The Defence of Duffer’s Drift

This renowned short book, first published in 1904, is often touted as the origin point of the ‘tactical narrative genre’, where a fictional tactical scenario is used to convey a series of lessons. In The Defence of Duffer’s Drift, a young lieutenant commanding 50 men defends a river crossing (or a ‘drift’) over six successive scenarios in which the various defensive strategies yield differing outcomes and key lessons for the reader. Swinton, who served as a captain of the Royal Engineers in South Africa during the Boer War, provides rich and detailed scenarios complete with terrain features, political situation, conflict with civilians and limits on available military support. The result is a quick but valuable read that has become a military staple around the world for learning about small unit tactics.