered to construct them. Sticking one's head over the parapet was an excellent way to get a hole in it. In fact dummy heads on a stick were used to locate the enemy snipers

[dave]

And who raised there head to see where the sniper was???

[Johan412th]

What a bizzare war for R&D, to say the least. It's amazing how much war changed over the following 20 years...

[JBinIll]

McBride's A Rifleman Went to War has quite a bit on how they located snipers in WW1 and sniping in the trenches.

[Johan412th]

That would be interesting to read. The First World War has always troubled me when it came to the concept of "modern" warfare. It was still such wholesale slaughter. Infantry tactics couldn't outmaneuver the machine gun.

[BruceHMX]

Also note the Long Lee beside him.

[John Sukey]

And who raised there head to see where the sniper was???

That's why they had trench periscopes. I have one in the collection. The only thing sticking over the parapet is a one inch diameter pipe with a mirror in it. There were also wood periscopes with larger mirrors.
Once the sniper was located the usual reply was an artillery round.
There is a book on the subject called "Sniping in France"

[JB White]

I thought if a sniper round came in someone would yell, "Hey Hans, is that you?"

The sniper would stand up and reply, "No, it's Me...Fritz!!"

[John Sukey]

If you can find it on the net, the book "A rifleman went to war" by McBride is well worth reading

[PhillipM]

I spoke with a friend the other day whose father was in a machine gun platoon with a potato digger. His father said that one had to be really careful going down into a trench or shell hole after a gas attack because the gas was heavier than air and would just sit there. Many found out the hard way.

[John Sukey]

The reason we had "Potato diggers". The then chief of ordnance HATED Col. Lewis, and did his best to block adoption of the Lewis gun. His excuse? We need to test it, despite the fact it had been in use by the British since the start of the war!!!!!!
Yes, the Lewis was in .303 while we were using the 30-06 round, BUT that was a minor adjustment that could easily have been done at the factory.

[mike webb]

The Lewis gun was actually a pretty good light machine gun, much better then the Colt Browning. The Lewis also shot down a huge number of German aircraft as it was used extensively by the RAF in fighter aircraft.