The Defence of Duffer's Drift - Influence

Influence

This style of literary fiction has been copied by several authors, making this author an influence upon the writings of others. Three examples are provided; one military combat service support example, another one that is non-military related, and a third adopting the parable to operations in Iraq.

The first one 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. The title of this story was The Defense of Duffer's Drift Brigade Support Area. 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 .

The second one was written by Dr. Scott S. Haraburda, PhD, PE, in 2008 for a non-military topic, even though it involved the Department of Defense. His book, Premonitions of the Palladion Project: A Modern Project Management Fable, contains information about what works and what does not work when managing a project, which can be used to assist anyone in managing a more successful project. This book provided a project management framework illustrating twenty-four project management rules. The general thesis in this book was that using just the best project management tools while forgetting everything else about running the project would doom the project to failure.

The third was written by Albert J. Marckwardt and Michael Burgoyne, entitled The Defense of Jisr al-Doreaa. The book follows a young lieutenant through successive lessons while conducting stability and counterinsurgency operations in Iraq.

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., "Fictional Writing and the Canadian Army of the Future," Canadian Army Journal, Vol. 8.1, pp 93-94, Winter 2005