Think you're a good shot?

[Sun195]

How would you stack up against this guy? I ran across this account of Medal of Honor recipient Sam Woodfill's actions during WWI:

When his company began to cross the fields toward the village of Cunel and came under machine-gun fire, Woodfill detailed himself to stalk and take out the machine guns. His reach with a rifle was as long as that of a machine gun (except for indirect fire, of course), as with his neurophysiological control he could emulate the steadiness of a tripod. He lacked the noisy, incon****uous visibility of a machine gun, and his aiming skills were superior to those of a machine gunner. His reach was considerable. Suffice to say, he could make the rifle hit as if it were locked in a vise. This would be shooting (on a very bad day) within a four-inch circle at 200 yards, or shooting within a cone of probability with a diameter of two minutes of arc. Woodfill saw several machine gun sites. He began with the church tower, where little flashes could be seen in the belfry, around 300-plus yards away. He aimed behind the flash, where the gunner would sit, and very carefully and slowly put a clip of five rounds into that spot, timing successive shots to meet the four replacement gunners. The gun was silent. The stealth characteristics of rifle marksmanship do not reveal the nature of the threat to succeeding gunners who are new viewers to the scene.

To the left of the church, bright muzzle flashes were seen from the loft inside a stable. Only one shot silenced this machine gun. (Was it one of those slimmed-down Spandaus?) In stalking the third machine gun he had seen, he suffered mustard gas poisoning in a shell hole, but continued. He took cover behind a pile of gravel in a ditch, sighting on a machine-gun muzzle poking through a clump of foliage about 40 yards away (this distance is in dispute), and laid out his Ml9l I pistol. Through his stinging eyes, he finally saw a face and fired. He finished his five-round clip on four succeeding faces. A sixth crew member tried to escape and was shot with the pistol (the rifle was empty) through the head -- a moving target at more than 40 yards distance, Inspecting the site, he shot a seventh crew member with a pistol when attacked. Shortly thereafter, one of his runners pointed out camouflage in a tree and Woodfill potted a German sniper before he could fire. Advancing through the Bois de la Pultiere. After Cunel, he spotted another machine gun crew. and five more rounds resulted in five more head shots. Three ammunition carriers then wisely surrendered.

A few minutes later he spotted a fifth machine gun with a crew of five, and serviced them also with five more rounds. Then he had to jump into a trench occupied by two Germans. The first took a .45 bullet from the M191 1, which then jammed. A pick was used on the second German, and then on the first who was shooting his Luger instead of concentrating on his stomach wound.

Later, reporting to battalion, Woodfill said, "I got a few." He had eliminated five machine guns by shooting 21 crew members with 21 rounds [Note 3], three pistol rounds, and the application of a digging implement, suffering no injury from the enemy in the process.

Medal of Honor recipients are pretty amazing in my book already, but this guy's actions seem almost super-human.

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[friskydingo]

where did you get this? it is oddly written, more like one mans interpretation then the facts if you know what i mean

 

[Sun195]

where did you get this? it is oddly written, more like one mans interpretation then the facts if you know what i mean

The web link posted above has the references - it was originally published in RELEVANCE: The Quarterly Journal of the Great War Society, 1997. That article relied on the following references:

2. Editor of Army Times, The Daring Regiments: Adventures of the AEF in World War 1, (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1967) pp. 95-101, 103.

3. Martin Blumenson, and James L. Stokesbury, Masters of the Art of Command (Boston: Houghton Muffin Company, 1975) pp. 42-52.

It's hard to know whether this is a precise account of his actions. However, his Medal of Honor citation is as follows, and while less detailed, no less amazing:

Citation:
While he was leading his company against the enemy, his line came under heavy machinegun fire, which threatened to hold up the advance. Followed by 2 soldiers at 25 yards, this officer went out ahead of his first line toward a machinegun nest and worked his way around its flank, leaving the 2 soldiers in front. When he got within 10 yards of the gun it ceased firing, and 4 of the enemy appeared, 3 of whom were shot by 1st Lt. Woodfill. The fourth, an officer, rushed at 1st Lt. Woodfill, who attempted to club the officer with his rifle. After a hand-to-hand struggle, 1st Lt. Woodfill killed the officer with his pistol. His company thereupon continued to advance, until shortly afterwards another machinegun nest was encountered. Calling on his men to follow, 1st Lt. Woodfill rushed ahead of his line in the face of heavy fire from the nest, and when several of the enemy appeared above the nest he shot them, capturing 3 other members of the crew and silencing the gun. A few minutes later this officer for the third time demonstrated con****uous daring by charging another machinegun position, killing 5 men in one machinegun pit with his rifle. He then drew his revolver and started to jump into the pit, when 2 other gunners only a few yards away turned their gun on him. Failing to kill them with his revolver, he grabbed a pick lying nearby and killed both of them. Inspired by the exceptional courage displayed by this officer, his men pressed on to their objective under severe shell and machinegun fire.

So, who can say - even if half-true, it's still an amazing story of courage under fire. And, the guy had to be quite a shot to pull this off.