First Military Intelligence Author: White Horse Howling West Wind
The two world wars have produced countless heroes and fighters, and their brave and tenacious spirit is unforgettable. Among them, the sniper is the most popular in the world, and the name of the ghost killer is a legend in itself. But what is less known is that in the First World War, there was a Chinese sniper who served in the British army, he did not rely on the scope to shoot a hundred shots, he could aim for a long time without feeling tired, and even what others could see clearly with the telescope he could only use the naked eye to identify. From April to September 1915, a record of 150 enemy snipers was set in less than four months, i.e., each sniper was confirmed by observers through telescopes. Of course, the results of Shen Billy's sniping alone were not included in the statistics.
General Birdwood, the commander-in-chief of the Australian Army at the time, once personally visited the battlefield to serve as an observer, and when he just aimed and fired a shot, the bullet was deflected by a gust of wind, which hit an enemy army next to the target person, causing General Birdwood to exclaim "hit, hit". The sniper said lightly: "I'm not aiming at the one that fell, so this shot doesn't count." Later, in October 1915, when General Baldwood reported and rewarded him, he identified his sniper results as 201 people, and when the British and American newspapers published his deeds, they also identified the killing record of 201 people.
The legendary sniper, named Billy Shen, is of Chinese descent and comes from a mining town called Clemont in Queensland, Australia, and is the sniper who killed the most enemies in World War I. A comrade-in-arms described Shen Billy in his eyes this way: he could easily play with his opponents in applause, and often told people that the victory came too easily, and he was a little embarrassed. While sniping, he rested with his rifle, while Shen Billy's assistant observers used binoculars to find targets for him. If the enemy had just stuck out his head, Shen Billy often smiled and ignored it, indicating that he would do it later. When the enemy thinks it is safe, he will stick his shoulders out or even half of his body, which is the best time to start. The observer spat out two words, "Okay," followed by a gunshot, and an enemy was reimbursed!
It is worth noting that when Shen Billy fired, he had to estimate the wind, wind direction, distance and other factors. He usually had an observer as an aide, a duo tactic that was rarely used by the military during World War I and was not widely promoted until World War II. The roles of snipers and observers can be interchanged, because the eyes will be tired after a long time of observation by the telescope, and the eyesight will also decline, and someone will be accompanied by a sniper, and they will not feel lonely on the battlefield.
And the gun death is nothing for Shen Billy. Before the outbreak of World War I, he worked as a coachman, cut sugar cane, and worked as a farmer in his hometown, but he had long been known in the countryside for his marksmanship. In his spare time, he plays kangaroos as a recreational activity, because kangaroos are social animals, often dozens of them move together, and alarming one will cause other kangaroos to run away immediately. Therefore, he is very strict with himself and must be in a hundred shots, and this experience has accumulated very valuable sniper experience for him.
As a child, he is said to have been able to break the pig's tail at 25 yards away using a 22 mm rifle, thus becoming a member of the local shooting club. Of course, Shen Billy couldn't understand whether his marksmanship was so accurate and related to Chinese blood. His father, John Shen, was born in Shanghai and was a vegetable farmer on the outskirts of Shanghai before immigrating to Australia. Marianne, the mother, was a nurse. Born on March 2, 1886, Shen Billy received a certificate of excellence from the school in the second grade of primary school, and the Ministry of Education's investigation report commented that he was "smart and clever, very educated".
In 1914, Shen Billy's father died, so he stopped fighting kangaroos, in order to support his family, Shen Billy decided to join the army, joined the Australian Expeditionary Force at that time, under the Fifth Light Cavalry Regiment. At that time, the Allies began to attack the Gallipoli Peninsula in the Dardanelles Strait in order to open up the Mediterranean route with Russia. In this case he went to the Turkish front and was stationed on a sniper mission at Bolton Ridge on the coast. A sniper point was set up on the ridge called Chessen Heights, killing and wounding many Turkish soldiers, and at most he could kill nine soldiers a day.
In order to defeat this powerful sniper, the Turkish army adopted the sniper sniper tactic, so they sent their ace sharpshooter, Abdul, to deal with Shen Billy. Abdul was from the Ottoman Guards and had sniped russians, Greeks, Bulgarians and Arabs in battle. Even Major General Brikis, commander of the Australian First Division, was shot in the thigh by him and died of excessive bleeding. As a result, he was honored by the Guards soldiers as the "Mother of Death", the Australian soldiers gave him the nickname "Terrible Killing God", and the Ottoman Emperor personally awarded him a medal of honor.
As a result, the two sniper masters launched a life-and-death battle. In order to find the sniper point set by Shen Billy, Abdul did not let go of a little clue, and after careful reconnaissance, he finally determined the sniper point set by Shen Billy in the Chesen Heights. So he confidently reported to the summit that he would kill this damn Australian before sunset tomorrow.
The next day Shen Billy and his companion observers entered the sniper bunker as usual. Shen Billy looked in a poor mental state, holding a rifle and stretching out and yawning. Shortly after the observer looked, he suddenly exclaimed, "Oh my God, come and see." Shen Billy grabbed the telescope, and in the shot he saw a face covered with dirt, two large eyes and a black hole in the muzzle of a gun. In particular, the other party's eyes were as sharp as eagles, and they were staring closely at the direction of Shen Billy. Shen Billy secretly said, "Today is either you die or I die."
He slowly moved the obstacle in front of the muzzle of the gun sideways, so that even if the other party fired, he would not be able to hit him. Abdul did not know that his tracks had been exposed, he pulled his finger on the trigger, intending to move the obstacle a little more and prepare to shoot, just at this moment, Shen Billy's gun sounded, the bullet flew over abdul's eyebrows at high speed as if it had grown eyes, and killed the ace sniper on the spot.
The Turks immediately bombarded with artillery when they found out, but the first shell deviated from the target and did not hit, and Shen Billy took the opportunity to slip away when he saw the situation. His front foot had just walked the second Turkish shell and his foot hit and shattered the sniper bunker, but not even a single hair of Shen Billy was injured. Although Shen Billy walked through Yang in a hundred steps and shot many targets with his marksmanship, in his eyes, the enemy's head behind the bunker may be no different from that of a kangaroo, and the whole battlefield is like a large hunting game. For his outstanding performance in sniping 150 men at the Gallipoli Battlefield between May and September 1915, he was awarded the Order of Excellence of the British Empire on 1 January 1916.
According to relevant service records, he was shot three times in 1915, 1917 and 1918, at least once poisoned by poison gas, his legs were injured by shrapnel, hemorrhoids, muscle pain and rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases, and the old wounds did not heal and new wounds came back, so that hospitalization became a "common thing". During his healing, he met Elizabeth, a 21-year-old waitress, when Shen Billy was 31 years old, a difference of 10 years, and the two married in Edinburgh on June 29, 1917.
World War I ended on November 11, 1918, and 12 days later, Billy Shen retired from Brisbane and was warmly welcomed by the villagers when he returned home, and local leaders congratulated the brave man on his proud achievements. Ten months later, he wrote to the Ministry of Defence, in which he complained that his wife had not yet been allowed to come to Australia. But in fact, his Scottish wife has not been able to come to Australia, and the specific reasons are not known. For a long time after that, he made a living panning for gold, and the root of the disease that fell on the battlefield often tormented him, but the stubborn Shen Billy did not go to the doctor even if he was sick. From this, we can see his optimism, open-mindedness and self-reliance.
On the morning of May 19, 1943, at the age of 57, Billy Shen died in a rented cheap hotel with a ruptured artery and a pajamas. The final count of his possessions included 5 shillings found in this room and unpaid gold panning wages of 6 pounds, 10 shillings and 8 pence, totaling 26 pounds, 15 shillings and 8 pence. The sniper elite, who once frightened the enemy, passed away alone. He was buried in a cemetery in Brisbane after his death, accompanied by several comrades of the Fifth Light Cavalry Regiment. His deeds were slowly forgotten until 1993, when Brian Tate, an expert in Australian military history, published an article about Shen Billy that the public first learned that there had been such a hero in the ANZAC Corps, and that the people of his hometown had erected statues for him to commemorate.
Interestingly, neither Australians nor Chinese around the world know the name Billy Shen, and many people are skeptical of his Chinese identity. But his story is known to the Australian soldiers, because Ian Idri, who was an observer of Shen Billy and became a writer after the war, wrote a set of 6 "guerrilla series" textbooks for the Australian Army, which used Shen Billy's sniper tactics as an example, describing a cat waiting for a group of rats to come out of the hole, the rats hiding in the hole in fear, and the cat waiting for one of the careless.
Statement: It has been found that a number of media have forwarded the First Military Intelligence Article without authorization. In order to respect the originality, please indicate the source of the reprint. WeChat public account reprint please contact the administrator to open the list. Thank you for your cooperation!