Review by Larry S. Sterett | Contributing Editor
SNIPER ONE by Sgt. Dan Mills. ©2011. Published by St. Martin’s Press, Dept. TGM, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011. Price: $7.99. Available in most bookstores.
This 334-page pocket-size paperback volume, subtitled On Scope and Under Siege with a Sniper Team in Iraq, team leader in the 1st Battalion, Princess of Wales Royal Regiment. It contains 29 chapters, a prologue and an epilogue, plus 20 small black and white photos, plus a two-page map of Al Amarah. The photographs illustrate the hide area (Cimic House) of the team and some of the conditions, along with views of the L96 sniper rifle and the SA80. The map pinpoints the location of Cimic House with the River Tigris dividing and flowing past A British sergeant’s report on infantry combat in Iraq two sides and providing some protection from the bad guys. Other features on the map include the Pink Palace, two swampy areas, police headquarters, Victoria hospital, Mosques, a transformer station, Telecom Center, Commonwealth War Grave, major highways, etc.
Not all the fighting was from the fixed rooftop position at Cimic House.
A portion consisted of patrols of the local area. With approximately 45 pounds of equipment per man, including 450 rounds of 5.56mm ammunition—ten instead of the usual six 30-round magazines, plus a bandolier of 150 rounds, the men were loaded. Other items included a Personal Role Radio (PPR), floppy hat or beret, regular helmet, night vision monocular, and a good knife for cutting, not killing.
The two weapons carried on patrol were the SA80 A2 “assault rifle” and the Minimi machinegun. Mills states the Heckler & Koch manufactured SA80 A2 is a perfectly reliable rifle after H&K ironed out the bugs in the A1. Weighing about five kilograms the A2 is chambered for the standard 5.56mm NATO cartridge and has two firing modes, single-shot (or semiautomatic) and full auto. On single shot a shooter was expected to hit a target at 300 meters, with a good shooter doubling that distance. The SUSAT telescopic sight, with a single needlesharp point to signify the point-of-aim, was a handy new addition. (For night use the SUSAT was swapped out for a light gathering CWS night sight.) One team member out of four had an Underslung Grenade Launcher with its own trigger and flip-up sight. Capable of putting a 40mm fragmentation grenade on target up to 350 meters, it made the SA80 even more versatile.
One member of every four-man team carried a Belgian-made Minimi for area coverage at 1,000 rounds per minute, if needed. Chambered for the 5.56mm NATO round, it had an effective range of 800 meters, but with more accurate fire limited to about 300 meters on fullauto. Magazines held 250 rounds, and one or two spares were carried, with additional if possible.
This is an excellent book of life on the frontline in Iraq. There are some lighter moments, if that’s possible.
Instances include the private who couldn’t be evacuated for three days, although he had a piece of shrapnel the size of a credit card stuck in his nose.
Two RPG rounds had struck the back of the Warrior he was riding in, knocking him unconscious and covering his face and helmet with shrapnel. Serious, but it did not save him from his buddies making humorous remarks about his facial improvement. Another involved an unexploded mortar round having landed is their compound. One of the men was positive it was there, but the OC was positive it wasn’t, and called in that every round fired at them had been accounted for. Wrong! The private was correct. He found it in his room, about a meter from his bed, half buried in the floor with only the tail fin sticking out. It had come straight through the roof of his Portakabin, and could have gone off at any moment.
Thereafter, his hearing was not to be questioned, but he slept elsewhere.
Some excellent descriptions of the temperatures in Iraq are provided. In early June sentries would often pass out from heatstroke while standing in the shade, with temperatures already reaching 50 degrees centigrade.
Riding in the back of a non-airconditioned Warrior originally built for use in Cold War Germany. “As soon as you got in back of one, bodily fluids would start running straight out the bottom of your trouser legs like a tap…as the temperatures inside got up to 80 degrees centigrade.” One of the best on the subject of any this reviewer has read, this book is the first written by Sgt. Dan Mills, who was decorated for command of his 18-man sniper squad during the siege of Amarah. (Mills has served in regions from Northern Ireland to the Falkland Islands during his military career and plans to stay in until he has 22 years behind him.)
