I'm pretty clueless about this sort of thing, and this may be the wrong place so apologies if it is.
I'm wondering what British Rifle Platoons were made up of in WW2, and if they had snipers/ the closest thing to a sniper there was in this time period (I've heard that traditional snipers were pretty rare in the British Army in WW2). Would there be a member of the rifle platoon with a sufficiently scoped rifle that he could be called a sniper? As I say, I'm pretty clueless.
Thanks in advance, and apologies again if any of these are stupid questions/ I fucked up the terminology. I'm only just starting out in terms of my knowledge of military history.
Edit: I should say I've been trying to do some reading on this but it's all going through in one ear and out the other, so to speak.
Snipers were not part of the standard British rifle platoon. The precise composition of the rifle platoon would change over the course of the war, but it was always composed of three sections plus a headquarters section. Initially each section had eight men in it, but this was changed to ten in 1941. The headquarters section started the war with 5 men plus a lieutenant commanding the platoon, increasing to six plus the officer in 1941 as well. Each section would contain a corporal, to command it, and a lance corporal. The section would typically be armed with Lee-Enfield rifles, as well as a single Bren gun. As the war progressed, Thompson and Sten sub-machine guns began to come into use, arming mainly the corporals and lance corporals. The headquarters section would contain a 2in mortar team, and the platoon's Boys anti-tank rifle. From 1943, as the PIAT became available, the platoon would lose its organic AT weaponry to the company HQ. Everyone in the headquarters section bar the lieutenant would be armed with a Lee-Enfield. The Lieutenant would be armed with a pistol, though would receive a Sten later in the war.
Snipers were, however, a part of the British battalion, as it stood in 1944-45. The battalion HQ had a section of 8 snipers, under the command of a sniper serjeant, as part of its standard organisation. These could be parcelled out to units lower down the organisation chart, as was seen to be necessary by the battalion commander.
Sources:
http://www.bayonetstrength.150m.com/British/Infantry/british_infantry_battalion.htm
http://www.warestablishments.net/Great%20Britain/Infantry/Infantry%20Battalion%20November%201944.pdf