Nice targets, and now a story
There's a great story about a truck mechanic who during the Battle of the bulge was pulled out of the rear echelon and sent to the front as a replacement. No one want to talk to him and this was normal as veterans didn't think much of the replacements and wanted to shelter themselves from losing any more friends. During a pause in a firefight, he realized that his rifle wasn't sighted in and so he asked his buddy to spot for him while he did some sighting shots. Anyway, everyone realized then that he knew how to adjust his sights.
During one patrol they crept up to a hilltop and saw a German staff car pull up and an officer step out. All the Germans ran out of their foxholes to salute the officer. The lieutenant told the replacement to shoot him. Estimating the distance, he adjusted his sights, looked again, made final ajdustments and fired. The German officer went down. The patrol then scattered back as the Germans retaliated with shellfire. He was lagging behind and the lieutenant grabbed him by the cartridge belt to drag im along. Thereafter there were very aggressive German patrols that sought to avenge their officer.
Having proven himself, his fellow soldiers finally accepted him as their own. One day they're sitting around eating chow when one man returned from patrol laughing uncontrollably. He couldn't stop laughing and went up to the replacement and slapped him very hard on the back. Everytime he tried to talk, he broke out in laughter again and slapped the replacement hard on the back.
Finally when he calmed down, he told them that they had captured a German soldier who had been on one of those aggressive patrols. The German soldier told them that the Germans were angry because the officer who was shot down was their pastor and that he was shot through both cheeks! Everyone broke out laughing and the replacement was pounded with more friend slaps on the back. Anyway, after that the replacement was called the Iron Sighted Sniper.
Read the story in the defunct magazine, The Tactical Rifle. I miss it and now its parent magazine, Precision Rifle is out of print.
