1 match-3 soldiers

[PFF]

Is it true that when three men shared a match on a cigerette-a sniper would notice the 1st man; sniper zeroes on 2nd man; sniper shoots 3rd man.

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

It was certainly recalled by Veterans in the 1960s BBC "Great War" Series & many a Veteran of Both Wars;I spoke to would never accept even a second light from a match,giving similar reasoning,wether it was an actual occurence or urban myth is up for debate,the logic is reasonable,as the initial flare would give an indication of prescence,a second would confirm the position and a third would allow targetting,I wouldn't want to test the theory!

[CROONAERT]

Is it true that when three men shared a match on a cigerette-a sniper would notice the 1st man; sniper zeroes on 2nd man; snip0er shoots 3rd man.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Though this saying far predates the 1st World War, I once had the pleasure of speaking to an ex (obviously!!!) German sniper of WW2 who practically laughed at it. He reckoned that any decent sniper would have noticed, aimed and "killed" on the first light if any enemy soldier was stupid enough to attempt to light up uncovered in a fighting area.

Dave.

[sandyford]

Yet another hazard of being a smoker - and presumably if the artillery spotted the light instead of the sniper, there were a lot of passive smoking casualties as well.

Kate