Скачать или смотреть How One Soldier’s “Broken Rifle” Trick Created WWII’s Fastest Sniper Shot

In February 1944, deep in the Italian campaign, a damaged Springfield rifle repaired with field tape and a hinge pin achieved one of the most precise long-range shots ever recorded by U.S. infantry. When Army engineers later tested the weapon, they discovered that its fracture and bent sight had accidentally created a form of harmonic stabilization—absorbing recoil vibrations and correcting muzzle rise. The so-called “Whitman rifle” vanished into storage, but its data quietly reshaped postwar sniper design, influencing the flexible bedding systems of the M40 and M24 rifles decades later. Drawn from declassified U.S. Army Marksmanship Records and Aberdeen Proving Ground test reports, this account follows how a battlefield repair evolved into a hidden cornerstone of modern precision engineering.

Sources:
U.S. Army Marksmanship Records (1944–1946); Aberdeen Proving Ground Ballistics Division Reports; U.S. Army Ordnance Museum Archives; Fort Benning Marksmanship Training Memoranda (1947–1961).

#WW2 #MilitaryHistory #Sniper #Engineering #WWIIWeapons #ArmyInnovation #HistoricalDocumentary