Charles Askins

“I approached this bastard and in my hands I had my old Remington Model 11 autoloader crammed with 00 buckshot. Frank Pachmayr had put an extension on the magazine which ran right out to the muzzle and this gave me a reserve of fire which sometimes proved quite advantageous.

And so it went, from North Africa all the way through the Bulge, right to Germany. Askins and his unit was halted at the Rhine, and across the river were a company of Nazis.
There was an unofficial cease fire, but Askins would have none of that. He determined the distance to the Nazi encampment with a “borrowed” range finder from an artillery battery (being an officer gave Askins a lot of leverage). He selected a bedroom in a two-story farmhouse and moved a bed to the window where he made a rock-solid benchrest.
During his reconnaissance of the enemy, he had noticed a fat sergeant responded to the call of nature every morning like clockwork, and always went behind the same bush. Askins ranged the bush with his pilfered rangefinder from the window, 800 yards and some change. He called his driver to get a jeep and together they headed out to zero a Garand for that same distance. Askins knew guns, so he knew that black-tip armor piercing .30-’06 was more accurate than standard ball; he got some of it to zero the Garand.
The next morning, right on time, the fat sergeant lowered his trousers, squatted down and …

Askins added another kill.

I read a lot of Askins back in the day, but I didn’t know half the stuff in this short article.

I don’t think anyone will accuse him of being “Politically Correct’ by current standards.

“Unrepentant Sinner: The Autobiography Of Colonel Charles Askins” by Charles Askins

I would like to read the book but it’s out of print and used copies start at $300 and go up to $800 and more.

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