The Defence of Duffer's Drift

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The Defence of Duffer's Drift
Front cover, with the initials "B. F."[a]
AuthorErnest Dunlop Swinton, writing as "Backsight Forethought"
LanguageEnglish
GenreMilitary art and science
PublisherW. Clowes & Sons, London, reprinted from the United Service Magazine
Publication date
1904
Pages39
Map of Duffer's Drift, the Silliaasvogel River's only crossing. The defences are on the slopes of Waschout Hill to the south. Across the river to the north are Regret Table Mountain and the hillside farm of Incidentamba.

The Defence of Duffer's Drift is a short 1904 book by the British Army officer Ernest Swinton. Lieutenant Backsight Forethought (BF) and his command of fifty men are given the task to defend Duffer's Drift, a natural ford to a river. A large force of Boers, unknown to BF, is moving toward his position. This scenario is played out six separate times, in six "dreams." In the early scenarios, BF and his British troops are ignominiously defeated. After each defeat, BF learns lessons and adapts his strategy for the later encounters. The later dreams end more inconclusively, and in the final dream, BF and his command successfully hold out long enough to be relieved. The book encourages critical thinking and careful use of position and terrain to mount a successful defence.

The book has been imitated many times, both for the British Army and for the US Army, and new adaptations continue to appear in the 21st century.

History[edit]

The Defence of Duffer's Drift was published in 1904 when Swinton was a field officer in the British Army. It appeared in the British United Service Magazine under the pseudonym, Lieutenant N. Backsight Forethought ("BF"[2]), who is the narrator of the book. The book is an exploration of small unit tactics in a fictional encounter in the Second Boer War. Swinton was a captain of the Royal Engineers in South Africa during the Boer War,[3][4] and the book "embodies some recollections of things actually done and undone in South Africa, 1899–1902."[5]

The Defence of Duffer's Drift was reprinted in the April 1905 edition of the Journal of the United States Infantry Association. The book, especially intended for young lieutenants, has become a military staple on small unit tactics, read far afield in places such as the United States, Russia, and Canada.[6] While some of the advice has become rather dated—notably, BF eventually decides to imprison all nearby locals, shoot any livestock that could be of aid to the enemy, and impress both Boer and black alike into building fortifications for his men, an "approach to the human terrain that would spell disaster" in modern times—the book is still considered relevant and interesting.[7]

Storyline[edit]

Title page, with pseudonymous byline "Backsight Forethought"

Lieutenant Backsight Forethought, a newly-qualified officer in the British Army, is put in command of a platoon of soldiers to defend Duffer's Drift, a key crossing-place on the Silliassvogel River. In a series of six dreams, he imagines deploying his troops to hold off the Boer forces.

In his first two dreams, the British force is ambushed without much of a fight. Fortifications are not prepared and the sentries announce their locations, allowing the Boers to easily sneak up and defeat the sleepy British soldiers without resistance. In the third and fourth dreams, BF takes more proactive defensive preparations - digging trenches, arresting the local Boer civilians rather than attempting to trade or communicate with them, and impounding them and local black civilians for forced labour. While able to slow the Boers down some, poor placement of trenches, lack of supplies, obvious fortifications that the enemy can easily detect and plan around, and other problems hamper the British resistance. The fifth and sixth dreams are the most successful; in them, BF creates a spread-out and concealed force that greatly hampers and slows the enemy, even to the point of turning them back in the sixth dream, which allows for BF to obtain reinforcements.

Influence[edit]

Start of the prologue.

The Defence of Duffer's Drift's style of literary fiction has been copied by several authors, making this author an influence upon the writings of others. Some examples are provided below, including: a primer on World War I battalion level combined arms tactics incorporating new types of warfare (tanks, machine guns, and aviation),[8] a mechanized battalion level primer, a military combat service support example, one that is non-military related, and one adopting the parable to operations in Iraq.[9][10][11][12]

The first example is Battle of Booby's Bluffs, originally published in 1921 by an Army officer under the pseudonym Major Single List. It is important for its "lessons-learned" examination of the new weapons introduced in the Great War (most notably tanks, machine guns and aeroplanes) and how these innovations required learning new combined arms tactics. In the style of Duffer's Drift, a hapless battalion commander faces a battle scenario in a series of six dreams. In the first dream, he makes so many mistakes as to prove catastrophic for him and his men. But he learns a few more things about tactics and leadership through each dream, until at last he leads his men to victory through the treacherous terrain of Booby's Bluffs. Included with the dreams are notations to real life mistakes made by American commanders during the War.[8]

Defense of Hill 781, written by James R. McDonough in 1988, deals with a somewhat larger combat element than Duffer's Drift, and having a slightly different reason for the "dreams".[9]

The Defense of Duffer's Drift Brigade Support Area was written by Staff Sergeants Reginald Scott and Steve Newman, along with Sergeants William Baucom, Rodney Weathers, and Louise Chee in the September 2001 edition of NCO Notes, number 01-2, from the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Institute of Land Warfare. Instead of trying to teach infantry tactics, the authors of this story focused upon a supply company of a forward support battalion in an effort to teach units inside of a Brigade Support Area to become more effective in defensive operations during combat.[12]

The winter 2005 edition of the Canadian Army Journal contained the following praise:

The South African War (1899–1902) provided the next opportunity for literary fiction to play a role in future army concepts. The publication of The Defence of Duffer's Drift by Captain (later Major-General Sir) Ernest Swinton, KBE, CB, DSO, in 1905, was extremely well received and became required reading for many subsequent generations of young officers. Set at a river choke point on some generic veldt anywhere in the Transvaal, the story's main character, a young and energetic Lieutenant Backsight Forethought, has a series of nightmares in which he loses battle after battle against his Boer adversaries. After each dream, however, a series of lessons are highlighted, and each of these was incorporated into the next battle, which eventually leads Lieutenant Forethought to victory and relief in the final dream. Although written as a fictional tale, Swinton's aim was to teach tactical lessons as well as generate discussion and debate on the planning and execution of operations.

— Godefroy, Andrew B., Canadian Army Journal[13]

In 1991, the United States Army Command and General Staff College reprinted the book with a brief preface that encouraged readers to think through the challenge for themselves.[14]

The Defense of Jisr Al Doreaa is a 2009 novella by two US Army captains, based on The Defence of Duffer's Drift, and meant to teach junior officers how to apply the basic principles of counter-insurgency.[10]

The Defense of Battle Position Duffer is a publication created by the Asymmetric Warfare Group and Johns Hopkins University in 2016 that covers how commanders may integrate the cyber domain with tactical operations at the brigade combat team level. It follows Colonel Backsight Forethought V, a student of the Army War College, in a similar series of dreams where his mission as a brigade commander in varying scenarios are hampered by more cyber-proficient enemy commanders. Eventually, after integrating a litany of lessons learned throughout previous dreams, he is able to finally defeat a determined enemy with minimal losses.[11]

Dominating Duffer's Domain is a 2017 report in the Duffer's Drift idiom meant to instruct U.S. Army information operations practitioners.[4]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ The box wrapped around the officer's legs is marked with the initials "BF", which could stand for the author's pseudonym "Backsight Forethought" as on the title page, but the label "BF First Class" could also be read as "Bloody Fool, First Class".[1]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Hughes, Geoffrey (2015). An Encyclopedia of Swearing: The Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Foul Language, and Ethnic Slurs in the English-speaking World. Routledge. p. 3. ISBN 978-1-317-47678-8.
  2. ^ "BF n." Green’s Dictionary of Slang. Retrieved 28 April 2024. 1. (orig. US) a bloody fool. 1894 F.W. Benteen in Benteen-Goldin Letters 6 July (1991) 223: Besides being a 'C.P.' he was a 'B.F.' of first water.
  3. ^ "No. 27353". The London Gazette. 10 September 1901. p. 5935.
  4. ^ a b Paul, Christopher; Marcellino, William. "Dominating Duffer's Domain: Lessons for the U.S. Army Information Operations Practitioner" (PDF). RAND Corporation. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  5. ^ Swinton 1904, Preface (page 1).
  6. ^ Godefroy, Andrew B. (Winter 2005). "Fictional Writing and the Canadian Army of the Future" (PDF). Canadian Army Journal. 8 (1). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 June 2011. Retrieved 17 August 2008. The Defence of Duffer's Drift, archived from the original on 14 August 2008, retrieved 17 August 2008 – via CGSC/CSI
  7. ^ Fishel, John T. (15 March 2009), Review of The Defense of Jisr al-Doreaa, a book inspired by The Defence of Duffer's Drift quoted by publisher, University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0226080932, B.F.'s approach to his human terrain would have spelled disaster [in the Iraq War]
  8. ^ a b List, Major Single (2016) [1921]. Battle of Booby's Bluffs. Silver Spring, Maryland: Dale Street Books. pp. 1–102. ISBN 978-1941656341.
  9. ^ a b McDonough, James (1993). The defense of Hill 781 : an allegory of modern mechanized combat. Novato, CA: Presidio. ISBN 978-0-89141-475-9. OCLC 40253813.
  10. ^ a b Burgoyne, Michael L.; Marckwardt, Albert J. (2009). "The Defense of Jisr Al Doreaa" (PDF). Small Wars Journal. University of Chicago Press. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 August 2008. Retrieved 24 September 2021. See also publisher's page and book's page for multiple reviews.
  11. ^ a b Leonhard, Robert R. (2016). The Defense of Battle Position Duffer – Cyber-Enabled Maneuver in Multi-Domain Battle. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and the Asymmetric Warfare Group, a National Training Center narrative. Archived from the original on 15 February 2021.
  12. ^ a b Scott, Reginald (S/Sgt); Newman, Steve (S/Sgt); Baucom, William (Sgt); Weathers, Rodney (Sgt); Chee, Louise (Sgt (Promotable)) (September 2001). Lewis, Steve (Capt) (ed.). "The Defense of Duffer's Drift Brigade Support Area" (PDF). NCO Notes (1–2). AUSA's Institute of Land Warfare: 1–7. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  13. ^ "Fictional Writing and the Canadian Army of the Future". Canadian Army Journal. 8 (1): 93–94. Winter 2005.
  14. ^ "Combined Arms Research Library, book republication and brief review of Defense of Duffer's Drift, United States Command and General Staff College, U.S. Government Printing Office: 1991 - 554-001/42036" (PDF). US Army Command and General Staff College. 1905. Retrieved 29 April 2024.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Swinton, Ernest Dunlop, writing as "Backsight Forethought" (1904). The Defence of Duffer's Drift. London, reprinted from the United Service Magazine: W. Clowes & Sons.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

External links[edit]

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