Originality is not easy, please pay attention!
Author: Yi Pin Wen team Liu Boyi, no authorization to ban the transfer!
During World War I, sniper operations were not only important in the trenches of the Western Front. During the Gallipoli landings, sniper operations were quite active on both sides. The Battle of Gallipoli lasted from April 1915 to January 1916, with the Allied forces consisting mainly of the Commonwealth army, the Australian and New Zealand troops, which the French army supported. The Allies' goal was to take Istanbul, Turkey, and open a route to supply Russia.
The prelude to the Gallipoli landing was the Battle of Dardanelle, where the Royal Navy sent a large fleet of 18 warships to sweep away shore guns off the Turkish coast with artillery. As the Allied fleet approached the coast, ready to land and sweep the Turkish shore artillery completely, the Turks used mines and remnants of shore guns to slow down the action of the Allied forces.
(Fierce Battle of Gallipoli)
The Australian and New Zealand infantrymen trained in Egypt were originally planned to be sent to fight on the Western Front. Being sent to Gallipoli was too sudden for them. Before the war, they formed the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC). The Anzac Army, British and French troops landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula, and after a series of battles, the battle turned into a near-static trench confrontation. Snipers in the trenches on both sides carefully observe the movements in the other side, and as long as someone over there accidentally exposes his head to the trench, the snipers on this side will immediately add a kill number to their own combat log.
(Mel Gibson's early film Gallipoli recreates this brutal battle.)
William Edward Sing (1886-1943), also known as Billy Shen, was a mixed-British Chinese-English son whose father was a vegetable farmer on the outskirts of Shanghai before emigrating to Australia, and his mother was a nurse. Shen Billy played kangaroos in the wilderness of his hometown queensland as a teenager, and he never lost his hand and practiced a magical marksmanship. During World War I, Billy Shen served in the Australian 5th Light Cavalry Regiment and fought in the Battle of Gallipoli from 1915 to 1916. Between May and September 1915, Shen Billy shot more than 150 Turkish soldiers, for which he received the British Medal of Excellence. Billy Shen often collaborated with sniper observers, and one of his most famous observer partners was Ian Idris, who later became a famous writer.
(Billy Shen)
Shen Billy and his observers seized sniper positions before dawn every day. At this time of day, the enemy's alertness to changes in the outside world is minimized. After quietly moving to the sniper position, Shen Billy and the observer leaned down and waited for the opportunity. The sniper's challenge comes from two sides: always being quiet and alert, and being able to endure hunger and thirst like an ascetic. Finally, the target flashed, and Shen Billy's fingers took the trigger, ready to pull at any time.
As casualties mounted, the Turkish side concluded that the only way to deal with the Australian snipers was to send snipers of equal caliber for a duel. The selected Turkish sniper was trained by the Germans and was known as the "terrible Abdul". As an expert sniper, Abdul used forensic techniques only mastered by clever detectives to prepare for his own work. Whenever a Turkish soldier was sniped, Abdul had to examine the body carefully, and analyze the direction in which the bullet was fired by tracking the angle at which the bullet entered and penetrated the body. Gradually, Abdul circled an area of enemy trenches from which the bullets of The Australian snipers were fired. Finally, Abdul locked his sights on a small hillside near the Chessen Heights post. Discovering his opponent's hiding place, Abdul also set out to build a sniper point for himself, and then hid in it for a long time, waiting for an opportunity. Abdul was cunning enough not to shoot at targets who came to the door by chance, lest he expose his sniper point.
(Turkish troops on the Gallipoli front, who fought bravely and inflicted heavy casualties on the Australians)
This morning, Billy Shen and the observers entered their sniper bunker as usual. Sniper observers spotted Abdul with the Navy's high-powered telescope. Shen Billy took the telescope and found himself looking straight through the lens at Abdul's face and the muzzle of the black hole hole of "Horrible Abdul". In the next instant, two snipers will be sentenced to life and death. Snipers know that snipers can only fire one shot, and usually there is never a chance to fire a second shot. However, this is for targets who are not aware of the presence of snipers at all. Now, both snipers knew each other's presence, and the two sniper rifles were almost pointing at each other. Shen Billy pushed open the firing hole and stretched out his sniper rifle, ready to shoot. He knew that he had to hit it with one blow, or he would turn into a corpse that had fallen here. Abdul also noticed Shen Billy's movements and immediately raised his gun to aim. Abdul pulled the trigger, but he was finally half a step slower, and a bullet shot from Lee Enfield's rifle had already hit him in the eyebrow.
After sending snipers to hunt Shen Billy failed, the Turks also tried to completely cover Shen Billy's sniper point with artillery fire, but Shen Billy once again escaped.
(In recent years, Shen Billy's hometown, a memorial sculpture built for him by Clemont, Queensland, Australia)
After the war, Shen Billy left the army and went to work in various parts of Australia, making a living by doing physical work and panning for gold. In the early morning of May 19, 1943, the 57-year-old Shen Billy was found dead in a cheap hotel he rented, still wearing pajamas, and the cause of death was a ruptured arterial vessel. In his room, people only found 5 shillings, plus a little arrears and the old house in his hometown, which was all of Shen Billy's property. As a Chinese, he was completely forgotten by Australians. It wasn't until more than half a century later that Australia rediscovered his story. As a Chinese, such a fate seems to be predestined. Reference: Sniper in action