3. The special importance of individual aimed fire in trench warfare has been developed in Europe during the present war in connection with what is there termed “sniping,” which has become a specially important and highly technical service, though it is merely a development of what has long been known and practiced in the United States under the name of “sharpshooting.” A consideration of some of the conditions under which “sniping” is conducted will assist in emphasizing its importance and in indicating the special qualifications and instruction essential to efficiency. 4. In modern trench warfare, as it exists in Europe to-day, each belligerent occupies a system of trenches, of which the foremost, or fire trenches, are frequently separated by only a few yards, and rarely by more than four or five hundred yards. In rear of the fire trenches there is a labyrinth of cover, approach, support, reserve, and other trenches. Each system is strengthened by obstacles, the most formidable and also the most common of these are the barbed-wire entanglements. These trenches and obstacles are being continually damaged by the opposing artillery fire, and every opportunity is seized for raiding enemy trenches through the openings so made. One of the important functions of the sniper is that of protecting his own trenches from enemy raids and his comrades from fire of snipers and the prevention of repair of enemy trenches and obstacles in order to keep the road open to raids from his own side. To these ends he endeavors to meet with a bullet every exposure of even a few square inches of the head or limb of an enemy and at the same time to conserve his own life. To attain the first object, that of hitting the enemy, requires the best possible facilities for observation and fire, coupled with special qualities and technical skill on the part of the sniper. The attainment of the second object, that of conserving one’s own life, will depend largely upon the judgment and skill displayed in selecting and concealing the position of the firer. Each of these requirements calls for special training and for special qualities inherent in the sniper. To the training and skill of the expert game shot must be added the craftiness of the poacher. 5. From the preceding paragraphs it is evident that the service of sniping can not be conducted in a haphazard way, but, on the contrary, requires for its efficient conduct a carefully selected, organized, equipped, and trained personnel. (_a_) _Organization._—Based upon the best available information from Europe, there should be organized in each battalion of Infantry a “sniping” group composed of 1 noncommissioned officer and 24 privates.