Pegler, Martin The solitary War of a Sniper

The Authorised Biography of Britain's Most Successful World War II Sniper

The remarkable story of Harry Furness, a young British sniper who fought from D-Day to Germany. Harry Furness grew up in a working-class family in Manchester and joined the army in 1939 at the age of 16. Having always been fascinated by stories of snipers from the First World War, he immediately volunteered for sniper training when the army began recruiting soldiers in 1941. He performed exceptionally well, qualifying as a marksman while still a cadet in the pre-war army, and was quickly promoted to lance corporal. Shortly before D-Day, he was promoted to corporal in the Green Howards Regiment and landed at Gold Beach on 6 June 1944. Together with his comrades, he began a tough battle in north-western Europe that gradually took him through northern France, Belgium, Holland and finally to Germany, where they pushed the Germans back to the Rhine. The manifold dangers and occasional humorous moments in Harry Furness's war experiences are expressed in a very matter-of-fact but captivating way in dozens of previously unpublished letters, personal interviews and pictures that make up Martin Pegler's fascinating and moving biography of Furness and his extraordinary life.