Review by Martin Koenigsberg
Sniping Rifles in the War Against Japan 1941-45, pretty much goes like the title tells you. John Walter, the author is a weapons expert and military history writer and he’s focused on the major players, so if you want information on Dutch, Thai or French Imperial weapons you will be out of luck. The focus is on the British Empire, the Japanese Empire and the United States. The Brits and the yanks had developed strong Sniper program in WWI- both based on national rifle traditions. They had a tiny stock of WWI weapons to call on- and albeit later than optimal, renewed their training and production of new rifles and scopes. Sport hunting rifles were considered, but there was an understanding that military rifles with the hardiest sporting scopes were generally the solution. As part of Osprey Publishing’s Weapons series (number 88) this book is filled with charts, pics, graphs and great colour paintings of tactical situations. The Japanese, as this book reminded me, went to war – with the USA and the British Empire – right in the middle of changing not only weapons- but calibers! Japan had fought the Russo Japanese War and WWI with a 6.5 mm round. But in China, coming up against the 7.92mm cartridges of the Chinese (mostly imported from the US and Europe) they decided to move to a 7.7mm bullet. Thus in 1941, in mid transfer, they decided to test their production capacity against the biggest industrial power of the age, and that power’s allies, who also could outproduce Japan. The result was predictable- with logistics issues alone hindering the Japanese sniper effort. The conflict would also prove the Japanese stay and shoot until shot yourself doctrine inferior to the Western shoot and move to shoot another day concept. It makes for an interesting book- even for those not into military history. There are few adult themes, and not much graphic injury description, so this is a book for the Junior Reader over 11/12 years with a historical interest. For the Gamer/Modeler/Military Enthusiast its more of a mixed resource. For the gamer, this is more about the tools and the training- not so much about specific situations- so not so useful for scenario development, but great for general background. The modeler does get as lot of good colour photos of weapons and scopes, so good for diorama and build help. The Military enthusiast, is the biggest winner here- getting a good introductory look at an interesting subset of infantry weapons in the biggest of wars. it’s a good package on a topic that will hold the attention of many readers.
#WhatAreYouReading #BookReviews #20thCenturyHistory #MilitaryHistory #JapaneseImperialHistory #AmericanHistory #BritishImperialHistory #ChineseHistory #Snipers #Scopes #AustralianHistory #PacificWar #WWIIHistory #SWWHistory #SWW #WWII #WargameResearch #SnipingRiflesInTheWarAgainstJapan1941to45 #JohnWalter #WeaponSeries88 #OspreyPublishing #Type97 #Type99 #KokuraArsenal #M1903A4 #SMLENo1MkIII #FlamesOfWar #BoltAction #WorldWarIIWargaming
