Guess Who Time

[Marine A5 Sniper Rifle]

This man made a big contribution to America's WWI sniper program, yet remains almost unknown in this country. He also owns a unique record earned during WWI that still stands today. Can you identify him?


Mystery Man.jpg

[bruce]

The officer in this photograph is not wearing a U.S. uniform from the WWI era. So, must figure that the man who made this contribution was from a foreign nation. Possibly British? Sincerely. bruce.

[Marine A5 Sniper Rifle]

Canadian

[lyman]

McBride?

[Marine A5 Sniper Rifle]

No, not McBride (good guess though). This man was known to most WWI American snipers by his "nom de plume". He was quite the hero in Canada. I have exchanged emails with his granddaughter.

[Art]

Before I saw the picture I thought it might be Francis Pegamagabow, obviously not since old Francis was a "native American" who looks nothing like the old boy in the pic. He did kill at least 378 Germans in the "Great War" though.

The mystery continues.

[Marine A5 Sniper Rifle]

Old "Peggy" suffered a lot of discrimination for being a First Nations soldier, but his war record is very impressive. Like "Peggy", this guy was a backwoods Canadian who knew how to track, and was a skilled rifleman. Good to hear from you, Art.

Found a set of pictures showing the places the Marines fought in WWI, taken the year after the war ended. I have read dozens of books and manuscripts, and had formed images in my mind of the battle sites. I was way off. This is the infamous 400 yard wide wheat field the 5th crossed on 5 June against over 120 entrenched Maxim machine guns set up for interlacing fire. No artillery support. Seems nuts. This guy advocated total abandonment of such tactics. He claimed that snipers could take out a significant number of the enemy without traditional massive frontal attacks. He was right. In Vietnam, where records were kept, snipers are credited with killing over 20,000 of the enemy (one article said "...over 10,000", but no one really knows). That is more kills than any regiment achieved during the war.

The Wheat Field.jpg

[Marine A5 Sniper Rifle]

His name and rank is Major Peter Anderson of the Canadian Army. You may know him better as Periscope, the author of "Scout-Sniping". For decades, the identity of Periscope was unknown, lost to time. His identity was revealed to me when his granddaughter contacted me after reading one of my posts on this forum. He was a very interesting man, and wrote several other books well worth reading.

One of the items issued to WWI Marine sniper candidates was this little book. I have a copy, and they aren't cheap because they are very rare. The two rarest items issued to the snipers were this book and the DLA, and I was lucky enough to locate both from the same source. There is a photo of one of the WWI Marine snipers and his rifle on another website (as well as this forum) that shows my DLA mounted on the rifle's A5, and my copy of Scout-Sniper was issued to that particular sniper. The WWI Marine sniper curriculum was based on this book, which the Marines bought for $1/copy. The curriculum is, by design or coincidence, almost identical to the Vietnam era curriculum. The book emphasizes the primary goal of the Scout-Sniper is to eliminate the enemy, with a secondary goal of observation of the sniper's surroundings and to map the terrain and position of the enemy. Post-war analysis showed the devastation sniping caused on both sides by just a handful of men in comparison to the total number involved in combat. Many years later, the Russians would show the Germans just how effective snipers could be in the battle for Stalingrad, where individual Russian snipers each killed several hundred Germans.

Major Anderson gained fame during WWI as being the only Canadian to escape a German POW camp, and the route he took is considered the longest of any Allied soldier of any war. He wrote a book about his escape, and it is great reading.

[Ned Butts]

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Major Anderson gained fame during WWI as being the only Canadian to escape a German POW camp, and the route he took is considered the longest of any Allied soldier of any war. He wrote a book about his escape, and it is great reading.

I would like to know more about that book

[Marine A5 Sniper Rifle]

I think I have a digital copy. If so, you are welcome to a copy, if I can locate it. This is the title of the book, available on Amazon.

That's Me: The Memoir of Officer-Escaper Major Peter Anderson, DSO & Bar 1914-1919 by Anderson, Major Peter