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Dead Men Risen: The snipers' story (WOW! AMAZING SHOOTING - EVEN A QUIGLEY!
The Telegraph ^ | March 13, 2011 | Toby Harnden

Posted on 03/13/2011 4:46:25 PM PDT by bimboeruption

Operating from a remote patrol base in Helmand, two British snipers were responsible for killing 75 Taliban fighters in just 40 days. In one remarkable feat of marksmanship, two insurgents were dispatched with a single bullet.

The arrival at the newly-established Patrol Base Shamal Storrai (Pashto for “North Star”) in late August 2009 of Serjeant Tom Potter and Rifleman Mark Osmond marked the start of an astonishing episode in the history of British Army sniping.

Within 40 days, the two marksmen from 4 Rifles, part of the Welsh Guards Battle group, had achieved 75 confirmed kills with 31 attributed to Potter and 44 to Osmond. Each kill was chalked up as a little stick man on the beam above the firing position in their camouflaged sangar beside the base gate – a stick man with no head denoting a target eliminated with a shot to the skull.

Osmond, 25, was an engaging, fast-talking enthusiast, eager to display his encyclopedic knowledge of every specification and capability of his equipment. He had stubbornly remained a rifleman because he feared that being promoted might lead to his being taken away from sniping, a job he loved and lived for. Potter, 30, was more laid back, projecting a calm professionalism and quiet confidence in the value of what he did.

Potter had notched up seven confirmed kills in Bara in 2007 and 2008 while Osmond’s total was 23. Both were members of the Green Jackets team that won the 2006 British Army Sniper Championships.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; banglist; british; magicbullet; marksmen; singlebullet; sniper; snipers; taliban; wot
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To: mmercier
They made it into a movie, the name escapes me at this moment.

The most recent was called Enemy at the Gates

Photobucket

61 posted on 03/13/2011 8:35:57 PM PDT by doc11355
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To: goat granny

Yes, it does make you proud such men are on our side.


62 posted on 03/13/2011 8:53:14 PM PDT by B4Ranch (Do NOT remain seated until this ride comes to a full and complete stop! We're going the wrong way!)
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To: doc11355
That be the one, thanks.

I appreciate snipers, they are trained people with pure focused intent and ability. Like fighter pilots without the jet thing going for them.

It is rare to find true incidents of a confrontation between two of them.

It is rarer yet to find a person that can repetitively kill with justified purpose and yet retain their focus and dignity.

63 posted on 03/13/2011 9:07:05 PM PDT by mmercier (men of steel and men of power)
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To: yarddog
IIRC, Major Ferguson, who was a marksman, saw a big, vibrant, American officer break into the clearing one day. The officer was on a huge horse and looked a little lost as he tried to make his way back to the American lines. Ferguson said he had the officer in his sights but couldn't shoot because the officer was so magnificent. The officer? General George Washington.

I believe I read that in Robert Leckie's book "George Washington's War"-great, great book.

64 posted on 03/13/2011 9:09:30 PM PDT by MattinNJ (Will a hero rise in 2012?)
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To: MattinNJ

I too heard that story but on TV. The reason he didn’t shoot was because he just couldn’t shoot him in cold blood.

The reason the American Backwoodsmen gave Major Ferguson an honorable funeral while leaving all the others to rot was that Ferguson was shot 11 times and got his foot caught in the stirrup and was dragged a long way. Even then he tried as he was dying, to get to his pistol to fire one more time.

I guess the Americans appreciated anyone with that much toughness and courage so they gave him his funeral.


65 posted on 03/13/2011 9:16:32 PM PDT by yarddog
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To: mmercier
Focus, dignity and... sanity.

Research the waffen shhutzffel suicide rates.

66 posted on 03/13/2011 9:18:53 PM PDT by mmercier
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To: yarddog

Ferguson was one tough dude. I’ll pull out my Leckie book and see if I can find it. I also loved the story about Colonel William Washington crossing swords with Bloody Ben Tarleton at Cowpens. IIRC, there’s a painting of that encounter.


67 posted on 03/13/2011 9:24:14 PM PDT by MattinNJ (Will a hero rise in 2012?)
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To: Uncle Miltie
I prefer the 98Bravo with B.O.R.S. 98bravo
68 posted on 03/13/2011 10:07:50 PM PDT by SVTCobra03 (You can never have enough friends, horsepower or ammunition.)
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To: bimboeruption

bttt (and for later)


69 posted on 03/13/2011 10:08:07 PM PDT by Abundy
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To: mmercier

And a movie


70 posted on 03/14/2011 3:46:01 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: goat granny

Interviews with the snipers was very informative and they also were asked how they felt about killing,....Not long ago, there was a news reporter who asked this of a Marine sniper. “What do you feel when you kill another human?” The corporal said “Recoil”.


71 posted on 03/14/2011 4:18:30 AM PDT by Safetgiver (I'd rather die under a free American sky than live under a Socialist regime.)
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To: SunkenCiv; frog in a pot
LOL indeed!

Must you people convert even the most serious theological issues into occasions of VRWC mirth? How can there ever be meaningful dialogue between the Religion of Peace and the Infidels with this distressing attitude?

Just remember, it was not I who started the rumour that the 7.62X51 bullets issued to the Infidel force are lubricated with pork fat. It is also most unfair that the Infidel snipers also aim toward Mecca before picking out targets at prayer time.

72 posted on 03/14/2011 9:46:12 AM PDT by Kenny Bunk (Odd, but I never had to ask, "Who, or what exactly is Dwight Eisenhower?")
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To: Travis McGee
Travis, I tire of these foreigners being effusively congratulated for medium range shots, which although good shooting to be sure, would have been mere child's play compared to the astounding shots made in the Maine woods by the old-timers.

Why, my own grandfather shot a moose with his 38-55 at a measured 2,852 yds, 2' 6" (a surveyor was with the group). Unfortunately for him, it was across a 5-mile long pond, no canoe was available, and by the time he hiked round to the kill through a sudden blizzard, it had been stolen by a band of hungry Passamaquoddy braves.

This, and stories of even longer shots are quite common around 1:30 AM at the VFW, and Odd Fellows Bar.

73 posted on 03/14/2011 10:08:25 AM PDT by Kenny Bunk (Odd, but I never had to ask, "Who, or what exactly is Dwight Eisenhower?")
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To: bimboeruption

I’ve always admired great marksmanship!


74 posted on 03/14/2011 10:58:58 AM PDT by GVnana
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To: yarddog; servantoftheservant
Do they call Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, Patsies?

Not to their faces.

75 posted on 03/14/2011 12:19:25 PM PDT by Mr. Lucky
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To: Kenny Bunk

I have heard the Abrams tankers bore sight their main guns by hitting fence posts at a mile. For real. Or something close to it.


76 posted on 03/14/2011 4:29:27 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Kenny Bunk
X

77 posted on 03/14/2011 4:35:15 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: Travis McGee
... hitting fence posts at a mile ...

O heck Trav, I hit one with my MGA and it took me no more than a few yards!

78 posted on 03/14/2011 6:36:48 PM PDT by Kenny Bunk (America might survive Obama. But it cannot survive the people who vote for him.)
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To: yarddog
This Major Ferguson is the dude who passed up an easy shot at George Washington at the battle of Monmouth Courthouse, I believe, which is why I always cut Fergie a little slack when I read of her escapades.

He invented a drop-down screw breech, so his rifles could be loaded without standing up to use the ramrod. The Jaegers (it does mean "Hunter") were special Hessian troops, recruited from among ducal gamekeepers, who were armed with rifles rather than smooth-bore muskets. I don't think Major Ferguson had much to with them. His invention was great for the time, but went nowhere after his death.

So many of Washington's men were German-speakers that they were able to get a number of Hessians to desert and change sides. It was these same Pennsylvania Germans who brought the Jaeger rifle tradition to the US, where it became known as the "Kentucky" rifle. It was small-bore, and slower to load than a smooth bore musket, so the troops who used them needed extra back-up and were sometimes quickly withdrawn after picking off their targets at sometimes over 250-300 yards, because they couldn't shoot fast enough to turn a determined charge.

79 posted on 03/14/2011 6:56:31 PM PDT by Kenny Bunk (America might survive Obama. But it cannot survive the people who vote for him.)
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To: Kenny Bunk

Thanks for that information, it was actually very interesting.


80 posted on 03/14/2011 8:15:50 PM PDT by yarddog
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