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Herbert W. McBride
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A Rifleman Went To War Paperback – October 5, 2010

by Herbert Wes McBride (Author)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 1,506 ratings
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2010 Reprint of 1935 edition. This classic work on sniping is considered the first and some say the most influential book in print about sniping and the art of being a military sniper on the battlefield. McBride's book was seminal in the development of U.S. military sniping doctrine in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and on to the present day. The U.S. Marine Corps Sniper School has made this book mandatory reading for its would-be snipers.
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  1. Print length
    416 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Martino Fine Books
  4. Publication date
    October 5, 2010
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 0.93 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    157898985X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1578989850
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Martino Fine Books (October 5, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 157898985X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1578989850
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.34 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.93 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 1,506 ratings

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Herbert W. McBride

Herbert W. McBride

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Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
1,506 global ratings
No "sob stuff" here!
5 Stars
No "sob stuff" here!
This is a great WWI memoir, and it gives some incredible insights the makings of a great soldier. As one might expect, Mr. McBride was an extremely tough, brave man. However, this book makes it clear that there are some other, less obvious qualities to the professional soldier. Contrary to popular believe, imagination and individual initiative are among them. Most importantly, though, is a particular mindset. I leave it to McBride to put it best:"Hatred is a slow, calculating, cold-blooded business. There is no time for it in battle . . . I assure you that when I was behind the rifle, the principal feeling was one of keen satisfaction and excitement of the same kind that the hunter knows. That's the spirit. That's what makes good rifleman and good soldiers."If you are looking for poetic prose, look elsewhere. McBride was not an introspective man, full of soulful wanderings about the horrors of war. This soldier was thrilled and eager to participate in war, and joined the Canadian force because his home country, America, was too slow to enter the fray for his tastes. He described the mud of the trenches and the sound a bullet makes striking a human head in hatchet-like, blunt sentences.There is the satisfaction, though, that this lover of war told you the hard truth in every word he wrote. Another reviewer called this book "refreshing" and I will second that.In one segment of the book, McBride describes his distaste for a current war movie of the time of the book's writing, the classic "All Quite On The Western Front." While McBride complemented the scenes of actual battle, the whole show was ruined for him by the depiction of men in battle. The constant emotions, and, as he wrote of them, "facial contortions" exhibited by the actors where in his view ridiculous. Men died quickly, fought hard, and killed one another without a lot of fuss, or "sob stuff," as he called it.I believe H.W. McBride is telling me the truth.
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Top reviews from the United States

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5.0 out of 5 stars A must read if interested in WW1, tactics or firearms
Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2019
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This is a fantastic book on a number of different but related topics. It's the history a Captain Herbert McBride giving up his commission in the National Guard to join the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division once WW I broke out. It's his observations of the many varied people around him. It's how Canadian soldiers lived, trained and fought before and during the war. His attention to detail - smells, feelings, and sounds - brings his story to life. In dozens of stories, he displays an incredible ability to bring whatever subject he's writing about to life. It's also an incredible resource for anyone who is interested in the tactics of trench warfare and what happened in no man's land. His discription of how a soldier was told his brother was missing in action, his unit moves into the line and after being hit by artillery the soldier finds his brother freshly unearthed the a shell was short but powerfully written. McBride also spends a number of pages giving detailed information about various rifles, pistols, machine guns, and sniper rifles use and tips on how the troops used them and to what level of effectiness without holding anything back. If your interested in WW 1 history, firearms or tactics of that time, it is simply a must read.
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fast mover
4.0 out of 5 stars Reflections Aplenty!
Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2022
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A Rifleman Went To War has an encyclopedic aspect to it's writing: the narration itself is superb along those same lines. There are many angles to explore within a single topic. Students of warfare benefit not just from opinions about how they USED to fight in the Great War.... but furthermore, the author writes of his trench experience some 15 years after the fact. Whether it is an academic discussion about angle of fire between a Colt machine gun or of a different make - this author clearly labors to tell you WHY. Sometimes, if we gather info on the appearance of the Colt 1911 Auto handgun, we also discover the HOW military authorities ultimately decided that this particular weapon was to be the primary weapon of trench warfare where opponents often were waiting, rifles drawn, for you to walk into their field of fire. Automatic handguns we're far more easier to maneuver in cramped spaces just the same. We discover tactics of artillery and how the Allies could accurately guess where the next German offensive would erupt out of those trenches when their artillery quietened down. One remarkable aspect of reading about the emergence of tank warfare was the realization that it was just this kind of wasteful type of warfare that brought tanks to a much higher degree of mobilization in just a matter of time later. Truth is....the model of using tanks for lightning-,like strikes in theory, when put on paper, was intercepted by German military minds at nearly the same exact time the author wrote this book. Sadly, the Allies ignored this paper despite Winston Churchill's championing of what advanced mechanized warfare could accomplish. This, it was Hitler's game to call, and Blitzkrieg was partly born through this very avenue of strategic thinking. Alas, the motto "Loose lips sink tall ships" apparently is conveniently ignored....the "lips" being advanced military strategies on paper nevertheless.

A Rifleman Went To War mostly avoids truly graphic details of humans being slaughtered and maimed, though one instantly agrees that innocent families caught in crossfire's usually we're the most tragic deaths of such evil attempts to take over the sovereignty of other Nations. God only appears in print in one or two paragraphs; the author states that soldiers mostly concentrated on the job at hand and only the VERY religious made time for themselves and their Creator. How sad, one thinks, to be eye-to-eye with a sworn enemy who declares you and your kind to be less worthy than animals...and one doesn't requests God's help?!?

Alas, the author has a splendid, breezy manner of relating his opinions on everything from training camps to superior officers to actual enemy he killed with his sniper rifle....and everything in between. He keeps a solid devotion to tempo, mindful that this manner of writing must dispel sheer boredom from reader's minds. To wit, this is doubly difficult, for could there be anything as boring as being restrained in a trench and/or shell hole for days - if not weeks- at a stretch?! This one comes to admire this author's tenacity at alighting upon sub-topic after sub-topic while remaining in the arena of his general subject. It is his style of writing that reminds me of a butterfly flitting from flower to flower.....versus other military authors whose writing reminds me of a solitary moth alighting upon a curtain....and remaining there. Huge difference!

Granted, his narrative on rifle Scopes made sense to a seasoned aim such as myself....but when he discussed minutes of angle, scope recticle-types, et. al. ....I believe most readers would become lost at this point. Just my tuppence to give....

The truth remains clear that many of the things that makes warfare complete Hell is the perspective that war often is said to be 90% boredom.....and 10% sheer terror. Honestly, we are not given that much indication of such a perspective. You do not encounter huge crowd of refugees. You do, however, become that much more of a veteran observer through a Veteran's eyes, a Veteran whom we cannot discern suffers from any form of PTSD, etc. He DOES speak to the necessity of mindset, speaking up that war "is not for sissies". Written in 1932, he does use racial slurs in one portion of his book, something no publisher would allow in most any book printed at this hour. We must remember that this was written little under a century ago....

I found this writing - minus any offending portion - to be a refreshing source of what actually DID happen in WW 1. We later discover that "the War to end all Wars" truly wasn't....not does the author carry that slogan anywhere in his book. This book would be a good refresher course in military history colleges that seek to train future officers in today's fighting world,one might think.

I give high grades for skipping truly gory details and military know-how....and subtract accordingly for the breezy use of racial/cultural names that are avoided at all costs in this day and age.
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3.0 out of 5 stars ... have been an interesting first hand account of the Great War at the time it was writte
Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2016
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It might have been an interesting first hand account of the Great War at the time it was writte, about 15 years after the Armistice, but by today's standards it is a very slow read, often tediously repetitive. However, for those who like to know how a true WWI veteran, who fought with the Canadians before America went to war, feels about infantry rifle men in battle and how to deal with death and loss of comrade, it is worth a quick read. The minute details of marksmanship are amusing considering the modern tools now available.
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D. J. Leedham
5.0 out of 5 stars A Particular and Unique Account of WW1 Trench Warfare.
Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2014
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Very enjoyable vernacular account of one very enterprising American who went to war with the Canadians in WW1. He was a machine gunner, but brought his naturally developed marksmanship, and above all field craft skills, to bear as a part time sniper, when the Canadians first got round to employing and training snipers.

The first hand account is fine in itself. His observations and suggestions about how military conduct could be improved is probably well out of date now, but very sharp and apposite at the time.

Along with - First Day of the Somme, Middlebrook, Her Privates We, Manning and the most amazing of them all - Ernst Younger's Storm of Steel it is possible to create a sense of what trench warfare was like. Though there is more in what they do not say than in what they describe - elided or passed over because of the unspoken values with which these men understood and endured their circumstances. Those of us old enough to have known a few of these old soldiers probably understand what is meant here. For the they rest, those of each generation that place themselves in harm's way will understand. The rest of us must just wonder at it.

Mr Mc Bride was quite a character! One thing I particularly appreciated is his ability to connect the experiences of the Civil War which he learned from his Iowa relatives and fellow reserve soldiers - to the WW1 experience. And he has some pithy comments about how the higher ups forget the experience learned by the lower downs in each war. Only to have to re learn them again each time.

Highly recommended
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Top reviews from other countries

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Bill
5.0 out of 5 stars Still relevant
Reviewed in Canada on March 14, 2021
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The author did a fantastic job telling of his experiences in WW1, especially with the 21st Battalion, Canadian Army. His views (lessons) on sniping and equipment are still relevant today. I very much enjoyed reading the book.
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wolf
5.0 out of 5 stars A Rifleman on the WW-I
Reviewed in Brazil on January 21, 2019
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Excelente livro pela descrição detalhada do dia a dia da soldadesca no campo de batalha e pelas diversas análises e comparações, bem como pela narrativa dos eventos no período em que o autor lutou na frente ocidental
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TMTMM
5.0 out of 5 stars ein wirklich gutes Buch über den WK1
Reviewed in Germany on January 25, 2019
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Stahlgewitter habe ich auch gelesen, aber gemessen am Rifleman, ist es überbewertet. Im Rifleman werden die unterschiedlichen Taktiken, ihre Vor- und Nachteile, der Alltag und der Kampf viel besser geschrieben. Ein gehöriges Maß an Prallerei ist darin enthalten, das muss man einfach ausklammern und sich auf das Wesentliche konzentrieren - und das ist wirklich spannend.
Sprachlich natürlich nicht mit Ernst Jünger zu vergleichen, aber viel informativer.
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Mr. Peter Franklin
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 4, 2015
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I enjoyed this. It's the somewhat disjointed story of a soldier in the Great War and, mostly his experiences and recollections of using his rifles and machine guns. Disjointed isn't necessarily a bad thing. The author tells stories that happened with his life at the front and this is interspersed with how the weapons were used and their effectiveness. there's some battlefield tactics and a few stories of other soldiers. The fact that the author does a bit of jumping from one to another subject actually helps to maintain interest. And interesting it is. It's a first hand, unadulterated account of a war where all the participants have now passed on, so is important for that alone.

Don't necessarily look for a great storyline here. Do look for evidence as to how death is a by-product of war and how the participants dealt with it. Look at it as a practical book about how small arms and even bigger guns were used. But you don't have to be a student of those weapons to enjoy this book. It's a bit of first hand history.
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owen clatworthy
1.0 out of 5 stars One Star
Reviewed in Australia on November 22, 2014
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Very repetitive and very hard to continue reading
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