What were the snipers roles on D-day, how were they positioned and what are better thing the snipers could have done.

First off welcome to armorama!

Now to your question;
There doesn't seem to be a great deal of info floating around about this. From what I have gathered thier role was to support the landings (sea & air) by performing a counter sniper role. Whenever a unit would become bogged down by a sniper they would be called into action. From what a local D-Day Vet tells me they had a sniper assigned to thier platoon when they landed on Omaha beach and according to him having a sniper per company was a fairly regular practice. I am not an expert so take this with a grain of salt, it is just what I have gathered over the years.

I didn't know that. I was just thinking the Germans had snipers at the beach and that the Allied ones didn't come into play until a few weeks later though I figured the Airborne troops had them from get-go. Now I know

There were actually Marine sharpshooters stationed on navy ships. I think their role was to shoot mines?

I toured the landing beaches last October, saw many museums and collections, including sniper rifles on both sides.

I don't recall any mentioning of snipers playing a specific role in the invasion itself, rather stories of snipers and more "individual" accomplishments / incedents once the forces got ashore.

Interesting though about Marine snipers going after the mines.....

Paul.

That's because there wasn't one. Snipers aren't really effective during a movement to contact, unless they can cover such a movement, either in an advanced scout role or in support. Support wasn't possible cos there wasn't anywhere to support from. And I don't think there were advance scouts beyond the beach. Snipers would have stormed ashore with the rest of the troops and then got on with their traditional role.

If you think about it snipers would be a bigger advantage to the axis on d-day than to the allies. mainly because its much easier to kill someone with a sniper on higher ground than on lower ground plus on d-day a allied sniper would not cozily lay on the ground and pick off targets he would have bullets flying all around him the shake of explosions. Simply its not a good place for snipers if i was at d-day i would much rather have a garand than a sniper (actually id much rather like to have a flamethrower or a tank ) but i do congratulate you 011010101010 for bringing this up there is not much information on this subject.

lol probably not as much as binary dude but i do play alot :-)