Not sure how common allied snipers were in the second world war but It's strange that neither TP or BOB chose to show a single moment featuring a sniper, we had flamerthrower, mortar, heavy gunner squads etc.
There were moments in both series (more so in the Pacific) where a sniper would have come in handy !
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Shifty in Band Of Brothers was a sharpshooter, but that's as far as they went. Weird.
I love movies.
Weren't there a few snipers at Pelileu in the trees when they were first landing? Even so, they were taken out quickly. I think your point is a good one. Particularily in the Pacific Theater, "kamikaze" snipers deployed in the forward positions, were able to keep US troops pinned down in many battles.
shareThere was a couple that popped up out of rubble and half destroyed pillboxes on Peleiu as they passed. Very accurate. I don't remember seeing them on the Guadalcanal or Cape Gloucester episodes, though.
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Also, during the Peleliu battle, their Captain is killed by a sniper, although its not shown.
shareI just finished reading Ambrose's Band of Brothers and there's no mention of snipers in the 101st Airborne.
I'm not saying there weren't snipers in the Airborne (someone else can weigh in here) but Ambrose doesn't talk about them. Dealing with German snipers, and KIA nd WIA from German snipers, yes that's mentioned e.g. Ambrose writes about the sniper that shot private Blithe, and the sniper Shifty killed at the end of the battle for the town of Foy.
Actually in BoB, Albert Blithe is hit by a sniper in the 3rd episode "carentan".
In the Pacific, capt. Aldane is hit by a sniper and killed.
Snipers were definitely present in ww2 but you have to remember that that they had basic scopes, nothing like today so they were place in trees(pacific theater) and tall buildings such as church steeples in europe. When the guys were fighting in foxholes (which a lot of the war was), snipers were ineffective.
BROADWALK EMPIRE
Torrio - "What's goin' on in here?"
Capone - "I'm makin' a statement."
America didn't really see the importance of snipers, and even if they did it wouldn't matter because Japanese knew the land better then the Americans; even in Europe the U.S.S.R. had the best snipers (with the exception of the Finnish sniper) and if you think about it the U.S.S.R. would've shot the American snipers regardless of alignment.
shareThere were a few snipers in Band of Brothers. I remember one killing some guys during the attack on Carentan, and another wounding Blithe later in the same episode. One shoots quite a few guys in Foy later in the series as well.
shareI have always wondered about that too. In BoB the closest thing we get is Shifty who seems to be the best marksman in the company. Im assuming that the airborne just didn't have snipers otherwise Shifty probably would have been one,as we know he had the skill ie taking out the german sniper. As for the marines in The Pacific I dont know but I thought that the marines did have snipers??? Perhaps someone with more knowledge can fill us in.
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