Tores Tuesday. The sniper shield.
Following last Tuesday’s post on personal protective armor, this shield is the next up.
These shields are in no way rare, they were used in huge numbers, but being bulky and weighing a lot, they are still not a staple in every collection.
Actually these shields served a dual purpose. They were portable and had a steel leg with a spike at the end, so the sniper could position it in front of him for protection in open terrain.
They were also incorporated in trench systems, being built in, providing a small opening that you could aim and fire out through, giving protection from enemy fire. When circumstances permitted they would have a a wooden frame with a fabric/tarpaulin cover as a roof with the fabric hanging down beneath so that light through the slit in the armor would not betray the fact that the sniper was opening the hatch and getting ready to shoot.
This example has a dramatic history. Above the slit in the armor is a hole, so nicely positioned that one would think it was intentionally put there to look through or something, but that is not correct.
The hole is the result of a shell fragment from a high explosive shell. It has been hit with unbelievable force. Many years ago a metallurgist who is also a collector explained to me what had happened. One would think that such a hard impact would bend the steel, but no. The force and speed has been so enormous that the impacted steel crystallized when the shield was hit from behind, spewing small bits of steel out the front side of the armor. It will have been so hard and sudden that the steel will not have had time to bend before the fragment broke through in a spray of shattered steel. The jagged edges on the front and the crystal-like formations tell the tale. It is still visible though the previous owner painted the shield.
So, this shield has definitely been there! One would not like to be behind it when that shell burst…
